Strategic Marketing Audit
Clarity before commitment.
When marketing feels inconsistent, unclear or harder to steer than it should, the issue is rarely effort or execution.
More often, it’s misalignment.
The Strategic Marketing Audit is a focused, expert-led diagnostic designed to help leadership teams understand how their brand narrative, positioning, ICP focus and marketing structure are actually working together—and where misalignment is limiting impact.
Before you invest in new tactics, campaigns or hires, the audit provides a clear view of what’s working, what’s not and where focus will create the most leverage.
What This Audit Is (and Is Not)
This is not a surface-level critique of tactics.
The Strategic Marketing Audit is designed to surface the root causes behind:
- Inconsistent messaging
- Scattered marketing efforts
- Unclear positioning
- Stalled momentum
- Leadership uncertainty about what to fix first
Rather than evaluating channels in isolation, the audit looks across your ecosystem to assess whether your strategy, narrative and execution are aligned to your business goals.
The outcome is leadership-level clarity and a confident path forward.
What’s Included
Each audit is scoped based on your business context, leadership readiness and internal capacity. A typical audit includes:
Brand & Narrative Assessment
Evaluation of positioning, differentiation and message clarity across key touchpoints
ICP & Audience Signal Review
Assessment of how clearly your target audience is defined—and how effectively your messaging reflects their context and needs
Content & Channel Evaluation
Focused review of content and channels tied to your highest-impact touchpoints, typically two priority channels
Website & Core Messaging Review
Homepage and primary service or solution pages
Qualitative & Quantitative Scorecard
Clear strengths, gaps and risk areas, paired with strategic interpretation—not just scores
Executive Summary & Priority Recommendations
A leadership-ready readout outlining immediate priorities, key risks and recommended next steps
Who This Is For
The Strategic Marketing Audit is designed for organizations that:
- Have an established offering and active marketing motion
- Are past the scrappy startup phase but not fully scaled or navigating a moment of growth
- Are led by founders or senior leaders still close to strategic decisions
- Feel increasing complexity or inconsistency as they grow
- Want clarity before committing to deeper brand, GTM or advisory work
This includes growing services firms, consultancies and product-led organizations, as well as more complex or enterprise environments where misalignment can quietly undermine scale.
If you’re still validating your core offering or lack a basic marketing foundation, this audit may be premature. If you’re scaling and feeling friction, it’s often exactly the right intervention.
What Happens Next
The audit often clarifies the most effective next step, which may include:
- Brand Platform and Messaging development
- Marketing and GTM foundations
- Ongoing strategic advisory or fractional CMO support
In some cases, the audit confirms that you’re aligned and simply need to double down. In others, it reveals more systemic issues that need attention before additional investment.
Either way, you’re no longer guessing.
Optional Add-Ons
Available when relevant to your goals and stage:
- Sales motion and outreach review (CRM, founder-led sales, sequences)
- Marketing automation and workflow review
- Employer brand or careers experience audit
- Additional channel deep dives (email, events, video, etc.)
More comprehensive and enterprise-level audits are available for complex organizations, multi-unit teams or deeper system-wide assessment.
Timeline, Format and Investment
Timeline
Approximately two weeks from kickoff
Deliverables
- Executive slide deck
- Detailed audit scorecard
Review
Live walkthrough and prioritization discussion included
Ready to Get Clarity?
If you’re unsure where to start—or want an objective view before committing to larger initiatives—the Strategic Marketing Audit provides clarity without overcommitting.
What clients say when clarity becomes momentum
“For nearly two years, I had the pleasure of working alongside Kate to develop social strategies. Kate has an extraordinary knowledge of the ever-changing social and digital media landscape. She has an endless enthusiasm for taking on new projects and effortlessly provides guidance for clients across a variety of industries. She's an excellent communicator, and will be a great addition to any team!”
