You’re struggling to improve your marketing performance. What’s the first step to take?

?? Identifying your target market and assessing whether your current strategies effectively reach these decision-makers. ?? Evaluating the performance of marketing channels and campaigns to determine ROI and identify areas for optimization. ?? Analyzing content and messaging to ensure it aligns with your B2B audience's needs, challenges, and pain points. ?? Assessing the use of technology and tools for marketing automation, CRM, and analytics to enhance efficiency and insights. ?? Identifying market trends and competitor strategies to pinpoint opportunities for differentiation and growth. In essence, a B2B marketing audit provides a clear picture of where your marketing stands and outlines actionable steps for future success.

Before you do a marketing audit, take time to understand the product or service and the customer journey. I have seen many teams spend so much time developing a SWOT analysis and doing a ton of research only to realize they didn't even have a clear understanding of the customer, their why and the experience. Once you have that down, then review all marketing activities and understand how they fit into the big picture of the the four Ps.

Clearly articulate your marketing goals and objectives. Make sure they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). This will provide a clear direction for your improvement efforts.Understand your target audience better. Analyze their needs, preferences, behaviors, and demographics. Consider conducting surveys, interviews, or using analytics tools to gather valuable insights. Evaluate the performance metrics of your current marketing campaigns. Look at key performance indicators (KPIs) such as conversion rates, click-through rates, customer acquisition cost, and return on investment (ROI). Identify which metrics are underperforming.

A marketing audit is a systematic examination of your marketing strategy, activities, and outcomes. It involves evaluating various elements such as marketing goals, target audience, channels, messaging, and performance metrics.

Prior to conducting a marketing audit, it's essential to thoroughly comprehend both the product or service and the customer journey. Rushing into a SWOT analysis or extensive research without this understanding often leads to wasted efforts. Take the time to grasp the customer's motivations, their journey, and the overall experience they encounter. With this foundation in place, you can then assess all marketing activities effectively, ensuring alignment with the customer's needs and expectations.

A marketing audit helps identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats within your marketing efforts. It provides a holistic view of your current strategy, enabling informed decision-making and the development of effective improvement plans.

Conducting a marketing audit involves a structured assessment of key marketing components: 1/ Goals and Objectives: Evaluate the alignment of marketing goals with overall business objectives. 2/ Target Audience: Assess the relevance and accuracy of audience segmentation. 3/ Messaging and Positioning: Review the consistency and effectiveness of your brand messaging. 4/ Channels and Platforms: Evaluate the performance of marketing channels and platforms. 5/ Metrics and Analytics: Analyze key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of marketing efforts.

One of the key elements to consider when it comes to marketing performance is assessing whether you're tracking the right metrics. With the numerous data points and analytical tools as marketeers we have at our disposal, it's important to identify the marketing metrics that are directly connected to your desired outcome(s). This combination of metrics will be unique for each business based on what you're trying to achieve. For example, if your goal is to increase leads generated on your website by 10% this quarter, tracking the number of likes/shares on your TikTok posts probably shouldn’t be top of your agenda.

We introduced "Flash Audits" — frequent, mini-audits targeting specific marketing aspects. This made us nimbler and helped us correct course swiftly in our fast-paced industry. Another strategy involved "Idea Audits"?where we’d leverage insights from our audits to brainstorm innovative, data-driven marketing initiatives. One memorable moment was when a "Flash Audit" revealed that our email campaigns were underperforming on weekdays. We decided to experiment by sending the emails on weekends resulting in a significant uptick in engagement. This showed us that with audits, not only could we eliminate ineffective practices but also unearth surprising opportunities.

The benefits of a marketing audit include: 1/ Identifying Gaps: Pinpointing areas of improvement in your marketing strategy. @/ Optimizing Resources: Ensuring efficient allocation of resources for maximum impact. 3/ Enhancing Effectiveness: Improving the overall effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. 4/ Adapting to Changes: Adapting strategies to changes in the market or industry. 5/ Informing Strategy: Providing data-driven insights to refine marketing strategies.

After conducting a marketing audit, the next steps typically include: 1/ Developing Action Plans: Create specific and actionable plans to address identified weaknesses and capitalize on strengths. 2/ Implementing Changes: Roll out changes to your marketing strategy based on the insights gained from the audit. 3/ Monitoring and Adjusting: Continuously monitor performance metrics and adjust strategies based on real-time feedback. 4/ Iterative Improvement: Treat marketing as an iterative process, continually refining and optimizing based on results.

Marketing audits are a great opportunity to evaluate and reflect on what we're doing right and what we're doing wrong. And while we would all like to stay objective when auditing our work - that's just not realistic. So if resources permit - it's never a bad idea to get an external audit. With a good team they'll bring some new insights based on their experiences with other industries/companies. Ultimately - if gaining valuable insights won't delay decision-making and you have the resources - an external audit is a no-brainer.