3 essential questions business owners need to ask about their marketing plans

Are you struggling to effectively market your business? If so, Mike Michalowicz, serial entrepreneur, leader of two new multi-million-dollar ventures, and author, recommends asking yourself three critical questions which can be found in his latest book titled, Get Different: Marketing that Can’t Be Ignored. Mike joins us now to reveal what these questions are and how you can best market yourself to stand out amongst your competition.

How do you compete with the competition, Michalowicz says he asks that important question to small and large businesses? Usually, the feedback is, we are better, and we aren’t doing anything about it. If you are better than the competition, you are more likely to respond faster, care more, and there’s a responsibility to get noticed. He says that was the inception of his latest book.

When it comes to marketing, sometimes it doesn’t take more money, but innovative thinking. Michalowicz thinks marketing plans fail because people fail to plan and usually go with the best practice to their industry. But, if everyone is marketing in a certain way to your prospects, it’s white noise to them. Replicating what’s working is unlikely to work says Michalowicz. If you simply do something different, you at least have a shot of getting noticed.

The first question you should ask yourself about your marketing is, is my marketing different? Do something as inconsistent as your competition. The second question is, is my marketing attractive? The last question is, what is the direct? This means, what do you want the prospect to do with this information? It needs to be a safe next step.

Best practices usually become habituated. Consumers tune out almost 99.99% of all traditional forms of advertising. Michalowicz says you must avoid the best practices because that has become ignorable to the consumer. “Does D.A.D. approve”, is a great way to adjust your marketing. D.A.D stands for different, attract, and direct. He says, if it doesn’t have one of those elements, the marketing is crippled.

The best sample of any community is roughly 10%. The smallest data set that gives you a good direction of the market is 100 people. Sampling from existing customers will skew your data. It will help your market to that group better, but it won’t necessarily work on new customers. Sampling from ‘strangers’ will help give you a better picture of how well your marketing is working.

Michalowicz recommends you talk and strategize with business owners from different industries. Also, see what gets your attention in other industries. He asks the question, where does my target community congregate? Then target there. Michalowicz says your business is important. Marketing is the ultimate act of kindness.

Did you enjoy this podcast Mike Michalowicz? Please share your thoughts, comments, or questions regarding this topic by submitting a letter to the editor here, or connect with us at newsroom@cbtnews.com.