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The thinking before the building, written down as a document you can act on with or without me.
Why this is a separate service
A lot of money gets spent building the wrong thing beautifully. A new website when the problem was the offer. A logo when the problem was that nobody knows the business exists. More content when the existing content was never the reason nobody bought.
An audit is the cheap way to find out which problem you actually have. It costs a fraction of the build, and the worst case is that it confirms your plan and you proceed with more confidence.
What you can commission
- Website or store auditA written document listing what is costing you enquiries or sales, in priority order, with the reason for each and what to do about it. Covers structure, copy, mobile experience, speed and the path a visitor takes.
- Product page auditThe single page where an ecommerce business makes or loses its money, examined line by line against what the buyer is actually hesitating about.
- Brand strategyWho the business is for, what it stands for next to the alternatives, and how it should sound. Before a logo, not after.
- Content strategyWhat to publish, where, how often, and why each piece exists. Written as a plan somebody can execute, including somebody who is not me.
- Competitor and market researchWhat the businesses you are competing with are actually doing, what they are claiming, and where the gap is.
- Creative directionDirection for a campaign or a launch, for businesses with people who can execute but nobody deciding what should be made.
How I work
From primary sources wherever they exist. Platform documentation, published research, regulatory and policy filings, and the actual numbers in your own accounts. Not from marketing blogs summarising each other.
A worked example of that habit is on this site. The product page for the CV system originally used the widely repeated claim that most CVs are rejected by software before a person sees them. That figure traces back to a sales pitch by a company that no longer exists. It was removed and replaced with what the documentation actually supports, even though the false version sold better. That is the standard applied to client work too.
What you receive
- A written document, not a call you have to take notes in
- Findings in priority order, with the reasoning attached so you can disagree with it
- A clear separation between what is certain, what is likely and what is a guess
- Recommendations you can hand to somebody else to execute. There is no lock-in and no requirement to hire me for the fix
- A call to walk through it, if you want one
If the audit finds that your main problem is outside what I do, the document will say so. That happens, and telling you is worth more to both of us than inventing work that fits my skills.
What it costs
Priced per piece of work. An audit of a single product page and a full brand strategy for a business with several lines are very different jobs. What moves the price is the size of what is being examined, how much of your own data I am given access to, and whether you want the recommendations written to be executed by someone else.
How it starts
Tell me the decision you are trying to make. That is more useful than telling me which service you think you want, and it is usually a different answer.