“Kate will be an instant asset for any company she joins. Her unique understanding of how the digital landscape and content play nicely together is second to none. Kate has the ability to jump into any conversation about digital strategy or tacos and feel at ease. I've enjoyed working with her in various roles and she creates and designs THE BEST presentations, regardless of the subject. As a team member or leader within an organization, Kate gets my highest recommendation. ”
“I had the pleasure of working with Kate for just over a year and watching her in action. Kate is an immensely talented digital marketer, account manager and processes guru who balances a keen eye for detail with an almost intuitive grasp of the big picture. Her deep wells of industry knowledge allow her to bring a depth of expertise and professionalism to almost any task she sets her mind to. During her time at IntraLink Global, she was instrumental in implementing many integral processes that set a framework for how we operate. I learned a lot from working with Kate, and her guidance and mentorship was invaluable in my professional development. ”
“Kate did and excellent job with our website. We have received several compliments on how nice it looks and how easy it is to navigate. She also went above and beyond to make sure that we were able to update and the website ourselves through Wordpress. I cannot gush about how awesome she is and how happy we are with the site and her dedication to the project.”
“I met Kate through the Association of Women Journalists (AWJ) and immediately was impressed (and inspired) by her creativity, drive, work ethic and use of social media. Her passion for journalism, digital media and communications overall is evident in the projects she takes on, including LoganSquarist, an online news outlet that she founded that uses social media to socialize the neighborhood. What I admire about Kate is her vitality as well as her desire to keep learning and growing personally and professionally. Kate is a modern-day renaissance woman who is multitalented (ask about her travel, knitting and marathon exploits!) and who brings instant value to any team or organization.”
“Kate is a wealth of knowledge who served as a tremendous mentor for all of our team members while constantly improving processes and workflows. She’s a tremendous project manager, pays great attention to detail, and is able to demand results from her team with respect. At LoganSquarist she has built and led a team of dozens of volunteer contributors committed to her vision of a community resource. I would happily work with Kate again anytime!”
“Kate is a natural leader and I can easily say the best boss I ever had. Kate hired me as the Director of Video Production at the agency Imagination where she was the VP of Digital. On top of Video Production, she also had reports from Audio, SEO, Analytics and Web Development divisions as well. She would consistently champion people she thought needed to be seen in leadership and client meetings where they sometimes might have been overlooked. Kate takes time to listen wisely and is always buzzing with ideas on how to make things more effective. Her energy is contagious and I’d work with her again any day.”
“One of the best things I've ever done in my career is work with Kate Hamilton. Her enthusiasm for all things editorial, not to mention her energy and passion for any project she's involved with, is contagious. In addition to being a natural born leader, she's also a creative type, a thinker, a stickler for details, and someone with incredible vision and the drive to get things done. I always marvel at how she is constantly teaching herself new things. She always seems to be ahead of the curve on anything related to social media, and she also has an eye for design. This lady rocks! And she continues to be a mentor to me and others in journalism and communications.”
“I worked with Kate during my time as a community manager at Lightspan Digital while Kate was my direct manager. Kate’s communication practices really taught me how to navigate the sometimes complicated agency world. As an account manger, Kate smoothly orchestrated 10+ accounts at one time as well as help me manage and prioritize tasks in my role. Kate was a role model during my first few years in the professional world and continues to be so to this day.”
“Kate has an incredible amount of drive when it comes to LoganSquarist. In the six months that I’ve been involved, I’ve watched the site grow from a pet project to a respected community publication. This success can be attributed to Kate’s technical and leadership skills. From building out the site to off-hours community management and a consistent flow of content, the site improves by leaps and bounds on a weekly basis. When it comes to team management, Kate delegates tasks in an organized and efficient manner, making her an all around great and inspiring person to work with.”
“Kate is a real professional and a pleasure to work with. She is a great communicator and always put her client's (my company) interest first. She is tremendously personal and had a great understanding of our business and how she could help it. She is great and is a tremendous asset to any company.”
“Kate was a wonderful consultant to work with on my business web site project. She had fresh ideas, laid out a detailed plan of work, stayed on time and budget and presented me with a product that looked great and more importantly, has been easy for me to manage on my own. Will definitely send more of my clients her way.”
“Kate has been a fantastic resource for all things digital, whether redesigning my website on Wordpress, fine tuning my social media profiles, or understanding Google Analytics. She's an excellent communicator, and I will absolutely hire her again in the future.”