6 Critical Marketing Questions You Must Answer

Whether you are a new business or you have been in business for years, you probably know how important it is to market. You need to constantly find new customers (and keep your old ones) if you want to continue to grow and succeed.

That being said, you may notice that your customers are changing. They are looking for more and doing more research before buying. Because of this, your marketing needs to change too!

To do this, you should ask yourself (and your marketing staff) some serious questions before you start your next campaign.

Here are six questions that you should start with.

Do you know who your customers really are?

Your marketing campaign needs to speak to the right people. For this reason, you need to create a buyer persona and focus all of your efforts into making him or her happy.

Really take the time to think about who you are trying to reach. Do you want to sell your products and services to high school teenagers? Their parents? Young couples who are looking to start a family?

Dive even deeper. Do you want to attract men or women? What ages? What are their hobbies? What things do they like? What don’t they like?

By having a clear understanding of who you are trying to reach (and what they like), you are more likely to attract their attention with your advertising.

Who are the right prospects for your business?

If you are a B2B company, your goal should be to attract businesses, not just people. For this reason, you also need to come up with an ideal customer profile.

To do this, you need to think about what industry you are looking for. Are you looking for construction companies or companies in the fashion industry? Marketing strategies would be very different for these two companies.

You also need to focus on the size of the company. Though you may want to reach big, it is often easier to get started with smaller companies until you get enough experience.

Then, you need to figure out what department you need to reach. Do you need to talk to the marketing department? Do you want to sell your products in their store and you need to talk to someone who can get them on the floor? Who exactly do you need to talk to in this department? What is their job title?

By figuring all of this out, you are going to be reaching out to the right person at the beginning, instead of going around and around a company until you reach the right person.

How much of your company’s sales time is spent on cold calling?

According to Spotio, it used to take 3.68 cold call attempts in order to reach someone. Today, the number is eight. In fact, it can take an average of eighteen calls to actually connect with a buyer.

So, what does this tell us? Cold calling doesn’t work as well as it used to. In fact, you may want to stop cold calling and focus on warm calling. This involves spending more time on social media and your website so that your customers are finding you.

You may also want to use referrals.  Nine out of ten buying decisions are made because of the recommendations that they received. In fact, ninety-two percent of buyers trust referrals, as long as they are from people that they know.

What is your website actually doing for your business?

Most businesses are so relieved when their website is done that they just forget about it afterward. However, that is a big mistake. Your website is often the first thing that potential customers see when they decide to look into you.

To make sure that it is working hard for you, you need to make sure that it loads quickly and is easy to read. However, it also needs to be filled with lots of helpful information. Potential customers spend hours online doing research. Because of this, it should be your goal to be found by publishing lots of good content on a regular basis.

Are you hindering your growth by under-resourcing your marketing?

In order to grow and be successful, you need to spend money on marketing. However, for most businesses, that is their smallest expense. They don’t spend nearly enough money trying to get their company found.

You need to make marketing a priority if you want to continue to grow and prosper.

Are you findable?

If you truly want to succeed, your company needs to be found. The best way to do this is by offering multiple marketing campaigns to reach more people. You need to have a website with a blog so that researchers will easily find you. Social media profiles will really grow your profile. A good email marketing list works great for professionals who don’t have time to sift through social media or do research online.

The more places that you are, the more likely you will be found.

The takeaway?

People are buying differently, and you need to make some changes if you want to continue to reach them. Doing the same old thing isn’t going to continue to bring new buyers in so if you are serious about growing your business and succeeding, you need to ask yourself some key questions before you start your next marketing campaign.

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