Ask These Questions Before You Spend 1¢ on Marketing

Taylor Durham • October 14, 2023

It’s imperative to have a healthy budget for marketing as part of your business/operating expenses Before you spend any money on platform software, confusing keywords, or ads, ask yourself these questions:

  • Do you know your audience?
  • Have you outlined your target customer profile?
  • Can you effectively communicate/demonstrate your product or service to your audience?
  • What is your strategy for customer retention?
  • What is their preferred platform?
  • Who are the other products/services that my customers are attracted to?
  • Who is my competition on this platform?
  • What is my pitch?
  • What’s my positioning?
  • Why you, why now?


I hope this comes in handy the next time you’re thinking about your communications and marketing strategies. 


My name is Taylor Durham and I’m the Director of Marketing at Venture Lab, the University of Pennsylvania’s entrepreneurship hub for student venture development and the co-founder and chief creative officer at HoneyBlossom, a digital marketing company that works with small business owners to provide comprehensive creative and marketing services. In writing this series of articles, I’m hoping for one particular reason - to provide a set of accessible information on branding, digital marketing, and creative design. In this series, you’ll find various articles that provide tips, tricks, and best practices that any startup can apply with little to no cost. 

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