Marketing Questions to Ask
Good marketing questions to ask a company, your own included, when you need to know how its marketing really works: in a strategy review of your plan, across the table from an agency, or in an interview on either side. They run from who the customer is and why anyone would choose the product, through digital and word-of-mouth channels, budget and measurement, to how the team decides what gets made. The last group changes direction: questions to ask customers for marketing research you run yourself, on how they found you and what nearly stopped them.
Want questions from the whole vault instead? Try the random question generator.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Strategy
Who are you trying to reach, and who have you decided not to chase?
Why ask it
The exclusion is the harder half and the more revealing one. Any team can describe a target customer; only a team with a real strategy can name the segment it deliberately walks away from. If nobody has been ruled out, the budget is probably being spread across audiences that respond at very different rates.
What problem do you solve, in the words a customer would use for it?
Why ask it
Teams tend to answer with the product: faster reporting, a firmer mattress. Customers describe the bad Monday that sent them looking, and the distance between the two versions is usually where the copy goes wrong. If the answer arrives in internal vocabulary, ask when anyone last heard a customer say it out loud.
Why would someone choose you over the alternative, including doing nothing?
Why ask it
Doing nothing is the competitor most plans leave out, along with the spreadsheet and the cousin who does it for free. A usable answer names one reason that a particular kind of buyer cares about, and admits who the alternative suits better. Quality, service and price offered all at once is the sign that the difference has not been found yet.
What is the main goal this year, and what one number says whether you hit it?
Why ask it
A goal like more awareness cannot be missed, so it cannot steer anything: push for the figure and the date. Five numbers usually mean nobody chose, and whichever is failing at review time becomes the one that mattered. Ask who set it and whether the team believes it is reachable.
Who do you lose to most often, and what reason do those buyers give?
Why ask it
The rival named in the strategy deck and the one that takes the deals are often different companies. Ask where the reasons come from: a sales rep's memory, a field in the CRM, or a call with the buyer who walked. If nobody has spoken to a lost buyer this year, the competitive picture is guesswork.
How would you describe what you sell in one sentence, without adjectives?
Why ask it
Strip out leading, innovative and seamless and either something concrete remains or it does not. Ask two people separately and compare, because divergence at this level explains a great deal of inconsistent messaging downstream. Long answers usually mean the positioning has never been settled, only decorated.
Which line in your current marketing could a competitor run without changing a word?
Why ask it
Most of the homepage, usually, and people laugh when they notice. Go through the headline and the first paragraph together and mark every sentence that would survive a logo swap. Whatever is left unmarked is the actual positioning, and sometimes it is a single clause halfway down the page.
What do you want to be known for, and are you known for it yet?
Why ask it
The first half is an ambition; the second can be checked, in reviews, in what new customers say on a first call, in how a trade article describes you. A team that answers only from its brand guidelines has not gone to look. Where the two halves match, ask what the evidence was.
How was the price set, and when did anyone last test it?
Why ask it
Price is the part of marketing the marketing team often has no say in, so start by asking who owns it. A figure copied from a competitor or carried over from launch tells buyers something about quality whether anyone intended it or not. Leave discounts for later: first find out whether the list price was ever a decision.
What was the buyer using before this product, and what do they have to give up to switch?
Why ask it
Every product replaces something, even if it is a habit or a notebook. The marketing has to argue against that old thing in particular, and be honest about what leaving it costs: records to move, a routine to relearn, a contract to see out. If the answer is that nothing came before, ask how people coped, because that is the real incumbent.
Which feature do you lead with in the marketing, and which one do customers use most?
Why ask it
The two often differ, because the advertised feature was picked at launch and the used one was discovered afterwards. Support tickets, usage figures or an hour spent watching someone with the product will show which is which. When they differ, find out whether the lead feature still wins new buyers or is only there because it is printed on the box.
What does a new buyer see or get in the first ten minutes with the product?
Why ask it
Those ten minutes are where the promise in the ad meets the thing itself: a box to open, a setup screen, a first appointment. Go through them as a stranger would, with the advertisement open beside you. A gap between the two comes back later as returns, and it reads in the reviews as disappointment.
