Maximizing Global Digital Asset Effectiveness with a Third Party Digital Audit Conducted by the Best Digital Marketing Agency
As digital communication continues to dominate the marketplace, an organization’s digital assets are becoming increasingly more critical to the health of a business. Are your digital assets functioning as silos, or are they working together? Are your digital initiatives reaching your intended targets? Does your content resonate with your audience? Are your digital assets optimized across all digital touch points meeting and/or exceeding user and customer expectations? The best digital marketing agencies have the knowledge, skill and experience needed to ensure your digital initiatives are performing optimally and that your digital assets are consistently delivering the highest returns.
A comprehensive digital audit performed by the best digital marketing agency will include an in-depth examination of an organization’s digital presence and its performance across the entire digital spectrum. Generally, the best digital marketing agencies examine your digital assets both individually and together as part of the larger online ecosystem. Expert auditors at the best digital marketing agencies can identify best practices gaps, determine what can be added, updated, corrected and/ or manipulated to deliver maximum performance efficiency across the entire digital spectrum.
As part of a comprehensive digital audit, the best digital marketing agencies also routinely provide clear recommendations for optimizations. They begin by establishing baseline benchmarks based on your industry, and vertical. They establish reporting and tracking protocols. Benchmark goals are established and blueprints are created for continued iterations that provide the basis for developing successful long-term strategies for effective asset allocation.
The Goal of a Digital Audit
Comprehensive digital audits performed by the best digital marketing agencies study the health of each digital asset individually as well as their ability to function efficiently as a part of a larger unit. Many organizations accumulate digital assets over time, compartmentalizing their digital assets, and focusing on the effectiveness of the individual digital initiatives rather than taking in the big picture. In addition, most digital audits are limited to an examination of individual assets, not how well they perform together as part of an online ecosystem. The best digital marketing agencies focus on the big picture. They understand that digital assets can best multiply their effectiveness if they work well together, as opposed to working in silos.
A digital audit by experts at the best digital marketing agencies begins with identifying your key digital assets, assessing their health, examining the state of integration of all your digital assets across the entire online ecosystem. The best digital marketing agencies then identify areas for improvement, and devise a plan for better, more effective overall digital conversion across the digital ecosystem. The experts at the best digital marketing agencies fulfill the role of digital business consultants. They assess an organization’s digital performance in terms of its strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities within its own industry and vertical.
Phase 1 – Industry Analysis
In order to analyze current digital presence, advanced competitive analysis and research of organic and paid search (pay per click) are analyzed to benchmark an organization’s performance against competitors. Additionally, traffic generated from social media must also be carefully considered.
Phase 2 - Benchmarking
Identify valuable information by conducting an initial competitor analysis to benchmark relevant key performance indicators (KPIs). Selecting the right KPIs depend on your industry and the part of the business you are looking to track. Each department will use different KPIs to measure success based on specific business goals and targets.
Phase 3 – Conversion
Conversions result in organizational value. Therefore, tracking activity from the beginning of the customer journey to the end, even when it crosses digital platforms, is important to maximize and optimize conversions. Tracking activity is critical to identifying where improvements can to be made, setting objective measures, putting in place an appropriate reporting structure and ensuring that your digital assets follow best practices for lead generation and conversion across all digital initiatives.
Phase 4 – Tracking and Reporting
Identify which tools are necessary in order to set up a tracking and reporting system to strengthen your business intelligence infrastructure.
In summary, a comprehensive digital audit performed by the best digital marketing agency evaluates the entire digital ecosystem – activities on the website, social media, email, mobile, and how they work together and individually to drive maximum return on investment (ROI). The best digital marketing agencies understand that the goal of a digital audit is to increase your traffic-to-lead conversion rate over time by integrating a tracking and reporting system that provides on-going access to the information you need for continued iterations and making on-going improvements to your digital strategy.
A Third-Party Digital Audit
A third party digital audit by experts at the best digital marketing agencies is an invaluable way of quickly spotting areas of improvement, magnifying digital marketing effectiveness to drive performance. . A fresh set of experienced eyes adds a dimension and perspective that may be difficult to achieve with internal organizational resources. It should be performed with objectivity and neutrality. Experienced auditors with the best digital marketing agencies come equipped with best practices guidelines and clear parameters to assess the health and vitality of your digital assets.
Digital assets are carefully evaluated; relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) are identified and set against industry and vertical benchmarks. Thereafter, standards for reporting and tracking are put in place establishing department specific benchmark goals. This process is applied to the assets individually and to the digital campaigns, examining the critical touchpoints throughout the digital ecosystem to deliver maximum performance efficiency. From here, the experts at the best digital marketing agencies are able to provide blueprints for continued iteration as well as derive strategic implications for detailed long term planning.
In all, the best digital marketing agencies evaluate 6 components as part of a comprehensive digital audit. They include Reach, Architecture, Content, Conversion, state of Integration and Measurement parameters.
1. Reach
Reach examines both organic and paid exposure generated by your Websites, Social Media (include paid boosts) accounts, and Digital Advertising Campaigns (SEO/ SEM, Social Media Advertising, Email Marketing).
