10 Critical Questions You Need to Ask FIRST When Doing Marketing Research

The list below is not for the faint at heart.

If you are an entrepreneur or business owner who wants to venture into using Social Media as medium for you to get your clients you need to understand FIRST that the medium is NOT an advertising platform.

Sure you see the KFC's, McDonalds, BMW's doing media buying at scale in the different social media channels.

Thing is—these are BIG Brands with already an impressive and extensive following. They can advertise ALL they want and how they want to.

But what about the smaller brands and startups that are making a killing in the platform? They started by advertising their services using good copy and creatives right?

Right and Wrong.

Right—maybe they struck gold with a viral formula---for the lucky ones it takes a few days—for others months ,even years to do this.

So What are we missing here?

Social Media Success really depends on 3 critical things.

• How much budget are you willing to spend to "buy" your audience especially if you are a startup.

• How much time and resources are you willing to put in—in order to generate trust—enough for people to buy

• How much effort are you willing to put in to establish a relationship with your audience.

The third one is the most important piece—because even if you come up with the best creatives but then it doesn't "resonate" with your audience you'll be left at the drawing board all over again.

Which is why it's important to answer the questions below as a means to kick start the process.

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10 Critical Questions You Need to Ask FIRST When Doing Marketing Research

Below are the must-answer questions that you need to come up with BEFORE starting any marketing campaign.

These questions form the foundation of due diligence to understand and resonate with your market before embarking on any activity.

1. What do women/men in their (target age range) want in reference to my product/service.

2. Do they really want and need my product/service?

3. What problems am I trying to solve?

4. How will I make myself known to them?

5. What steps will I take to make a proper introduction.

6. What conversations can I create in order to engage them?

7. Who are my competitors? What are they doing? What can I learn and unlearn from them?

8. What steps or actions can I do to make my target market trust me.

9. How much value can I give upfront without charging my market anything. Am I prepared to spend time and resources in order to achieve this?

10. How can I make my target market successful without charging them

The formula above takes longer---but definitely worth every penny that you will be spending on resources and effort.