What proof do you have that the product does what the marketing says?
Why ask it
Sort the answer into what a buyer can check and what has to be taken on trust: a trial, a demonstration and customers willing to be named on one side, adjectives on the other. Claims about health, money, safety or the environment generally need evidence behind them, and the rules differ by country and industry, so ask who reviewed the wording. Often the strongest proof is something small a buyer can try before paying.
What is the product's weakest point, and what does the marketing do about it?
Why ask it
Every product has one: slower delivery, a steeper start, a higher price, a smaller range. Hiding it hands the news to a reviewer, while naming it and saying who it will not bother tends to be believed. Check that the sales team and the website give the same account of it.
Where does this product sit beside the others you sell, and can a buyer tell which one is for them?
Why ask it
A range that is tidy on the internal price list can look, from outside, like three versions of one thing. Hand the website to someone who has never seen it, ask them to pick, and listen to what they hesitate over. If the cheapest option is quietly taking sales from the one the plan depends on, the names and descriptions are worth a look before the prices are.
What does this year's plan assume that could turn out to be wrong?
Why ask it
Every plan leans on a few beliefs: that last spring's ad costs will hold, that a launch ships on time, that one partner keeps referring. Naming them takes ten minutes and tells you what to watch. A plan with no stated assumptions still has them, and finds out which were wrong one missed month at a time.
What did you stop doing in the last year, and why?
Why ask it
Marketing functions accumulate activity, so the ability to name something killed is a sign of discipline. Watch for a stop that was really an abandonment: nobody decided, the person who ran it left. A team that has stopped nothing is running last year's plan plus additions, whatever the strategy document says.
What will you not do, even when it would probably work?
Why ask it
Fake countdown timers, a discount every month, a rented email list, a claim nobody could back up: most of these work for a while. A team that has talked it through can name its line and the argument that drew it. Where nobody has, an annoyed customer or a regulator draws it later, and since the rules on claims and data differ by country, ask which apply here.
Audience
What do your best customers have in common that the rest do not?
Why ask it
Best needs defining first, because the ones who spend most, stay longest and cause the least trouble are rarely the same list. Whatever pattern turns up, such as a company size, a life stage or a previous supplier they were fleeing, is a sharper target than the persona on the wall. Be suspicious if the answer is a demographic and nothing else.
What usually happens in a customer's life or business just before they buy?
Why ask it
Purchases tend to follow an event: a new job, a failed audit, a baby, a contract coming up for renewal. Knowing the trigger tells you when to show up, which matters more than how often. A team that cannot name one has been describing who its customers are and never when.
When in the year do people buy, and does your spending follow that calendar?
Why ask it
Most businesses have a season of some kind, even if it is only the week budgets reset or the month school starts. Ask to see sales by month beside spend by month. A flat line of spending under a lumpy line of sales means the plan was divided by twelve and not by demand.
What are the steps between first hearing your name and paying you, and where do most people stop?
Why ask it
Count the steps out loud and put a rough number of people against each one. The biggest fall is the place to work, and it is seldom at the top: more often a pricing page that raises a question it does not answer, or a sign-up that wants a card before showing anything. Run through it on a phone while you are there.
Who makes the decision to buy, and who else has to say yes?
Why ask it
The person who finds you, the person who signs and the person who lives with the purchase can be three different people, in a household as much as in a company. Marketing written for only one of them stalls at the handoff. Ask which of them the current material speaks to, and what the others are given to read.
What do customers get wrong about you before they buy?
Why ask it
The wrong idea people arrive with, that you are too expensive or only for big companies, is often the reason others never arrive at all. Ask where the answer comes from, since support tickets and sales calls know this better than a persona document does. Then look for the page that corrects it, because a misunderstanding everyone can name and nobody has addressed is cheap to fix.
What objection comes up most often just before a sale, and where do you answer it?
