How are You Performing? A Marketing Audit for Sales Growth
Complete Your FREE Marketing Audit
It often seems to me that the world is split between those that believe they are a marketing expert and those who back away from it and say they know 'nothing'!
Aristotle apparently coined the phrase:
"The more you know, the more you realise you don't know."
I feel that's definitely true for me.
Marketing is not one discipline. There's digital marketing, content creation, PR, event management, branding, design, marketing operations, product management....the list goes on.
Don't be overwhelmed!
This post is about giving you some tools and suggestions of how to get your proverbial marketing sh*t together!
According to the Content Marketing Institute, there is a strong connection between documenting a strategy and marketing effectiveness, but only 37% of B2B brands actually have a documented strategy. How about your organisation?
A lot of people define marketing as blog posts, social media activity and websites - the tactics. If you're doing these, that is fabulous, as long as they are supporting your business objectives.
I know that no one really wakes up in the morning gasping for marketing! What you really are asking for is sales growth.
Done properly, marketing activity will drive this. It will increase the effectiveness of your sales people, bring more prospects your way and increase the value of business from existing customers.
All the time and money invested by your business on blogs posts, event booths, beautifully designed social media posts and websites is about as useful as a paper-bag in a rainstorm if it's not underpinned by the basics.
How is Your Marketing Performing?
Are you frustrated that it isn't delivering outcomes? Or are you super happy with how it supports your business objectives? Are some areas working really well and others not?
To be effective, marketing activity needs to be deliberately planned so that it:
Supports your business strategy in helping you achieve your objectives
Focuses on your ideal customer and their challenges. Your customer should be at the heart of your business. Not you. Not your product.
Is consistent - ensuring that the same messages are delivered repeatedly and customer focused. All the time.
The tactics and visual manifestations of your marketing are just one part of establishing an effective marketing approach for your business.
These are important, but if you don't know what your objectives are and how they support your business strategy, who your 'ideal' target customer is and what they care about and how to keep the momentum going, then you are not building for long-term success and sustainability.
When I first meet clients we go through a Marketing Audit (checklist) to identify where we need to prioritise effort in order to build an effective marketing function.
I thought it would be useful to share the Marketing Audit with you - see where you need to prioritise attention for your business.
The Marketing Checklist covers 4 key areas:
Strategy & Planning
Systems & Processes
People & Resources
Tactics & Activity
A brief overview of each section is below. Complete the Marketing Audit to see for yourself where you need to focus to get your marketing engine humming. It's super simple and will take you less than 5 minutes to complete.
Do it with your team
I've found it useful to get everyone in the team to complete this independently and then compare the different responses. The responses and (more importantly) the ensuing discussions can be very enlightening.
1. Strategy & Planning
We are clear about how marketing is supporting business objectives
We know who our ideal customers are, what their challenges are and why they value us
We have clear messaging, which everyone uses consistently
2. Systems & Processes
We have a CRM system which is being used effectively
We have a cadence of planning and reviews in place
We know what we're measuring and why
3. People & Resources
There's someone in our team who is focused on our marketing and has enough time allocated to doing it properly
They have the right skills (or we bring in capabilities)
Sales and marketing work well together
4. Tactics & Activity
We have regular sales and marketing activity
It is the RIGHT activity
We have automated it where appropriate
We regularly get real feedback from our customers
There's no right or wrong answers in this Marketing Audit. I'm sharing it as I hope it might guide your thinking about what you have in place that is working well and where to focus your effort now.
Plan & Prioritise
At the top of this blog I mentioned the strong link between having a written strategy and the effectiveness of your marketing. Use the outcomes of this audit to create your plan.
Pick your top 3 priorities and create a plan to work through these first.
An Ask: Your Feedback Please
A request from ME TO YOU - I would value your feedback:
Does this Audit help you?
Where are the gaps?
What other tools do you find useful?
If you need any help, please get in touch.
