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A Brand Audit Provides Marketing Insight

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Your most valuable marketing asset is your brand. A brand audit can give you a read on the value of that asset, as well as any areas in need of attention.

A brand audit is an in-depth examination of your brand to identify what you’re doing well, areas for potential improvement and your current position in the market. Your brand is constantly evolving so a periodic audit ensures it’s evolving in the most valuable ways.

A brand audit consists of looking at your external and your internal branding.

External branding includes:

  • Visual identity (logo, colors, etc.)
  • Marketing presence
  • Website

Internal branding includes:

  • Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
  • Company values and culture

By looking at internal and external branding, as well as the same for your competitors, you can identify where you are performing well and where you can improve.

Benefits of a Brand Audit

Conducting a brand audit can better help you understand where you stand within your market and in the minds of consumers.

Doing a brand analysis will help you:

  • Identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to your brand
  • Discover consumer perceptions of your business
  • Understand and align your offerings with customer needs
  • Determine where you stand next to your competition

How to Conduct a Brand Audit

1. Set Up a Framework

The first step to take is to build a framework for your brand audit. Decide what’s to be examined and the methods you will use. Organize your list to incorporate both internal and external brand elements.

2.  Examine Your Website Analytics

Google Analytics provides rich website performance data. Look at:

  • Traffic: How many people are visiting your website, and where are they coming from?
  • Page views: How many times are pages being viewed?
  • Conversion rate: How many goals are being achieved on your website? (Sales, leads, etc.)

3. Survey Customers

Find out what your customers think and say about your brand. You want to know what motivates them, what influences their decisions and what they value most about your brand. Polls and surveys can help you get this insight.

Also, learn how your target audience uses your website. You can do informal or formal testing or a survey. There are tools that allow you to conduct free tests and others that have a low cost.

The goal is to get insight into pages and sections of your website that may be affecting your brand (and your bottom line). This data can help you optimize your website to ensure proper brand positioning.

4. Review Social and Other Online Data

Social media data helps you better understand your audience and how they are engaging with your brand. You want to learn where and how you are mentioned, conversations around valuable keywords, and who is talking about your brand. Be sure to check the data available any place your brand is online.

5. Analyze Competitors

Look at how your competitors are performing from a brand perspective. Where are they mentioned and in what way? What content are they writing about? Is their brand getting noticed?

Observe the use of competitor brand visuals and online presence. What’s working and where are the weak spots. Learn what you want to do and what to avoid.

Next Steps

Document your findings and then look for the intelligence you have gained. Document strengths as well as areas for improvement.

Set goals and strategies for improvement. Make sure you set some measures so you know when you have achieved your goals. Be sure to plan the next brand audit.