Using SOSTAC® for digital marketing audits

Adapting PR Smith's SOSTAC® to review what's working, what's not and create a plan of improvement

I was recently asked if I use any frameworks or processes when auditing a web site (or any digital marketing activity). To be honest, I hadn’t given it much thought until now. On the whole, I just got on with it, so I couldn’t give an answer straight away.

Nonetheless, after considering it for a while, I realized that I was subconsciously utilizing a process that I had become familiar with over the past couple of years: PR Smith's SOSTAC® model.

Now, I’m going to presume that you know all about SOSTAC® (if you don’t, then simply check out this superb post that explains the SOSTAC® planning model) and will concentrate on how I adapt it for use as web auditing process.

I should point out that I have used SOSTAC® as a process for many tasks as I find its simplicity allows it to be used in a variety of situations. To date I have used it to organise meetings and events, as well as its intended use as “a generic framework for e-marketing planning”.

So, looking at the base planning model you’ll see it is split into six distinct stages:

• Situation analysis
• Objectives
• Strategy
• Tactics
• Actions
• Control

All I have done is to adapt the specifics of each stage to suit:

• Situation Analysis
  As for the base model, this stage is concerned with understanding the current situation. In the case of a web audit this may simply be recognising which digital marketing activity you are going to audit (web site, email campaign, etc) as well as who will be receiving your report and what they want to use the information for.Example: I have a web site that is eight months old, set up with six objectives based around a retention strategy. The site will be audited against these objectives and their related KPIs. The recipient of the final audit is an internal steering group who will use the information to develop a new strategic plan for the months ahead.
• Objectives
  This stage is where you formalise the final output of your audit. How will this be delivered to your recipients?Example: My web site audit will be delivered to the steering group as a face-to-face presentation as well as a written document.
• Strategy
  So now you know what you are doing, why you are doing it, who will be receiving your final report and how you will deliver it. Next you need to decide how you will perform your audit: where will your data come from? This depends on several factors, not least the digital marketing activity that you are auditing. It also depends on budget, resources and timescales as well as the measurement and monitoring services you are using.Example: Based on my site’s objectives, I will be using data from Google Analytics as well as internal data derived from plugins that are used on the site.
• Tactics
  As for the base model, this is simply working out the details of the strategy. Exactly what types of data are you collecting and analysing?Example: Again, I am basing this information on my site’s objectives, so I will be collecting Google Analytics data on unique visitors, time on site, percentage of return visits as well as percentage of logged in users (using an advanced segment that I set up). In addition to this I will be looking at the number of new registrations on the site and how many documents have been downloaded (both derived from internal data).
• Actions
  This stage is the same as the base model, in that here you decide who will be doing the auditing tasks and when they will be doing it.Example:This stage is easy for me. I am the only person performing this type of work, so it will be me! I have until the end of the month to complete this work; in between my other tasks and projects.
• Control
  This is slightly different from the standard SOSTAC® model, basically this is where you declare how you will know when the audit has been completed, based on your objectives.
  Example: I will have completed the audit once the written report has been delivered and I have presented the findings to the internal steering group.

So that's it! I should say that this is simply how I have adapted this model as it suits me, now that I have had time to reflect on the way I perform web audits. I hope you find it useful. It may not work for you in the same way, but it does show how flexible the SOSTAC® model can be.

Editor's note:

See this SOSTAC® example plan for Expert members available in Word for members to modify.