17 Questions Worth Answering to Transform Strategies into Victories This Q2

Leaders and managers at every level typically dedicate time to develop a report for the past quarter. This moment offers a chance to honestly reflect on your achievements and strategies, not in isolation but together with your TEAM. Why?

WHAT WORKS IN YOUR STRATEGY AND TACTICS?

From my experiences as a manager, consultant, and lecturer, I’ve observed a common oversight: directors and managers often concentrate exclusively on strategic and business-level objectives — like marketing leads and MQLs, or sales deals and their sizes — without crafting a framework for their teams to evaluate the entire funnel and the micro-goals that contribute to these overarching aims.

This methodology frequently excludes team members from the analytical process, leading to a separation between:

a) the business level: concentrating on the quantity and quality of deals or leads, crucial to board members.

b) marketing channels: evaluated through metrics such as likes, followers on social media, CPC in paid campaigns across various platforms, and newsletter open rates, among others.

So, where does the business-marketing alignment fit in? Here, a GAP often appears, with “magic” expected to fill it.

DON’T TELL PEOPLE WHAT TO DO, TEACH THEM

How can you inspire your team to consider the business-marketing perspective? Instead of issuing orders, focus on teaching. The absence of involvement in critical thinking and measurement not only removes team responsibility and ownership but also risks leading to micromanagement, where only a few grasp the business direction and the interconnections.

I strongly support engaging the team and educating both groups and individuals in their areas of expertise on how their efforts affect other channels and marketing as a whole. This approach is challenging; it’s tempting to opt for shortcuts and simply dictate tasks rather than imparting knowledge.

However, the wider the business and marketing perspective your team adopts, the more self-sufficient they become, liberating you to concentrate on strategy and long-term planning beyond just the next quarter.

In a fragmented marketing playground, it’s easy to delay or downplay the importance of analytical reporting, often leading to decisions based on gut feeling — which, while sometimes beneficial, usually leaves teams lacking in essential answers.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS WORTH EXPLORING WITH YOUR TEAM

These are 17 key research questions to answer. In every one of them, pose some additional ones.

What do we aim to analyze? What hypotheses do we have? What do we wish to test? Thus, which indicators can reveal our progress or highlight what’s working well or not?

Consider these marketing questions (or analogies for your specific area), divided into topics.

CAMPAIGNS

1. Which campaign achieves the highest conversion to MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead)? Why?
2. Which campaign excels in converting MQLs to deals? Why?

CONVERSION

1. Which channel secures the most MQL conversions?
2. What is the overall conversion rate from users to MQL? How can it be enhanced?
3. What is the overall conversion rate from MQL to deal? How can we improve this?
4. What percentage of users return to the website/an app, and within what timeframe? How can we boost this metric?
5. What is the conversion rate from external publications/events/PR to deals?
6. During which months do conversions peak? How can we enhance this? Strategies for off-season improvement?

COSTS

1. What is the cost of acquiring an MQL? How can we lower this?
2. What is the cost of closing a deal? How can this be reduced?

USERS

1. Who are our most frequent converters? Can we detail their demographics?
2. What challenges are they typically resolving?
3. How do MQLs engage before conversion?

CONTENT

1. Which content pieces are instrumental in converting individuals?
2. How engaged are users with our website/blog content (returning, scrolling, engaging further)?
3. Which posts spark the highest engagement on social media? Why?
4. Which untapped channels could attract valuable users?

Identifying underutilized channels and devising strategies to leverage various platforms for brand recognition are pivotal. Pinpointing the correct indicators, tools, and data points is essential for understanding these dynamics.

If you’re intrigued by how to efficiently manage your marketing executive dashboards, navigate through hypotheses, OKRs, and KPIs, don’t hesitate to reach out directly or leave a comment.

Here’s to achieving your Q2 goals and crafting strategies for success!

Best,

Klaudia