Content audit tips – making your marketing content work harder

21 hours ago

8 min read

Customers don't need your content, they need your help.

Whether you're developing a new marketing strategy, updating your website or reviewing your existing marketing activities, understanding the content you already have is an important starting point.

Over time, organisations can accumulate a considerable amount of marketing material, from website pages and product literature to technical resources, videos, webinars and sales presentations. But how much of that content is still relevant, effective or aligned with your commercial objectives?

A content audit provides a structured approach to reviewing your existing materials, evaluating their effectiveness and identifying opportunities for improvement.

More than simply an exercise in removing outdated content, it can help you identify gaps, improve consistency, make better use of existing resources and develop a more focused content marketing plan.

Why conduct a content audit?

A content audit is a systematic review of your existing marketing materials to assess their relevance, quality, performance and contribution to your marketing objectives.

It can help you:

Identify content that is performing well and engaging your target audiences.
Highlight outdated, inaccurate or redundant materials.
Review the consistency of your messaging and brand positioning.
Identify gaps in your content across different customer groups and stages of the purchasing journey.
Improve content discoverability and search engine performance.
Identify opportunities to update, consolidate or repurpose existing materials.
Prioritise future content development and marketing investment.

Importantly, a content audit should consider more than just your website.

While digital content provides access to valuable performance analytics, printed materials, sales presentations, exhibition literature and resources supplied to distributors or channel partners can be equally important.

This is particularly relevant in scientific markets, where technical brochures, application notes, white papers and product documentation often play an important role in supporting customer decisions.

There isn't a one-size-fits-all approach. The scope and depth of your audit should reflect your marketing objectives, available resources and the needs of your customers.

Five essential steps to auditing your content

1. Define your objectives and scope

Before starting your audit, establish what you want to achieve.

Are you looking to improve website performance, review the consistency of your messaging, identify outdated technical content or understand where your content marketing strategy may have gaps?

Perhaps you're planning a website redevelopment, launching a new product range or reviewing your marketing activities as part of a broader strategic exercise.

Clearly defining your objectives will help determine which content to include, what information to collect and how you evaluate the results.

You'll also need to establish the scope of the audit. A comprehensive review of every marketing asset may be appropriate, but for organisations with extensive content libraries, a more focused approach may be practical.

Consider who should be involved in the process. Marketing teams can coordinate the audit, but input from sales, product management, technical support and other customer-facing functions can provide valuable perspectives.

An independent review can also be useful, helping challenge internal assumptions and bringing a fresh perspective to the effectiveness of your existing materials.

2. Identify and catalogue your content

The next step is to establish what content you already have.

This may sound straightforward, but many organisations don't maintain a complete inventory of their marketing assets. Materials may be distributed across websites, shared drives, marketing platforms, sales teams and external partners.

Depending on the scope of your audit, consider including:

Website pages and landing pages
Blogs, articles and thought leadership
Product brochures and technical literature
White papers, eBooks and application notes
Case studies and customer testimonials
Videos, webinars and podcasts
Email campaigns and marketing automation content
Social media materials
Sales presentations and product demonstrations
Exhibition materials and printed collateral
Distributor and channel partner resources

A spreadsheet is often sufficient for building an initial content inventory, although larger organisations may benefit from dedicated content management or digital asset management systems.

For website content, tools such as Screaming Frog can help identify pages, metadata and other technical information.

The objective at this stage is to establish a clear picture of the content available, where it is located and how it is being used.

You may be surprised by just how much material you've accumulated.

3. Capture the right information

Once you've identified your content, you'll need to decide what information to record against each asset.

The level of detail should reflect your objectives, but it's important to capture enough information to support meaningful analysis.

Typical content inventory fields might include:

Content title and description
Asset type and format
Location, URL or file reference
Product, service or application area
Target audience or marketing persona
Relevant stage of the marketing funnel
Key messaging and intended objective
Date created or last updated
Content owner or responsible team
Available performance data
Technical review or approval status

Assigning a unique reference number to each asset can also help with version control, future updates and ongoing content management.

Where performance analytics are available, make sure you capture the relevant reporting period so that comparisons are meaningful.

It's also worth considering how each piece of content relates to your wider marketing strategy.

For example, does it address the needs of a particular marketing persona? Does it support awareness, consideration or purchasing decisions within your marketing funnel?

Above all, ask a simple question:

How does this content help my customers solve a problem, answer a question or make a decision?

4. Evaluate content quality and performance

With your inventory established, you can begin evaluating the effectiveness of individual assets.

It's useful to develop a consistent scoring or grading system, allowing you to compare content against agreed criteria.

However, don't rely exclusively on website traffic, downloads or social media engagement.

A highly specialised technical white paper may attract relatively few visitors but still play an important role in supporting a valuable commercial opportunity.

Consider evaluating content against five key criteria.

Relevance

Does the content address the needs, challenges and interests of its intended audience? Is it still relevant to your products, services and target markets?

Accuracy

Is the information current, technically correct and appropriately supported?

