Are you asking the right questions to learn about your prospect?
Marketing is more than just numbers and ads. It’s about getting to know your client and customers. Step One is developing a marketing plan is a customer needs analysis with your prospect. A customer needs analysis can reveal what you need to know to be able to help your prospect or client reach their marketing goals. At Marketing Keys, asking the right questions during this stage is crucial. It helps us develop a successful marketing campaign tailored to each client. Here are some questions that we routinely ask in a customer needs analysis.
Question 1: What type of marketing and advertising are you doing or have you done in the past?
Knowing where your prospect is spending their marketing money can explain the level of success they’ve had in the past.
Question 2: Why are you doing that kind of advertising or marketing?
It might have been the first type of marketing they ever did that worked for them years ago and just stuck to it.
Question 3: Do you have a target audience? Who are you trying to reach?
As media firms know, there's no advertising campaign that can reach everybody. Who are their current customers and who else would they like to reach? Which target is most profitable to their company?
Question 4: What do people know about your business? What do you want people to know about your business?
These questions will give our prospects the opportunity to talk about their current challenges and future goals. There might be a part of their business that doesn’t get as much traction as the rest and they’d like to promote it more.
Question 5: How do people know where to find you online?
This is a very important question. We remind our prospects that a lot of people check websites and social media before making a decision. We also explain how well-placed ads can generate meaningful traffic for them.
The more we know about our prospects and clients, the better we can make recommendations to help them reach their goals.
Carolina Macedo, the author, is Project Coordinator of Marketing Keys.