External Marketing Audit Service.
Our External Marketing Audit service evaluates your organisation's market positioning, customer insights, brand perception, competitive landscape, and marketing strategies. It uncovers opportunities for growth, identifies challenges, and provides actionable recommendations for success. Fixed price from £5,000 (+VAT).
Unlock the Potential of Your External Marketing Strategy.
Understanding how your organisation is perceived in the market and the effectiveness of your marketing efforts is vital for sustainable growth. However, assessing these factors accurately can be a daunting task for business leaders. That's where our comprehensive External Marketing Audit comes in.
Uncover Insights, Seize Opportunities, and Drive Success.
Let our experts conduct a systematic and thorough examination of your organisation's external marketing ecosystem. Our goal is to help you gain valuable insights, identify areas for improvement, and develop impactful marketing strategies that drive growth and success.
What Our External Marketing Audit Includes.
Our External Marketing Audit covers a wide range of crucial components:
- Market Positioning: We assess your market positioning, including your unique value proposition, target audience, and competitive advantage.
- Customer Insights: We gather and analyse customer data to gain a deep understanding of their needs, preferences, and behaviour.
- Brand Perception: We evaluate how your brand is perceived in the market and identify opportunities to enhance brand equity.
- Market Environment: We analyse market forces that may present opportunities or threats using the PESTEL strategic framework.
- Competitive Landscape: We analyse your competitors' strategies, strengths, weaknesses, and market positioning using Porter’s Five Forces Model.
- Marketing Strategy Evaluation: We review your current marketing strategies and tactics to identify areas for improvement and optimisation.
- Channel Effectiveness: We assess the performance and ROI of your marketing channels to maximise their impact.
- Campaign Analysis: We evaluate the effectiveness of your past marketing campaigns and identify opportunities for future success.
- Digital Presence: We analyse your online presence, including your website, social media, and digital marketing efforts.
- Recommendations: We provide actionable recommendations and strategies to enhance your external marketing performance, address weaknesses, capitalise on opportunities, and achieve your organisational goals.
Our Thorough and Collaborative Approach.
Throughout the External Marketing Audit process, our experienced marketing advisors work in collaboration with your team. We conduct in-depth research, collect relevant data, and utilise strategic frameworks to gain a comprehensive understanding of your organisation. Our approach combines qualitative and quantitative analysis to provide you with a holistic assessment.
An efficient audit process.
We ensure a smooth and efficient audit process to minimise disruption to your business. Our process typically follows these steps:
- Initial Discovery Session: We understand your business goals, agree on key contact points, and establish the data-sharing process.
- Engagement Letter and Confidentiality Agreement: We issue the necessary documents to formalise our engagement.
- Stakeholder Identification and Scheduling: We work with you to identify key stakeholders and schedule interviews and meetings.
- Questionnaires and Business Information: We send questionnaires to key stakeholders and gather relevant business information from you.
- Data Gathering and Interpretation: We continue data gathering, conduct interviews, and interpret the information collected.
- Audit Report Building: We compile all findings, insights, and recommendations into a detailed audit report.
- Audit Presentation: We present the audit report to you, highlighting key insights and recommendations.
Convenient and secure collaboration.
While most of the audit can be conducted remotely, some aspects may require on-site presence. We request access to a designated contact who can assist with information sharing and scheduling. Rest assured, we uphold strict confidentiality, securely storing your business information in a data room on our client portal. For extra assurance, we enter into a mutual confidentiality agreement before the engagement begins.
Audit Deliverables.
Upon completion of the External Marketing Audit data gathering process, we provide:
- Detailed Audit Report: A comprehensive report highlighting key findings, insights, and tailored recommendations for your external marketing strategy.
- Actionable Strategies: Recommendations to optimise your marketing efforts, improve brand perception, and seize growth opportunities.
- Prioritised Action Plan: A step-by-step plan outlining the actions needed to enhance your external marketing capabilities and achieve sustainable success.
