How To Fix The Gaps In Your Marketing Strategy?

How to Identify and Fix Gaps in Your B2B Marketing Strategy

If you're a B2B marketing director staring at your HubSpot dashboard wondering why the numbers don't add up, you're not alone. At Whitehat (HubSpot Diamond Partner), we've audited 200+ UK B2B companies, and the same pattern emerges: significant gaps between marketing activity and measurable business outcomes.

The problem isn't usually lack of effort. Marketing teams work incredibly hard. The issue is working without a clear diagnostic framework—making it impossible to prove ROI to leadership or make confident investment decisions.

This guide shows you exactly how to run a data-driven marketing audit that identifies your specific gaps and creates an actionable improvement plan. You'll learn how to use HubSpot's analytics tools (including the 2025 Breeze AI features) to analyse performance, benchmark against industry standards, and build a strategic response.

Why Regular Marketing Audits Matter for B2B Companies

Dr. Dave Chaffey, co-founder of Smart Insights, emphasises that "regular marketing audits aren't optional—they're fundamental to understanding what's working and what's wasting budget." Yet many B2B companies treat audits as occasional exercises rather than systematic practice.

The data supports this importance. Research from McKinsey shows that data-driven marketing improvements typically deliver 15% average ROI improvement. Companies implementing marketing automation after identifying gaps see 77% higher conversion rates, according to Firework research.

For HubSpot users specifically, the potential is substantial. According to HubLead research, HubSpot Marketing Hub delivers 505% ROI over three years—but only when properly implemented and continuously optimised through regular performance reviews.

Common Marketing Gaps B2B Companies Face

Jennifer Ross, Principal Analyst at Forrester, notes that B2B marketing leaders consistently make four strategic mistakes: "They focus on too many priorities simultaneously, they don't align marketing strategy with sales reality, they underinvest in measurement infrastructure, and they fail to optimise the basics before chasing new tactics."

From our audit work at Whitehat, we consistently find these five gaps:

• Attribution blindness: Marketing can't connect activities to pipeline, leading to "direct/unknown" dominating HubSpot reports.
• Conversion rate underperformance: Website visitors arrive but don't convert at industry-standard rates.
• Traffic quality issues: High volumes of irrelevant traffic consuming resources without generating qualified leads.
• Automation underutilisation: HubSpot workflows sit unused while teams manually execute repeatable tasks.
• Disconnected sales-marketing systems: Lead handoff breakdowns causing leakage between marketing qualification and sales follow-up.

The good news? Each of these gaps is fixable once identified. Our HubSpot coaching service helps teams systematically address these issues using the exact frameworks detailed below.

Understanding Your Current Marketing Performance Baseline

Before identifying gaps, you need to establish your current performance baseline. This means gathering hard data across four critical dimensions: traffic acquisition, lead conversion, customer journey, and revenue attribution.

Traffic Analysis: Sources, Quality, and Trends

Navigate to HubSpot's Reports dashboard (Reports → Analytics Tools → Traffic Analytics) to examine your traffic patterns. The 2025 interface uses Breeze Intelligence to automatically highlight anomalies and trends, making initial analysis significantly faster than manual review.

Focus on these three metrics:

• Traffic source distribution: What percentage comes from organic search, paid advertising, direct traffic, referrals, and social media? Healthy B2B sites typically see 40-60% from organic search, with paid and direct making up most of the remainder.
• Traffic growth trajectory: Compare month-over-month and year-over-year patterns. Flat or declining organic traffic signals SEO issues requiring attention from professional SEO services.
• Quality indicators: Examine pages per session, average session duration, and bounce rate by traffic source. High bounce rates (>70%) from specific sources indicate targeting or messaging misalignment.

Rick LaFond at Gartner points out a critical gap many B2B companies miss: "We see organisations focus intently on LinkedIn because it's where B2B buyers congregate, but research shows they're underleveraging other social channels where buyers also spend significant time." Don't ignore traffic sources just because they're unconventional for B2B.

Conversion Rate Benchmarking by Industry

Understanding your conversion performance requires industry-specific context. Generic benchmarks mislead—what's excellent for one sector is mediocre for another.

According to First Page Sage's 2024 analysis of 1,200+ B2B websites, here are current conversion rate benchmarks:

Additional context from Unbounce's 2024 Conversion Benchmark Report: median B2B landing page conversion rates sit at 6.6%, with top-quartile performers achieving 12% or higher. If your conversion rates fall significantly below these benchmarks, you have a clear gap requiring attention.

