How do you compare and benchmark your media results with your competitors and industry standards?

1 Why conduct a media audit?

A media audit can help you assess how well your media activities align with your communication objectives and key messages, evaluate the quality and quantity of your media coverage, measure the impact of your media efforts on target audiences, identify best practices and areas for improvement in your media planning and execution, benchmark your media performance against competitors and peers, and discover new opportunities and trends in the media environment. All of these goals can inform your future media actions.

2 How to prepare for a media audit?

Prior to beginning a media audit, it is necessary to define certain key parameters. These include the scope and timeframe of the audit, which should cover a period of 6 to 12 months, or whatever is most suitable for your needs and resources. Additionally, criteria and metrics should be determined, such as volume, sentiment, share of voice, message penetration, audience reach, engagement, influence, reputation and ROI. Lastly, sources and tools must be identified for collecting, organizing and analyzing media data. These could include media monitoring services, media databases, social media platforms, web analytics, surveys, interviews and reports. Furthermore, spreadsheets, charts, graphs, dashboards and software applications can all be used as tools.

3 How to conduct a media audit?

Once you have defined your parameters, you can begin your media audit by collecting and categorizing your media data from relevant sources and tools. Then, apply metrics and criteria to the data, looking for patterns, trends, gaps, and anomalies. Compare your media data with communication objectives and key messages, as well as with competitors and industry peers. Finally, summarize and visualize your media findings in a clear report or presentation. Highlight insights, conclusions, and recommendations from the audit, then share the report or presentation with stakeholders to receive feedback.

4 How to use your media audit results?

Your media audit results can be used to refine your communication objectives and key messages, adjust your media budget and allocation, enhance your media relations and outreach, optimize your media content and format, and expand your media channels and outlets. This can help you improve your media strategy and tactics in various ways. With the right analysis of the performance, feedback, ROI, impact, quality, influence, engagement, reach, opportunities, and trends of your media, you can make more informed decisions about how to best use the resources available to you.

5 How to conduct a media audit regularly?

A media audit should be conducted regularly in order to monitor and evaluate progress and performance. Conducting a media audit at different intervals, such as monthly to track short-term results, quarterly to measure medium-term outcomes, and yearly to review long-term goals, can help keep your media strategy updated, relevant, and effective.