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What is A Brand Audit?

A Brand audit is a report that provides an in-depth analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) for your brand. Brand audits are complex reports that require a lot of time to complete. In this blog post, we will discuss how to conduct a brand audit from A-Z. We'll cover everything from what you need before starting the process all the way up until presenting your finalized report!

What you need to conduct a brand audit:

The first thing you need to do before starting a brand audit is to figure out your goals. Why are you conducting the Brand audit? What will be the outcome of it and what can you expect from this report? It's important not only for you but also for others who might read this Brand Audit. Below are steps to undertaking a successful brand audit.  

 

How To Conduct A Brand Audit?

Step 1: Develop a structure

Start by identifying your mission and strategic objectives or by making clear what you are measuring. This step includes identifying your target audience and competitors. what you need to reach them and the layout of the business landscape you operate in (Smith, 2016). You need to have target audience data such as geography, job positions, sector and personas. Knowing this information beforehand will help you create a highly effective Brand Audit.

Step 2: Assess your external marketing materials

It's important to review your business logo, tagline, business cards, and website. Branding is a key factor in your brand audit because it's what sets you apart from competitors. It can include factors such as how memorable the brand name or logo is to whether the design makes sense with current trends.

Step 3: Review your web analytics

Here you need to use analytics tools to get data that will help you identify where your traffic is come from, whether you are attracting the right audience, the bounce rate, and conversion rate.  

Step 4:  Review your social media data

You can do this by using social media reporting tools to get data about your brand audit. This will help you figure out how well your brand is received on various channels, where engagement occurs and what types of content are most popular among audiences. It also tells you how your social media marketing is working and what types of posts are most effective in reaching your audience. C180 social media analytics will tell you your best posts on all social media platforms.

Step ‎5: Review customer feedbacks

Customer feedback plays a major role in Brand audits because it shows what customers think about your brand. This can be done by conducting a survey or talk to people in person, over the phone and through social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

Having an idea of the customer experience at each touchpoint will bode well for your brand audit. It tells you whether customers are satisfied with the brand, what they find lacking and where improvements can be made.

Step‎‎‎  6‎ : Assess internal marketing materials

It's also incredibly important to assess all of your own company's resources that may affect customer experience in your brand audit. This includes things such as signage, company uniforms and other materials employees use while on the job.

Step 7: Review sales data

Having a Brand Audit done will help you identify the most effective marketing channels to use. Sales data helps with this because it can tell what campaigns generate revenue and which ones are not as successful in reaching your goals. An analysis of the entire customer journey can bring out areas that are working and those that need improvement (Score, 2019). lt will also tell you how well your Brand Audit is represented and how you can better market it.

It's important to identify the effect of each marketing channel on your Brand Audit before deciding which ones should be used more extensively.

Step 8‎‎‎: Survey Your Employees

You need to identify whether your employees understand your brand and can convey it properly since they are the ones that create customers experiences for your brand.

It's important to check your employees on their knowledge of the brand, how they can improve it and what changes you need to make in order for them to be more efficient at work. It's also necessary because you want customers' experience with staff members to reflect positively on their overall perception of the company

Step 9: Conduct a competitor analysis

Evaluate your main competitors' marketing and advertising materials, social media presence, websites, and sales and promotion activities. You can use competitors’ analysis tools to evaluate SEO and rankings, content, backlinks, adverts, traffic, emails and price tracking (Smith, 2016)

Step ‎ 10: Identify Branding Opportunities or Branding Gaps

This is where you'll get ideas on how to improve your marketing channels so they can be more effective. It also provides an opportunity for new branding elements such as logos, taglines and colors that will help your brand.

Step 11: Conduct a Brand audit report review workshop

The final step of Brand audits is to put together the entire data and information that you've gathered throughout the process. This should result in a comprehensive report which will be your guide on what changes need to take place with regard to marketing efforts, branding elements and customer experience.

Step 12: Brand Audit Report Review Meeting

Once the Branding audit report is complete, hold a meeting with your Brand Audit team in order to go over all of its contents and figure out what changes need to be made. This will help you get everyone on board with the new brand elements that are being introduced for maximum efficiency when it comes to Branding.

Step 13: Brand Audit Report Presentation

Once the Brand audit report is complete, present it to your colleagues and company leaders so they can be aware of everything that was discovered throughout the process as well as how changes need to be made moving forward. This will help you get everyone on board with the new brand elements that are being introduced for maximum efficiency when it comes to Branding.

 

In conclusion, Branding audits can help you increase your profitability by pinpointing problem areas and directing the right marketing efforts to achieve better results. If you need expert audit help, Campaign180 can provide you with the tools and support needed.

 

Sources  

Score. (2019, July 17). How to do a brand audit. Score. https://www.score.org/resource/how-do-brand-audit

Smith, K. (2016, April 19). The 7 step guide to performing a brand audit. Brandwatch. https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/brand-audit/

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Brand Audit