How does a smaller business disrupt and displace larger competitors? How does David take down a Goliath today?  When I first started working with Peter Lewis and Progressive Insurance many years ago, this was the question that got me thinking. Today I might ask how can digital marketing help you dominate your competition?

It’s been over 25 years since I was first asked that question. It still keeps me up at night. It still makes me get up every morning attacking my day, working with clients. I’m still asking my clients this question.  I’m still getting amazing answers.

Digital marketing has an ability to disrupt your marketplace very quickly.  Here are twelve questions you should be asking today if you hope to change the way your market does business.  Take time to share them with your team. Then next week, I’ll start sharing several ideas to answer each of these questions on how you might apply these concepts to expand your business. You might be surprised by how I see digital marketing and its role in growing your organization.

1. Do you know what your customer is really buying?
2. Are you using big data and analytics to develop a better understanding of your clients’ world?
3. How quickly can your team go from insight to action?
4. What would your clients or customers say about their experiences with your company?
5. How often do your customers identify new market opportunities?
6. When was the last time a new project failed?
7. Are you leveraging your people’s impact through technology?
8. Are you putting people at critical junctures in the customers’ buying journey?
9. Does your marketing content support regular interaction with your clients?
10. Are you automating your client nurturing process?
11. Does your message ever disrupt the key stakeholders in your clients?
12. Are you building customer loyalty and retention?

So what do you think? Do these questions get you thinking? How would you answer these questions today? Has your answer changed over the past five years? If you’re like many of my clients, their view has been evolving and changing constantly. Successful digital marketing can help you with these challenges.

Starting next week, I hope to share why and how digital marketing can change your relationship with your clients, partners, and key stakeholders. See you next Tuesday.