Reach refers to the amount of exposure a digital initiative generates – as measured by the total number of different people or households that see your content at least once, through a given medium, during a specified period. The best digital marketing agencies evaluate return on investment (ROI) as an important measure of performance for paid reach along with other important key performance indicators (KPIs) including impressions, consumption/engagement, conversion (lead generation, viewing a specific page, providing an email address, downloading a specific file). As with organic reach, the experts at the best digital marketing agencies will identify key performance indicators (KPIs) to generate critical information you need to increase your organization’s exposure across all of its digital initiatives. This can include iterations in the content, manipulation of the digital asset, streamlining processes in the digital infrastructure and so on.
2. Architecture
Architecture checks for efficient integration of your digital assets across the digital spectrum. The best digital marketing agencies study your business’ digital infrastructure to determine whether visitors/ prospects are moving smoothly from one digital touchpoint to another. They also examine the structural integrity and functionality of individual digital assets. The experts at the best digital marketing agencies carefully measure how well the different assets are configured to work together within the digital ecosystem design. It also looks at how well content is published throughout the digital ecosystem, and the effectiveness of the time and effort needed to achieve it. Is content publishing a manual process that must be repeated for every digital platform, or is it automated, to publish once to multiple platforms?
3. Integration Maximization
Integration maximization considers all online and offline touch points. The experts at the best digital marketing agencies examine how efficiently all digital assets are cross linked, including websites, social media, traditional digitized broadcasts. They also evaluate how well traditional non-digital assets (print ads, tradeshow activities etc.) link back to digital channels.
Ultimately, the experts at the best digital marketing agencies understand that when digital assets that are part of an online ecosystem are well integrated and there are no structural gaps, the result is efficient cross pollination of both paid and un-paid content throughout the digital spectrum. Cross-pollination of content touches not only the digital assets you own but also that of third parties. The feedback (in the form of links from third party websites, click through to your digital assets) is continuous and returns back to the final touchpoint – your website, improving your search engine rank and providing for improved online visibility.
4. Content Assessment
Content includes video, images, audio and text. A digital audit conducted by the best digital marketing agencies assess the quality of your content specific to how well they are performing with your intended audience. This process begins with identifying your target audience – developing personas by defining their interests and needs and creating content that resonates. Here, key performance indicators are identified, usually in terms of web traffic, engagement, open and click-through rates and bounce rates (abandonment rate) to assess the content’s real time performance. A/B or split tests can be an important tool in optimization, performed as needed in order to identify the content that generates the highest return on investment (ROI).
The experts at the best digital marketing agencies know that the quality of the content you produce has the most direct impact on your online visibility, and lead generation. This is because valuable content is shared, and the more your content is shared, the more you gain brand awareness and traffic to your website. Increased web traffic increases your web authority. Increased web authority returns a higher search engine rank for your website (SERPs) which results in increased visibility.
Importantly, expert digital auditors examine how effective your content is at nurturing leads at different points in the sales funnel. Valuable content is defined differently at different points in the sales funnel. Content is effective if it causes visitors to take the desired call to action (providing contact information, downloading a file, clicking onto the next page) on each asset before moving on to the next. This means that your website is communicating well not only with its visitors (hence the conversion), but also with search engines – i.e. visitors came and found what they wanted and therefore converted (as opposed to abandoning or bouncing off) resulting in increased web authority and therefore rank.
5. Conversion Assessment
Experts at the best digital marketing agencies also conduct a thorough conversion assessment. Conversion assessment refers to how effective your digital assets are at converting or activating visitors. An expert auditor examines your digital channels from the perspective of a conversion funnel to determine how well they are performing. Performance is measured by determining the number of website visitors that take the desired action. This can include clicking through to the next page on your website, filling out a form on your website, downloading a file, providing an email address and more.
The best digital marketing agencies understand that ideally, each asset should be designed around a conversion funnel that involves target personas and action pathways, culminating with clear calls to action that are A/B tested. Additionally, paths taken by visitors that abandon should be studied to generate valuable information for continued iteration and optimization.
6. Measurement and Optimization
Finally, digital auditors at the best digital marketing agencies examine your digital assets against clearly defined objective. They identify important matrices or key performance indicators (KPIs) that accurately measure performance. The above audit areas are benchmarked in terms of total web traffic, conversions (the number of visitors that perform the desired calls to action), open rates, click through rates, bounce rates, reach, impressions and engagement/ consumptions, and more.
Experts at the best digital marketing agencies establish benchmark goals to provide clear recommendations for optimization, as well as to define a baseline to develop successful long-term digital strategies. Experts at the best digital marketing agencies put in place important reporting protocols with feedback loops that extract critical data for on-going analysis, continued iteration and optimization.
Conclusion
Because most digital infrastructures have been built progressively over many years with rapidly advancing technology, a digital audit is necessary to assess health of your digital assets across the digital ecosystem. It’s important to hire a trusted third party to conduct a digital audit, to bring industry best practices and fresh experienced eyes to the table. A digital audit conducted by the best digital marketing agency is a great tool to establish blueprints for future iterations and optimization. It is necessary to streamline your digital assets across multiple processes in the digital infrastructure. A digital audit is the best way to maximize the return on your digital investment and ensure that your digital assets are delivering maximum performance efficiency.
Trinet’s digital marketing experts are ready to help you with strategies that drive your digital success. Our digital audits can include comprehensive two year digital roadmap report which provides the results of the digital audit, identifies key digital strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, suggesting both short term and long term cutting edge ideas to achieve digital goals. Call today and get started 949.442.8900.
