Blog: When did you last check your company’s digital health?

Regular Digital Health Checks are essential for every business. Whether you’ve recently completed a brand refresh, a website update or launched a new content strategy, routine audits are critical now-a-days for good business operation and outcomes. A digital temperature scan is especially crucial if you know your content is no longer communicating your brand accurately or resonating with the right audience. 

A Digital Health Check includes evaluating the performance of all your digital channels, including website, social media channels and other digital marketing assets such as e-newsletters or paid digital activities.

The most important step is to identify your key stakeholders and clearly define your communication goals. This helps to develop a critical checklist to evaluate each channel and the content within it, to either confirm positive alignment or identify gaps and opportunities for improvement. 

By pinpointing underperforming channels, adjustments can be made to both content and marketing tactics to help achieve your objectives. This may be greater market reach, improved website traffic, increased content engagement, or more conversions. 

Regular audits are crucial because channels and format opportunities are constantly changing, new targeting or bidding strategies become available (and old ones removed), audience demographics shift between channels as channels evolve and businesses update their goals and requirements as they grow. We recommend conducting audits quarterly, or at a minimum, every 12 months so you can make informed, data-driven decisions that keep your digital presence performing at its best. 

Some of the key points to consider as part of an audit and recommendations process include:

Who are you trying to engage?
To be effective, your digital presence needs to speak directly to your target audience. This involves knowing their demographics, habits, needs and understanding how they look for products and services in the digital environment and what features are most important to them. This is key to not only understanding what you need to communicate, but to select the best digital platforms within which to invest your time and marketing efforts. 

How is your website performing?
Websites have evolved significantly from simple, one-page static displays of information. Today, they are dynamic, multi-layered platforms designed to engage users and provide interactive experiences. Key elements to audit include content and key messages, navigation structure and user journey, site speed, SEO and responsiveness across various devices and browsers. 

Are you using tracking?
To assess your activity and better understand the impact each digital channel has relative to your objectives, it is important to have the right tracking in place. This can include:
•    ensuring Google Analytics (GA4) (or your chosen analytics platform) is linked to your website and correctly configured,
•    using tracking links in your digital activity—such as social media posts, paid advertising, and EDMs—to monitor which content is driving traffic to your website and performing well, and
•    installing tracking pixels from your social media platforms to gain insights into your social media channels’ audiences.

Without tracking, it becomes difficult to measure effectiveness and optimise your marketing activity. 

Do you have a social media content plan?
Understanding what is working on your social media channels can be challenging, which is why having a strategic plan for your content is important. Does your content build awareness about your offering, demonstrate thought leadership, engage with your audience or drive traffic? Measuring your content against the most appropriate social media metrics will allow you to start making decisions around what content you should focus on to achieve your goals. 

Working from a content planning template will help keep you accountable in your content creation, as well as make it easier for you to measure your results. 

Are you holding yourself accountable?
Establishing reporting is another important step in the auditing process. Now that you’ve defined your audience, goals and channels and identified some new opportunities for your content, you need to monitor your performance regularly so you know when a new audit is needed. For your website, this can include identifying the digital channels that are driving traffic growth and achieving goals. For social media, this can include what content categories and formats are driving awareness, engagement or website traffic.

Reporting can be simple (like updating a key metrics table monthly) or more sophisticated, such as using digital reporting platforms that synchronise your social media platforms and website data in one place. Regularly reviewing this data allows you to flag any potential issues and remain responsive to changes. 

If you're unsure about how to approach any of these areas, consider re-evaluating the skillsets or training requirements of your internal resources or partnering with external experts to fill the gaps. 

Our approach to every project is as unique as our client’s needs and is scaled to suit both requirement and budget. So, whether you are after a simple Digital Health Check, or a full scale examination, including strategy creation and execution, know that we can support you. 

Belinda Hamlyn and Kelly Castiglione

Hughes | Digital team