The Important Questions Corporate Marketers Can’t Answer

Innovative, diverse experience. These three words should describe your marketing department. It goes without saying how important creativity is for the marketing industry and you can have the most creative strategy, but if you can’t adequately understand your audience and communicate with them, your immaculate plan is no good. 

The truth is, corporate marketers can put together one heck of a presentation. But at the end of the presentation, prospective customers are left with no useful information which results in the loss of a potential customer. Here are seven questions that should be easily answered by a good marketing team, which corporate marketers struggle to answer. 

• What do you make or create? 

When you introduce your brand to someone new, the first question you might be asked is, what do you make? Every company makes something. Starbucks makes coffee. Apple makes computers. The corporate marketer’s answer would be something along the lines of “we make technology.” When responding to those who don’t know about your company, you may as well respond with “we make something.” 

Corporate marketers fail to go into depth with this response because they don’t understand that most people do not understand complex products and therefore can not break it down into a message where the average person can thoroughly understand the product. 

• What does your product do?

Buyers don’t purchase items because of its cool and have nice features. Buyers purchase products and services that help them in some sort of way. When creating a message, marketers must be able to communicate what makes the product or service useful and how people can benefit from it. The message needs to be developed from an outsider’s view so they can understand the customers perspective. 

• Is there a change you want to make with your product? If so, what is it? 

So, you have a product that can change someone’s life. How are you communicating this? For example, an App that tells you where traffic is along your route. Although this answer may seem self-explanatory, the right answer is “An app that allows drivers to decrease commute times by avoiding traffic along the route. 

• Who is your target?

An important part of marketing and lead generation today is the buyer’s journey. Without understanding the buyer, you can’t develop the right message to reach your audience effectively. Instead of thinking of a demographic such as “middle aged-women,” consider the single individual person you are trying to target and what their daily life is like. What are this person’s hobbies? What do they do on a day-to-day basis? What are their biggest struggles? By identifying this information, you can develop a message that speaks directly to your buyer who can benefit from your product. Corporate marketers are focused on a wide range of customers when really, you will find the most success with connecting with buyers who you can build a relationship with and can expect to continue to purchase your product. 

• How does your product fulfill your buyer? 

When you are creating a message for your buyer, are you thinking about the desires of your buyer? For example, are they looking for convenience, wealth, adventure? Buying habits are much more than wants and needs, its about desires and how they can satisfy someone. 

• Who can vouch for you? 

Unfortunately for businesses today, the internet enables buyers to do research before they purchase a product. The ideal product for a buyer is one that has many top-rated reviews, and if there are no reviews, it’s easy to discredit the product and look elsewhere. This is where social media and the content your marketing team creates comes in. Buyers are doing their research, and they want to know that the product they are buying is from an established, credible source. 

• Why you and not your competition? 

Competition is more prevalent now than ever because brands are in a constant battle to get in front of their buyers with digital media. There has to be something that differentiates your product from the others. Whether its price, convenience, quality- it has to be clear to your audience. 

While corporate marketers know your product like no other, sometimes this information is not effectively communicated to buyers. Corporate marketers might assume buyers already understand the simple answers and don’t need to go into depth with their messages when in actuality, its more important than ever. Additionally, corporate marketers don’t know to ask these questions when developing a message. 

One of the greatest advantages of working with a marketing agency is the outside view you receive. While the agency might not know your product like your corporate team does, they can create a message that makes it easier to understand for your buyer. The agency sees what your internal team does not see. Your audience may know about your product but might not know exactly how it can help them, and that is where you are able to generate leads. 

Are you ready to go into depth about your product or service when it comes to marketing? Do you want not only to reach your target audience but connect with them and build long-lasting, valuable relationships that will continue to drive sales? Contact our team at Joseph Studios for more information.