As a business owner, you know how valuable being good at marketing is. Yet, I have found working with business owners for the past 20 plus years that 99.9% of them have never defined what a good marketer is -- what it means in their terms.

Lets take a moment right now and think about what you are measuring yourself against. Without a measurement, you can't possibly know what you are shooting for and this will lead to a misconstrued representation or always believing you are never good enough or doing enough.

Yes, the best measurement of good marketing is the revenue you are receiving. Yes, theres nothing like the confirmation that people are opening their wallets to your business. Theres also feedback -- the testimonials -- they are good for pats on the back or to show other people that someone cares about what you offer. Is that it though? To most big companies it always the bottom line -- profit after taxes. Its how much the stockholders make or some other reference to money.

Yet for entrepreneurs who purposes when their own direction because they "wanted something more" what is the measurement. What is the "something more?" Okay, you want to be happy and have fun along way. Oops and before I forget to have balance between the business and the rest of your life.

Hey, I think we've made good progress so far in starting to define what your measurement definition of a "good marketer" is, didn't we? Not actually, we defined what you want for the whole business most of the time with a few exceptions, like the revenue. But what makes up a "good marketer" in your definition.

Great, I love challenges, don't you? Today, lets take a few minutes out sometime and ask ourselves, "What is my measurement of who I would be if I were a good marketer?" Here is a list of questions to guide you as you think through and create our own definition. On a scale of 1-10, give each of these a measurement of where you know you stand right at this moment.

1. How well do you think you know who you are selling to or who has purchased from you in the past?

2. How well do you KNOW the principles of marketing?

3. How well do you practice those principles?

4. How well does the public understand what you do?

5. How do you teach them what they need to know to understand what you do?

6. Are you leaving it up to someone else to do this, or have you taken it upon yourself to make sure you educate at every possible opportunity?

7. How well do you know what you are selling your uniqueness, your products uniqueness?

6. Do you change your marketing strategy frequently whenever you get tired of it?

7. Is the change timing when the market has changed or when you are tired of it?

8. Are you enjoying what you have accomplishments or beating yourself up for what is left to do?

9. Are you enjoying the learning process as fun or frustrating? Are you allowing additional time to learn and grow? Are you including the learning time to be included in with the "this needs to give me results" time? How are you measuring that growth?

10. Do you repeat your offers frequently? Did you know that the "open" rate of emails is only 48% on a good day and 8% on a bad day? The 48% rate is for opt-in material. This means that there are a low number of people taking the time to read your material most of the time. This is why it is important to repeat your messages. Yes, a few will read it several times, however, they will use the delete key quickly.

11.Are you commitment 100% to marketing when you do it? Are you playing full out when you are in marketing mode, or is your heart only half in it?

12.Is it making the money you expected?

13.Do you take "no" personally?

14.Do you take good care of your health and other parts of your life as well?

There are lots more questions that you may want to ask yourself. What you want to come up with are 5-7 measurements for you to measure yourself against. If you still are having problems with defining this for yourself, ask other people who you feel meet that description.

Is all of it dependent on "results" only? When I get" when I'm over there" when I have $X dollars in the bank, then I will be a good marketer.

When you know what you are shooting for you will not ever come short or overshoot. This will keep you focused, clear and very attractive in the universe. Especially since most of it is competing against you.

Catherine Franz

Catherine Franz, a Professional Marketing & Writing Coach, specializes in product development, Internet writing and marketing, nonfiction, training. Newsletters and articles available at web site.

Producer & Host Let's Talk Marketing Radio Show 10 a.m. Every Tuesday Eastern

When you want to play bigger, call me!