Why ask it
Sales and support know this one by heart, so the test is whether it has traveled to marketing. An objection that is only handled on a call is a reason people never book the call. Look for the answer on the pricing page, in the comparison content and in the follow-up emails.
What have you learned from customers recently that changed a decision?
Why ask it
Insisting on a decision that changed filters out research that was performed and shelved. Good answers are small and specific: a word removed from a headline, a pricing page reordered, a segment dropped. Answers that describe a report with no consequence tell you research here is a ritual.
Why do customers leave, and when did you last ask one who had?
Why ask it
Cancellation forms collect the polite reason, which is usually price. A ten-minute conversation tends to find the real one: a champion who changed jobs, a feature that never got set up, a promise in the ad that the product did not keep. That last kind is a marketing problem, and no amount of new demand repairs it.
How much of your growth comes from customers you already have?
Why ask it
Repeat orders, renewals, upgrades and referrals all count, and the figure is often bigger than the share of budget and attention it gets. Ask who is measured on it. If the answer is nobody, or the support team, then everything marketing does is aimed at strangers, and the people who already said yes hear from the company only when an invoice is due.
Channels
Which channel is working best, and how do you know it is the channel and not something else?
Why ask it
The second half separates measurement from belief. Branded search, email to an existing list and retargeting reach people who were already on their way, so they can take credit for demand created somewhere else. Listen for anyone who has paused a channel, or held one region back, to see what really changed.
What does someone find when they search for what you sell and leave your name out?
Why ask it
Traffic on the company name is mostly people who already knew about you. The unbranded search, for the problem or the category, is where strangers arrive, so run two or three of those queries together while you talk. Whoever does appear on that page is the competition as the customer sees it, which may not match the list in the plan.
What is the website's main job, and how often does it do it?
Why ask it
Pick one job: booking a call, taking an order, collecting an email address, or simply proving the business is real. A homepage asked to do all four tends to do none of them well. Then ask what share of visitors take that step, because if nobody can find the figure, the site is being judged on how it looks.
What is social media supposed to do for you, and how would you know if it did?
Why ask it
Posting is easy to keep doing long after anyone remembers the reason for it. Awareness, customer service, recruiting and direct sales are all fair purposes, but each implies a different kind of account and a different measure. If the honest reason is that a competitor posts, that is useful to hear said aloud.
How many people can you reach without paying a platform to do it?
Why ask it
An email list, customers who open what you send, a community, a postal list: these are the audiences an algorithm change cannot take away. Ask how people got onto the list and what share still open anything. A big number collected through one giveaway years ago is closer to zero than it looks.
What should someone do after reading or watching your content?
Why ask it
Plenty of blogs and video series exist because a plan once said content. A clear answer ties each kind of piece to a next step, whether that is a search visit, a sign-up or a sales rep having something to send. Ask which three pieces brought in the most customers, and whether anything like them has been made since.
Which of your pages bring visitors in from search, and when was each last updated?
Why ask it
A few pages usually carry most of the search traffic, and they are seldom the ones the team is proudest of. Pull up the list together and open the top three. An old page with a wrong price or a dead link is doing the introducing, possibly to more strangers than the homepage meets.
What happens in the first week after someone joins the email list?
Why ask it
Interest is usually at its highest right after a sign-up, and many lists send nothing until the next newsletter comes round. Ask to be shown the welcome messages in order, and when they were last rewritten. A sequence that still mentions an old price or a discontinued product has not been read by anyone inside the company for a while.
Which search terms or audiences are the ads paying for, and which have been ruled out?
Why ask it
Ad platforms will widen a campaign to anything loosely related if nobody stops them, and the report of what people really typed is where the waste shows. Find out who reads that report and how often. An exclusion list that has grown month by month means someone is looking after the account.
When someone clicks an ad, where do they land, and does that page carry on from what the ad said?
Why ask it
Plenty of paid traffic is sent to the homepage and left to find its own way. Follow one live ad through and see whether the offer, the wording and the picture survive the jump. A mismatch there is paid for on every click, and the ad gets the blame for it.
After someone visits and leaves without buying, what do they see from you, and for how long?
