The marketing realm is big, broad, and varied. But there are certain questions that every marketer should ask before starting any promotional efforts. Asking these questions and putting some thought into the answers could make the difference between success or failure.
First, let’s define it: Marketing is the action of promoting and selling products or services. Everything that needs to be promoted requires something different. Getting people to buy or support something is not always easy because people are complex. Here are the marketing questions that every business owner, seller, nonprofit promoter, or anyone trying to reach an audience for a purpose, should address. The answers to these questions form the basis of a marketing strategy. To be successful, marketing efforts need to be guided by some kind of strategy or overall plan. Here they are:
What are my goals?
What do you want to accomplish with your marketing? Higher sales of a particular product? High attendance at an event? Support for your organization? Clearly identify your goals in as much detail as possible. If you can include target numbers — that’s even better.
Who are my competitors?
If you don’t already know who you are competing against, do some research and find out. If your rivals are successful, try to find the secrets to their success. Look at what your competitors do well and also look at their shortcomings. Their shortcomings may present an opportunity for your product to fill in whatever is missing.
How is my product different?
It is important to be able to differentiate yourself from the competition and stand out! In other words, ask the questions: What problem does my product solve for customers? How is my product different and better than the competition?
Who is my audience?
Ask who it is you want to reach. The more you can learn about these people, the more success you can have reaching them and getting them to take action. Consider creating buyer personas. These are semi-fictional representations of your customers based on your research into who they are. Next, figure out where you can find these people. Do they live near your business? Are they online? If so, where?
How do I get the target audience to act?
Figure out what you want your customers to do and then make it easy for them to do it. With any marketing effort, you always want to give your customers some kind of action they can take, whether it's making a phone call, visiting your store or website, or just buying something. In marketing materials like ads or websites, a “CTA” or **“Call To Action”** is critical. This is where you lead the customers to that action with a phone number, order form, search window, or whatever.
What can I put into marketing?
How much time, money, and energy can you devote to marketing? This is a crucial question since no one has unlimited quantities of any of these. There is a vast array of marketing options ranging from free, low-time commitment pursuits, to super-expensive, huge-commitment activities. Knowing what you can do will help you get the best return on your investment.
Write down your answers to these questions, and put some time and effort into it. You can then start looking at the best options for marketing your product.
Bryan Schneider at Port5 Communications can help you connect your answers to the right marketing channels. He can even help you with the content needed for effective marketing efforts. This way you’re not wasting time or money on marketing dead ends— just getting results.