The power of the internal audit

"To want something, you need to know it exists." This quote from the Internal Auditor blog sums up why internal audits are an important part of a business marketing strategy.

According to The Washington Post, if CEOs want their team to understand their company's strategic business goals, it's important to determine what disconnect (if any) exists between them and lower-level workers. In general, marketing teams tend to interpret business goals differently than CEOs do, and performing an internal audit may clear up some of these discrepancies.

Internal audits are also important for determining what everyone on a company's marketing team thinks about its brand, goals, target audience and selling points.

Audits should be performed individually, with each team member sitting down with a third party for an in-depth interview. This way, CEOs can avoid the hubris of thinking "I already know what my staff and customers think," because, as the news source states, this is generally followed by "anecdotal" information that can't actually be considered research.

Once the internal audit is complete, then it's time to think about speaking with current customers, potential customers and lost customers about their thoughts and feelings.