(Note: Copied below is the feature article in the March 2010 issue of adMarks, CADM's monthly newsletter. All CADM members receive this free, included in their membership benefits. Not a member? Now's a great time to join at our midyear rates of just $85/person - click here for details.)
Let’s Play 20 (Marketing) Questions
By Les Stern, L. Stern & Associates, Inc.
When I was a kid (longer ago than I would like to admit), our family would drive on long vacations. To pass the time, we would play 20 Questions. You know the game. You get to ask 20 questions and at the end have to figure out the subject or person. The first question usually was animal, vegetable, or mineral, and it would go from there.
The game came to mind recently as I was thinking about the tremendous emphasis of late on marketing tactics. I understand that in difficult economic times a business may have to emphasize tactics over strategy, but it struck me that people were diving into tactics without knowing the answers to some very fundamental marketing questions.
So I said: OK, as a marketer, what 20 questions would I want to know the answers to before I decided on tactics. The 20 questions are designed to help you:
* Understand who you are trying to sell to, and how you sell to them. Yes, this involves working with your sales force.
* Identify why your target market buys your brand category, and then why they buy from you specifically. This is all about positioning and differentiation.
* Determine the information sources your target market uses to make purchasing decisions. This is especially important today, as people are enraptured with social media, yet they frequently do not even know if their target market uses social media as information sources.
* Analyze the effectiveness of your current marketing efforts (and adequacy of your marketing budget).
* Remember that marketing is not just about customers and prospects. It is also about how you position yourself to – and communicate with – influencers, referrers, employees, and prospective employees
The questions:
1. Who are your target market segments?
2. Who are the decision makers you are trying to reach?
3. What is your brand positioning statement?
4. What core brand/category attributes drive people to make decisions about purchasing products/services such as yours?
5. How do you rate relative to the competition on those core attributes?
6. What is your sales process, from generating leads to closing sales?
7. What trade/consumer shows do people in your target market attend?
8. What media do they utilize to obtain information (radio, TV, newspaper, magazine, direct mail)?
9. How do they use the Internet to obtain information (i.e., brand Website, manufacturer websites, user-generated content, search, social media)?
10. What tactics do you use to generate awareness for potential new clients, and do you believe they can be improved?
11. What tactics do you use to enhance your firm’s credibility to potential and existing clients, and can they be improved?
12. What tactics do you use to generate leads, and can they be improved?
13. What tactics do you use in the sales process once leads are qualified (i.e., proposals, sales presentations), and can they be improved?
14. What tactics do you use to generate direct sales, and can they be improved?
15. What tactics do you use to retain and enhance existing client relationships, and can they be improved?
16. What referral/influencer sources do you use, and how do you communicate with them?
17. What tactics do you use to recruit new employees, and can they be improved?
18. What tactics do you use to communicate with your existing employees, and can they be improved?
19. Would you say the quality of your marketing deliverables (online and offline) are of the same quality as, or better than, the deliverables of your largest competitor?
20. How much money do you think you should spend on marketing, and what percentage should be allocated among brand awareness, lead generation, conversion, and retention?
Obviously, this is just one person’s perspective on the questions you need to ask yourself. There are undoubtedly others. Still, by investing a little time (and money if need be) to answer these questions, you can be much more confident in the success of your future marketing endeavors.
Any questions?
By Les Stern, L. Stern & Associates, Inc.
When I was a kid (longer ago than I would like to admit), our family would drive on long vacations. To pass the time, we would play 20 Questions. You know the game. You get to ask 20 questions and at the end have to figure out the subject or person. The first question usually was animal, vegetable, or mineral, and it would go from there.
The game came to mind recently as I was thinking about the tremendous emphasis of late on marketing tactics. I understand that in difficult economic times a business may have to emphasize tactics over strategy, but it struck me that people were diving into tactics without knowing the answers to some very fundamental marketing questions.
So I said: OK, as a marketer, what 20 questions would I want to know the answers to before I decided on tactics. The 20 questions are designed to help you:
* Understand who you are trying to sell to, and how you sell to them. Yes, this involves working with your sales force.
* Identify why your target market buys your brand category, and then why they buy from you specifically. This is all about positioning and differentiation.
* Determine the information sources your target market uses to make purchasing decisions. This is especially important today, as people are enraptured with social media, yet they frequently do not even know if their target market uses social media as information sources.
* Analyze the effectiveness of your current marketing efforts (and adequacy of your marketing budget).
* Remember that marketing is not just about customers and prospects. It is also about how you position yourself to – and communicate with – influencers, referrers, employees, and prospective employees
The questions:
1. Who are your target market segments?
2. Who are the decision makers you are trying to reach?
3. What is your brand positioning statement?
4. What core brand/category attributes drive people to make decisions about purchasing products/services such as yours?
5. How do you rate relative to the competition on those core attributes?
6. What is your sales process, from generating leads to closing sales?
7. What trade/consumer shows do people in your target market attend?
8. What media do they utilize to obtain information (radio, TV, newspaper, magazine, direct mail)?
9. How do they use the Internet to obtain information (i.e., brand Website, manufacturer websites, user-generated content, search, social media)?
10. What tactics do you use to generate awareness for potential new clients, and do you believe they can be improved?
11. What tactics do you use to enhance your firm’s credibility to potential and existing clients, and can they be improved?
12. What tactics do you use to generate leads, and can they be improved?
13. What tactics do you use in the sales process once leads are qualified (i.e., proposals, sales presentations), and can they be improved?
14. What tactics do you use to generate direct sales, and can they be improved?
15. What tactics do you use to retain and enhance existing client relationships, and can they be improved?
16. What referral/influencer sources do you use, and how do you communicate with them?
17. What tactics do you use to recruit new employees, and can they be improved?
18. What tactics do you use to communicate with your existing employees, and can they be improved?
19. Would you say the quality of your marketing deliverables (online and offline) are of the same quality as, or better than, the deliverables of your largest competitor?
20. How much money do you think you should spend on marketing, and what percentage should be allocated among brand awareness, lead generation, conversion, and retention?
Obviously, this is just one person’s perspective on the questions you need to ask yourself. There are undoubtedly others. Still, by investing a little time (and money if need be) to answer these questions, you can be much more confident in the success of your future marketing endeavors.
Any questions?
Les Stern is president of L. Stern & Associates, Inc., and can be reached at Les@lsternmktg.com.
2 comments:
as a total noob I can't answer on any of your question. Hope that with help of your site I can raise my experience
Wonderful server. Their search for needed information, I usually start with him. It is most often end up.
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