Weeks 1–2
Discovery
Interviews with you and your team, plus access to financial and analytics data.
Output: Scope + stakeholder map
Miami strategy consulting
Lighthouse Internet Media audits your business across five areas—financial performance, market positioning, operational efficiency, customer engagement and digital presence—and turns the findings into a costed 12-month roadmap you can hand directly to your team.
45Metrics reviewed
5Audit categories
8Weeks to handover
25+Years in business
Specific by design
Judge the framework before you pay for it
Most strategy engagements produce a slide deck that describes the business back to the owner who already runs it. We publish our framework in advance so you can judge whether it covers what you actually need before you pay for anything.
Below you will find the full metric list we work through, the document you receive, how the engagement is priced and the circumstances in which we tell people they do not need this service.
Every headline figure on this page is checkable: the metric count is the published list below, the timeline is the engagement sequence, and Lighthouse Internet Media was founded in February 2006.
The engagement
Four phases. Eight weeks.
From kickoff to a roadmap your team can begin executing, with a clear output at every stage.
Weeks 2–5
Audit
45 metrics across five categories, benchmarked against an agreed competitor set.
Output: Findings register
Weeks 5–7
Roadmap
Findings ranked by impact and effort, then costed, assigned and sequenced.
Output: 12-month plan
Week 8
Handover
A complete strategy document and working session with the people who will execute it.
Output: Document + session
Published in full
The 45-metric audit framework
Not every metric applies to every company. We mark non-applicable measures out of scope in week one rather than padding the report.
91. Financial performance
- Revenue growth rate, year over year and quarter over quarter
- Gross margin by service or product line
- Customer acquisition cost, by channel
- Customer lifetime value
- LTV-to-CAC ratio
- Average order or contract value
- Revenue concentration from the top five customers
- Cash conversion cycle
- Marketing spend as a share of revenue against sector norms
Revenue concentration is often the surprise: too much revenue from too few customers is a risk problem before it is a growth problem.
92. Market positioning
- Share of search voice against named competitors
- Branded versus non-branded search volume and trend
- Pricing position relative to actual competitors
- Review volume and average rating versus competitors
- Category search-demand trend in your service area
- Geographic coverage against competitors
- Referral and lead-source mix
- Win and loss rate on issued quotes
- Service-line overlap with the three nearest competitors
We agree on the competitor set in week one. Defining who you really compete with is a valuable part of the work.
93. Operational efficiency
- Lead response time, measured rather than estimated
- Quote turnaround time
- Sales-cycle length by segment
- Capacity utilization
- Repeat purchase or rebooking rate
- Customer churn rate and reason coding
- Cost to serve by customer segment
- Share of recurring processes that are automated
- Staff hours spent on manual reporting each month
Lead response time is frequently the least expensive high-impact fix. We measure it from CRM and inbox timestamps—not estimates.
94. Customer engagement
- Email open and click-through rates against sector benchmarks
- List growth rate net of unsubscribes
- Social engagement rate by platform
- Net Promoter Score or CSAT, when collected
- Review response rate and average response time
- Repeat website visit rate
- Time to first human response on inbound inquiries
- Community size and growth by channel
- Post-purchase touchpoint count
If a metric such as NPS is not collected, we flag the gap rather than inventing a score—and can add measurement setup to the roadmap.
95. Digital presence
- Organic sessions and 12-month trend
- Top-10 keyword rankings and commercial value
- Core Web Vitals pass rate on mobile
- Index coverage and crawl waste
- Backlink profile quality and toxicity
- Google Business Profile completeness and monthly actions
- Conversion rate by landing page
- Mobile-versus-desktop performance gap
- Presence in AI answers for commercial queries
AI visibility is now part of the audit. We test a consistent query set across major AI assistants and document whether your business appears. Learn about Generative Engine Optimization.
The deliverable
One document built to be used
Written for your leadership team and the people responsible for execution—not a presentation that only makes sense with a consultant in the room.
| Section | What is inside | Why it is there |
|---|---|---|
| Findings register | Every applicable metric scored with its evidence and source. | Every score can be traced—not taken on trust. |
| Competitor benchmark | Your position against the agreed competitor set, by category. | “We are behind” becomes a specific, measurable gap. |
| Priority matrix | Findings ranked by business impact and implementation effort. | You can challenge the sequence before committing budget. |
| 12-month roadmap | Costed actions by quarter, with recommended owners. | Your team can execute it without us in the room. |
| Quick wins | The improvements to make in the first 30 days. | Results can begin while larger work is being planned. |
| Measurement plan | What to recheck, when to recheck it and who owns each KPI. | The audit becomes a repeatable operating discipline. |
Evidence, not impressions
How a finding is recorded
The examples use invented figures to demonstrate the format. They are not results from a real engagement.
