What is a digital marketing audit, and why is it important? In this write-up, we look at the benefits of the marketing audit and how an online presence report helps businesses streamline their marketing campaign.
We all know the importance of a robust online presence. In a world where the Internet is the first source of information, the growth and survivability of your business depend on your online presence. We ask you a question – do you have a solid online presence?
Though most companies in the world have some form of digital presence, many lack a strategic outlook toward the same. Many companies don’t bother to review their digital performance, which denies them potential clientele and revenue opportunities. At Cyrusson Inc., we have been long in the business of digital marketing to know this half-hearted approach to building a digital footprint.
To survive in this competitive landscape and grow your footing, you must focus strategically on building and growing your online presence. According to the latest reports, over a billion websites and more than two billion social media handles exist. Merely owning a website or having a presence on social media won’t drive your growth. It is essential to know the strengths and weaknesses of your digital footprint. You must leverage the opportunities and mitigate the threats. And it all starts with Digital Marketing Audit.
What is Digital Marketing Audit?
Digital Marketing Audit is a detailed review of your digital marketing practices and outcomes. In this audit, we conduct in-depth research on how your organization is leveraging digital presence and marketing it. We unearth the weaknesses in your strategy and suggest corrective actions. A comprehensive marketing audit covers all aspects of your digital resources, including your website, email marketing campaign, paid search campaigns, social media marketing campaigns, etc.
Why Do You Need One?
Digital Marketing Audit assesses your marketing campaign’s success vis-a-vis your goals and identifies areas of improvement. If your digital marketing efforts are paying dividends, you might ask yourself, “why do I need a digital marketing audit?”. Many organizations get it wrong because audits or online presence reports aren’t merely to fix broken campaigns and take good-performing ones to the next level.
Focus Areas With Digital Marketing Audit
Digital Marketing is a multi-platform and multi-channel strategy. Evaluating individual elements of your digital marketing campaign allows you to determine their strengths and weakness. A Digital Presence Report offers you a bird’s eye view of your strategies and the outcome of your efforts. Your online presence report provides actionable insights leading to more engagement and conversions. Here are the focus areas in Digital Marketing Audit.
Website UX/UX Audit
Your website is the bedrock of your digital marketing campaign; hence, it is the key focus area of a Digital Marketing Audit. If your website doesn’t have great UX and UI, your entire digital marketing efforts can go in vain. Naturally, a website UX/UX audit is the first step to unearthing the possibilities of digital marketing.
If you have owned the same design and structure for a while, your website may have become outdated, limiting your campaign results. You have less than three seconds to impress a user, so your website must deliver solid performance to meet your marketing goals. A website audit uncovers tactics and strategies that improve your website’s performance and user experience. It helps identify problems that limit your website’s growth and act as a handicap to your overall digital marketing campaign.
KPIs in Focus
- Code quality and link structure
- W3C compliance check
- Design elements
- Images and Alt Text
- Identification of performing keywords
- Dead links and page redirects
- CTA elements
- Content quality and density
- Website security and threats
- Website speed and performance
- URL structure and navigation
Search Engine Optimization Audit
If your website is the bedrock of your digital campaign, SEO is the pillar of the marketing campaign. A sound SEO strategy must be time-tested and aligned to the latest search engine algorithms. If you have been spending thousands of dollars on in-depth SEO, you must reflect upon the results periodically. A comprehensive SEO audit can help you fine-tune your strategy and attract more traffic and engagement to your website.
One of the critical components of digital marketing audit, SEO audit evaluates individual factors that impact your website’s ability to rank in search engine results pages or SERPs. These elements have an important bearing on the visibility and ranking of your website. A Digital Presence Report will offer you insights into what is working for your SEO campaign and the areas that need urgent attention. This audit covers every aspect of your SEO campaign, from traffic to content performance and link structure.
