The concept of auditing comes from the world of finance and accounting, but it can be extrapolated to as many areas as you can imagine: Marketing, business, quality, human resources, etc. Ultimately, it is a objective analysis through which reality is analyzed to identify problems, evaluate them and solve them. Therefore, this type of activity can only be carried out by a true expert on the subject who can practically and realistically assess the situation.
RAE definition: Standardized professional technique for the review, verification and evaluation of accounting documents and control and management procedures whose results are collected in writing in a report and contain an opinion on the audited information, issued with a statistically measurable degree of certainty.
How to perform an audit?
Depending on the area where it is carried out, the applicable regulations and the type of client, the audit can be carried out with different methodologies and forms. However, the steps to follow in broad strokes are usually:
- Planning
- Research and documentation
- Results report
- Solution planning and problem prioritization
- Implementation of solutions
- Periodic progress reports
What types of audits exist and how to implement them?
There are certain areas, such as auditing accounts, where the procedure and regulations are 100% regulated and it is necessary to follow the established guidelines. However, in other areas, such as marketing, we are free to create our own systems. Here are some options:
- Mini – audit: Analysis prior to offering a service to adjust it to the needs of a client. For example: If you have a decoration and renovation business, you can do a pre-analysis of the space and propose a solution to your client tailored to what they need.
- periodic audit: Propose an analysis and monitoring of certain elements and their evolution with a certain periodicity. For example: A personal trainer takes into account the physical state of his client from the beginning and analyzes his progress and adapts the training to what works best for him to meet his goals.
- Audit problem/solution: It is a direct analysis of elements where exactly the problems exist and the best solution to put an end to them.
- Complete audit of variables: This would be the most complex service where all the elements interrelated with the area would be analyzed in depth, the problems would be seen from different points of view, these problems would be prioritized based on the objective, and different possible solutions would be proposed to them in order to finally be able to take the best solutions in the implementation strategically.
For example, in the following video you can see how to perform an Instagram audit:
How to design your own audit methodology?
As we saw in previous points, the method for carrying out an audit depends to a large extent on what your specialty is. And if what you are looking for is to differentiate yourself as an auditor, I recommend that you build your own custom method based on the type of clients you have. Some considerations to keep in mind are:
- Always keep in mind what is the customer goal. That is the main thing. Do not set new objectives with which the client does not feel identified because he will not be motivated to achieve them. For example: Get more customers without losing business ethics
- Determine which are the variables of your field of experience that you want to analyze. For example: Social networks (new, current presence, design, copy, positioning, engagement, etc.)
- Analyze each of the variables separately, but also together and interrelated. For example: Should we start having a presence on TikTok or would it be better to reinforce Instagram?
- consider others internal factors that affect those variables. For example: Is content creation outsourced or does it have an internal Community Manager?
- It has the real resources what the client has (time, money, tools, personnel, knowledge…) and if you need more to achieve the objective, reason it properly. For example: We can’t start with TikTok because we don’t have the necessary time or knowledge in our internal staff, but if we outsource this service to an expert, we can increase sales by 30% thanks to our presence in this network full of millennials and centennials.
- Relativize the problems and put them in order of priority with respect to the main objective. For example: Improve the att. the customer will be a priority for a customer who wants to take care of the after-sales service to achieve recurring sales, to invest time in getting new customers.
- The final decision is up to the client. You are the expert, and you must advise him and show him the different options to solve the problems, but the client is the one who has the last word. Your criteria will depend on what the client really wants. For example: If you believe that the best solution to achieve more sales is to create an online sales funnel but the client prefers to opt for physical sales in small businesses, which is another solution that you have proposed, and although less effective, it aligns better with business style.
- constantly learn. Do not think that by being an expert you know everything. In each project you will learn something new, and for that you need to make mistakes and assume the mistakes. Don’t be afraid of them. For example: If one of your strategies is not working, it is better to assume it on time and change direction, than to continue investing resources in something that does not work.
- Think very well steps you are going to followthe deliverables that you are going to send and create templates for the entire process in order not to waste time and increase your productivity by duplicating items from one audit to another. For example: Always have a base template for the deliverables and an Excel analysis of all the variables.
You can see real examples of all this that I am telling you in: