Marketing Audit Checklist

How you can audit your marketing

You can start to understand your marketing processes, and help fast-track your processes. The real art in this is understanding what the results show, but you may spot some trends and signals that you can implement immediately.

We have developed a 100 question questionnaire to help you understand your company, and help us understand how you see your business:

Marketing

Do you feel you are getting value for money from your marketing budgets?
Are you developing the new business opportunities as outlined in your business plan?
Do you actually have a business plan to compare with your results?
How satisfied are your customers - and do you have proof of this?
What unique selling propositions help you stand out from your marketplace?
Is your corporate or brand image consistent with your product or service, in the eyes of your customers?
Do you actively manage your brand, product or corporate identity?
How effective do you feel your external communications are? Do you have any proof of this?
How effective do you feel your internal communications are? Do you have any proof of this?
When did you last launch a new product?
Was the new product launch successful? Do you have any proof of this?
How effective do you feel your marketing is?
Do you have a digital marketing strategy? Do you think it works?

Brand

Do you actively manage your brand, and how?
What are your brand values, and does your company live these values?
How long has the brand/product been around?
What is the estimated brand equity?
What does the brand mean in the eyes of your customers?
Would your customers miss it if it did not exist?
Have you extended the brand or product line? If not, could you do it?
Are there any high-risk areas you should avoid?
Do your brand/product promotions reinforce the core values?

Business Development

Are you developing new business from existing customers?
Are you developing new business from new customers?
Are you developing new business from new products?
Do you know what your customer retention rates are?
Do you have an definition for a 'good' sale or customer?
Do you set revenue targets?
Do you set profit targets?
How do you manage key accounts?
How do you target new, potential key accounts?
Do your customers know all the brands/products you offer?
How much do you invest in business development activities?
What is the success rate of your business development efforts?
Do you have a customer relationship management (or marketing) system?
Do you feel the CRM system is well implemented and properly used?

Customer Satisfaction

Do you know how satisfied your customers are with your products/ services? Do you have any proof of this?
Do you operate a Customer Satisfaction Policy?
What do you see as the benefits of a Customer Satisfaction Policy?
Do you assess customer satisfaction? How do you do this?
To what level do you think you are meeting or exceeding customer expectations?
Do you hold customer satisfaction reviews?
If you do, is there any internal resistance to customer satisfaction reviews?
Do you link any customer satisfaction feedback to your customer service planning, new product development, and/or marketing strategy development?
How do you detect problems customers may be experiencing with your company, brand or products?

Corporate, Brand or Product Identity

Do you actively manage your corporate, brand or product identity? How do you do this?
Are your marketing and corporate communications materials consistent with this identity, and immediately recognisable as belonging to your business?
Do you feel that the identity works?
Does your identity portray the correct image?
Are the benefits of having and living with a corporate, brand or product identity understood throughout the company?
Does your board actively support the identity, and manage it?
Have you extended your identity to digital media?
Do you feel that this has worked in the new medium?

Planning

How does your company approach the planning cycle?
Is marketing planning included in this process?
If yes, is the marketing planning process seen as a positive management tool?
Has the company set definitions and procedures for the business and marketing planning processes?
Are the budgeting, business and customer service planning processes part of, or linked to the marketing planning procedure?
How do you determine the marketing budget? Does this procedure work well?
Do your marketing plans get monitored and evaluated?
How successful has the marketing planning process been?
Do you feel that appropriate internal and external information is available during the planning and evaluation processes?

Positioning

Do you know where your brand / products are positioned?
Do you have a clearly developed marketing positioning strategy?
Do your customers clearly understand what your company stands for?
Does your company, brand or product make a real difference in the marketplace?
Do you feel that you have identified all the aspects of competitive advantage your brand or product offers?
Do you think you exploit this competitive advantage correctly?
Do you communicate these advantages actively, consistently and effectively?
Do you think the competitive advantages you communicate can motivate your customers to choose your product/brand over the competition?

Marketing Operations

Do you know the capabilities and limitations of your marketers? If so, how?
Do you understand your market dynamics?
Do you have any proof of the market evolution?
Who are your competitors?
What are the differences between your products/services and branding and those of your competitors?
Do you have a clear set of business objectives and shorter term goals?
If yes, do your marketing objectives support this?
How is customer feedback incorporated into your marketing plans, service improvements and marketing communications activities?
Have your clearly defined the markets you want to develop or serve?
How systematically do you approach the market entry / support strategies?
Do you measure the return on investment provided by your marketing activities?

New Product Development

How do you develop new products or services?
How long does development normally take?
How many successful new products/services did you introduce in the last year?
Are feasibility and investment criteria set for new product assessment?
Do you employ and evaluate launch plans for new products/services?
Is your product portfolio managed centrally or locally?
Do you link new product development to your business and marketing strategies? How do you do this?
How are new product/service ideas encouraged and captured?

Change Management

If your company ceased to exist, would the world lose out?
What is the company's purpose?
What is important when adding value to the community/market?
What is your corporate focus and do you have any community goals?
What sort of organisation is it, and is it good at what it does?
What skills set the company apart?
Do you think the company could become supremely good at one thing?
Do you achieve your goals through cooperation or collaboration?
Do you have a change management policy?
If so, do you fell that it is a long-term policy?

General

Are you confident about the future of your company, brand or products?
Are you happy working in the company, and with your co-workers?

MARKETING AUDIT