All businesses need to effectively market their products or services – their ‘offers’ – and it’s usually the company with the best marketing that wins in the end.
So how can you check whether your approach to marketing is as effective as it needs to be?
Try the following test. There are a total of 50 bullet points.
Score one point for each ‘Yes’ and nil for each ‘No’.
Once you’re done, click at the bottom of the page to get your results.
1 You have a clear understanding of your market(s), including:
- Its size, structure and performance.
- Its main dynamics and influences.
- Current and future trends.
- The key players.
- Where to look for continuously updated information.
2 You have a thorough knowledge of your customers, including:
- Why they do business with you.
- How much of their business you are getting.
- How difficult it would be for a competitor to ‘steal’ them.
- What they want now and how this will change in the future.
- An understanding of their industry.
- How much it has cost you to win their business and how soon that business will pay back those costs.
3 You have comprehensive information about your competitors, including:
- Who they are and their share of the market.
- How their offers differ from yours.
- How they add value that their customers will pay for.
- Their future strategies and plans.
- Which of your customers they might target.
4 You have detailed knowledge of your potential customers including:
- Which of your offers might interest them.
- Who they currently buy from, and why.
- How much they spend on offers competing with yours.
- How difficult it would be to wrest them away from the competition.
- An understanding of their industry, their current and future needs, and how they like to do business.
5 You have a formal marketing plan that:
- You have based upon accurate and up-to-date market information.
- Sets specific goals and a timetable for achieving them.
- Details resource and budget requirements.
- Is a practical and effective working tool rather than a ‘document’.
- You refer to frequently and update at least twice a year.
6 You have database of all your current and potential customers that:
- Is easy to understand and use.
- Integrates customers’ names and contact details with all other sales management data.
- Contains additional information for reporting and analysis (e.g. customer buying profiles, sales values, market trends, customer retention rates, gains from and losses to competitors).
- You can use to manage e-communications with your customers.
- Reminds you to contact each customer and prospect at least twice per year.
7 You make effective and appropriate use of marketing communications tools, including:
- Advertising.
- Corporate literature and brochures.
- PR.
- Direct mail.
- Exhibitions.
- Website.
- Other.
8 You know how to grow your business because you have assessed the potential gains – and risks – of each of the following strategies:
- Increasing take-up of your existing offers among existing customer groups (market penetration).
- Developing new offers for existing customer groups (offer development).
- Taking your existing offers into new markets (market development).
- Making entirely new offers to entirely new markets (diversification).
9 You evaluate the cost-effectiveness of individual promotions and campaigns in terms of:
- Increased sales.
- Numbers of new customers.
- Improved profile and awareness within your market(s).
- Other.
10 You’ve noticed that your success has impacted on your competitors, who:
- Copy some of your marketing initiatives.
- Are becoming more defensive about their customers.
- Are targeting your customers less.
- Are improving their offers in line with yours.
So, how effective is your marketing? Click here to get your results.