Do You Have All the Questions?

Life is full of questions. We ask and answer many of them without even realising we’re doing it: ‘what shall I have for breakfast?’, ‘which email should I answer first?’, ‘where did I park the car?’ The problem is, not all questions are quite so easy to answer and often we don’t even know what questions to ask…… or even that questions need asking at all!

It’s a phenomenon that’s often very true of marketing implementation. Questions are asked day to day on routine activity  - ‘has anyone posted a tweet today?’ ‘should we accept that deal on an ad?’ ‘Have we got time to write a 1000 word editorial for that magazine?’ - but on a more fundamental, strategic level, nobody questions why things are being done or whether they can be done better.

This is often particularly true when things are going well. If you see a problem it’s natural to ask why that problem’s occurred. But if everything is running smoothly there is a tendency to assume that it’s because you’ve got it right, rather than ask whether you could improve things further.

Continuous improvement is a management approach that drives the world’s most successful businesses and involves being willing to question the status quo as well as being open to risking change. Asking questions may unearth issues that you’d rather not have known about but it also releases opportunities to learn and improve, which, in marketing terms, not only makes for more successful campaigns but also for more effective budget management.

At CME, we never stop asking questions - which is why we have launched our annual CME Marketing Needs & Trends Survey.  Designed to help us understand your challenges and preferences more effectively so that we can compile professional reports that benefit your business, the survey will only take five minutes of your time but could bring you significant rewards.  Not only will you be able to download the reports we produce from our website for free, it may also help you to focus more clearly on why you’re doing things the way you are and what obstacles still stand in the way of success.

Responding to our survey couldn’t be easier: simply click here to complete the survey.