KPIs in Focus
- On-page SEO issues
- Off-page SEO problems
- Keyword selection
- Value of clicks
- Link structure and health
- Mobile-friendliness
- Website security issues
- Technical SEO issues
- UX Issues and page speed
- Content gaps
Search Media Presence Audit
Social media is the engine of growth in the digital marketing landscape. While most businesses have a presence on social media, few can leverage the true potential of this marketing tool. A social media presence audit aims at identifying the potential of your social media marketing campaign. It also looks at the gaps in your current marketing campaign and offers actionable insights.
Are you actively engaging with your audience? Do your followers respond to your posts? What is the frequency of your posts vis-a-vis your competitors? A comprehensive audit would offer insights into how each profile works for your brand and the platforms you must focus on for your campaign.
KPIs in Focus
- Number of social media profiles
- Social media reach
- Profile completion check
- Social media follower
- Social media engagement check
- Influencer outreach
Paid Search Marketing Audit
Paid search marketing is the fastest way to grow your digital presence. PPC (pay-per-click) and PPL (pay-per-lead) advertising let you engage with your audience and generate business opportunities. But are you spending your marketing dollars judiciously? Is your PPC budget offering you a high ROI? A paid search marketing audit assesses your campaign’s short- and long-term impact.
In this audit, performance, cost, and returns on investment are looked into in detail to identify the missteps and unearth the opportunities. A paid search audit would review your individual ads and ad groups to maximize the performance of your campaign.
KPIs in Focus
- Cost per click
- Campaign quality score
- Keyword targeting
- CRT and conversion rates
- Bidding strategy
- Ad visibility
Online Reputation Audit
Your brand is as good as its online reputation. In a connected world, your online reputation matters more than what is being said about you in the real world. An excellent online reputation translates into a strong business presence, while negative posts can hurt your brand’s reputation.
Online reputation audit covers all aspects of your online presence, including how customers perceive your brand. Your OR audit report would include critical insights into the good and bad of your online reputation. This report also offers ways to improve online reputation and deal with negative posts and ratings on various platforms.
KPIs in Focus
- Brand awareness
- News stories on brand
- Malicious campaigns
- Customer satisfaction
- Authority in industry
- Sentiments of customers
- Reviews and testimonials
Content Marketing Audit
“Content is king” in digital marketing, so your content marketing strategy requires regular audits. This audit assesses your overall content marketing strategy, including landing pages, blogs, guest posts, infographics, eBooks, etc.
This audit aims at mapping the success of the content marketing strategy with intended goals. A well-accomplished content audit will help you identify the opportunities and shortcomings of your current strategy. Once you implement the content fixes, you can encourage visitors to take the desired action, such as visiting a product page or adding items to the cart.
KPIs in Focus
- Content gaps and quality
- SEO friendliness of content
- Content engagement
- Content marketing ROI
- Customer satisfaction
Business Listing Audit
Business listings are vital to your success. They increase trade inquiries and guide your customers to your physical location via Google Maps. Your business listings must be up to date to drive success for your brand. Outdated information can hurt sales as potential customers fail to reach you. A business listing audit helps in identifying errors in your business listings.
A detailed audit of your business listings would pool data from hundreds of directories and offers you a detailed list of directories where your business listings appear. If you spot any discrepancy in the listing, such as wrong address or phone numbers, you can get them updated to increase your business’ reach.
KPIs in Focus
- Number of listings
- Accuracy of listings
- Missing and potential sites
- Map directions etc.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, Digital Marketing Audit offers you a holistic view of your marketing campaign. A detailed online presence report provides measurable insights into your campaign’s success (or lack thereof). You get a perspective of where you stand vis-a-vis competition and improve lead generation and conversion.
If you need a trusted partner for a digital marketing audit, we can help. At Cyrusson Inc., we let you take complete control of your digital footprint with our Digital Presence Report and a complimentary Marketing Strategy Session. We are committed to powering the growth of our clients with a detailed assessment.
Know your strengths and weaknesses and get insights on your competitors to take them head-on with our marketing audit. For more details on the Digital Presence Report, click here.