As we wave goodbye to the summer and put our swimming costumes in storage for next year, another event needs your attention—the mid-year marketing audit.
This systematic evaluation is essential for marketing professionals looking to finish the year with robust results. It offers a comprehensive health check of your marketing efforts and provides actionable insights for strategic adjustments. Here’s how to do it.
Performing a mid-year audit allows you to assess the efficacy of your marketing activities against predefined goals.
Experts are split on how often you should review your efforts, with some suggesting quarterly and others annual reviews.
Regardless of your preference, a mid-year marketing audit ensures you’re on track and helps you identify any changes that might impact your marketing strategy, from emerging competitors to shifts in your target audience.
What’s more, it helps to determine any new trends, technologies or consumer behaviours that may impact your business. After all, things are moving pretty fast.
Big-picture changes: Have any significant changes that might impact your brand, such as market trends, regulations, or other external factors?
Marketing goals and their relevance: Evaluate whether your marketing goals are still relevant and aligned with your brand’s objectives.
Marketing funnel: Are your marketing activities adequately addressing all stages of the customer funnel? Do you have the data to back up the success of your efforts?
Target audience: Has your target audience evolved? Are there new buyer personas to consider? Has a changing landscape altered client needs and expectations?
Competitive landscape: Have any new competitors entered the market? What is the general sentiment around your competitors? Check-in to see what they’re doing.
Market share and feedback: Has your market share grown or shrunk? What are customers saying about your brand? When did you last ask for feedback?
Buyer journey map: Are there changes in how customers discover and interact with your brand? Is there a model or strategy that you could be following to maximise growth?
Content and layout: Update outdated content, fix broken links, and ensure your website is logically structured. It’s surprising how quickly things can become out of date.
Trust signals: Incorporate reviews, testimonials, and privacy policies to establish credibility. Ensure they’re both relevant and timely – we’re in 2023, not 2013!
UI elements: Make sure your website is user-friendly with consistent and straightforward UI elements. Have iOS or Android changes impacted user experience?
Content mix: Ensure you have a balanced mix of videos, blogs, and long-form articles tailored to your audience. Look at the channels you’re posting on (LinkedIn, TikTok, X).
Content planning: Is your content plan in sync with your target personas and buyer journey stages? Do you need to review your strategy, style, or consistency?
Influencer strategy: Identify new influencers to engage and assess your existing influencer relationships. Who do you want to target in the months and years ahead?
ROI tracking: Track the performance and ROI of your influencer campaigns and let go of dead wood – you could be paying out more than you think for limited reach or exposure.
Metrics: Keep an eye on trends relating to open rates and click-through rates and consider experimenting with different options to maximise your performance.
Content relevance: Evaluate whether your email content resonates with your target audience. Is now the time to segment your email marketing audience?
Ad performance: What were your most and least effective campaigns? Who is doing a better job than you? Are competitors ‘stealing’ your organic rankings with PPC ads?
New ad formats: Consider trying out new ad formats and channels, and feel free to experiment with different styles and strategies to see what works best for your brand.
Keyword performance: Which keywords are most effective for driving conversions? Have any of your hard-hitting keywords been hit due to increased competitor activity?
On-page SEO: Ensure your site’s H1 tags, page titles, and URLs are optimised for your target keywords and consider performing a separate mid-year SEO audit to identify new priorities.
Performing a mid-year marketing audit is not an option—it’s a necessity if you want to grow and thrive. In the fast-paced world of digital marketing, staying static is akin to moving backwards.
Our audit notes serve as your guide to recalibrate, make informed decisions, and invest in strategies that will deliver the best ROI. You may find additional talking points and metrics you need to focus on. Take some time to perform a comprehensive review of your marketing activities. After all, the aim is to end the year with a bang and set the stage for ongoing success.
If you’re looking for support perfecting your organisation’s marketing efforts, contact the Zudu team for a free appraisal. We can offer actionable advice to take your organisation to the next level and unlock new opportunities for the rest of 2023, and into the future.
