With all good intentions, leaders add platforms and tasks to their marketing team to meet the needs of the changing digital marketplace. As just one example, many brands in recent years have added Instagram and now they are asking if they should add TikTok. While these evaluations and individual decisions are necessary, occasionally, it is important to take a broader look at all of the digital marketing activity and how it all works together.

This process of evaluating everything is often resource-consuming.  In addition, your team may know how to do their tasks but lack a broader perspective that comes from seeing a broad array of clients’ digital activities. In that case, having an outsider evaluate performance across a brand’s digital portfolio makes a lot of sense.

A digital marketing audit is designed to establish baseline metrics around key data points that, if improved over time, will drive business performance. As just one example, Audience partnered with Carpenter Group to review annual data and analyzed both ongoing and nonrecurring activities to understand what level of performance could be expected without any changes to Vestmark’s current digital strategy.

The output of the audit was transformative. Our client now had the facts to present to the firm leaderships on a number of changes that would help grow the brand. She eliminated wasted efforts value and refocused time on activities that drove engagement and qualified leads with the target audience.

In performing this digital audit, Audience reviewed the following:

• Google Analytics

• SEMRush

• Social Networks

• Twitter

• LinkedIn

• YouTube, Facebook and Instagram

• Marketo Configuration

• Including the Lead Scoring Program

Through discussion with the Vestmark marketing team, the digital marketing goals for website and digital activities included:

1. Improve lead generation activities including the quality of the leads. The goal was to drive an 11% improvement over the current year.

2. Provide management a clear snapshot of what is and is not working and then use the

insights to drive digital marketing activities.

3. Better understand how to reach its target audience, with a focus on growing awareness

and engagement with asset managers and banks.

Results

A review of these digital activities and decisions about the key recommendations allowed us to build a Digital Activation Plan to drive this goal and other foundational metrics (KPIs) that act as the steppingstones to lead generation. In addition to the Digital Activation Plan, we also included a monthly report that tracked performance and reported results to management, as well as a phased approach to priorities that reflect an understanding of existing resources and how programs can be scaled over time.

The audit led to key actions taken by management that drove improved performance without increasing the annual marketing spend.  In addition, it resulted in better information flow up to the leadership team about the value of marketing activities.  In Vestmark’s case, the Audit delivered a strong return on investment in its first year.