Questions to be asked before setting a Marketing Strategy for any Business

1. Who is your defined target customers ?
2. In which category does your business exist?
3. What is your differntiated benefit?
4. Who is your real competitor ?
5. How are you  different from your competitors?

To make your tactics work better, you have to decide on the  simple answer to each of these questions 

Who is Your Target Customer?

to define your target customer "Who do you serve?" always needs to be answered clearly before you can execute any tactic effectively. This means you have to say "no" to other potential customers who might buy from you but who are clearly bad fits for your narrow focus. This takes time to develop the discipline, but you can't do effective marketing without 

Focusing on a well-defined target may make you uncomfortable at first, but stay the course and follow through

The narrower you define your market so you can focus on those that you can best serve and those that can best service you, the more effective your entire business wil be

What is Your Category?

 short description of what business you are in. What few words would someone say to describe your business?  

Most business owners can't resist over-complicating their company descriptions. This leaves people unsure of what you actually do, which weakens your marketing effectiveness. Here's a simple rule: If someone can't clearly remember your category description a month after you meet them, they were never clear about what you do in the first place.

Clearly defining your category helps amplify your marketing and sales efforts. Think of what it would take to be the best – the leader – in your category. 

What is Your Unique Benefit over competitors ?

Your unique benefit should highlight the one (or two) main things your product or service actually delivers (benefits) that your target customer really wants, not a long list of all the things your product does .

Who is Your Competition?

When someone is looking to buy a solution to a problem, they will quickly make sense of the alternatives to compare against – your competition. 

You need to be clear in your own mind about what your biggest competitor is. 

Why Are You Different and Better for Your Target Customer?

Once you have defined your competition, make a list of all the things you do differently and better. Then rank each of them by how important these factors are to your target customer. 

Don't overcomplicate this. People just want to know one or two things to move their decision along. Is it cheaper? faster ?