Imagine spending hefty amounts on your social media campaigns, website optimization, or digital presence but still failing to achieve the desired results. Many would blame social media algorithms or Google’s updates for unsatisfactory results. However, have you thought about how optimized your marketing efforts are?
If you are pouring money into your digital marketing campaigns and still not getting desired results, it is time to conduct a digital marketing audit. You can do that on your own but it will take immense time which you can use in other important business affairs. The alternate option is hiring digital marketing audit services.
What is a digital marketing audit, and why is it important? Read on to learn.
What is a Digital Marketing Audit?
In simplest words, digital marketing audit is a process of reviewing a digital marketing campaigns or strategies in detail. This process involves a deep look at both qualitative and quantitative data to understand how well your marketing strategies are working.
Understanding Digital Marketing Audit
A thorough digital marketing audit includes assessing your SEO and social media marketing. This helps find areas where you can grow and things that could use some improvement.
The audit examines everything from your website’s SEO performance, such as, both on-page and off-page, to how effective your social media, email marketing, and paid ads are.
Digital marketing audit services help evaluate how all these elements come together to reach your audience, focusing on key performance indicators and search engine rankings. It also includes a comparison of your efforts with industry standards to ensure you stay competitive.
A digital marketing audit also takes a close look at your content marketing strategy and how well your social media and content perform on platforms like Google Search. It also includes assessment of technical SEO issues, website’s user-friendliness on mobile devices, and how well your marketing campaigns work across various digital channels.
In the end, an audit sets the foundations of a detailed marketing plan that aligns with your budget and goals. This plan will clearly outline the steps to
- Improve audience engagement,
- Boost lead generation and
- Optimize your conversion rates,
- Increasing sales and attracting quality subscribers.
Benefits of Digital Marketing Audit
Did you know that Google’s search engine grabs 90% of the global website traffic? Only a strong SEO strategy can help you tap into such a massive audience. A digital marketing audit assesses how good your SEO strategy is and the improvements you can make. Here are other key benefits of digital marketing audit.
1. Highlights Issues
It is easy to miss parts of your strategy that are not performing well. Do you know which channels bring the most traffic to your site? How good is that traffic, and how many conversions do you get from each source? Do visitors stick around, or do they leave right away? A digital marketing audit can help answer these questions and pinpoint areas that need improvement or removal from your strategy.
2. Compares with Competitors
A thorough digital marketing audit not only assesses your own performance but also shows how you stack up against key competitors. This comparison can reveal both your strengths and weaknesses in the market.
3. Builds a Stronger Strategy
After the audit, you will have a clear picture of what is working and what isn’t. You can also assess where your strengths and weaknesses lie. These insights will be helpful in improving your marketing strategy for better results.
4. Uncovers Content Gaps
An audit can highlight areas where you might be missing content. These gaps can lead to lost leads, but the audit will point out opportunities for new marketing efforts you can focus on.
How to Conduct a Digital Marketing Audit?
Here is how to conduct a digital marketing audit effectively.
Step 1: Check Out Your Competitors
Start your audit by looking at your competitors. Research their strategies and performance by examining their websites, social media, and content marketing efforts.
Pay attention to both numbers, such as website traffic and engagement rates, and qualitative aspects (such as content quality and user experience). For example, companies that focus on blogging often see significantly higher returns. Understanding these factors can help you find opportunities to improve your own campaigns.
Step 2: Assess Your Digital Presence
Next, evaluate your own online presence. This includes your website design, SEO, social media profiles, and content. Focus on the user experience; that means, how fast your website loads and how easily can users navigate through it.
Desktop sites should ideally load in about 2.5 seconds, while mobile sites can take around 8.6 seconds. A slow-loading website often increases bounce rates, especially on mobile devices. Remember, 74% of users prefer sites that are mobile-optimized, so it is important to view your online presence from your customers’ perspective.
Step 3: Review Your Performance Metrics
After assessing your digital presence, look into your performance metrics. Look at website traffic, search rankings, and email open and click-through rates over a specific period. This process helps you understand what is working and what isn’t. While these metrics provide valuable insights, they only tell part of the story. They will guide you on where to focus your efforts moving forward.
Step 4: Set Your Goals
Once you have analyzed both your competitors and your own performance, it is time to set some goals. Think about what you want to achieve with your digital marketing.
Make both short-term and long-term goals, such as increasing website traffic by 10 or 15% in the short term and doubling your email subscribers in the long term. Setting realistic goals will keep you motivated, but remember to review and adjust them regularly. Becoming over enthusiastic and setting unreal milestones are not going to help.
Step 5: Create an Action Plan
Finally, develop an action plan that outlines areas for improvement and potential solutions. Documenting your strategy can significantly increase your chances of success. Marketers with a clear plan are over three times more likely to achieve their goals. Make a timeline and allocate tasks to team members to stay organized and ensure everyone is aligned on the plan.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are SEO audit services?
An seo audit service assesses a website from every possible aspect. It may include evaluation of on-page and off-page SEO, technical issues, content quality, backlink profile, website speed, etc. in simple words, an seo audit finds the weak links in a website and suggests improvement strategies.
How much does a digital marketing audit cost?
The cost of a digital marketing audit depends on factors like the depth of the analysis, the size of the website, and other digital marketing activities. On average, you can expect to pay between $2000 to $10,000 for a digital marketing audit.
Hire Professional Digital Marketing Audit Services
Hiring the right digital marketing services is as important as conducting the audit. Therefore, look for the following elements when hiring digital marketing audit services.
- Go for a marketing firm with a proven track record in digital marketing audits, especially in your industry.
- Ensure they cover all areas like SEO, social media, content marketing, and performance metrics for better insights.
- Look for a service that customizes its audits to your specific goals instead of using a one-size-fits-all approach.
- Make sure they are responsive and willing to discuss findings throughout the audit process.
- Read testimonials and online reviews to evaluate their credibility and effectiveness.
- Ask if they provide follow-up support or consultation after the audit to help you implement their recommendations.
- Request case studies that show their past successes to better understand their impact.
We at CUBICUS SOL facilitate our customers with a fully customized audit and marketing approach according to their industry and unique business needs. Feel free to contact us and book your consultation.