To check your conversion rates in HubSpot, navigate to Reports → Analytics Tools → Sources Report, then examine your contacts-to-submissions ratio by traffic source and landing page. HubSpot's Breeze Copilot can now analyse these patterns conversationally—simply ask "What are my conversion rates by traffic source compared to last quarter?"

Lead Quality Assessment Beyond Volume Metrics

Conversion rate tells you quantity. Lead quality determines whether those conversions actually drive revenue. Kipp Bodnar, CMO at HubSpot, emphasises this gap: "We see significant friction between buyers and sellers. Marketing generates leads, sales complains about quality, and nobody has shared definitions of what 'good' actually means."

Assess lead quality through three lenses:

1. MQL-to-SQL conversion rate: What percentage of marketing-qualified leads progress to sales-qualified status? Healthy B2B companies see 30-50% conversion. Below 20% signals a lead quality or sales alignment problem.
2. Sales feedback loop: What are sales reps actually saying about lead quality? Systematic feedback collection through HubSpot's deal properties prevents anecdotal complaints from masking real patterns.
3. Lead source performance: Which traffic sources and content assets produce leads that close? HubSpot's Attribution Reports (Reports → Analytics Tools → Attribution) now support eight different attribution models, making source-to-revenue analysis straightforward.

If you're struggling with lead quality issues or sales-marketing alignment, Whitehat's inbound marketing services can help implement systematic qualification frameworks and automated lead scoring that improve handoff quality.

The RACE Framework for Systematic Gap Identification

Once you understand your baseline performance, you need a systematic framework for identifying gaps. The RACE framework (Reach, Act, Convert, Engage), developed by Smart Insights, provides exactly this structure.

RACE works because it maps directly to the customer journey while providing clear KPIs for each stage. This makes gap identification precise rather than intuitive guesswork.

Reach: Are You Attracting Your Target Audience?

Reach examines whether your marketing generates awareness among your ideal customer profile. The gap many B2B companies face isn't reaching people—it's reaching the right people.

Diagnostic questions for Reach:

• Does your traffic distribution align with where your buyers actually conduct research? (Check HubSpot's Sources Report against your persona research.)
• Are you visible for high-intent search terms your prospects use? (Use Google Search Console to identify impression share for target keywords.)
• Does your content rank in AI search results from ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews? (HubSpot's new AEO Grader, launched in 2025, assesses this automatically.)

Christina Inge, Senior Researcher at Harvard Business School, notes that "97% of marketing leaders now view AI proficiency as vital" according to the 2025 Sprout Social Index. This includes understanding how prospects use AI search to discover solutions—a fundamental shift in Reach strategy.

If you identify Reach gaps, consider strengthening your SEO foundations alongside modern AI search optimisation (AEO/GEO). The two work synergistically rather than in competition.

Act: Are Visitors Taking Meaningful Actions?

Act measures whether traffic engages with your content and takes initial conversion actions like downloading resources, subscribing to newsletters, or requesting information.

Key diagnostics for Act:

• What's your overall website conversion rate? (Compare against industry benchmarks from the table above.)
• Which landing pages and content assets drive the highest conversion rates? (Use HubSpot's Landing Pages performance report.)
• Do your calls-to-action generate sufficient clickthrough rates? (HubSpot's CTA performance analytics show impressions, clicks, and submissions.)

Common gaps at the Act stage include weak value propositions, unclear CTAs, poor mobile experience, and excessive form friction. HubSpot's Smart Content features (available in Professional tier and above) enable personalised experiences that typically improve Act stage conversion by 20-30%.

Convert: Do Leads Progress to Qualified Opportunities?

Convert examines the marketing-to-sales handoff and early sales process. This is where many B2B companies discover their largest gaps—leads accumulate in HubSpot without progressing to opportunities.

Diagnostic questions for Convert:

• What percentage of contacts become MQLs? What percentage of MQLs become SQLs?
• How long do leads sit between lifecycle stages? (Extended delays signal process gaps.)
• Do you have clear, agreed-upon definitions for lead qualification? (Sales-marketing misalignment often starts here.)
• Are automated nurture workflows converting cold leads to sales-ready status? (Check HubSpot's Workflow performance for email open rates and conversion metrics.)

If Convert gaps emerge—particularly around attribution or sales-marketing alignment—consider implementing structured frameworks through HubSpot onboarding services that establish shared definitions, automated scoring, and handoff protocols.

Engage: Are You Retaining and Growing Customer Value?

