1. Do you know which of your marketing efforts have been effective in the past? Find out where the rock created the ripple, then go back and throw more rocks. Repeat past successes.
2. Do your beautiful, award-winning marketing materials actually influence customer decisions? No, they don’t. Nobody cares. Unfortunately, nobody cares about you, nobody cares about your company, and nobody cares about your brochure. They care about themselves and what you can do to make their lives better.
3. Does your marketing move people’s eyebrows? If not, you’re in trouble. Because this involuntary indicator of interest, intrigue, and curiosity is the best instant barometer of your marketing. Ever. Huh? Before Aha!
4. How are you getting permission from people to market to them? You are collecting email addresses, right? You are sending out a regular, value-driven newsletter, right? You are getting subscribers to your blog through RSS, right? Get permission early.
5. How are you enabling your customers to do your marketing for you? Build community. Cultivate fans, not customers. Build inherent “remarkability” into your products and services from the get-go. You’ll never have to waste your money on another worthless Yellow Pages ad again. Fans equal money.
6. How are you marketing yourself daily? The more answers you can come up with to this question, the more money you will make. Period.
7. How much money do you spend on marketing? On one hand, you could say “nada,” if your customers are doing your marketing for you. On the other hand, you could say “mucho dinero,” if everything you do is a form of marketing.
8. How much time do you spend on marketing each day? On one hand, you could say “nunca,” if your customers are doing your marketing for you. On the other hand, you could say “todo,” if everything you do is a form of marketing.
9. How much stopping power does your marketing have? Nobody notices normal. Nobody buys boring. The effectiveness of a message isn’t necessarily dependent on its longevity, but rather its ability to evoke emotion in the moment. Make people stop.
10. Is your marketing making music or noise? It’s the difference between the guy who sits on a street corner with a sign vs the guy who stands in a subway station with a guitar. One gets money; the other gets ignored. Sing; don’t yell.
11. Is your marketing so good that it doesn’t even look like marketing? Not because it’s slick, but because it’s authentic. It’s you. A logical extension of your passion and love and fire. Movements, not campaigns.