Marketing audit will be discussed in the article this time. Topics to be discussed are about what is a marketing audit, its functions, as well as any activity undertaken in doing marketing audit.

Do the coordination to do the marketing audit is fundamental of business planning process as part of the development of a marketing plan. The primary function of an audit is to systematically test each element of the marketing mix of the company. This is done to determine the viability of marketing component as part of the overall business goals.

Marketing audit takes you on the need to see where you are before you move to the next level in the development of your business.

Why an audit is necessary? You can feel that creating a comprehensive marketing strategy is a very complex task. So many elements to consider making your marketing strategy can be confusing to decide from where you need to get started. To make it easier to determine problem areas and opportunities, you can conduct a marketing audit.

Focus marketing audit is to supply:

• Focus and direction of marketing.
• Review marketing activities in the past.
• Snap shot business.
• Internal inspection at the way marketing has been done.
• Identify which activities should be done much more.
• Examination of the activity of successful and failed activities.
• Review competitor; do the benchmark.
• Recommended activities to be done to make the strategy more effective.

Marketing audit activity in general:
Ideally to get the best result, when conducting an audit you have to involve a variety of key stakeholders, both internal and external. It would be better to use an independent auditor.

- Analyze your marketing activities
See a list of marketing activities you have done during a specific period and notice those who have demonstrated a positive ROI.

-Ask your client
You can ask your customers. For example, Send them an email shortly asking for constructive suggestions. You can also communicate with them via twitter and facebook.

-Review your competitors
Make a list of your main competitors and do research online and offline. Example of research online: compare the content of their web sites with you and make note of areas you can improve your own web site.

Based on the information gathered to answer the questions above, through a marketing audit , you can easily determine your marketing activities with the highest ROI also see what your competitors are already doing and identify areas most important thing you can fix and that can be improved.