Summer is right around the corner, and while you plan your tropical getaway, family reunion, or ultimate staycation, there’s another important seasonal task to take care of – your mid-year marketing audit.
The midpoint of the year is the perfect opportunity to pause, reflect, and realign your marketing strategy so you can identify what’s working, what’s not, and where you should pivot for maximum impact in the second half of the year.
If you’re not yet on track to meeting this year’s business goals, there’s still hope! Follow these steps for conducting your own mid-year marketing audit:
Many companies go through the painstaking process of laying out an elaborate marketing plan only for it to sit around collecting dust all year. Instead, go back to your plan regularly to ensure you are still striving for the same objectives and that you have the tools you need in place to reach them. You may find that by mid-year, a revision of your plan may be needed in order to successfully reach your goals.
Next, take a step back and review all metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) across channels. Are your campaigns reaching a relevant audience and meeting engagement, conversion, and ROI benchmarks?
The best way to understand where you stand is to put together a comprehensive report that covers the following:
- Website traffic
- Social media following and engagement
- Email open and click-through rates
- Paid ad performance, including reach, CTR, and ROAS
- SEO rankings and organic visibility
This is also the ideal time to audit your leads. Evaluate not only the quality of each lead you’ve received so far during the year and if they ended up being customers, but also the cost per lead to ensure you aren’t blowing your marketing budget on leads that don’t go anywhere.
The marketing landscape evolves quickly – consumer behavior shifts, algorithm updates hit, and industry trends emerge. What worked in January might fall flat by June. By conducting a mid-year audit, you can respond proactively and keep your brand agile and relevant.
Ask yourself:
- Have there been changes in your audience’s needs or habits?
- Are your competitors launching new tactics or gaining traction?
- Are there new platforms or formats your brand should explore?
During this stage of your marketing audit, polling your audience on social, sending out a customer survey, or holding a small focus group can help you gauge whether your current marketing strategy is resonating with your target audience.
Now that you’re armed with data on how your current marketing strategy is working, the audience it’s reaching, and how your message is resonating with that audience, it’s time to sit down and re-work your buyer persona and customer journey.
What is a buyer persona? It is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer, based on real data, research and insights. It includes details such as demographics, pain points, behavioral patterns, job title, and more. Your brand may have only a few buyer personas, or it could have many, depending on your different customer segments.
Also, use the report that you created in step #2 and your buyer personas to help you map out your typical customer’s journey. Identify the different touchpoints and how they play a part in getting someone to become a customer.
Now that you have a clearer understanding of what aspects of your marketing plan are helping you meet your business goals, you can allocate the rest of your annual budget more effectively. Instead of continuing to fund underperforming efforts, you can double down on what’s driving results.
This is the time to:
- Cut or scale back campaigns with low ROI
- Reinvest in high-performing channels
- Explore new opportunities with the leftover budget
Mid-year is also a great time to breathe new life into your content. During your marketing audit, do an inventory check of your website, paid ads, social media, and other marketing channels. Are your visuals all on-brand? Is your tone consistent? Are your social media posts driving engagement?
This step is especially important if you have determined from step #3 that your audience’s needs or habits have changed, as you will need an updated content and creative approach to continue to effectively reach them.
The second half of the year presents many huge opportunities – tourism season, back-to-school, and the holidays, to name a few. By completing a mid-year audit, you ensure you not only take full advantage of these opportunities to reach your business goals, but that you also have a great start for the following year.
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