The Marketing Audit Checklist to help set you up for 2025 success.

“I don’t need to audit my marketing. My efforts are too small at the moment to think too much about it.”

Uh…here’s the thing: whether you’re a seasoned marketer or just starting off, you still need to audit.

This year, I took 14 flights. Let me tell you—each one taught me something I wish I’d learned earlier:

• Neck pillows are a not waste of your baggage on long-haul flights because I’m much better rested after.
• Get up every hour – or you might faint (this happened to me in March when I fainted on my flight to Bali). 
• Carry everything you might need for an accidental extended layover (but not EVERYTHING).

Here’s the thing though – if the 2023-version of me read this, I would’ve have thought different. 

I thought neck pillows were unnecessary carry-on luggage, wondered which idiot could faint on a flight to a fun destination, and that flight cancellations could happen to anyone but me. Yeah, found out very quickly that the last point would happen twice last year.

These are lessons I had to learn the hard way. But the beauty of marketing is, you don’t have to! A good audit can help you skip the painful trial-and-error and dive straight into what works.

Thankfully, we don’t need such harsh lessons in marketing.

As we’re a few weeks into 2025, it’s the perfect time to evaluate your marketing efforts.

Just like traveling more can teach us about traveling smarter and being prepared for the unexpected, marketing lessons can help us refine what works and eliminate what doesn’t.

I mean, come on – we’re one person – so there’s only so much we can do in terms of marketing our small business. However, we can analyze what’s working and what’s not. Just in time to plan for your 2025 marketing. 

If you’re ready to create a marketing plan that aligns with your goals, this simple audit will guide you through the process.

Step 1: Collect this key data:

Start by gathering critical information about your current marketing efforts. You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Here’s what to track:

1. Your platforms:
   List all the marketing platforms you’ve been active on for at least six weeks. Examples might include LinkedIn, Instagram, newsletters, or blogs.
2. Lead Generation:
   How many active leads came directly to this platform?
3. Time Investment:
   Figure out how many hours you’re spending weekly creating, uploading, and managing content for each platform. Toggle is my favorite app for this.

Step 2: Analyze your findings.

Once you’ve gathered the data, ask yourself these three questions for each platform:

1. Do You Enjoy It?
   Have you enjoyed the process of creating, uploading and being present on the platform? A better question might be – is it something you look forward to?
2. Is It Sustainable?
   Can you continue this same output for at least 2 more years and enjoy it? Even if you don’t gain an additional follower?
3. Can You Streamline It?
   In what ways, can you reduce the hours spent on each platform? Are there tools, templates, or parts of the process you can outsource to reduce the time you spend while maintaining quality?

Step 3: Take Action

If you’re not happy with some of these findings, you’ll likely need to make some adjustments. Here’s how to act on your findings:

• Eliminate: Drop platforms that don’t spark joy or provide results.
• Delegate: Outsource repetitive tasks to free up your time.
• Experiment: Test new platforms or strategies if your current ones feel stale.

Here’s my own Marketing Audit in Action

Let me show you how I recently audited my own marketing strategy. Here’s what I discovered:

• LinkedIn:
  Analysis: It’s brought in 6x more discovery calls than I in 2023, but a lot of these opportunities stem from relationships I’ve built, rather than weekly content creation.
  Decision: I’m scaling back hours spent posting and engaging.
• Instagram:
  Analysis: Despite fewer than 100 followers, it has already generated two projects. I also realized that this is the platform that truly allows me to interact with people who fit my ideal clients.
  Decision: I’ll increase my presence but focus on tasks like networking instead of creating time-consuming content.
• SEO Blogs:
  Analysis: Upon studying my website analytics, I realized I’m getting a decent share of organic visitors coming in from Google and Pinterest.
  Decision: A callback to my previous career , I’m going old school and writing more blogs in 2025.
• Newsletters:
  Analysis: I haven’t missed a week since I first published my newsletter in June 2025 and honestly, it’s my favorite marketing platform that I committed to in 2024.
  Decision: Even jet-lagged or busy, it’s a creative outlet I’m committed to. I’ll actually be dedicating more hours to this platform, to bring in more subscribers.

The Bottom Line: Adjust for 2025 Success

A marketing audit isn’t about tearing everything down; it’s about refining your efforts. By analyzing your platforms, lead generation, and time investment, you can make strategic changes that align with your business goals.

What’s one thing you’ll change about your marketing in 2025? Let me know in the comments—or drop me a message on Instagram!

If rewriting your website copy is part of your 2025 plans, join my waitlist to reserve your spot.

This blog post originally began as a newsletter I sent to my subscribers in November, designed to help them plan their marketing for the new year.

If actionable tips about website copy and small business marketing sound right up your alley, subscribe here to never miss another Wednesday email.