Feb 10, 2009
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Every marketer should ask themselves several questions when they are putting together a marketing plan for any type of business especially their own business. Here are some questions that you should constantly be thinking about as a business owner as well:
- What am I really selling?
- What am I really solving?
- Who am I selling to?
- Who is my target audience?
- Do I solve my target audience’s problem?
- Does my marketing message create a need?
- Is my marketing message clear?
- Does my target audience see my message?
- Is it clear about how to obtain my product?
- Does my target audience see me as the one to go to?
All of these are great questions that if answered honestly and correctly will provide valuable insight into any business. There are some business owners who do not take the time to look at their overall bottom line and evaluate where there sales are coming from and which medium is bringing in the most profits.
Notice that I said profits and not traffic. There will be many in the internet world that say traffic is the almighty powerful thing and that if you can have 5,10, or 15,000 visitors to your website a day then you are doing well. That is not the case if you are not tracking how many of those people actually purchase and give you profits.
Or if you are paying a lot in a certain marketing medium and recieving sales only to find out when you do tracki it the results show you are breaking even or in red.
So it is not the amount of traffic that comes through your doors, it is the amount of sales and the increase in margins. A business owner must continually increase their margins in order to increase their profits. If you sell a product that profits only $10 then you will need to sell 10 of those products to equal the sale of 1 $100 profit on a product.
All of these are things that business owners should keep in mind as the overall goal is to increase profits, not get traffic that does not convert. This is where having a good knowledge of your target audience and their hot buttons will heavily come into play. The better you know them and portray the value to them as to why they should use you then you will be able to effectively market to them in several marketing mediums.
The more honest questions that a business owner or the marketing team answers about what is working and what is not the sooner a more effective marketing plan can be put in place.