How do you identify areas for growth in a marketing audit?

1 Define the scope and objectives

Before you start collecting and analyzing data, you need to define the scope and objectives of your marketing audit. What are the main questions you want to answer? What are the specific aspects of your marketing strategy that you want to assess? How will you measure your performance and compare it to your competitors and industry standards? Depending on your needs and resources, you can choose to focus on a specific area (such as digital marketing, branding, or customer experience) or cover the whole spectrum of your marketing mix.

2 Collect and organize data

Gathering data from various sources and channels is the next step. You can use primary data, such as surveys and interviews, and secondary data, such as reports and analytics, to collect information about your internal and external environment. This includes marketing goals and KPIs, budget and ROI, target market and customer segments, value proposition and positioning, product or service features and benefits, pricing and distribution strategies, promotion and communication tactics, customer journey and touchpoints, customer satisfaction and loyalty, brand awareness and reputation, competitive advantage and differentiation, as well as market trends and opportunities.

3 Analyze and interpret data

Once you have collected and organized your data, it is necessary to analyze and interpret it in order to recognize patterns, gaps, and insights. There are various tools and frameworks available to aid in this process, such as SWOT analysis for evaluating internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats, PESTLE analysis for examining the political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors that affect your marketing environment, Porter's five forces analysis for assessing the competitive rivalry, bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, threat of new entrants, and threat of substitutes in your industry, marketing mix analysis for reviewing the effectiveness and alignment of your product, price, place, and promotion strategies, customer analysis for understanding customer needs, preferences, behaviors, and feedback, as well as competitor analysis for comparing your strengths and weaknesses with your main competitors while also identifying their strategies and tactics.

4 Identify areas for growth

Based on your analysis and interpretation of data, you can identify areas for growth in your marketing audit. These are the aspects of your marketing strategy that have the most potential to improve your performance and achieve your goals. For example, you may need to expand your target market, refine your value proposition, enhance product features or benefits, adjust pricing or distribution strategies, optimize promotion or communication tactics, improve customer journey or touchpoints, increase customer satisfaction or loyalty, boost brand awareness or reputation, leverage competitive advantage or differentiation, and explore new market trends or opportunities. All of these improvements are essential for successful marketing.

5 Provide recommendations and action plan

The final step of your marketing audit is to provide recommendations and action plan for each area of growth that you have identified. You need to prioritize the most important and urgent issues and suggest specific and realistic solutions. You also need to define the expected outcomes, timelines, responsibilities, and resources for each action. Your recommendations and action plan should be clear, concise, and consistent with your marketing objectives and KPIs.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?