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What is a Digital Brand Audit and Why do You Need One?

digital-brand-audit

The digital marketing world moves fast, and if your brand doesn’t keep up, it can get left behind. You must stay relevant to keep earning the traffic and clicks on your digital assets. That’s why it’s important to maintain your brand’s online presence by periodically conducting a digital audit. 

Similar to a financial audit, a digital audit examines and evaluates your brand’s actions to make sure they fall in line with your mission and goals. You’ll ask yourself questions about your brand to make sure it’s performing at its best, such as:

  • Is your content engaging your audience?
  • Is your brand performing well against your competitors? 
  • Has your brand evolved since you last updated your digital strategy?
  • What can you do better when representing your brand online?

With an audit, you’ll uncover your brand’s opportunities for improvement, get back in touch with its online performance, and update your brand strategy going forward.

Why does my brand need an audit?

Makes sure your brand is up to date

Brands change over time. You may think your mission or value proposition is the same as it was when your brand first launched, but it is inevitably shaped by changes in consumer attitudes and behavior. And if it is, that doesn’t necessarily mean that your marketing efforts or content creation still accurately represent your brand.

Creates consistency

Your brand is more than just your social media presence, your website, or the products you sell. It’s your customer service experience, blog posts, your logo, and so much more. A digital brand audit can ensure that all the moving parts to your brand are consistent and accurate.

Synchronizes vision and execution

It’s easy to imagine your brand looks and acts a certain way, when in reality, it’s different in the eyes of your customers. A digital brand audit can help get your brand back on track and ensures your vision and execution are one and the same.

Pinpoints strengths and weaknesses

One of the best benefits of a brand audit is analysis of your brand’s performance. You’ll discover your brand’s strengths and weaknesses. In turn, this analysis will help you put together a plan to shore up those weaknesses and play to your strengths.

How to conduct a digital brand audit

Outline what to analyze

The first step in your brand audit is to create a list of topics to cover in your audit. Your brand audit may vary, but consider looking at:

  • Your brand’s purpose, mission, values, and goals
  • Your target market and niche
  • The problem you solve or unmet need your brand fulfills for your audience
  • Your ideal client
  • Your competitors
  • Strengths and weaknesses
  • What makes you unique from your competitors

Remember to answer honestly and accurately. For example, if your brand’s current values have changed since its inception, write down how. This will help you discover where you’ve been, where you are, and where you would like to go.

Look at your web analytics

You should already be checking your web analytics frequently, but it’s a good idea to look at them again during your digital brand audit.

Web traffic, including site visits, average visit duration, number of new site visitors, etc. These basic data points can give you an idea of where you can improve.

Sources for incoming traffic. Are your visitors finding you through search, through a referral link, or by directly inputting your URL into their browser? You may find that your referral links are a strength, but your ranking in search results needs work.

Bounce rate. A bounce rate indicates how many people left your site after viewing just one page. That may mean you fully answered their questions with a well written blog post, or it could mean they lost interest and went elsewhere. Note which pages have the highest and lowest bounce rates and track these over time.

Pageviews. Which page on your website is visited most and least? You can get an idea of which products are popular by checking this metric.

Conversion rate. This is the proportion of visitors who perform a desired action on your site, like making a purchase or subscribing to your newsletter. Generally, if your conversion rate is high or improving over time, that’s a good sign for your online presence.

As you track all of these metrics over months and years, you will notice seasonal patterns as well as potential areas for improvement.

Evaluate your brand integrity and consistency

What is a Digital Brand Audit and Why do You Need One?

Next, take stock of your brand integrity across your digital channels. Does your brand look, sound, feel, and communicate the same way on every platform? Will a customer recognize you regardless of their point of entry?

Look for the following when comparing your website content, social media channels, and email marketing efforts.

Website

  • Your website has current graphics: logos, banners, headers and footers, and images
  • Every page on your site is up to date
  • All links are working and up to date
  • Your blog, if you have one, is addressing currently relevant topics
  • Messaging on your site and blog match that of your social media and other channels

Social media

What is a Digital Brand Audit and Why do You Need One?
  • Each social media platform has a current logo and accurate profile description or bio
  • Links in descriptions or bios are up to date
  • Your content meets the same high standards as your website content
  • Your graphics are optimized for specific social media platforms; e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn
  • You are posting consistently, with content targeting the right audience in each platform
  • Your analytics (followers, engagements, conversions) are meeting their goals
  • All platform analytics are trending in a positive direction and your social ROI is positive

Email marketing

  • Review your analytics such as open rate, click rate and click-to-open rate
  • Notice if your list has grown or shrunk over time and whether you’re losing subscribers faster than expected
  • Confirm that each email contains correct brand colors, logos and graphics
  • Confirm that the language of your email copy accurately reflects your brand and the way in which you speak to your audience

It is helpful to review all of these at once so you can confirm that you’re delivering a consistent brand message across all channels.

