Communications Audits Show the Real Value
of Marketing Expenditures

 

by Debra Mercaldo 6/10/10

 

How many times have you heard a client complain about the high cost of marketing communications materials? For many, increasing the use of web and email marketing holds the promise for eliminating many traditional costs associated with bloated budgets — things like paper, printing, postage and warehousing. But at what cost?

 

In the process of shifting marcom programs to electronic media, companies may find that the number of messages and communications just keep on proliferating. It may be less costly to implement more messages though electronic media, but what happens to the focus and consistency of the message? More messages in the market don't necessarily equal the right messaging.

 

This is where companies can benefit from a communications audit, a useful tool for analyzing all the messages being generated — both for internal and external markets — across all media. Early in the fiscal year is the perfect time for an audit, before more money is spent on marketing that's falling on deaf ears and over- saturated eyes.

 

Ideally, a communications audit helps a company focus in on their branding and messaging and gain insight to how they are communicating to customers, employees and other audiences. It's a good tool for ensuring a consistent message is being used throughout the marketing chain. At the very least, an audit can streamline the amount of communications and build efficiencies where things have gotten out of hand. In larger firms, communications generated from diverse departments can cause conflicting messages and Materials do have a tendency to proliferate without analyzing how existing vehicles can be modified to accommodate new information. Often the problem is that departments just don't communicate with each other, causing too much noise in the message being delivered to the audience.

 

Communications audits are not a complicated process, but do involve a healthy dose of marketing research techniques, strategic analysis and writing of a final audit report. Getting to the right conclusions mean asking a lot of questions, listening carefully to the answers, analyzing the current materials, and identifying which communications should stay and which should go. Talking to the target audiences and the internal company influencers and creators is crucial to understanding if the communications are achieving the desired goals. Final recommendations and Writers, designers and marketers do their clients a great service by suggesting a communication audit before starting on new initiatives that will just add to the number of messages. When communications serve the right purpose, accomplish desired goals and stay focused on a consistent message, they are worth their weight in gold — even those costly printed materials.