Question: As CEO, what is one question I should ask my marketing department to get a better handle on how our marketing is impacting areas I am most concerned with, like sales?
How Are You Tracking the Results?
“Tell me the results. I want to know exactly how many sales were generated from each marketing campaign and how those sales were tracked. If the tracking isn’t accurate, the campaign wasn’t a success.”
Who Are You Primarily Targeting?
“Sales and marketing go hand in hand as marketing leads to sales. If your marketing audience is different from your target customers, you’re losing chances to reach out to future clients.”
How Are You Marketing to Current Customers?
“Far too many marketing strategies focus too much on gaining new customers as opposed to keeping existing ones. Both are important, but keeping current customers engaged with the business is just as essential as building a new clientele base in order to impact sales.”
Where Should We Be Doubling Our Efforts?
“It’s easy to get into a marketing routine and do things just because they’re on a checklist. By asking which efforts should be doubled (in other words, what’s really working and providing the best ROI) you can get a great gauge on what’s delivering results and what is likely taking up more time than it deserves.”
Is Customer Acquisition Cost Less Than Your Lifetime Value?
“The primary question is whether your CAC is less than your LTV. If so, you have a viable model. Every other question should be centered around reducing CAC. Can we try different channels? Can we target more effectively? Can we reduce sales complexity and sales cycle via having more informed prospects?”
What Is Your Success Metric?
“There are many different metrics for success. Revenue is the most common, but it can also be marketing margin, new sign-ups, qualified leads or engagement. However, in order to know whether marketing is effective, you need to ask how they are currently measuring success, and whether their success metrics align with your broader goals for the company.”
What Percentage of New Users Are Coming From Other Users?
“While knowing your CAC and LTV of a customer are (really) important, a basic question that tracks how new customers find us is also significant. This question indicates the link between our product and the quality of our marketing message, in terms of delivering what we promise with happy customers. High sales with no referrals is great, but indicates a lack of unity in delivering on expectations.”
Source: Business Collective
