Conducting regular brand check-ups can ensure that your brand remains in alignment with your vision and strategic direction.  Although we build our brands to last, internal and external factors can impact our business strategy and force us to evolve in order to stay connected with your audience.  In order to be certain your brand remains relevant, consistent, valuable, and true to its mission, I recommend conducting an annual brand audit. 

What is a Brand Audit?

Basically, a brand audit is a process that helps you analyze and assess how your brand is performing in the market. A brand audit allows you to:

• • Take a step back and look at the overall picture, which helps to inform your long-term strategy

• • Pinpoint strengths and weaknesses of your brand

• • Highlight any missing pieces from your brand strategy

• • Identify areas where you can improve your brand position and overall performance

The magic of a brand audit is that it uncovers hidden roadblocks that are stopping your brand from growing or moving forward. Conducting a brand audit helps you to understand the current state of your brand and create a strategy and plan to reach more customers, get more sales, and increase brand awareness.  

Items to Review During your Brand Audit

When conducting your brand audit, you should consider your target audience, offerings, social media channels, pricing, and competition.  Plan to gather as much information as possible in these areas.  You can use the table below to guide you. 

Brand Strategy	Brand Identity	Touchpoints
Goals Personality Purpose Positioning Values Vision Promise Essence Message Architecture Ideal Client Profile	Logos Color Palette Typography Patterns Icons/Illustrations Graphics Photography Voice Story Copy	Website Welcome Guides Client Emails Email Marketing Social Media Collateral/Assets

Conduct Your Brand Audit in 6 Steps

Step 1:  Audit Your Brand Goals and Priorities

Before you can assess how your brand is performing, you need to get clear on what you hope to achieve with your branding.  This means reviewing your business and marketing objectives.  

Before you start your brand audit, consider the following questions.

• • Who is your target audience? What are their pain points, challenges, and needs?

• • What is the level of brand awareness among your ideal audience? Do you need to increase your visibility?

• • How is your brand currently perceived? Is it on-point with how you would like your brand to be perceived?

• • What is your current market share? Are there opportunities to expand? What are the main obstacles to making that happen? 

Think about what you are trying to accomplish in the next year or two.  Consider some ideas for quick wins as well as actions that will have the greatest impact and return on your investment.  Keep these in mind as you go through your brand audit to look for possible roadblocks.  

Step 2:  Question your Audience

Your brand’s success is shaped by the perceptions and experiences of your audience.  This means you gotta dive into their mindset to find those gaps between your current and desired brand perception.  

“Your brand is not what you say it is. It’s what they say it is.”

Marty Neumeier

You can use an email survey, social media poll, or customer feedback to better understand how your people perceive your brand.  

Consider some of these questions when asking for feedback.

• • How would you describe our brand?

• • What do our products/services help you with?

• • How do you feel after viewing this?

• • Do you recommend our products, services or content to others?

• • What do you think of when you see our logo?

• • How can we improve your experience?

If you can’t pose all of these questions to your audience while conducting your brand audit, consider adding some to your client feedback form at the end of each project.  The information provided by your audience can help you determine what, if any, adjustments need to be made to your brand strategy, platforms, and communications.  

Step 3:  Compare with the Competition

Normally, I would say comparison is a bad thing.  You have unique gifts and talents that your audience needs.  During the brand audit, we want to use comparison to ensure you are positioning yourself in a way that celebrates what you have to offer that no one else does.   

Ask yourself:

• • What is the position that your business owns in the marketplace?

• • How are your competitors positioned? What is your primary point of difference? What sets your business apart?

• • Do you need to make changes to your brand strategy and positioning to better leverage what makes you different/better than anyone else?

Step 4:  Cross Check Brand Identity and Communications

Next up on your brand audit is to examine your brand identity and communications to make sure they are working for you and your business goals.   Check your resources and ask yourself:

• • How are people navigating to your website?  What links are they clicking?  What is the bounce rate? Conversion rate?  

• • Does your personality come across in the tone and style of your design and copy?

• • Are you communicating in a way that is relevant and resonates with your ideal client? Do you clearly and directly address their unique needs, wants and challenges?

• • Is your brand voice distinct, consistent, and on-brand?  Do your communications immediately convey the reason to choose your company, or do they look and sound just like those of your competition?

• • How often do you communicate with your target audience? Is this enough to stay top of mind? Are you communicating with your audience through the channels of their choice?

• • Do each of your communications have a clear call to action, spelling out precisely the next step you want your audience to take?

If you find that your brand messaging, visuals, and even your overarching brand strategy just aren’t pulling their weight, I would encourage you to get in touch with me.  I would love to chat about how we can level-up your brand through distinct visuals and intentional strategy. 

Step 5:  Review the Brand Audit Data

At this point in the brand audit process, you have the information you need to determine whether your brand is on track, needs a few tweaks, or needs a rebrand.  

You can learn more about whether a rebrand or brand refresh is right for you in this blog post.  

Make a list of the areas for improvement.  Rank them in order of importance and what will have the biggest impact on growing  your brand and business. 

Step 6:  Make an Action Plan

Remember, the purpose of a brand audit is to identify any actions you need to take to strengthen your brand. Once you have identified your strengths and weaknesses, consider which are the easiest and fastest to implement. Then take the time to develop a detailed action plan and determine a timeline for execution.  Once you start implementing changes, be sure to monitor any changes in ROI, brand awareness, conversions and customer feedback.

You can’t afford to take your eyes off your brand.  While conducting a brand audit may seem like a challenging task, it doesn’t have to be an ordeal.  My step-by-step Brand Audit Workbook provides a framework to guide you through the process.  Grab your copy today!