Crafting Your Marketing Strategy: 7 Essential Questions to Consider

1. Understanding Your Product or Service

The first step in any marketing strategy is understanding what you're selling. This may seem straightforward, but many businesses fail because they don't fully understand their own product or service. Consider the following:

• What product or service are you marketing?
• Has it been successfully marketed before?
• What marketing channels are your successful competitors using?
• What are their pricing strategies?
• Who is their target audience?
• Will you be targeting the same audience, and if so, how fierce is the competition?

2. Assessing Market Demand

Is there a sufficient demand for your product or service to justify the costs of research, development, design, packaging, marketing, and delivery? You need to weigh the projected demand against the costs of bringing your product or service to your potential customers. Consider:

• Is the customer base large enough to support the investment of time and money?
• Is there potential for growth or additional sales?
• Do you anticipate that your target market will grow, shrink, or remain stable?

3. Outperforming Your Competitors

How can you outshine your competitors? Is your product or service of better quality, priced more competitively, or backed by superior service? Consider:

• What makes your product or service better than the competition?
• How aggressive are your competitors likely to be?
• Can you afford to offer your product or service at a lower price while maintaining a healthy profit margin?

4. Defining Your Strategy

What is your overall marketing strategy? Will you be focusing on one product or service, or targeting a broad market or specific demographic groups? Consider:

• Where will you find your target audience?
• What percentage of your chosen media's audience fits your target consumer profile?

5. Implementing Your Tactics

What tactics will you use to achieve your strategy? What unique offers or services can you provide that will set you apart from your competitors? Consider:

• How will you monitor your competitors and their sales rates?
• How will you collect payments? Will you offer online and offline solutions?
• How will you test your product or service against your selected market?

6. Staying on Top of Things

How will you track your advertising and promotions to determine which are most effective and profitable? Consider:

• How will you analyze demographics to better target your future marketing strategies?
• What networking plans have you made, and who do you need to network with?
• How will you monitor your costs versus profits and plan your budget?

7. Planning for the Future

What are your long-term plans for marketing specific products or services? How will you know when to introduce new or different products or services? Consider:

• What products or services are you planning to add in the future?
• How will you recover from unsuccessful promotions?
• How will you know when it's time for your business to expand, and how will you delegate authority?

These questions may seem daunting, but they are crucial for crafting a successful marketing strategy. Take your time to answer them, and remember, nothing is set in stone. As new ideas and information become available, you can always revise your answers. Plan strategically, and lead confidently.