The Five Questions Every Business Should Answer Before Spending on Marketing
Short answer: Before spending on marketing, make sure you can answer five questions clearly: who you are, what you do, why customers should choose you, where you work, and when you are available. If any one is unclear, customers notice, even if they cannot say why.
Who are you?
This is your identity. It is how people talk about you, and the name they share when they give you a referral. Put your name on everything, and say it early and often.
What do you do?
This is your focus, and the work you have put your time into becoming a professional at. Say it in plain words, so a customer knows within seconds what you are doing.
Why should someone choose you?
This is your slogan, your statement, or your guarantee: whatever sets you apart from your competition and gives a customer a reason to choose you. The U.S. Small Business Administration describes competitive analysis as the way to make your business unique (see the SBA’s guide). Your “why” is the answer.
Where do you work?
This is your service area, whether a city, a county, a state, or the whole country. It is the distance you are willing to go for business. Say it plainly so that the wrong customers do not waste your time and the right ones know they can reach you.
When are you available?
This is your availability: your service hours, or whenever the customer is ready to buy. Make it easy to reach you at exactly that moment, with a phone number, a booking link, or a form that you answer quickly.
How can you check your answers?
- Ask a customer to describe your business in one sentence, and compare it with yours
- Look at your website’s home page and check that all five are visible
- Check that your social profiles, your Google listing, and your emails give the same answers
What do good answers look like?
Vague answers are the most common problem. Here is a comparison for a made-up mobile dog groomer, to show the difference between a weak answer and a strong one. The business is an illustration, not a real client.
| Question | A weak answer | A strong answer |
|---|---|---|
| Who | “A family-run company” | “Paws on Wheels Mobile Grooming,” said the same way everywhere |
| What | “Pet services” | “Mobile dog grooming for busy owners” |
| Why | “Quality service at great prices” | “We come to your door, and you hear the price before we start” |
| Where | “Serving the area” | “Booked by ZIP code, within 25 miles of downtown” |
| When | “Call us” | “Open six days a week, with online booking any time” |
The strong answers are specific enough that a stranger could repeat them, and specific enough that a competitor could not say the same thing.
What mistakes do businesses make with each question?
- Who: using a different name or spelling on each platform, so people cannot find you again.
- What: listing everything you do, or using industry jargon, instead of leading with the one thing you want to be known for.
- Why: claiming “quality” and “service,” which every competitor claims too.
- Where: leaving your service area vague, so the wrong customers call and the right ones are unsure.
- When: hiding your hours, or making people wait for a callback when they are ready now.
Where do the five answers show up in your marketing?
- Your website: the headline says what you do, the first paragraph says who you are and why you are different, and the contact area covers where and when. See how to tell if your website is working.
- Your social profiles: the bio repeats all five in a sentence or two.
- Your listings and emails: the same name, description, and hours appear everywhere.
- Your ads: each ad says what you do, why to choose you, and what to do next.
- Your blog: every post repeats your identity and ends with the next step.
How do the five answers fit together?
Once you have the five answers, you can combine them into a single sentence. This template is a useful test of whether they are clear:
[Who] provides [what] for [your customers]. [Why you], serving [where], available [when].
Using the dog groomer from earlier, it becomes: “Paws on Wheels Mobile Grooming provides dog grooming for busy owners. We come to your door and tell you the price before we start, serving customers within 25 miles of downtown, six days a week with online booking any time.” If your own sentence sounds clunky or generic, one of the five answers needs more work.
What does an unclear answer cost you?
The cost shows up in small, easy-to-miss ways. A visitor lands on your website and cannot tell what you do, so they leave. An ad promises one thing and the page says another. A customer wants to refer you but cannot remember your name. A prospect sees no hours and decides to call a competitor instead.
Each of these is a sale that did not happen, and none of them appears in a report. That is why we begin with these five questions before recommending anything that costs money, and why a good marketing audit checks them first.
How can you put this to work this week?
- Write a one-sentence answer to each of the five questions.
- Ask a customer to describe your business, and compare their words with yours.
- Update the top of your website to match.
- Update your social bios, listings, and email signature.
- Save the five sentences in one place, so anyone who writes for you uses the same words.
Once the answers are clear, the next step is to turn them into a plan. See a simple marketing plan for a business with no marketing department and how much a small business should spend on marketing.
Frequently asked questions
Why start here before ads or a new website?
Because every ad, post, and page repeats these answers. If they are unclear, you pay to spread an unclear message.
Do all businesses need all five?
Yes. A one-person shop and a hundred-person company both need them. Only the details change.
How long should each answer be?
One sentence for the version people read quickly, and a short paragraph for your About page. If you cannot say it in a sentence, it is probably not clear yet.
What if I serve different kinds of customers?
Answer the five questions once for each main type of customer, and keep your name and your promise the same across all of them. The details change, but who you are does not.
Can my answers change over time?
Yes, and they should when your business changes. Review them once or twice a year, and any time you add a service, change your prices, or expand where you work. When they change, update every place they appear so the message stays consistent.
Who should write the answers?
You should, or at least decide them. A marketer can help you sharpen the wording, but only you know what you promise and what you will deliver. The best versions are in your own words, tested on a real customer.
These five questions are where we begin with every client. See how we answer them for ourselves on our home page, then request a free audit and we will help you answer yours.
