SWOT Analysis and the Unique Selling Proposition are processes that are commonly used when building a marketing program. Supposedly b2b marketers rarely have time for detailed and costly market research. And yet a very real determiner to increase a marketing program’s success is to get to know the true customer’s interests and motivations to more confidently create brand messaging. This business intelligence can induce sales of new products, new companies, and new services.

And yet, as marketers make projections to increase growth these insights are often guessed at or worse, ignored during the all important discovery process. At the very least, knowing what questions to ask can greatly speed up and aid in the development of a strong marketing program and produce significant results. Here are Five Questions that can bring a strong return on investment:

  1. Who is your primary customer for your brand?
  2. What does your primary customer know about your brand?
  3. What are the top three lifestyle interests your customer has?
  4. What do you want the customer to know and remember about your brand?
  5. What do you want the customer to do?

Knowing the answers to these questions can create a vital pool of ideas for creative marketing. What starts as as a purely logical process can quickly become a critical part in the development of brand strategy. We all know about ‘hot buttons’ that you can push given a specific sales situation to drive immediate sales. However, knowing the underlying interests of your customers can lead to long-term client relationships that are the most profitable. In other words, before you change your marketing change what you know and think about your customers and then create marketing that will be of interest to them.