Thrive in an Uncertain Economy with a Marketing Audit

So many factors impact the success of tech startups right now. Global supply chain issues mean potential delays in getting products to market, particularly for tech organizations impacted by microchip and other electronics shortages. VC investment overall is down, although some industries like FinTech and InsurTech are still seeing unicorns created, albeit not at the same record-breaking rates as in recent years. Conflict, unrest, and inflation all combine to make investors more cautious, so it's never been more vital to get your marketing and branding strategy as carefully honed as possible. Arranging a marketing audit could be the right move to ensure your current strategy is one that will lead to financial growth and the expansion of a recognizable brand that’s more likely to attract investors.

What is a Marketing Audit?

The word “audit” is often met with a kind of shudder in business circles. This is especially true for early-stage businesses that perhaps haven’t had to go through too many of these types of processes. Unlike an external audit, though, a marketing audit is an internal, positive process that empowers you to take stock of your current strategies and figure out what’s working and what’s not.

While the concept is simple, the details, generally, are not. A thorough marketing audit requires a systematic analysis of every aspect of business communication and marketing, from the foundational messaging framework to the types of images you share on social media. A marketing expert can assess all the ways you engage with other businesses, potential partners, and even investors and bring all that information together so you can see the entirety of your marketing ecosystem as an entity in its own right.

Once you have access to all your marketing data, your CMO can start guiding your marketing teams on how to build on existing successes and let go of ineffective strategies. A Fractional CMO is ideal for this type of strategy honing, as they have no ego staked in the business – they are completely objective and will do what is required for growth and success, regardless of internal politics.

Benefits of a Marketing Audit

We’ve already touched on picking out successful strategies and kicking unsuccessful ones into the long grass. Other ways marketing audits help include:

•          Examining your company’s CRM, marketing budget, and various marketing channels in tandem

•          Discovering client insights to help build more effective buyer profiles

•          Finding out what content has had the most impact

•          Honing your elevator pitch by picking out key successes from the year so far

• Redistributing marketing budget to more impactful channels and moving that money away from lower-performing channels

Why Marketing Audits are Crucial Now

Early stage and post series-A funding tech startups face bigger challenges than ever before. The pandemic changed how businesses engage with one another dramatically, as seen in the huge surge in virtual and hybrid events. 62% of event planners still plan to always include some type of virtual attendance option, even as more of the world opens up. More B2B sales take place online than ever, so digital marketing is no longer “nice to have”. It is essential in order to make the right connections and create meaningful leads.

This makes it critical that your company has an expert in place that can take stock of your current marketing efforts, figure out what’s working and what will continue to work, and be brutally honest about what has to change.

Final Word

The most important aspect of a marketing audit is making sure you have team members and executives with the right expertise to analyze and manage your data, and make meaningful changes with genuine impact. Arch Collective matches tech startups and their founders with dedicated marketing executives who come and join your C-Suite during critical periods of expansion or business analysis – such as your marketing audit.

A Fractional CMO can come on board at any time, from the very early stages to post series-A funding, to help you design a marketing roadmap that’s in line with your business vision and values. Arch Collective can now offer you interim market auditing services, putting an expert eye over your current marketing strategies and helping you make impactful transformations or alter your focus to make the most of the current market fluctuations.

Arch Collective’s freelance marketers will use data from your company’s CRM, campaign budgets, marketing channels, and other data sources and run it all through a specialist diagnostic tool. This allows us to give you a unique Marketing Health Score, and look at how to improve it, moving forward. Book a 15-minute introductory call and discover how Arch Collective can conduct your customized marketing audit to identify how your tech startup can reach this year’s goals.

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