Engage focuses on customer retention, satisfaction, and expansion revenue. While often overlooked in marketing audits, Engage gaps significantly impact lifetime value and referral generation.

Key Engage diagnostics:

• Do existing customers re-engage with your content and offerings? (Track repeat website visits, email engagement, and customer portal usage.)
• Are you systematically collecting customer feedback and testimonials? (Use HubSpot's Service Hub survey tools or feedback forms.)
• Do you have marketing workflows supporting customer success, adoption, and expansion? (Check for post-sale automation sequences.)

B2B companies increasingly recognise that customer marketing drives more efficient growth than new acquisition. HubSpot's 2024 State of Marketing report found that companies with mature customer marketing programmes report 24% faster revenue growth.

Leveraging HubSpot's 2025 Breeze AI Features for Audit Efficiency

HubSpot's Breeze AI ecosystem, fully launched in September 2024, fundamentally changes marketing audit efficiency. What previously required manual data exports and analysis now happens conversationally through AI assistance.

Breeze Copilot for Conversational Analytics

Breeze Copilot provides AI-powered assistance across HubSpot. For audit purposes, it excels at pattern recognition and anomaly detection. Rather than manually reviewing months of reports, you can ask questions like:

• "What traffic sources show declining conversion rates over the past 6 months?"
• "Which landing pages underperform our conversion rate benchmarks?"
• "Show me contacts that engaged with content but never converted to MQLs."
• "What's the average time from MQL to SQL across different traffic sources?"

Copilot instantly analyses your data and highlights gaps, saving marketing teams the 5-8 hours weekly they previously spent on manual reporting.

Breeze Intelligence for Data Enrichment

Breeze Intelligence enriches your contact database with buyer intent signals and firmographic data from HubSpot's 200M+ profile database. This transforms gap analysis by revealing:

• Qualification gaps: Which contacts in your database meet ICP criteria but haven't been properly qualified?
• Intent signal opportunities: Which engaged contacts show active research behaviour indicating near-term purchase intent?
• Account coverage gaps: For companies using account-based marketing, which target accounts lack sufficient contact coverage?

Breeze Intelligence operates automatically in the background, enriching records as you work. For audit purposes, this means richer segmentation and more precise gap identification than manual data collection allows.

Marketing Analytics Suite for Multi-Touch Attribution

HubSpot's Marketing Analytics Suite (Professional tier and above) now includes eight attribution models: first touch, last touch, linear, time decay, U-shaped, W-shaped, full path, and custom attribution. The Customer Journey Analytics tool visualises paths through Sankey charts, making gap identification visual rather than requiring interpretation of raw data tables.

Scott Brinker, VP of Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot, notes that "AI democratises sophisticated analytics—what previously required dedicated data science resources now happens through conversational interaction." This is particularly relevant for mid-market B2B companies auditing marketing without large analytics teams.

If you're not currently leveraging these Breeze features, consider working with a HubSpot Diamond Partner to implement them effectively. The features are powerful but require proper configuration to deliver maximum value.

Creating Your Action Plan: From Gaps to SMART Goals

Once you've identified specific gaps, the next step is translating findings into an executable action plan. This is where many audits fail—comprehensive analysis that never becomes concrete action.

Prioritising Gaps by Business Impact

You'll likely identify multiple gaps. Trying to address everything simultaneously guarantees mediocre results. Instead, prioritise using this framework:

1. Quick wins: Gaps addressable in under 30 days with measurable impact. Example: Fixing conversion-killing form friction by reducing fields from 12 to 5.
2. Foundation fixes: Issues that block other improvements until resolved. Example: Implementing proper lifecycle stages before optimising conversion workflows.
3. Strategic opportunities: Larger gaps requiring sustained effort but offering substantial returns. Example: Building comprehensive content library for demand generation.

At Whitehat, we typically identify 3-5 quick wins in every audit worth £50k+ in recovered pipeline. These become immediate priorities because they demonstrate value fast while building momentum for longer-term improvements.

Developing SMART Goals for Each Gap

For each priority gap, create a SMART goal (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound). Vague goals like "improve conversion rates" don't drive action. Specific targets like "increase landing page conversion rate from 3.2% to 5.5% within 90 days through form optimisation, social proof additions, and A/B testing" create accountability.

Example SMART goals for common gaps:

Each goal should map directly to HubSpot metrics you can track in real-time. This creates feedback loops that enable rapid iteration rather than waiting for quarterly reviews.