Why ask it
Reminder emails and retargeted ads can follow a person for weeks, sometimes after they have already bought. Ask whether there is a cap and whether buyers are taken off the audience. Visit the site yourself and note what turns up over the next few days, since that is the brand as a hesitant visitor meets it.
What is being tracked on the site, and what did visitors agree to?
Why ask it
Consent banners, browser settings and ad blockers mean the reports cover only part of the audience, and the missing part is not a random sample. Ask what share of visitors decline and how the figures allow for them. Privacy rules differ by country and state, so find out which ones the business treats as applying and who made that call.
How many new customers come by word of mouth, and do you do anything to encourage it?
Why ask it
The answer is often most of them, followed by an admission that nobody has ever asked a happy customer for an introduction. Find out whether referrals are counted at all, since they tend to be filed under direct or unknown. Encouragement does not have to be a reward scheme: a thank-you, or asking at the right moment, is a start.
What do people read about you in places you do not control?
Why ask it
Review sites, forum threads, a map listing, the comments under a competitor's post: plenty of buyers check one of these before they believe anything on your own site. Open them together while you talk. Notice who replies to the bad reviews and in what tone, because that reply is read by everyone who comes after.
Which channel would hurt most if it stopped working tomorrow?
Why ask it
This is a question about dependence. A business that gets most of its customers from one marketplace, one ad platform or one referral partner has handed part of its future to that company's next policy change. Listen for whether a second source is being built, even slowly.
What was the last test whose result surprised you?
Why ask it
Surprise is the point: a test that confirmed what everyone already thought has taught the team nothing new. A real example comes with what was changed, how long it ran and what was done afterwards. Be wary of a win declared after three days on a handful of visitors.
What happens when a campaign underperforms in the first two weeks?
Why ask it
Ask for the last real case and not the policy: who made the call, and what they were looking at when they made it. Pulling everything after one bad week looks decisive and means nothing slow ever gets a chance, while defending everything burns money on pride. The healthiest answer names what was agreed before launch about how long to wait.
Which channel have you never tried, and what is the reason?
Why ask it
Some reasons are sound: the buyers are not there, or the margins cannot carry the cost. Others turn out to be one bad experience at a previous company, or a founder who dislikes the medium. You are sorting evidence from taste, and either way you learn where an inexpensive trial might be welcome.
Numbers
How is the marketing budget set: from a target, or from last year's figure?
Why ask it
Last year plus or minus a little is the common answer, and it means nobody has connected the spend to a goal. A budget built backwards from a revenue target can at least be argued with. Find out when in the year it is fixed and who can move money between lines once it is.
Where does the budget actually go, roughly: ads, people, tools or production?
Why ask it
Rough percentages are enough, and how quickly they come tells you who really manages the money. A budget that is nearly all ad spend, with nobody to write or analyze, buys reach for work that does not exist yet; one that is nearly all salaries can make things and has no way to get them seen. Ask about the tools line too, since software bought for one campaign tends to stay on the bill.
What would you do differently with half the budget?
Why ask it
Whatever they would protect first is their honest view of what works, and it is a ranking no ordinary planning meeting produces. Notice whether the answer keeps a channel or keeps a person. Someone who says the whole plan would collapse has not yet separated what earns its place from what is habit.
If the budget doubled tomorrow, where would the extra go, and when would it stop paying back?
Why ask it
The mirror of the half-budget question, and harder than it sounds. Pouring more into the best channel works until the cheap customers run out, and a team that knows roughly where that ceiling sits has been watching its costs closely. People, not media, is often the more honest answer.
How much do you spend to win one customer, and how many months until that customer has paid it back?
Why ask it
Ask what goes into the spend figure, because leaving out salaries, agency fees and discounts makes any channel look cheap. Payback time decides how fast a business can afford to grow, and it differs widely between a subscription and a one-off sale. A single blended figure hides the detail that matters, so ask for it by channel if they have it.
What is a customer worth to you over the whole time they stay?
