How Entrepreneurs can Ask the Right Questions to Form Marketing Ideas

Marketing is a wide-ranging discipline but asking the right questions can help entrepreneurs and small business owners form marketing ideas that will promote the products and services.

Businesses ready to spend money on marketing may be wasting money if they aren't targeted on their marketing needs and selected activities. The thought is often "we need cash flow and customers so let's get some marketing activities underway." The result is goals aren't met or the business team may not even know the primary goals.

A good way to prepare for successful marketing programs and efforts is ask the right questions. Here is a list of important assessment questions a corporation or small company can use in its corporate marketing strategies:

1 What business need do you want marketing to achieve? Are you trying to develop new business contacts or protect your customer base from competition? Are you persuading employees and managers about a new corporate initiative?

2 Who are the people needing to know your marketing message? These can include far more than possible customers:

• Employees
• Vendors
• Investors
• Partner Businesses

3 How do customers currently reach you?

4 Who is the primary audience (or stakeholder)?

5 What marketing methods have you tried successfully or unsuccessfully in the past?

6 How seasonal is your product or service? Are you trying to protect against a downturn?

7 How large is your satisfied core of clients or customers?

8 How much revenue does one sale generate?

9 What is the lifetime value of a new customer or client?

10 How much revenue do you want to generate from a new marketing initiative and what new expenses will your business incur as a result?

Summary

Certainly, there are more assessment questions. But here are some ways to use information from the questions above.

Cash flow is so important for businesses. So how much new cash flow will marketing activities really help you achieve?

If you charge a premium price for products or services, and you have a highly targeted customer base, and one sale brings in a substantial amount of revenue, then your marketing costs may be relatively low. The activities need to be well-targeted. Generating high quality word-of-mouth leads will be your wisest move.

If you sell to a mass market and you need a volume of sales, then you'll have to spend more money spread over a range of marketing activities. This becomes your marketing mix.

Marketing is not an exact science. But asking the right questions can eliminate much of the subjective, gut instinct guess work and help you choose your priorities wisely.