Its crucial to know your prospects if you want to market effectively to them. Take this quick 10-point quiz to see how well you know and understand your prospects.

If you can't answer these questions, how can you be sure you are connecting with your audience in a relevant and meaningful way?

How can you be sure you are reaching them with a compelling message about your product or service?

How can you be sure you are tapping into the conversation they are already having inside their own head with respect to your product or service?

I would argue you can't. And if you can't do these things, your marketing will not be effective.

Let's see how you do answering the following 10 questions about your prospects or customers.

1. Who are they?

2. Where do they live ... work ... play?

3. What problem do they have that you can solve?

4. How does your product or service fit into their life?

5. What else do they buy in your product or service category?

6. Where do they get information regarding your product/service?

7. What is most important to them?

8. What are they most afraid of?

9. What is their emotional connection to your product/service?

10. How will they rationalize purchasing your product/service?

Howd you do? If you cant answer these questions, odds are your marketing message isnt connecting with your prospects. And if your message is not connecting with them, you wont be very successful in selling them on your product or service.

Take the time to get to know your customers and prospects. Learn all you can about them. Use this quiz as a guide. When you do youll be able to speak directly to their needs and concerns with your marketing, they will respond. And your business will thrive.

Copyright 2005 Debbie LaChusa

Debbie LaChusa

Debbie LaChusa is a marketing veteran with 20 years in the business. After 13 years in the advertising and marketing agency business, Debbie founded DLC Marketing, Inc., a marketing consulting and coaching business. Her goal? To give entrepreneurs and small business owners affordable access to the same high-level strategic marketing and advertising expertise that typically only large companies with big budgets can afford.

Debbie's commitment to making marketing expertise accessible to small business also led her to pursue speaking engagements and teaching. She has spoken at meetings and conventions across the United States and in Canada. She also is on the faculty of Wellcoaches Corporation, where she teaches wellness coach trainees around the world how to successfully market their new coaching practices.

Debbie has written and self-published two marketing workbooks, "A Step-by-Step Marketing Guide" and "A Step-by-Step Marketing Guide for Your Fitness Business" which have sold copies worldwide. Her advice is also featured in Entrepreneur Magazine's "How to Start a Personal Training Business," part of the magazine's Business Start-Up Series. And she is a contributor to the San Diego Business Journal.

Debbie created The 10stepmarketing? System to provide small business owners, coaches, consultants and other independent professionals with all the tools they need to market themselves.

This simple, step-by-step system, features an easy-to-use question-and-answer format that walks business owners through every step they need to take to develop and implement their own marketing plan designed to achieve the success they desire and deserve.

On a more personal note, Debbie LaChusa is a fraternal twin. In 2004 she launched Twin Connections, a web site that celebrates the unique and mysterious bond shared by twins. She collects twin stories and hopes to compile them into a book.