Devise an action plan

The final step of your brand audit is to put your gathered research to good use by devising an action plan. 

Fix specific problems

Highlight any pain points that you uncovered during your digital brand audit. For each one, list factions to take, goals, and a timeline.

Here is an example:

  • Issue: Facebook page is losing followers faster than it is gaining them 
  • Suggested action: Incorporate new kinds of content into your social media calendar and evaluate the results
  • Goal: 1,000 new followers, with fewer than 500 lost
  • Timeline: Next 6-8 weeks

Repeat the process

Digital brand audits should be a regular exercise for your brand, not only to check your progress on solving pain points, but to keep your brand in good health. You might perform a brand audit every quarter, twice a year, or once a year. 

Take action with ThumbStopper

What is a Digital Brand Audit and Why do You Need One?

Sometimes you know where you can improve your brand’s digital presence, but you simply don’t have the time or resources to make those improvements on your own. If you need to boost your brand’s engagement, brand strategy, or brand awareness, ThumbStopper can make it happen by leveraging your local retailers. By tapping into this shared target audience, your brand can enjoy better targeting, more use of your marketing assets, and maximum content ROI.
Learn more about how ThumbStopper can help your brand today.

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Key Points:

 

  • Companies should understand the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to ensure their websites are accessible.
  • Brands that concentrate on accessibility on social media demonstrate care for their customers and build a positive brand reputation.
  • Brands should always consider inclusive design, such as plain, straightforward language, in their social media posts.

 

 

Accessibility may not be a term you usually associate with the internet and social media. You might picture wheelchair ramps, directional signs in braille, or sign language interpreters at live performances. The landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 dictates the legal necessity of these and similar accommodations in public spaces. As we’ve come to rely on the internet for everything from entertainment to buying groceries, it’s become clear that the internet is now also a public space. It must be accessible to everyone. And like other applications of ADA, businesses that do not comply are liable for damages caused by inaccessibility.

 

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an international set of standards to provide instruction on meeting accessibility needs. It’s important for companies to understand how this applies to their websites, especially if they engage in e-commerce. In terms of social media, the requirements are less concrete. But prioritizing accessibility on your company’s social media is essential to your reputation, even if the legal requirements are uncertain. We’ll look at why it’s important to your customers, how it affects the perception of your brand, and how to make these changes efficiently.

Social Media for All

The cornerstone of accessibility is inclusive design: products or experiences that are accessible for everyone regardless of disability. The most important place where this shows up is on company websites where most users expect to also find links to the brand’s social media profiles. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of websites are not accessible, despite the fact that the application of ADA to the internet is over 20 years old. Making websites accessible is a complex process without the use of specialized software like Accessibe or EqualWeb.

Unlike websites, making sure your social media is accessible is a straightforward, ongoing process. Every social platform has been quick to release optional accessibility features. These features are important to many users even if they don’t rely on them to use social media.

Making your social presence accessible tells users that your brand cares about people, not just profits. It’s the same idea as the push for the representation of different body sizes in fashion or more expansive skin tone ranges in beauty products. Brands that meet the needs of underrepresented groups endear themselves to others as well. And while optimizing your brand website for accessibility might be a larger project you aren’t ready to tackle yet, starting with your social media pages is a great way to show customers that you’re listening to their concerns. 

 

Making Content Accessible

Shifting to accessible content means incorporating inclusive design into your creative process. The practice varies by type of media. For platforms that have graphics or videos with captions, it means not only adjusting each component but also being mindful of how they interact with each other.

For example, YouTube’s automatically generated closed captions and subtitles are often inaccurate. It's one of many examples where the caption generation software has issues picking up strong accents and mumbled words. This could be remedied with handcrafted video transcription services. If that’s not in the budget, the video creator could add their script or transcription to the video description.

None of the technology for accessibility is perfect yet. Teaching computers to digest complex information for human understanding is difficult, and the variations in disabilities further complicate it. The majority of adjustments creators need to make revolve around helping assistive technology better understand their content. Let’s look at how to make different kinds of content accessible. 

Text

  • Use plain language that’s easy to understand 
  • Avoid text in all caps
  • Capitalize the first letter of each word in a hashtag, like #SocialMediaMarketing, a practice called camel-case

Videos

  • Provide descriptive captions. Instead of just displaying the words people on-screen say, explain background noises and other sounds that are relevant to the scene.
  • Add your own subtitles or enable auto-subtitles on the video platform of your choice
  • Use captioning for live videos when possible

Graphics

Distribute Accessible Content

Many users find their new favorite brand through social media. When disabled people (who make up 26% of the population according to the CDC) can’t access your brand’s social posts, you miss the opportunity to connect with a demographic that’s eager to engage in online communities. On a hyper-local level, that kind of connection goes even further.

