By March, my client had tried four campaigns and two CRM systems. The pipeline still behaved like coastal weather—sunny one week, stormy the next. When we sat down for a marketing audit, we didn’t start with tactics. We started with a few uncomfortable questions: Who exactly are you for? What promise are you making? Where, on your website, can a buyer feel that promise and take the next step?
The answers weren’t too problematic, but they were blurry. The homepage praised process, the proof lived on a page no one visited, and every channel received minimal attention—never enough to generate meaningful insights. Ninety days later, three focused fixes changed the curve: a sharper story aimed at one audience, proof where it mattered, and a weekly rhythm that tied effort to outcomes. The calendar stabilized, sales conversations became more productive, and revenue smoothed out.
That’s the job of a marketing audit: to turn noise into a plan.
What a Marketing Audit Really Is
A marketing audit is a structured, end-to-end review of how your marketing actually creates revenue. It’s part health check, part roadmap. We look at the chain (strategy, message, website, demand engines, and measurement) and trace cause to effect. The deliverable isn’t a binder for a shelf; it’s a prioritized action plan you can run for the next quarter.
In practice, this involves three key steps:
- Diagnose reality. What’s true now? Where are buyers getting lost? Which pages convert, and which ones quietly leak opportunity?
- Find the few needles. Which small changes will improve results fastest? Will it be clarifying the ICP, moving proof above the fold, standardizing one CTA, or fixing a leaky booking flow?
- Make it runnable. Who does what, by when? What happens weekly, and how will we know it’s working?
What Gets Audited (and Why It Matters)
We start with Strategy: the ideal client profile in one sentence, including industry, size, and the specific problem that motivates them to act. If you sell to everyone, you convert no one, or at least very few, and you will certainly waste time and budget attracting the wrong buyer. From there, we move on to Positioning & Messaging. This is where you clearly state the outcome you promise and provide evidence to support it.
Your Website is where that promise must be felt. Can someone land on your homepage and immediately understand what you do, who you serve, and what action to take next? Do trust signals, such as metrics, testimonials, and familiar logos, show up above the fold, or are they buried under “Case Studies” that few people click?
Then the Demand Engine: content and SEO aligned to search intent, internal links that guide readers from a pillar idea to a booking action, and one nurture sequence (email or retargeting) that keeps interested prospects engaged. If paid advertising is part of the strategy, we look at unit economics: cost per lead, discovery-call rate, close rate, and 90-day LTV.
Finally, Measurement & Rhythm: a short dashboard reviewed monthly, and a weekly operating cadence (publish, promote, follow up) that keeps momentum even when delivery peaks.
The First 90 Days After an Audit
Week one doesn’t start with a campaign; it starts with clarity. We narrow the ideal customer profile, align the service offerings, and define three to five revenue-tied KPIs. In the first two weeks, we fix obvious friction: a single primary CTA across top pages, proof above the fold, a cleaned-up booking flow, and analytics you can trust.
By Day 30–45, the pilot is live. One pillar page launches with two supporting articles, each mapped to actual search intent and connected by internal links. We secure the first quality backlinks and run one nurture path (email or retargeting), so interest doesn’t evaporate. Headlines tighten. CTAs become unmistakable.
Between Day 60 and Day 90, the routine hums. Content ships on schedule. Outreach happens without drama. Small conversion tweaks begin to compound. You’re operating now, not improvising.
A CEO’s Self-Check (answer in one breath)
If you can’t answer these without opening six tabs, that’s your signal.
- Who is your ideal client, specifically?
- What outcome do you promise, and where is the proof on your top pages?
- What’s the one action you want a qualified visitor to take?
- Which three to five KPIs did you review last month, and what did you change because of them?
If two or more are fuzzy, you don’t need more activity. You need an audit.
What Success Looks Like
You notice it first in your calendar. Now you have a steady beat of qualified discovery calls, and no more whiplash weeks. Sales conversations feel lighter because the story is clearer; proposals stop lingering. Traffic warms as content and links stack, and the pages that matter begin converting like they were designed to. Most importantly, decisions shift from opinion to evidence. The team stops guessing and starts operating.
Want the Shortest Path to Clarity?
Download the one-page scorecard above and score yourself quickly. Then, if you want a second set of eyes, book a 20-minute Audit Preview. Bring your last 90 days of leads and whatever KPIs you have. We’ll surface your fastest wins and map the first sprint, so you walk out with a plan you can run next week.
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