| Metric | Example finding | Source | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead response time | Median 6h 40m across 200 inquiries; 31% answered after 24h | CRM timestamps, trailing 90 days | Quick win |
| Revenue concentration | 52% of revenue from the top three accounts | Accounts, trailing 12 months | Major project |
| Core Web Vitals, mobile | LCP failing on 8 of 11 commercial templates | PageSpeed Insights field data | Quick win |
| Branded search volume | Flat year over year while category demand grew 18% | Search Console + Keyword Planner | Major project |
| Review response rate | 22% of reviews answered; median response time of 11 days | Google Business Profile | Quick win |
Illustrative examples only. Actual findings are based on the client’s own evidence and agreed data sources.
Impact × effort
How findings get sequenced
Each finding is placed on impact against effort. That placement decides the order of the roadmap—and it is the part you are invited to argue with before any budget is committed.
Quick wins such as lead-response time and review-response rate are addressed first. Major projects such as revenue concentration or rebuilding a failing website template set are supported by a business case and sequenced by quarter.
Quick wins
High impact · Low effort
Actioned in the first 30 days.
Major projects
High impact · High effort
Sequenced by quarter with a business case.
Fill-ins
Low impact · Low effort
Completed when capacity allows.
Reconsider
Low impact · High effort
Documented and parked—not deleted.
Honest qualification
When you do not need this
A strategy engagement is the wrong spend more often than consultancies admit. We would rather say so on the first call.
You already know what is wrong
If the problem is clear and limited to one channel, buy the fix—not another diagnosis.
The business has too little history
Without meaningful trading history, retention, churn and financial trends may not support reliable conclusions.
Nobody can execute the plan
A roadmap without an owner is an expensive document. We confirm delivery capacity before beginning.
You need a lender or investor document
That is a business plan, which is a different engagement. We will point you in the right direction.
People behind the work
Who does the work
Emilio Yepez Founder & President
Emilio personally leads discovery and builds the roadmap. He brings more than 21 years of experience across digital marketing, ecommerce and operations, including ecommerce leadership at Navarro Discount Pharmacy and strategy work with MBF Health Care Partners.
View Emilio’s full profile →The wider Lighthouse team Specialists by category
The digital-presence and customer-engagement sections draw on the same in-house specialists who manage our SEO, development and social media work. The work is supported by Lighthouse’s Coral Gables team—not passed to anonymous contractors.
Meet the team →How we price it
A fixed fee agreed before we begin
A strategy engagement is quoted after a free 30-minute call. The variables are how many locations or service lines are in scope, whether your financial and analytics data is already clean, how many competitors we benchmark and whether you want us involved in executing the roadmap afterward or only delivering it.
We do not bill hourly for this. The scope is agreed and written down before you sign, and the fee does not move if the audit takes longer than expected.
What can affect scope
- Number of locations or service lines
- Readiness of financial and analytics data
- Number of competitors to benchmark
- Roadmap-only or implementation support
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
How long does a strategy engagement take?
Eight weeks from kickoff to handover: two weeks for discovery, three for the audit, two for the roadmap and a final week for the document and working session. Data-access delays can affect the schedule, so the access list is supplied on day one.
What does it cost?
The engagement has a fixed fee quoted after a free 30-minute scoping call. Scope is influenced by locations, service lines, data readiness and the number of competitors included. The agreed fee does not increase if the audit takes longer than expected.
Do you review all 45 metrics?
We work through the full framework and mark any metric that does not apply as out of scope in week one, with the reason recorded. You still see the complete list.
What do you need from our team?
Typically, access to financial information, analytics, Search Console, CRM and advertising accounts, plus two to three hours of interviews across your team. A complete access checklist is provided at kickoff.
Do we have to hire Lighthouse to execute the roadmap?
No. The document includes costed actions, recommended owners and quarterly sequencing so your internal team or another agency can execute it.
How is this different from an SEO or marketing audit?
An SEO audit focuses on one channel. This engagement examines finance, market position, operations, customer engagement and digital presence. If you only need the digital view, a focused SEO engagement may be more appropriate. Explore our SEO services.
What if the fundamentals are already sound?
Then the roadmap will say so and focus on the few refinements that are worth making. A shorter list of evidence-based actions is a valid result.
Start with clarity
Book your free 30-minute scoping call
We will identify which of the five categories matter most, which metrics may not apply and what the engagement would cost. If a full strategy audit is not the right investment, we will tell you on the call.
No hourly billing. No obligation. A defined scope before you sign.