What is a Marketing Audit? Do You Need One?
A marketing audit is a structured review of your firm’s current marketing, covering what’s working, what’s not, and where the gaps are. Ruche can carry out a marketing audit for you, so recommendations are based on evidence rather than guesswork.
A lot of firms already have marketing activity in place: a website, some social media, maybe an email list, but nobody’s stepped back and asked “Are these actually pulling in the same direction?”. That’s what a marketing audit is for.
It’s not about picking apart what’s gone before. It’s about understanding what you’ve got, what it’s actually achieving, and what would make the biggest difference if you changed it.
Below are the questions we get asked most often about marketing audits, and what a proper one should cover.
What does a marketing audit actually cover?
A thorough audit looks at everything: your website and SEO performance, social media activity, email marketing, content, and how consistently your brand comes across.
And it’s not just about how your own channels are performing either. It should also look at what similar firms in your market are doing, so you know where you’re ahead and where you’re behind.
How do you know if you need a marketing audit?
If you’re not sure what’s actually working, you suspect some of your marketing spend isn’t earning its keep, or enquiries have slowed and you can’t say why, it’s probably time to think about doing a marketing audit.
One thing we always say is even if you think things are going well, you should probably commit to doing a marketing audit once every year. Marketing is ever-changing, which means if audits aren’t done regularly alongside your annual strategy, you risk missing opportunities and falling behind your competitors.
What's the difference between a marketing audit and a marketing strategy?
An audit tells you where you stand. A strategy tells you where to go next and how to get there. You need the first to do the second properly, otherwise you’re planning against assumptions rather than evidence. Our marketing strategy and planning work always starts from an honest picture of where a firm actually is.
How long does a marketing audit take?
Most audits take two to three weeks but it really depends on the scope. For example, your firm may have a 10-page website and send email marketing once a month, or a 200-page website with four social media channels, a YouTube channel and send email marketing twice a week. Obviously this means the time it takes would be considerably different. Either way, we’ll always tell you which end of that scale you’re likely to be at before we start, not after.
What should you expect to get at the end of a marketing audit?
What you don’t want is a 100-page document that no one ever reads. Essentially, what you should come away with is a written report containing insights to build your marketing strategy, such as what’s working, what’s not, and where the gaps are that can make the biggest difference. It’s this type of information that will really help build a strategy that can actually succeed.
How much does a marketing audit cost?
If you already have a marketing retainer with Ruche, we’ll carry out a marketing audit as part of that, so there’s no additional fee to pay. That’s the way we work, and it’s common practice with most agencies too.
Costs vary if you’d like one done as a stand-alone piece of work rather than through a retainer, most agencies will want to know how much marketing you’re doing first before giving you a quote. If you’re weighing up options, it’s worth reading how to choose a marketing agency before you commit to anyone.
Does Ruche offer marketing audits?
We certainly do, for the law firms and professional services firms we work with. Many clients start their retainer with us by asking if we can do an audit. That way, we can work with you to set the strategy from the outset, with a full background of what’s working, what’s not and where those all-important gaps are, before building that straight into everything included in a Ruche retainer.
Get in touch with us if you’re considering getting a retainer with an agency, and would like an audit.
Talk to us
Get in touch and we’ll talk it through properly. No pressure, no jargon, just an honest conversation about what your firm actually needs.
Award Winners for Four Years Running
- 2023 to 2026
SME News Business Elite Awards
- Content Marketing Agency of the Year Manchester 2026
- Best Legal & Professional Services Content Marketing Agency 2025
- Content Marketing Agency of the Year North West 2024
- Best Content Marketing Agency Manchester 2023
