At Design by Republic we consider:
- What are your key messages?
- What are you communicating?
- How effective were past communications in delivering your brand messages?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of your current communications programs?
- What are the untapped opportunities for future communications?
- In performing the audit we also look at whether your materials are reaching your target audiences and moving them to action.
Before we start we ask the business:
- What are the current goals and objectives for the business?
- How well is the current communications plan working, are leads flowing?
- Do you have a brand strategy; do you have a business plan?
Step 1: Send us all your materials We look at both internal and external communications. Everything from your identity pieces (business cards, letterhead, logo and signage) to promotional materials. We look at all your social media links and web assets.
Step 2: We evaluate all past communications.
- How did it inform the target market about the business? What worked? What didn’t?
- Was the graphic design effective and messages consistent?
- Who were the key audiences?
- What were the key messages?
- Did it reach the audiences with the right messages?
- Did the materials successfully tell your brand story?
Step 3: Look outward: Query your customers. Choose neutral researchers to query your customers. Electronic surveys, one-on-one interviews, telephone interviews or focus groups are a few techniques. We select a limited number of questions to analyse the communications from your customer’s point of view.
We ask questions like: What is your impression of our communications? What do you think of our graphics, identity pieces, website and other marketing materials? How could we improve our communications?
Step 4: Look outward: Query your community. What does the community know and perceive about your organisation? We take a broader look at the impact of your communications. Again, we ask questions to reveal public perceptions. This can be achieved by hiring a research firm or an objective person to conduct a formal community survey or by informally interviewing community members.
Step 5: Look inward: Query your staff and volunteers. Don’t forget your internal audiences. We will work with you to collect their opinions about your communications. We ask:
- What have your reactions been to communications this past year?
- What was effective?
- What wasn’t?
- What could be improved?
- Did internal documents serve your needs?
- What future communications could help you further?
You will need to determine if all communications were understood by all internal audiences and examine how your internal audiences present your organisation to the public. Do all employees have accurate, consistent “elevator speech” about your organisation? Do you speak as one voice?
Step 6: Conduct a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis. In step 6, we pull your data together from the previous steps.
We complete a SWOT analysis of your communications and analyse how you can capitalise on strengths, stop weaknesses, maximize opportunities and defend against threats.
Step 7: Recommendations. Based on the findings, we then make recommendations for future communications. We can also help put together a plan for your marketing communications.
Would you like to win a mini Marketing Communications Audit? We’ll analyse your existing communications and collateral, to understand its ability to cut through and communicate your key messages.
Email [email protected] and tell us why you should win a free Marketing Communications Audit! We’ll then be in touch! T’s and C’s Apply.
