Author: Franz Malten Buemann

SMS marketing has quickly become an essential channel for businesses. Here are seven best practices to help you make the most of it.
If you’re like the average American, you spend around 36 minutes using your smartphone to text or call people every day. Most of these communications are done without a thought. However, the rapid-fire texting you do with your friends isn’t appropriate for marketing communications.
SMS marketing is one of the more interruptive ways of communicating with consumers because people feel compelled to read text messages. The 2020 Mobile Consumer Engagement report by Sinch found that 2 in 5 consumers have more than 50 unread emails in their inbox, but only around 2 in 50 have more than 50 unread texts. Many bulk SMS providers emphasize high open rates as one of the best features of text message marketing. We see it as a sign of higher stakes.
Our team here at Campaign Monitor gathered a list of SMS marketing best practices to help you meet consumers’ expectations as you launch your text message marketing campaigns. Success requires following regular marketing rules while considering how consumers interact with texts. Your customers are likely to unsubscribe from your texts if you don’t fit into their inboxes. Follow these SMS marketing tips to make sure your texts are a welcome interruption.
1. Sign up for a short code
Messaging a 5- or 6-digit short code to sign up for marketing texts is easier for consumers than texting a 10-digit phone number. That’s not the only reason to get a short code, either. These numbers have been pre-approved by cell phone carriers to send 100 messages per second. Long codes (10-digit numbers) can send 1 message per second and may get filtered if they send too many texts in a row.
Any company can get a short code via the U.S. Short Code Registry, which is run by the wireless trade association CTIA. You’ll need to develop your marketing campaign and submit an official application to be approved for a short code. This vetting process upholds the trustworthiness of marketing text messages by protecting consumers against spam.
While you wait for approval, you can prep for your mobile marketing launch by building your SMS list.
2. Comply with all laws and industry guidelines
Calling legal compliance an “SMS marketing best practice” may be generous, as it’s actually more of a necessity.
U.S. legislation, including CAN-SPAM and the TCPA, have clauses that apply to SMS message marketers. Many states have their own laws that apply to SMS marketing. You can download a state-by-state guide from the Contact Center Compliance Corporation. The CTIA’s Short Code Monitoring Handbook lays out more rules in its compliance framework.
Set yourself up for compliance by:

Getting documented permission from consumers before sending any text messages and preserving it for at least six months after they’ve opted out of SMS communications
Making your sign-up CTAs clear so consumers know what you’ll text them and how many messages they can expect each month
Setting up a double opt-in, where consumers must respond to a text or click a link before they’re confirmed on your list
Including a disclaimer about message and data rates in your sign-up message, if not every SMS you send
Including your company name in every message you send to identify it as a marketing communication
Sending your texts during business hours — typically between 8 AM and 9 PM local time