That’s why ThumbStopper exists to help brands distribute their social content to their retailer network. Retailers can connect with their local audience - with your accessible, branded content - in a more personal way. And since content goes to their page automatically once they sign up, retailers can effortlessly promote your brand online while focusing on running their business. 

Ready to see how ThumbStopper can help your brand improve its reach? Check out our brand reach calculator or book a demo.

 

 

accessibility
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Key Points:

 

  • Companies should understand the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to ensure their websites are accessible.
  • Brands that concentrate on accessibility on social media demonstrate care for their customers and build a positive brand reputation.
  • Brands should always consider inclusive design, such as plain, straightforward language, in their social media posts.

 

 

Accessibility may not be a term you usually associate with the internet and social media. You might picture wheelchair ramps, directional signs in braille, or sign language interpreters at live performances. The landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 dictates the legal necessity of these and similar accommodations in public spaces. As we’ve come to rely on the internet for everything from entertainment to buying groceries, it’s become clear that the internet is now also a public space. It must be accessible to everyone. And like other applications of ADA, businesses that do not comply are liable for damages caused by inaccessibility.

 

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an international set of standards to provide instruction on meeting accessibility needs. It’s important for companies to understand how this applies to their websites, especially if they engage in e-commerce. In terms of social media, the requirements are less concrete. But prioritizing accessibility on your company’s social media is essential to your reputation, even if the legal requirements are uncertain. We’ll look at why it’s important to your customers, how it affects the perception of your brand, and how to make these changes efficiently.

Social Media for All

The cornerstone of accessibility is inclusive design: products or experiences that are accessible for everyone regardless of disability. The most important place where this shows up is on company websites where most users expect to also find links to the brand’s social media profiles. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of websites are not accessible, despite the fact that the application of ADA to the internet is over 20 years old. Making websites accessible is a complex process without the use of specialized software like Accessibe or EqualWeb.

Unlike websites, making sure your social media is accessible is a straightforward, ongoing process. Every social platform has been quick to release optional accessibility features. These features are important to many users even if they don’t rely on them to use social media.

Making your social presence accessible tells users that your brand cares about people, not just profits. It’s the same idea as the push for the representation of different body sizes in fashion or more expansive skin tone ranges in beauty products. Brands that meet the needs of underrepresented groups endear themselves to others as well. And while optimizing your brand website for accessibility might be a larger project you aren’t ready to tackle yet, starting with your social media pages is a great way to show customers that you’re listening to their concerns. 

 

Making Content Accessible

Shifting to accessible content means incorporating inclusive design into your creative process. The practice varies by type of media. For platforms that have graphics or videos with captions, it means not only adjusting each component but also being mindful of how they interact with each other.

For example, YouTube’s automatically generated closed captions and subtitles are often inaccurate. It’s one of many examples where the caption generation software has issues picking up strong accents and mumbled words. This could be remedied with handcrafted video transcription services. If that’s not in the budget, the video creator could add their script or transcription to the video description.

None of the technology for accessibility is perfect yet. Teaching computers to digest complex information for human understanding is difficult, and the variations in disabilities further complicate it. The majority of adjustments creators need to make revolve around helping assistive technology better understand their content. Let’s look at how to make different kinds of content accessible. 

Text

  • Use plain language that’s easy to understand 
  • Avoid text in all caps
  • Capitalize the first letter of each word in a hashtag, like #SocialMediaMarketing, a practice called camel-case

Videos

  • Provide descriptive captions. Instead of just displaying the words people on-screen say, explain background noises and other sounds that are relevant to the scene.
  • Add your own subtitles or enable auto-subtitles on the video platform of your choice
  • Use captioning for live videos when possible

Graphics

Distribute Accessible Content

Many users find their new favorite brand through social media. When disabled people (who make up 26% of the population according to the CDC) can’t access your brand’s social posts, you miss the opportunity to connect with a demographic that’s eager to engage in online communities. On a hyper-local level, that kind of connection goes even further.

That’s why ThumbStopper exists to help brands distribute their social content to their retailer network. Retailers can connect with their local audience – with your accessible, branded content – in a more personal way. And since content goes to their page automatically once they sign up, retailers can effortlessly promote your brand online while focusing on running their business. 

Ready to see how ThumbStopper can help your brand improve its reach? Check out our brand reach calculator or book a demo.

 

 

accessibility
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