The Marketing
Audit Checklist.
Free download · PDF · 9 pages · no email required
Ten questions, in the order I work through them with clients, that find the expensive problems before the obvious ones. It is a worksheet, so there is room to write in it.
Most of it you can run yourself in an afternoon with nothing but a browser and your own analytics. Nine pages. The last two are a prioritisation grid and a short gate to pass before you increase ad spend.
Just the file
What's in it
The ten questions.
- 01
Does the tracking tell the truth?
Submit a real enquiry through every route a customer has. Then check it appears where you think it appears.
- 02
Can a stranger tell what you sell in five seconds?
Show the top of your homepage, on a phone, to someone outside the business. Ask what you do and who it is for.
- 03
Is the traffic the right traffic?
Where visitors come from and what they searched. High traffic with no enquiries is sometimes the page and just as often the audience.
- 04
Where do people leave?
The page with the most visits that leads nowhere, and the step in the enquiry process where people drop out.
- 05
How fast do you reply?
Send yourself an enquiry on a Friday evening and time the reply. Count how many enquiries last month never got a second follow up.
- 06
Is your Google Business Profile current?
Categories, hours, services, photos, and whether recent reviews have replies.
- 07
What comes up when you search your own name?
The whole first page in an incognito window. Directories, review sites, old profiles, competitors bidding on your name.
- 08
Would your last nine posts earn trust?
Look at the feed as a stranger would. Not engagement. Whether the account makes the business look well run.
- 09
What happens after someone becomes a lead?
Map it. Where it lands, who sees it, what gets sent, what happens if they go quiet, and when you stop.
- 10
What are you paying for that you cannot explain?
Three months of marketing outgoings. For each one, say what it is for and what it has produced.
Page eight
What to fix first.
Ten questions will produce more than ten findings, and the common failure is fixing the three easiest. The grid ranks every finding on two axes, how much it is costing and how quickly it can be fixed, so the work starts where expensive meets quick.
Page nine
Before you spend more on ads.
Four things that have to be true before more budget is worth committing. If any is missing, that is where the next thousand dollars should go instead.
- Conversions are tracked and tested end to end.
- The landing page matches what the ad promises.
- Enquiries get a reply the same day, and more than one attempt.
- You know what a customer is worth and what one currently costs to acquire.
Who it's for
A small business owner or marketer who suspects something is leaking and wants to find it without hiring anyone first. It assumes no tools beyond a browser, your analytics and half a day.
Who it isn't for
A large site with a complex technical problem, or anyone looking for a scored report. This finds the obvious expensive things. It is not a technical SEO crawl.
If you want the next one
New resources, when there is one worth sending.
The download above needs none of this. This is only for hearing when the next template or guide is published, which will not be often.
Common questions
Do I have to give you my email to download it?
No. The file downloads directly and nothing is gated. There is an optional signup if you want to hear when the next resource is published, and it is genuinely optional.
Can I use it with my own team or my own clients?
Yes. Use it internally, run it for clients, adapt it. The only thing I would ask is that you do not republish it as your own.
How is this different from the free marketing audit?
Same ten questions. The checklist is you running them on yourself. The free audit is me running the first three on your business and telling you what I find, which is mostly useful because it is hard to see your own website the way a stranger does.
What if I find twenty problems?
Expected, and it is why the last page is a prioritisation grid rather than more questions. Rank everything on cost and speed, and start where expensive meets quick. That is almost always tracking, response time and the top of the homepage.
Where to start
Not sure which of these is costing you the most?
I'll look at your website, your social presence and how you show up in local search, and tell you plainly which one is the problem. Written findings in five business days. All I need is your website address.