Getting ready for a New Year of prosperity? It's time to evaluate your marketing campaigns!

Marketing is what drives business. It is responsible for finding, serving, and keeping customers. Without marketing, your business would not exist! Many of us often feel that we are too busy with day to day work challenges to stop and carefully consider some key marketing questions. Take this time and you’ll be well rewarded. The answers to these questions can significantly improve your business profitability in the coming years.

I will be sharing a checklist of the top 20 marketing questions to ask yourself and your key executives to keep your business on a more profitable track as we all ride the rollercoaster of business in the 21^st century.  You may not be able to answer all of these questions in one sitting, but be sure to carve out time to get through the list within a short period of time. Then, share the answers with your most trusted executives, and start working with your colleagues to refine your marketing strategies for the coming year and beyond for maximum profitability. As business owners or management, it is critical to take out a magnifying glass and scrutinize the marketing strategies you are currently implementing to help make your business more successful, whether is large or small.

Is your business changing? Yes, of course, it is. Change is constant. The world is changing and is increasingly flat, in terms of business. Everything’s changing…and so should your marketing strategies.

It’s preferable if you can work on these questions in a location where you won’t be interrupted. Why not schedule your own company retreat just by yourself! Depending upon your work style, choose to begin this task in a space outside of your office. Your backyard can be a viable spot if you can have privacy and it’s quiet. There are also many outstanding spots within Monterey County that can nurture your creativity. Find the best possibly place that suits your work style, and be sure to bring along some snacks, a laptop, and pen and pad.  You will want to select a place that will give you a big, big picture because that’s how you want to look at your business during this exercise. Many times, the best perspective and maximum level of creativity can be gained when you’re viewing a beautiful, spacious vista with an unobstructed view. For example, have you ever sat on the bench overlooking Carmel River Beach, just south of Rio Road off on Highway One? Or, driven up one of the hills off of River Road? Is there a place in Point Lobos where you can truly think? Do you have a favorite spot in Pebble Beach or Big Sur?

As you are probably aware, marketing is never an exact science. It’s an art that has to be refined continuously within a global marketplace, within an industry, and certainly within our region. And, most importantly, marketing strategies should be tested, evaluated, and changed very, very carefully. Successful implementation of your marketing strategies result in making products available that satisfy customers while making profits for your organization. Change is constant and your success depends on how well you are able to gauge the changes occurring with your competition, your market, your customers, and your overall business. You’ll want to evaluate the environment, target markets, your positioning, branding, product design, pricing strategy, advertising and more – everything you’re doing to market your company. Most importantly, you’ll want to look at each strategy in terms of its bottom line profitability.

When you’ve found the ideal spot to do this project, here are the top 20 marketing questions you should ask yourself about your business. Before embarking on your retreat, review these questions beforehand, and obtain necessary reports and information to analyze while you are focused on the topics included in the list. The bonus is that if you do this every year, you can pull out last year’s answers and decide what may have changed over the past 12 months. Let’s get started!