The answer to all of your marketing questions is...

Later today I get the pleasure of speaking at The Idea Village. The Idea Village was formed in 2002 here in New Orleans with the mission to identify, support and retain entrepreneurial talent in New Orleans by providing business resources to high-impact ventures. My job today is to answer questions that were posed by their current class of entrepreneurs.

To prep me for today the Idea Village folks sent me a list of questions these entrepreneurs had for a marketing/advertising agency. As I looked over the list, I saw a number of questions that you hear a lot in our business.

•    Where would the best places for us to advertise be?
•    What mediums are best in driving sales? Print, electronic, etc.
•    Do catalogs work? When is it worth the expense to create and mail a catalog?
•    Do I need to advertise or is word-of-mouth direct calling right?
•    What are the most effective/economical forms of advertising?
•    What strategy should we be taking for advertising with little or no money?
•    Which marketing outlet works best for a beverage brand other than sampling?
•    What is the most effective way to generate online sales?

Take a second and read that list again. But this time ask yourself, "what is the common theme?"

So what was your theme? Mine was "silver bullet" as in each of these questions wants a simple answer that is the same for everyone. Problem is, that just doesn't exist in our business does it?

So my answer to all of these questions is the same.

My answer is...Depends. Yes, that is the answer I'd give to each of these questions...depends. Depends on your product/service, category, brand, lifecycle of your brand, etc., etc. Everything in marketing depends because this is part science and part art that plays out in a dynamic environment (life).

So instead of giving them answers, my plan is to teach them how to think about each of these questions. Arm them with knowledge and context.

Here is the deck I'll be presenting in case you're curious. In the meantime (like between now and 3pm today), if you have any thoughts you think would be beneficial to these brave souls... share them with me? I'd love to fold them in and make this an even more valuable preso for the companies. I'll post a video of the presentation on Friday.

The Answer to All of Your Marketing Questions

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photo by: Jacob Bøtter