FREE MARKETING WORKSHEET

Stop Guessing at Marketing. Start with Strategy.

Eight questions every business owner should be able to answer before spending another dollar on marketing. Work through them in one sitting and find out whether you have a real marketing strategy or a collection of tactics.

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Clarify what you sell, who you sell it to, and why they should care

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Define the direct and transitional CTAs that actually move people to act

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Know your CAC, your competitors, and the differentiators that actually differentiate

Marketing without strategy is just spend. Answer the 8 questions first, then decide where your dollars go.

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Marketing Strategy Questionnaire Downloadable Worksheet

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WHO THIS IS FOR

Built for Business Owners Building Their First Real Marketing Strategy

This worksheet is for the owners, founders, and marketing leads who know their marketing needs more rigor and aren’t sure where to start.

✓ This Is For You If

  • You own or lead a small-to-mid-sized business and marketing has been running on instinct
  • You can’t clearly explain what you sell, who it’s for, or why someone should choose you — in one sentence
  • You’re spending on marketing but can’t confidently tell what’s working
  • You don’t know your customer acquisition cost, or you have a number and don’t trust it
  • You’re ready to stop chasing tactics and start with the strategy first

✕ This Isn’t For You If

  • You’re looking for a specific tactical playbook — ad templates, SEO checklists, or email swipe files
  • You already have a documented strategy, clear CAC, and defined ICP — this will feel basic
  • You want someone to hand you the answers rather than do the thinking yourself
  • You’re not yet at the point of having a real product or service to market
WHAT YOU’LL WORK THROUGH

Eight Questions. Three Parts. One Real Strategy.

The worksheet groups the eight questions into the three things every marketing strategy has to answer — who it’s for, how it converts, and why it wins.
PART 1 · FOUNDATION

Who You Are & Who You Serve

Three questions that force you to be specific about what you sell, why it matters, and exactly who you’re trying to reach. Nothing else in the worksheet works if these aren’t clear.

  • —What your business does, in one sentence
  • —The problem your business exists to solve
  • —Your target customer — and who is not
PART 2 · CONVERSION

How You Move People to Act

Three questions that connect the strategy to real marketing mechanics — the ask, the on-ramp, and the math that tells you whether any of it is working.

  • —Your direct call to action
  • —A transitional CTA for people not yet ready
  • —Your customer acquisition cost (CAC)
PART 3 · COMPETITION

Why You Win

Two questions that make your competitive position explicit — who you’re actually up against, and what genuinely separates you from them in the buyer’s eyes.

  • —Your top three competitors
  • —Three real differentiators — not platitudes
  • —The case for choosing you over them
THE THREE PILLARS

Every Marketing Strategy Answers Three Things

If a marketing plan can’t clearly answer all three, it isn’t a strategy yet; it’s a collection of activities hoping to add up to one.

PILLAR A

Audience

Everyone is not your customer. The more specifically you can describe who you’re for — demographics, psychographics, behavior, geography — the less money you’ll waste marketing to people who were never going to buy.

PILLAR B

Conversion

A direct CTA for people ready to buy. A transitional CTA for people who aren’t. And a CAC number you actually trust. Without these three, you can’t tell a working funnel from a leaking one.

PILLAR C

Differentiation

Name your top three competitors and three real differentiators. “Quality” and “service” don’t count — everyone claims those. Differentiators are the specific, provable reasons a buyer picks you instead of them.

Everyone is not your customer — and if you think they are, you’re going to waste a lot of money marketing to the wrong people.

FROM THE WORKSHEET · OTM PATH TO GROWTH®
Woman smiling in a tan shirt

Kerrie Luginbill, Partner/Chief Growth Officer

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

OTM is a marketing consultancy that helps clients improve their market positioning through business strategy and creative services that unlock growth, increase consumer demand, and ultimately grow the bottom line. The eight questions in this worksheet are the starting point we use with every new client — because no amount of tactical execution can outrun a missing strategy.

meetotm.com · Fort Collins, CO

BEFORE YOU DOWNLOAD

Questions, Answered

How long does this actually take to complete?
Plan for 30 to 60 minutes if you’re working through it solo. If you include a business partner, a salesperson, or whoever handles marketing day-to-day, plan for closer to 90. The disagreements that come up in the room are usually where the real insight hides.
Is this really free? What's the catch?
No catch. The worksheet is genuinely free and doesn’t require a credit card or a call. It’s the same starting point we use with new consulting clients — we’ve found that businesses who complete it on their own get real value, and a small number reach out when they want help operationalizing what comes out of it.
What if we can't answer some of the questions?
That’s the most common and most useful outcome. Every blank is a signal — it tells you exactly where your strategy is guessing. A worksheet full of confident answers means you already have a strategy. A worksheet with gaps tells you where the real work needs to happen.
Will you try to sell me something after I download?
You’ll get one email with the PDF attached, and an occasional note on marketing strategy and growth. If you want to talk with us about a consultation, there’s a link in the worksheet itself — but we don’t chase. One click unsubscribes you entirely.
Is this worksheet a full marketing plan?
No — and that’s the point. This is the strategic layer that has to exist before a marketing plan is worth building. Once these eight questions are answered, the tactics — channels, budget, content, campaigns — become decisions instead of guesses.

Answer the 8 Questions. Build the Strategy.

The worksheet is the first step. Once the eight answers are in front of you, the marketing decisions that used to feel like guesses start to feel like choices.

Get the Worksheet