Ask yourself the following questions:
- Has our company been losing customers lately?
- Are we not picking up the momentum we once had before?
- Are our sales particularly low?
If you answered yes, or even a maybe, to any of those questions, it may be time for you to consider auditing your brand.
The reality of reputation management and branding is that it’s a cold and bitter world out there. Everyone is ready to pounce on your failures, and even great success is difficult to maintain. Your competition is continuously trying to one-up your business, and it’s hard to stay ahead of the curve.
However, a brand audit may just be what your company’s doctor ordered! Not sure what a brand audit can do you for you?
- Determine the stance of your business and make clear decisions moving forward
- Find the true weaknesses and strengths of your company
- Position yourself in-line with your customers wants and needs
- Catch up with how people are depicting and perceiving your business
Are you convinced that you need to conduct a brand audit? If so, follow these steps to ensure company success!
- Create the framework – Detroit Reputation Management suggests mapping out your areas that will be audited within your company, and keep a clear goal in mind with every avenue. For example, you may chose to audit your website, competitors, target market, and current marketing efforts. Break down these larger areas into smaller sections, and you’ll be more focused and on-track during your brand audit.
- Study the metrics – If you haven’t started monitoring your online traffic, you’re behind in business. When analyzing web metrics, you want to consider the traffic coming to your site, bounce rate, and page views. Overall, you want to see that your traffic and page views are increasing, while your bounce rate is low. If you don’t see trends moving this way, it’s time to make some changes.
- Ask your customers for feedback – Find out how your customers perceive and view your company and brand. Not sure where to start? Offer an online poll or survey, and make sure to promote it on your social media sites. Questions should be geared towards their customer service experiences, how they feel about your website, and why they have chosen to do business with you in the first place.
- Test run your business process – Have you ever been a customer of your own business? If not, attempt to go through the process, start to finish. By placing yourself in your customer’s shoes, any jarring flaws will stand out quickly.
- Create an action plan – Once you’ve complied all your data, make sure to accurately and thoroughly list your findings, and how you intend to work through any issues. Likewise, you may find that some areas of your business are thriving, and now you know to increase traffic to these areas.
A brand audit is beneficial to any reputation management plan. Let us know what you find after your next audit and how you’ll strive to improve!