Why is a digital marketing audit needed?A digital marketing audit reviews where your business is now and without monitoring and tracking your digital marketing activities, how can you know how successful (or unsuccessful) they’ve been? A regular digital marketing audit is essential. Whether once a year or every quarter, an audit will enable you to make data-driven decisions that will significantly improve your campaigns’ effectiveness.
First, you should take a look at your website’s design and usability from your target audience’s point of view. Check that it is easy to navigate, clear, fast and aesthetically pleasing. No matter how innovative and interesting your digital marketing campaigns are, no one will do business with you if your web presence is unprofessional and awkward to use.
Useful tools include Hubspot’s marketing grader or Nibbler’s silktide which provide an overview of your website.
Tools like RankChecker can help you see how well you’re ranking for keywords across the major search engines. You should also check the click-through rates for any PPC ads you’re running, all your key stats (such as visits, time on site and sources) on Google Analytics and the reach of your social media pages. Examining both your paid and organic exposure across the web will allow you to see the changing effects of your digital marketing activities over time.
Is there a detailed content strategy in place? This should outline content topics and formats, team responsibilities, deadlines and KPIs. Your content creation workflow needs to be optimised so that you are publishing regular, quality content that uses well-researched keywords and tracking its performance. Content calendars are a useful way of managing this process.
No digital marketing audit would be complete without checking your conversion rates. Make sure all your channels have a conversion funnel in mind, with clear calls to action. Google Analytics should be configured correctly and utilised to its full potential, so you can see how many visitors you’ve had and the journey they’ve taken to becoming your customers.
It’s important not to get stuck on individual points when completing your audit. You need to ensure you understand how each part of your digital marketing strategy links with other parts; for example, your content might be being read and shared by hundreds of people, but your conversion rate is abysmally low – why could that be? Perhaps your content is great but is not targeting the right people. This kind of approach will help you make highly effective changes to your strategy.
You also need to ensure there is cross-platform integration, such as between your online and offline campaign materials, and between your different social media channels.
If you are too busy to conduct and audit or want an objective third party opinion, select a digital marketing expert to conduct the review for you.
Labels: digital marketing audit