Why ask it
Set this beside the cost of winning one, since neither figure means much alone. Ask how long the average customer really stays, because a lifetime value built on a hoped-for five years flatters every channel. For a business where people buy once, the better question is how many of them send someone else.
What did marketing add to revenue last quarter, and how was that worked out?
Why ask it
The method matters more than the total. Claiming every sale that ever touched an email is one extreme and counting only coupon codes is the other, and most teams sit somewhere between without having chosen the spot. A good sign is a figure that the finance team would also put its name to.
Which number on the dashboard looks impressive and tells you very little?
Why ask it
Most dashboards have one, usually followers, impressions or raw traffic, and admitting it is a sign of health. Follow up by asking why it is still there. Often somebody senior likes it, which tells you who the reporting is really for.
Which report do you really act on?
Why ask it
Reporting piles up faster than anyone reads it, so naming the one page that changes what people do on Monday shows what is really being managed. If the honest answer is none, the numbers are being assembled for other people's meetings. Ask what that report changed most recently.
What does your data not tell you, and how do you work around it?
Why ask it
No dashboard sees the recommendation made over lunch, the podcast heard in a car or the search finished on a second device. Workarounds worth hearing about: asking each new customer how they found you, switching a channel off in one region, comparing against a quiet period. Total confidence in every figure is the answer to worry about.
Team
How do you decide what to make next?
Why ask it
Ask who is allowed to add work to the queue. If the list is the founder, the sales team and whoever asks most often, then the plan is whatever was requested last, whatever the strategy document says. Follow with what was turned down recently and how the person who asked was told.
Who can say no to a piece of work, and at what stage do they usually say it?
Why ask it
A no at the brief costs an hour. The same no after design, legal review and a founder's weekend read-through costs weeks, and usually someone's goodwill. Count the people with a veto and ask whether any of them see the work before it is finished.
How long does it take to get from an idea to something a customer can see?
Why ask it
A team that ships something monthly gets twelve chances a year to learn, and a team that ships quarterly gets four. Ask for the last three things that went out and how long each took from the first conversation. When the timeline is long, the delay is usually in approvals and not in the making, which is worth knowing before you propose more work.
What does the team do itself, and what do you buy in?
Why ask it
There is no right split, so find out where the thinking sits. If an agency holds the strategy, the ad accounts and the logins, leaving it means starting again; if everything is in-house, ask who has seen how another company does it. Then ask which single supplier would be hardest to lose, because the answer is often one freelancer.
What skill is the team short of right now, and how is the gap being covered?
Why ask it
Analysis, writing and technical setup are the usual shortages, and they get covered by a contractor, by a tool, or by someone doing it badly on Fridays. The answer names the next hire and also shows where the current numbers may be weakest. A team that claims no gaps has probably stopped attempting the things it cannot do.
Where is the team using AI, and who checks what it produces before it goes out?
Why ask it
Ask for one concrete thing it now drafts, sorts or summarizes, and the name of the person who reads the result. Product claims, prices and anything said about a real customer are where an unchecked draft does harm. Expectations about disclosing AI use differ by platform, country and industry, so ask which ones apply to this business.
Where do you and the sales team disagree, and how does that get settled?
Why ask it
Some friction between the two is normal, so a claim of perfect alignment means either the answer is polite or the teams do not talk. Expect lead quality, pricing or messaging. What matters is whether a disagreement is settled in a meeting with data or by whoever has more influence that quarter.
What counts as a lead here, and did sales agree to that definition?
Why ask it
A downloaded guide, a booked call and a request for a price are very different levels of interest, and counting them as one thing is how marketing hits its target while sales misses theirs. Ask when the definition was last revised and who was in the room. Where there is no sales team, ask the same thing about what counts as a sign-up.
What does the rest of the company think marketing is for?
Why ask it
Put this to someone in finance or product as well, if you can. Where colleagues see a department that makes slides and orders merchandise, even a sound strategy will struggle for budget and for early word about launches. The gap between that answer and the team's own is a fair measure of how much internal selling lies ahead.
Where is what the team has learned written down, and who reads it before the next plan?
