What Marketing Problem hurts our business most? A checklist.

Again and again, I realize that businesses - large and small - are struggling to clearly state what Marketing Problems are top of their agenda. Everything seems important and there are always many Marketing initiatives running simultaneously. A campaign here, the optimization of a touchpoint there, a brand-redesign or re-positioning here, a cool partnership there, and so on. So often we lack focus and priorities. We run without a destination in mind. In other words, businesses often simply don‘t know what Marketing tasks are most important for their current business situation and which ones can be spared.

Reflecting on this, I came up with what I believe is a fairly easy checklist to nail down your most pressing Marketing Problem – the one you should really concentrate on, before spreading your butter too thin across too many tasks. If you have visited this website before, you will be familiar with the core marketing structure I use: the Customer Journey. All your fundamental Marketing challenges can be captured and sorted nicely along the phases of your Customer Journey.

6 fundamental Marketing Problems

So here is the checklist of 6 fundamental Marketing Problems along the Customer Journey.

Customer Journey Phase		Marketing Problem
Awareness	1	Our type of offering (product/service) is not known enough.
Awareness	2	Our company/brand is not known enough (for this type of offering).
Search	3	Potential customers, searching for our type of offering, cannot find us well. Rather they find our competitors or other alternatives.
Search	4	Potential customers, who have found us, are not convinced of our offering (price-performance).
Purchase	5	Potential customers, who found us and want to buy us, are having such a difficult time in the purchase/ ordering process, that they give up and go looking for an alternative.
Usage	6	Actual customers are so dissatisfied with our product/ service, that they will surely not buy it again or recommend it. They might even criticize us publicly.

Where do YOU currently have the biggest problem?

Yes, they are all important! Each of these Marketing Problems can pretty much kill your business. You need to solve all of them.

But the big question is: where do YOU currently have the biggest problem? What‘s holding YOUR business back mostly? This of course depends on your current market situation, the maturity of the category that you are in, your current position in the market, your competitive landscape, the state of your product or service offering, your sales strategy, and many more things.

I am not saying it is easy. But it is your job as a business or marketing leader to make that call. You need to set a marketing agenda that focusses on the most pressing issues.

So how do you go about it? There is a quick & dirty way (which probably already brings you to a good 80% solution), and a more diligent way.

There is a quick and dirty way which probably already brings you to a good 80% solution.

Quick and dirty:

Put the 6 Marketing Problems on a wall and discuss with the right set of people until you have put them in an order of priority for your business situation. Mind you, it‘s not about deciding how important a Marketing task is – they all are important, but to assess where YOU currently have the biggest problem and where you are already doing great or good enough.

The trick is to really force yourself to put them into a hierarchy. It helps to at least sort them in 3 boxes, from #1 biggest current Marketing Problem to 2nd and 3rd priorities.

Please don‘t do this alone, but involve your key functional team members for product, sales and marketing. It‘s also a good idea to involve external sparring partners with a neutral perspective and ideally some industry expertise.

More diligent:

This is the same approach than above. You still discuss in your selected group, but you base your decisions more on hard facts, rather than just your experience and collective judgement. The below suggestions can help you to find the most relevant metrics that you could use to support your decision-making. Of course these metrics can differ quite a lot depending on your market, product or service.

Customer Journey Phase		Marketing Problem	Exemplary metrics for assessment
Awareness	1	Our type of offering (product/service) is not known enough.	Penetration of offering in market Awareness data for your category / type of offering
Awareness	2	Our company/brand is not known enough (for this type of offering).	Brand Awareness data Brand Consideration data Brand Search Volume on Google
Search	3	Potential customers, searching for our type of offering, cannot find us well. Rather they find our competitors or other alternatives.	Search rankings/results on relevant search platforms like Google, Retailers, Social Media or industry-specific platforms
Search	4	Potential customers, who have found us, are not convinced of our offering (price-performance).	Conversion rates on e-Retailers or own webshops Bounce rates on website or product pages No-replies after first contact
Purchase	5	Potential customers, who found us and want to buy us, are having such a difficult time in the purchase/ ordering process, that they give up and go looking for an alternative.	Shopping cart aborts Purchases in relation to contacts/visits
Usage	6	Actual customers are so dissatisfied with our product/ service, that they will surely not buy it again or recommend it. They might even criticize us publicly.	Return rates Complaints Customer service calls Contract cancellations

And what now?

Now that you know your biggest Marketing Problem (or hierarchy of problems), the actual work starts!

Obviously, each of the 6 different problems require different action plans. You will have to define the most promising touchpoints and activities to tackle your biggest Marketing Problems. That’s the core of marketing work. But hopefully now you can do it with a better strategic focus. For building your action plans, I refer you to previous articles that describe in more detail how you can tackle

• Awareness Problems

• Search & Purchase Problems

• Usage Problems

I am happy to support you in setting up such a directional discussion round. I offer sparring on planning or actually facilitating a workshop session with you. I always act as a facilitator and moderator, giving structure, asking questions, offering inspiration. But I find it important that you make your own decisions in the end. It‘s your business, you know it best. You will need to execute the marketing actions defined. You need to stand behind those. Contact me via the contact form here or via LinkedIn.

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