The Marketing Audit for Better Marketing Activities

A marketing audit is a structured review of current marketing activities. Like in other job, it is easy to get stuck in what you are doing in marketing function. You are doing the same activities and you assume that you are facing the same competition and external environment. But the world in which you are competing is constantly changing.

And that is where a marketing audit can help you. It gives you the opportunity to review objectively what you are currently doing and it enables you to analyze your current performance as well as your past performance. Based on this you can then identify the next steps forward. Only by carrying marketing audits out on a regular basis you can be sure that you are moving with the time and anything marketing departments does is in line with the internal and external environment and therefore provides the best possible benefit to your business.

The marketing audit is a fundamental part of the marketing planning process. It is conducted not only at the beginning of the process, but also at a series of points during the implementation of the plan. The marketing audit considers both internal and external influences on marketing planning, as well as a review of the plan itself.

There are a number of tools and audits that can be used, for example SWOT analysis for the internal environment, as well as the external environment. Other examples include PEST and Five Forces Analysis, which focus solely on the external environment. In many ways the marketing audit clarifies opportunities and threats, and allows the marketing manager to make alterations to the plan if necessary.

The marketing audit consists of two key areas:

- External Audit

- Internal Audit

The external audit can be broadly split into three environments to be reviewed:

-          Economic environment (consisting of political, economic, social / cultural, technological, environmental and legal changes)

-          Competitive environment (i.e. what and who are you competing against and how could this threaten your current market share and position)

-          Your own market environment (e.g. if your market is evolving or changing, maybe requiring you to rethink your key markets)

The internal audit looks at your own business: What is your current situation, how profitable is your company and how effective is your marketing mix.

Once you reviewed all of above key sections, you should summarize the outcome of your marketing audit in your marketing plan, clearly showing the current market position and market overview. Only now you know what the current market requires and how to effectively decide on your marketing plan for the future.

In summary, a marketing audit does not necessarily audit what you are doing now, but it reviews all areas that are important to the success of your business both internally and externally and tries to align these. Only by considering all these areas can you know that you are doing the right things with your marketing activities and actively help your business grow and become stronger.

The significance of the implementation of marketing audits for a company will increasingly be felt by a company when the understanding of the benefits that will be picked by doing well. Because, by conducting audits with good marketing and properly will provide many benefits such as providing independent evaluation and not biased towards marketing programs. Bid and creativity of an enterprise, identify areas that need to improve and make suggestions, ideas and how to fix specific identification include several ways to improve marketing response, provides a company with new ideas, techniques and the new direction of marketing efforts, to create and revise the marketing approach to get better results.