Why ask it
Campaign results tend to live in one person's head and leave when that person does. Even a shared page listing what was tried, what it cost and what happened beats a polished archive nobody opens. Ask to see the entry for the most recent campaign.
What piece of work are you proudest of, and what did it cost?
Why ask it
Pairing pride with cost prevents the polished award-entry answer. Some of the best answers are cheap and unglamorous, and hearing someone describe the effort, the internal resistance and what they would change tells you more about how they work than the outcome does.
What would you want fixed before you add anything new?
Why ask it
A good one to finish a team conversation on, because the people inside nearly always know the constraint already: a slow website, a broken handoff to sales, a missing analyst, a positioning argument nobody has settled. Whatever they name will hold back any new campaign too. If the answer is nothing, either the function is unusually healthy or you are being told what you want to hear.
Ask customers
How did you first hear about us?
Why ask it
The oldest marketing survey question, and still worth asking in person, because people give you the route software cannot see: a colleague, a talk, a sign on a van. Take the first thing they say and do not offer a list to choose from. Expect it to disagree with your analytics, and treat both as partial.
What was going on that made you start looking for something like this?
Why ask it
This gets you the trigger in the customer's own telling, which is the raw material for most of the headlines you will write. Let them go back further than seems necessary, since the real start is often months before the first search. Write down their exact words, not your summary of them.
What did you type into a search, or who did you ask, when you first went looking?
Why ask it
Their wording is rarely the name of your category. Someone trying to stop losing track of invoices does not search for accounts receivable software, and the phrase they did use belongs in your page titles and ads. If they asked a person, find out who, since that person is a channel.
What else did you consider, and what tipped it?
Why ask it
Customers name alternatives you would never list as competitors: a spreadsheet, a neighbor, putting it off for another year. The tipping reason is usually smaller than you would hope, such as a quick reply or a clear price. Smallness is no reason to dismiss it, since it is the thing that worked.
What did you expect it to cost before you saw the price?
Why ask it
A guess well above your price suggests room to charge more, or a price that reads as risky to some buyers. A guess well below it means the marketing has not yet explained what they are getting. Ask recent buyers only, because memory rewrites this one quickly.
What nearly stopped you from buying?
Why ask it
People who bought anyway can still describe the doubt, and the ones who did not buy shared it. Common answers are a missing price, a worry about switching, or not being able to tell which option was meant for them. Each one points at a line of copy or a page that needs fixing.
What can you do now that you could not do before you bought?
Why ask it
A better testimonial question than asking whether they are happy, because it produces a before and an after. The outcome they pick is often not the feature you advertise most. Ask permission before quoting anyone, and quote them accurately.
How would you describe us to a friend who had never heard of us?
Why ask it
Their sentence will be shorter and plainer than yours, and it is the one that travels by word of mouth. Set it beside the headline on your homepage. When customers keep describing a different product from the one you think you sell, believe them.
How likely would you be to recommend us, and what is the main reason for that answer?
Why ask it
From a handful of customers the score is nearly useless; the sentence after it is what you came for. Ask the people who say they would recommend you whether they ever have, and to whom. Someone who rates you highly and has told nobody may only need something easy to pass on.
What would you use instead if we closed tomorrow?
Why ask it
A quick shrug and a competitor's name means you are replaceable in their mind, however satisfied they say they are. Hesitation, or a patchwork of three tools, shows you what they would miss. That missed thing belongs near the top of your marketing.
Where do you go for advice or news about this sort of thing?
Why ask it
A named newsletter, a trade group, one forum, a brother-in-law in the business: the answer is a media plan written by the customer. Push for specifics, since social media is too broad to act on and a particular account or group is not. When several customers name the same small source, it deserves a place in the plan ahead of a bigger one you only guessed at.
What is the one thing you wish we did better?
Why ask it
Save it for the end, once they have said the kind things and feel free to be honest. Complaints about the product go to the people who build it; complaints about being surprised, by a price, a limit or a renewal, come back to marketing. Thank them and resist explaining.
