How to conduct a marketing audit for your small business

How to conduct a marketing audit for your small business

By Amanda Hughes | The Small Business Community

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This blog was proudly written by a human and not a robot

If, like me, you're looking at your current marketing outputs and wondering whether they're actually working or not, then you've landed in the right place. Let's talk about how to conduct a marketing audit for your small business. Yesterday I wrote a blog all about why, after 12 years of faithfully sending emails to my subscriber list every week, I was no longer doing email marketing.

TLDR: Short on time? Skip to the bottom to catch the notes

List every marketing channel you're using

First up I laid out all of the marketing avenues I was using at that time, brace yourself, there's a few: Instagram Facebook TikTok

Pinterest Threads Linked In

You Tube

Podcast Google profile Email marketing Quite a few eh?

Find out where your customers are actually coming from

Next up in the marketing audit was to look at where members of The Small Business Community were specifically finding me so, I looked at the last 10 members who joined and checked out where they found out about the community membership as stated in their onboarding info. Instagram came out top (result because I love Instagram, she's my ride or die) Next was was my podcast Small Business Growth Addicts Next was Google search.

Check your website traffic data

I then had a look at my website traffic.

Where were visitors coming from? Top scores on the doors were: Instagram Facebook Google

Grand, I had some good data to work with.

Ask yourself what you actually enjoy

Next up, a question I think we fail to ask ourselves often enough as small business owners, what marketing channels am I enjoying? Yes, enjoying, here's why that's important: When you enjoy something it shows.

Your enthusiasm comes through, your passion and belief in what you're promoting comes through and that will always lead to a higher engagement and/or conversion rate.

Marketing takes time and time my friend is the one thing we don't have an infinite resource of. Kim Cattrall recently said "I don't want to be in a situation for even an hour where I'm not enjoying myself" and do you know what Samantha, I mean Kim, same hun.

Thankfully, the ones that came out top in this marketing audit as currently driving conversions to The Small Business Community are the ones I enjoy! (coincidence? I think not, see note above re the corelation to enjoying something and results)

Instagram Facebook (Moreso Facebook groups which I talk about in this podcast episode) Website SEO/Blogging Podcast

Threads and Pinterest for small business

I also really enjoy Threads and Pinterest.

Threads is a great place for conversations. I don't want mindless likes and follows, vanity metrics as they're known, I want to chat to people when I'm online, interesting people, and Threads serves that. Pinterest is a fantastic search engine and brings great traffic to my blogs (if you found this blog through Pinterest leave a comment and say Hi Pin friend!) which I also enjoy although I do need to watch I don't fall down the rabbit hole of looking at crafts etc 🤣

Why would a small business be on so many social media platforms?

Now, why am I on so many other platforms anyway you might ask?

We should only be where our ideal clients are right?

Yes ma'am but... my role as the founder of The Small Business Community also incorporates creating a weekly content pack for the community.

This content pack gives members up to date information on what to post across all social media platforms to make it as easy as possible for them to create content that gets seen and get sales (if you struggle with content creation this will be a godsend, come join us and check it out) so it's imperative that I am up to speed with what indeed is working on those platforms!

That's primarily why I'm there but this marketing review allowed me to step back and reassess how I use them for my own business. I can have a presence on these social media platforms and keep up to speed but I don't need to be actively trying to grow there.

Document what's working and what isn't

So the likes of TikTok, Linked In, You Tube etc fell wayyyy down to the bottom of my marketing list based on what's working and what I actually enjoy. And if you read yesterdays blog you'll know how I felt about email marketing by this stage anyway.

I was bored with traditional emails, bored writing them and bored receiving them. I felt like I was ticking a box that other people told me I had to tick and that just isn't how I want to run my business.

Back up your decisions with industry data

I did do some concrete research on email marketing throughout this marketing audit. I'm not daft, I've been self employed for 12 years and I know how powerful an email list can be, I didn't want to burn it all down just on the basis of being "bored"

Here's what I found when I conducted some local research of my own and some more widespread:

From an Instagram poll just 10% of my audience of small business owners said they liked marketing emails with 45% saying "some are ok" and 35% saying "they get too many" 10% flat out said "I don't like them" HubSpot's latest State of Marketing report also tells us that email marketing came out bottom of "Top Marketing Channels by ROI"

It's ok if you don't do email marketing

Like I said in yesterdays blog, I'm not at all suggesting that email marketing is dead, but it's not the only way to market your business. I'm a never say never kinda gal though. Things change, especially in marketing, nothing sits still for long. But right now, this is where I'm at.

Conduct your own small business marketing review

If you've been questioning where your time has been going recently when it comes to marketing your business vs the results you're getting back, perhaps this marketing audit would do you the world of good too. Try it, you might be surprised!

FAQ: How to conduct a review of your small business marketing

How often should a small business do a marketing audit

I'd say around every 6 months but it could also just be anytime you feel like you're putting a lot of time into your marketing and not seeing results. Or, if you're just not enjoying it anymore. Don't wait for a scheduled date to review if something feels off. Your gut is data too!

Should I outsource the marketing channels I don't enjoy?

Outsourcing your marketing is a smart move for a lot of small business owners and absolutely worth considering, especially for the channels that drain you but that you know your audience is on. In fact I discuss outsourcing your social media with Heyday Marketing Agency in this podcast episode, That said, if you love marketing your business yourself like I do, outsourcing isn't always necessary, sometimes the answer is simply to deprioritise the channels that aren't converting rather than paying someone else to run them.

How do I know which marketing channels are actually working for my small business?

Start by asking your most recent customers or clients how they found you, the answer is often surprising! In my marketing audit, Instagram, Google and my podcast came up consistently, which made the decision about where to focus much easier.

Is email marketing still worth it for small businesses?

It can be, but it isn't the only option and it certainly isn't compulsory. My own Instagram poll found that only 10% of small business owners actually enjoy receiving marketing emails, with the majority saying they either get too many or that only some are "okay" HubSpot's State of Marketing report also ranked email bottom for ROI. That doesn't mean it's dead, but it does mean you should be intentional about it rather than doing it because everyone says you have to.

How would you summarise the marketing audit process for small businesses?

• List every marketing channel you're currently using

• Ask your most recent customers how they found you

• Check your website traffic to see where visitors are coming from

• Note which channels you genuinely enjoy, this matters more than small business owners might think

• Look at industry data for any channels you're considering cutting

• Bring it all together and make an informed decision about where to focus your time

TLDR: 

After 12 years of email marketing for her small business Amanda Hughes did a full audit of all her marketing channels to figure out what to keep and what to cut.

She looked at where new Small Business Community members were actually finding her (Instagram, podcast, Google) what was driving website traffic, and, crucially, what marketing she actually enjoyed doing. The enjoyment factor matters because enthusiasm drives better results.

Instagram, Facebook groups, blogging/SEO, and her podcast came out on top across all three criteria, so they stayed. TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, and traditional email newsletters got deprioritised.

The email decision wasn't just gut feeling, her own Instagram poll showed only 10% of her audience actually liked marketing emails, and HubSpot data ranked email bottom for ROI.

Amanda Hughes' audit framework in short:

zoom out → check what's actually converting → note what you enjoy → look at the data → make the call