For scientific organisations, this is particularly important. Application data, product specifications, regulatory references and scientific claims may require periodic review to ensure they remain valid.

Performance

Is the content achieving its intended objective?

Depending on the asset, this might include generating website traffic, encouraging enquiries, supporting customer engagement or helping sales teams progress opportunities.

Consistency

Does the content reflect your current brand positioning, value proposition, messaging and visual identity?

Older materials may contain outdated terminology, inconsistent claims or references to products and services that have changed.

Discoverability

Can customers easily find and access the information?

For digital content, this includes reviewing search engine optimisation (SEO), internal linking, page structure, metadata and accessibility.

It's also worth considering how content is discovered through AI-assisted search and research tools. Clear headings, well-structured information, accurate terminology and credible supporting evidence can make content easier to understand and use across different discovery channels. While there is no guaranteed approach to securing visibility in AI-generated answers, useful, authoritative and accessible content provides a sound foundation.

5. Identify gaps and prioritise actions

Once you've evaluated your content, the next step is to look at the bigger picture.

What does your content portfolio tell you about your marketing activities?

You may discover that you have extensive product literature but relatively little educational content introducing potential customers to your technologies.

Alternatively, you might have plenty of awareness-generating content but limited application data, case studies or evaluation resources to support purchasing decisions.

Mapping content against your target audiences and marketing funnel stages can help reveal these gaps.

It's also worth reviewing which topics and formats perform well, whether successful content shares common characteristics and where customer needs may not be adequately addressed.

Don't conduct this analysis in isolation. Sales teams, technical specialists and customer-facing colleagues can help identify missing information, frequently asked questions and opportunities for improvement.

Once you've drawn your conclusions, assign an appropriate action to each asset.

Action	What it means
Keep	Retain relevant, accurate content that continues to serve its purpose.
Update	Refresh valuable content that requires revisions to its messaging, technical information or presentation.
Repurpose	Adapt existing content into new formats or for different audiences and channels.
Consolidate	Combine overlapping or repetitive materials into a stronger resource.
Remove	Retire content that is obsolete, redundant or no longer appropriate.
Create	Develop new content to address identified gaps in your marketing activities.

Before deleting underperforming content, consider why it hasn't delivered the expected results.

Was it poorly promoted? Did it reach the wrong audience? Does it need updating, or could it be more effective in a different format?

For website content, removing or consolidating pages should also take account of existing search traffic, backlinks and the need for appropriate redirects.

The outcome of your audit should be a prioritised action plan, identifying what needs to change, who is responsible and when the work should be completed.

Making the most of your existing content

One of the most valuable outcomes of a content audit is identifying opportunities to make better use of materials you've already developed.

Creating high-quality content takes time and resources, particularly when it involves technical expertise, scientific research or specialist applications.

Rather than continually starting from scratch, consider how existing content could be updated, adapted or repurposed to reach different audiences.

An approach sometimes referred to as content atomisation involves breaking a substantial piece of content into smaller, standalone assets that can be used across multiple channels.

For example, a technical white paper could provide the foundation for:

A series of educational blog posts
Short social media articles or infographics
An application-focused webinar
A targeted email campaign
Sales enablement materials
A collection of frequently asked questions

Similarly, an existing webinar might be repurposed into short video clips, written articles or supporting technical resources.

This approach can help extend the useful life of your content, reinforce key messages and engage audiences who prefer different formats.

However, repurposing should involve more than simply reproducing the same information in another format. Each asset should be adapted to suit its intended audience, communication channel and marketing objective.

Keeping your content audit up to date

A content audit shouldn't be viewed solely as a one-off exercise.

Markets evolve, customer requirements change and new products, technologies and applications emerge. Content that was relevant and effective two years ago may no longer reflect your current offering or customer needs.

For organisations with extensive technical content libraries, maintaining accurate and consistent information can be particularly challenging.

Establishing a regular review process can help prevent content from becoming outdated and reduce the scale of future audits.

The frequency of review will depend on the type of content and how quickly the underlying information changes.

For example, product specifications, regulatory information and technical claims may require more frequent attention than broader educational or thought leadership content.

Significant changes to your product portfolio, brand positioning, marketing strategy or website can also provide a useful opportunity to reassess your existing materials.

By maintaining a content inventory and assigning clear ownership, organisations can make content management a more consistent part of their marketing activities.

Turning your content audit into a marketing plan

A content audit is about more than identifying outdated materials or improving individual pieces of content.

It provides an opportunity to evaluate how effectively your existing content supports customer needs and contributes to your wider marketing objectives.

By understanding what you have, what's working and where opportunities exist, you can make more informed decisions about future content development, resource allocation and marketing investment.

Importantly, it can also help ensure that your content is connected to a coherent marketing strategy, rather than developed as a series of isolated activities.

At Polymorphic Marketing, we combine strategic marketing expertise with first-hand knowledge of scientific markets to help organisations review their marketing activities, identify opportunities for improvement and develop effective content strategies.

Whether you're planning a website redevelopment, reviewing your existing content or looking to align your marketing materials more closely with your commercial objectives, get in touch to explore how we can help.