Building Your 90-Day Implementation Roadmap

With prioritised gaps and SMART goals defined, create a 90-day roadmap that sequences improvements logically. This timeframe balances urgency with realistic execution capacity.

Effective roadmaps include:

• Week-by-week milestones: What gets completed by end of weeks 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12?
• Resource allocation: Who's responsible for each initiative? How many hours weekly?
• Dependency mapping: Which improvements must complete before others can start?
• Success metrics: What data proves each improvement worked? Where does that data live in HubSpot?

Whitehat's Marketing Coaching service helps teams translate audit findings into executable 90-day plans with weekly accountability check-ins. This bridges the gap between strategy and execution that causes many improvement initiatives to stall.

Measuring Improvement: Establishing Your Audit Cadence

A single audit identifies gaps. Regular audit cadence ensures continuous improvement. Industry consensus recommends annual comprehensive audits at minimum, with quarterly lightweight reviews for fast-moving sectors.

How Often Should You Audit Marketing Performance?

Audit frequency depends on your marketing maturity and market velocity:

• Annual comprehensive audits: Suitable for stable B2B markets with established marketing operations. Includes full RACE framework analysis, competitive benchmarking, and strategic planning.
• Semi-annual audits: Recommended for B2B companies in fast-moving sectors (SaaS, technology) or during periods of significant change (new product launches, market expansion).
• Quarterly performance reviews: Lightweight assessments focusing on KPI trends and identifying emerging issues before they become major gaps. These typically take 2-4 hours versus weeks for comprehensive audits.

HubSpot's Workflow Health Summary (launched in 2024) supports this cadence by automatically flagging underperforming automations, reducing the manual effort required for quarterly reviews.

Key Metrics to Monitor Continuously

Between formal audits, monitor these leading indicators in HubSpot dashboards:

1. Traffic trends: Month-over-month organic, paid, and total traffic patterns
2. Conversion rates: Website, landing page, and form-specific conversion by traffic source
3. Lead progression velocity: Time elapsed between lifecycle stages (contact → MQL → SQL → opportunity)
4. Attribution clarity: Percentage of pipeline with known first and last touch attribution
5. Marketing-sourced revenue: Closed revenue directly attributed to marketing efforts

Create a single HubSpot dashboard (Reports → Dashboards → Create Dashboard) containing these metrics. Review weekly in team meetings to catch issues early rather than discovering them months later during formal audits.

Frequently Asked Questions About Marketing Audits

Taking Action on Your Marketing Audit Findings

You now have the framework for identifying and fixing marketing strategy gaps systematically. The RACE framework provides structure. HubSpot's Breeze AI provides efficiency. Industry benchmarks provide context. SMART goals provide accountability.

The gap many B2B companies face isn't knowing what to do—it's executing consistently. Marketing teams understand audits matter but struggle to carve out time from daily tactical work. Leadership wants data-driven decisions but applies pressure for immediate results that discourage strategic analysis.

If this describes your situation, consider two approaches:

1. Schedule audit time formally: Block calendar time quarterly for performance reviews. Treat these as non-negotiable strategic planning sessions rather than optional exercises that slip when busy.
2. Partner with HubSpot experts: Agencies like Whitehat conduct audits systematically, bringing external perspective that identifies blind spots internal teams miss. Our HubSpot audit service typically uncovers 3-5 quick wins worth £50k+ in recovered pipeline, paying for itself many times over through improved performance.

The choice isn't between internal and external audits—the best approach combines both. Internal teams provide context and institutional knowledge. External experts provide frameworks, benchmarks, and implementation experience across dozens of companies.

Whatever approach you choose, the critical element is consistency. Annual audits with quarterly reviews create continuous improvement cycles that compound over time. Companies that audit once and never revisit see temporary improvements that erode. Companies that audit systematically build marketing operations that deliver predictable results year after year.

Start with your next 90 days. What's the single biggest gap between current performance and industry benchmarks? That's your starting point. Create a SMART goal addressing that gap. Build a simple roadmap. Review progress weekly. Adjust based on data.

Marketing audit excellence isn't complex—it's simply systematic. Use the frameworks detailed above. Leverage HubSpot's analytics tools. Benchmark against current industry standards. Create executable plans. Measure results. Iterate continuously.

That's how you transform marketing from an expense requiring constant justification into a revenue engine delivering measurable, predictable results.

Ready to audit your marketing strategy? Contact Whitehat's Diamond Partner team for a free HubSpot Health Check →