Are you a Downloader, Arithmophobic or Martyr? Find out how your type is holding your marketing back – and how you can take a shortcut to get great results from your content.

What do flossing your teeth, limiting screen time, and filing your taxes have in common?

They are all things we know we need to do – and that we’ll feel good about having done afterwards – but that we’d rather postpone until all eternity. 

There’s one addition many entrepreneurs could include on that list: auditing their communications and marketing. 

While the majority of us like to postpone and avoid auditing, not all Audit-Avoiders are the same! Throughout my years as a communications consultant and content expert for small and mighty brands, I’ve recognised (at least) five different ways to avoid boring-but-necessary tasks.

Which among these five are you?

Check the types below, find what’s really holding you back from benefiting from an audit and discover my patented quick fix tailored to your type!

(Psst! If you’re not sure what a Digital Presence Audit is and why it’s needed in the first place, start with this recap.)

Frugalist: “Marketing Audit Is A Waste Of Time”

Frugalists are productive people. They want to spend as many hours in a day as possible serving their clients and checking important items off their to-do lists. Evaluation and auditing don’t feel like a good use of their time.

Silently, they may even be thinking that auditing their marketing and communications won’t make any difference to their results, at least in the short term.

However, having an outdated message can slowly erode your audience growth, broken links can lead to more and more clients falling through the cracks of your sales funnel, and working on content types that no longer perform on your platforms amounts to lost time and effort over months and years. 

Quick Fix: Focus On One Aspect At A Time

When auditing feels like a luxury you don’t have time for, it can be a sign that your auditing routine lacks focus. Copy my 10-Step Digital Presence Audit Framework, and focus on one, clearly defined aspect at a time. 

For example, you can choose to focus on the branding across channels (Questions 1-4), on the buyer journey (Questions 8 & 9) or on content (Questions 5-7).

Arithmophobic: “Yikes, Keep The Numbers Off Me!”

Another common – but often hiding – avoider group are Arithmophobics. Arithmophobics are afraid of numbers and try to steer away from dealing with any kind of data as much as possible. 

Do any of these statements and questions sound familiar?

• Content creation and marketing are fun but I am not very interested in numbers. 
• Ugh, how do I even set up the analytics?
• Content performance tracking… Can we change the subject?

The ugly truth, however, is that you can only improve what you measure. That is why auditing your communication numbers at least once or twice a year is important. It will tell you where to focus and what to improve on to reach your business goals. 

Quick Fix: Track Three Figures

If numbers freak you out, focus on three key figures for each channel. On social media, keep an eye on the audience size, reach and engagement rate or click-through rate. On the website, the number of visitors, unique visits and traffic sources are interesting ones to track.

Avoider: “What I Don’t Know Won’t Ruin My Good Night’s Sleep”

“Audit? Uh-oh, who knows what it might reveal!”

If this is the first thought that pops up when you hear the word “Audit”, you’re most likely an Avoider. Avoiders prefer closing their eyes on things that need preparation – out of sight, out of mind!

But that’s the whole point of an audit: to drag the potential problems out in broad daylight and deal with them. It’s better you find out about them now and fix them, instead of your followers noticing, right?

Quick Fix: Set Up A Game Plan

What avoiders need is a clear game plan on which improvements to work on and when. Step 10 of the Digital Presence Audit guide is the most crucial to them: prioritise the changes to be made and create a realistic schedule to execute them. Only focus on one or two points to correct at a time.

Martyr: “I’m The Only One In My Team Who Cares About This”

This is a tough one! If you’re working with a team and other members don’t appreciate the process, why should you fight the windmills?

It can be helpful to determine your colleagues’ and other stakeholders’ Audit Avoider type and use some of the strategies listed above to work around them. Also, keep in mind that auditing is all about progress, no matter how slow, and there are usually at least some things that you can impact, even when working with a team with different priorities. 

Quick Fix: Start With What You Can impact

Look into the audit in small parts and figure out which ones you can impact the most on your own. Work on a detailed game plan, and when you have results about the benefits of an audit, use them to educate your team members, too. Step by step, engage the other team members to audit some small parts themselves, so that it becomes a shared project. 

Downloader: “I Have All The Templates But I Never Use Them”

Oh yes, I know this type (It takes one to know one, right?) You love learning, and absorb new information like a sponge. That’s why you’ve subscribed to 369 different email lists and have ten gigabytes worth of downloadable guides stored on your Drive.

However, implementing that advice is another story… 

Quick Fix: Have Me Audit Your Comms for You

If you’re a chronic “Free Resource Downloader” who struggles to implement what she’s learned, my quick fix is the quickest one of all: invest in tailored support. 

I’ve designed my 1:1 Digital Presence Audits to support people who know all the things and yet want a small nudge to implement those learnings to their business, to reach more of the right people and turn their followers into loyal clients. 

You can choose between a Quick Audit and a VIP Audit based on your needs, and together we’ll determine which are the most powerful steps to take!