Reading the Answers
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
What to Listen For
Ask for the last time, not the usual approach
How do you handle underperformance produces a policy; what happened with the last campaign that underperformed produces the truth. Convert every general question into a request for a specific recent instance, including who decided and what evidence they had.
Follow the money and the calendar
Budget allocation and cycle time are the two facts hardest to present favorably. Where the money goes shows what the organization believes despite what it says, and how long work takes to reach a customer sets the ceiling on how much anyone can learn.
Notice who is credited
In an interview, an answer that never says we is worth probing, and so is one that never says I. In a vendor conversation, ask which named person did the work you are looking at and whether they will be on your account.
Ask the team, then ask a customer
Several questions here come in pairs. The team says what problem it solves, who it loses to and how it would describe the product; customers are asked what sent them looking, what else they considered and how they would describe you to a friend. Put the two sets of answers side by side. Where they match, the marketing is built on something real, and where they differ, the customer's version is the one to trust.
Adjusting for the Setting
In an interview
Prioritize the questions about what was stopped, what the person would do with half the budget and what they will not do. These test judgment rather than familiarity with channels, and they are difficult to prepare for. Ask about a failure and listen for whether the explanation includes their own decisions.
In a vendor conversation
Push hardest on measurement and on what the data does not show. Suppliers who claim clean attribution across every channel are either working with unusually simple businesses or are not telling you about the gaps, and both cost you money later.
Reviewing your own marketing
Answer the Strategy and Numbers groups in writing before you ask anyone else, and date the page. Blank answers are the finding: a plan with no named exclusion, no single number and no stated assumption is a list of activities. Come back to the same page in six months and see which answers you would now change.
In an internal review
Ask the same three or four questions of several people separately, then compare. Differences in how the customer is described, or in what the single number is, are the finding. A review that only interviews the marketing lead will confirm the plan you already have.
The big questions to ask about marketing
With ten minutes and an unfamiliar business to understand, the first five are the big ones: who it is for, what problem it solves, why this and not the alternative, the one number, and who takes the sales that are lost. Most of what comes after them is a way of checking those five answers against the spending, the channels and what customers say. If two people at one company answer them differently, you have found the conversation that company needs to have.
Marketing questions to ask about a product
When the subject is one product and not the whole business, stay in the Strategy group. Begin with the one-sentence description and the price, then take the six that follow the price: what the buyer is switching from, which feature leads, the first ten minutes, the proof, the weak point and where it sits in the range. Have the product, its packaging or its sign-up page in front of you, so each answer can be held against the thing itself.
Digital marketing questions to ask first
Where most of the marketing happens online, open the Channels group at the unbranded search and work down to the question about tracking. Ask with a browser open: run the search, follow a live ad to its page, join the email list, load the site on a phone. A screen settles what a meeting would argue about, and the answers that cannot be shown on one, such as what visitors agreed to, are the ones to write down and chase afterwards.
With customers
The last group is meant for one customer at a time, in a conversation where nobody is selling anything. Ask roughly in the order given, since it follows the purchase from first hearing of you to living with the result. Keep your own product vocabulary out of it, let silences run, and stop after a handful of people if the answers have begun to repeat.
Common Mistakes
- Asking about approach and strategy in the abstract. General questions get rehearsed answers, and rehearsed answers cannot be checked.
- Accepting a channel as effective without asking how the effect was isolated. Branded search and email often take credit for demand created elsewhere.
- Letting a list of five priority metrics stand. Ask which one would cost someone their bonus.
- Skipping the friction with sales. It is where lead quality problems and messaging arguments actually live.
- Failing to ask what was declined or stopped. Additive plans hide the absence of decisions.
- Treating price as somebody else's subject. It tells a buyer what kind of product this is before any headline does, so ask who set it and why.
- Handing customers a list of options to pick from. The first thing they say unprompted is the data, and a menu replaces it with your guesses.
- Reporting a recommend score without the reason behind it. From a dozen customers the number is noise and the sentence that follows it is the finding.
- Ending without asking what should be fixed first. It is the question that gets you the constraint everyone already knows about.