Our Pricing - Simple, Transparent, and Affordable.
Our pricing approach is structured around a standard daily rate, which increases as your business scales. Our philosophy recognises that smaller, early-stage companies often have less complex marketing requirements and limited budgets compared to larger, established enterprises. We use the UK government’s definition of ‘SME’ to distinguish company size.
Our fixed pricing is:
Small Businesses
Less than 50 employees; annual turnover under £8.5m or €10m:
£5,000 +VAT (UK) or €5,850 / $6,500 (outside UK).
Medium-Sized Businesses
Less than 250 employees; annual turnover under £43m or €50m:
£10,000 +VAT (UK) or €11,700 / $13,000 (outside UK).
Large Enterprises
Over 250 employees; annual turnover exceeding £43m or €50m:
£15,000 +VAT (UK) or €17,550 / $19,500 (outside UK).
FAQ’s
Yes. Our Fractional Marketing Executives have been carefully selected for their exceptional breadth of multi-sector experience, credentials from leading marketing organisations or unrivalled expertise within specific verticals. We leave no stone unturned in assembling a team of experts that possess a diverse range of skills, knowledge and diversity, enabling us to deliver unparalleled value across multiple industries.
As we continue to expand and evolve, our strength in depth will also grow. With each addition to our roster of top-tier marketing experts, we further enhance our capacity to cater to your unique needs and unlock opportunities for growth.
To maintain confidentiality, we utilise a Mutual Confidentiality Agreement drafted by a national law firm. This agreement is signed by your organisation, VCMO Limited, and the Fractional CMO. Electronic information exchange is securely managed through our client portal or your preferred data sharing platform. If we need to share information with our delivery partners as part of the audit process, we only do this with your written consent.
Unlike many professional service providers, we prioritise transparency, flexibility and affordability. We aim to ensure you know the cost of our services and the outstanding value you'll receive before reaching out to us. Our pricing approach is structured around a standard daily rate, which increases as your business scales. Our philosophy recognises that smaller, early-stage companies often have simpler marketing requirements and limited budgets compared to larger, established enterprises. Our pricing starts from £750 plus VAT per day.
The duration of the audit process varies depending on the unique characteristics of each business. Typically, a comprehensive audit takes between 5 to 10 working days, spread over several weeks. This allows for information sharing, stakeholder interviews, research, and report preparation. The timeline is tailored to accommodate your workflow and scheduling processes.
If we have a marketing executive ready, we can start working in your business within just a few days. How soon we begin mostly depends on how quickly you're able to meet and share information with us. If you're open to having a virtual CMO for remote assistance, we can get going even faster than if you need someone on-site.
The onboarding process begins with an initial discovery call to understand your specific marketing challenges. Based on this information, we identify a suitable Fractional CMO to support your audit. You have the opportunity to interview the recommended Fractional CMO for capability and cultural fit. Once you've decided on a CMO, we provide the necessary agreements and documentation to formalise the engagement.
Strategic marketing knows no bounds. We are equipped to assist organisations of all sizes, across various industries and regions, and at any stage of the business journey. The most impactful collaborations arise with clients who acknowledge their marketing challenges, harbour a steadfast drive for growth, and cultivate an environment conducive to change. Typically, our smallest clients boast a minimum turnover of £2m / €2m / $2m, indicating their readiness to invest confidently in our services.
No, our audits are offered at a fixed fee. Our aim is to conduct an in-depth marketing audit efficiently while minimising disruption to your business. However, if the scope of the audit significantly changes from the agreed terms, we will discuss and adjust the engagement accordingly.
Yes. Any travel costs incurred by our Fractional Marketing Executives supporting your business will be itemised on our invoices, and receipts will be provided. For any agreed on-site work, travel and subsistence expenses will be claimed commensurate with your travel policy. This will be agreed with you before any travel commitment is made by your Fractional Executive.
If your business requires an external marketing audit, simply get in touch.
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