If you’re not sure whether a certain message is legal, err on the side of safety.
3. Use SMS for important and immediate messages
The best SMS marketing campaigns offer consistent value to everyone on your contact list. Send time-sensitive info (like a flash sale announcement) or critical updates (like shipping notifications or two-step authentication codes) via text to improve consumers’ relationships with your brand.
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We also recommend adding an element of exclusivity by rewarding subscribers with special offers. SMS-only coupons and free shipping are great perks to entice sign-ups and keep consumers on your list. Show readers the benefits of being on your list by including a clear CTA in each message.
4. Watch your send frequency
The optimal frequency for most text campaigns is one message a week. Start there — and then try varying your message cadence once you have a big enough contact list to gather meaningful data. If you know your target audience well, you might risk starting with a higher send frequency. Just don’t get too spammy. Upland data shows there’s a significant increase in unsubscribe rates once a brand reaches the threshold of 10-15 messages a month.
The reason message cadence is so important goes back to what we mentioned earlier about text messages interrupting your customers. Everything you send must be worth an immediate read. If it’s not, you’re betraying the trust your consumers put in you when they shared their phone numbers. Triggered marketing texts or automated message flows must be built with this in mind. Ask yourself whether drip campaigns and follow-ups are worth increasing the number of messages your customers receive.
5. Be concise without sacrificing clarity
Do U want 2 rcv a msg that lyk dis from ur fave brand? Neither do we. Text speak is annoying and unprofessional. Avoid abbreviations where possible because they make texts harder to read. Stick to common ones if you must use them.
Take this example from Ulta: Instead of writing out “24-piece,” the company wrote “24 PC.” Most people can figure out what the message means, but it takes time to translate. The capitalization doesn’t help — a PC is, to most, a computer.
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Make the best of your limited space by starting with something exciting. Flag a sale as “4 hours only!” or let SMS subscribers know when a deal is on its way out by telling them it’s their “LAST CALL” to shop. You can also just start with the goods. “BOGO” and “50% off” are things customers love to hear. Crafting the perfect SMS marketing message takes more time than you have characters, but doing it right pays off.
6. Lean into the conversational feeling
Your text message marketing efforts should respect the medium’s primary purpose: conversation. Readers should feel like you’re talking to them, even if you don’t do two-way messaging.
Start by using personalization and segmentation to send messages that reflect consumers’ interests and past behaviors. Then, write a text message, not a subject line. Messages should sound like they’re for one person rather than your entire marketing list.
The following efforts from bebe and Sally Beauty show why these details matter. One reads naturally and creates a connection with the customer. The other is a pain to scan and looks like a mass text sent by a computer.
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Autoresponders and transactional messages allow you to go above and beyond to create a true conversational experience. However, providing real-time responses takes more resources than one-way SMS blasts. Make sure you can commit to delivering a good experience if you enable two-way communications. It’s better to only run promotional campaigns than to mess up a conversational exchange.
7. Use SMS as part of an omnichannel strategy
Your SMS marketing strategy can benefit from integration with other marketing efforts. If you have a CX or CRM system, connect it to your SMS marketing software to take advantage of existing data and add new insights. The lessons you learn from other customer interactions can guide your text message marketing efforts. Likewise, SMS campaigns may surface interesting data points that point to new opportunities elsewhere.
Successful omnichannel marketing means sending the right message via the right medium. Not everyone will sign up for SMS, which means you can’t rely on it as a primary mode of reaching people. Given the other constraints we’ve discussed — namely message length and frequency limits — SMS works best when integrated with email, social media, and other marketing tools.
Rules are made to be broken
You can build SMS message marketing campaigns off existing customer data, but preferences aren’t interchangeable between vastly different channels. What works in emails may not work in texts. We suggest abiding by SMS marketing best practices until you have hard data that shows you should diverge from them. Stick to what everyone else does until your list is big enough to return meaningful insights.
All campaigns and marketing strategies evolve over time, and as consumers become more used to SMS marketing, their preferences may change. Keep testing what your audience responds to. Achieving a high open rate isn’t enough to win — it’s what you do with your customers’ attention once you have it that matters.
The post 7 SMS Marketing Best Practices to Know Before You Hit “Send” appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

In the world of search engine marketing (SEM), more and more marketers are buying into PPC campaigns. Google Ads specifically has increased its revenue from year to year. In 2021, Google advertising revenue accounted for $53.1 billion — 81% of Alphabet’s overall sales.
Properly investing in PPC can result in nearly guaranteed ad placement in the search engine result pages of their choice. And this placement can help generate leads. If your ads tool is tightly integrated with your CRM, you can even leverage ads data to nurture these leads across their buyer’s journey.

As you prepare to create a PPC campaign, it’s important to get a rundown of what a successful campaign entails and identify management missteps that you’ll want to avoid.

Building a successful PPC campaign includes a few key steps:

Determine your PPC campaign structure.
Identify, build, and refine your campaign’s landing pages.
Create a keyword strategy based on your research.
Create ads based on insights from the steps above.
Share your campaign plan with stakeholders.

The problem is, many marketers have poor PPC campaign management, which ends up costing them way more money than they need to spend and delivering underwhelming lead generation results.
Here are a few ways marketers could go wrong with PPC campaign management:

Coming up with keywords on the fly without doing prior research.
Only building one basic campaign without utilizing Google Ads’ Ad Groups tool.
Attaching unengaging landing pages — or a homepage that generates no leads — to the campaign.
Not adding “negative keywords” or monitoring campaigns to avoid wasting budget.
Creating campaigns, setting budget caps, and going live without telling internal or external stakeholders.

So, how do you manage a PPC campaign properly so that you get leads at a reasonable cost? It comes down to intelligent campaign structure.
How do you master intelligent campaign structure? You use a template!

You can get started managing your own PPC campaign by using our template.
PPC Campaign Management Template

We’ve created a free PPC campaign management template that will help you and your clients set up a full-funnel campaign structure that follows PPC best practices. Once you do that, you’ll be better positioned to maximize the return on your PPC investment. The template is broken down into two sections: Ads Planner and Ads Results.
Ads Planner Template
In this section of the template, you’ll record all of your ad campaign information. In the first 3 columns on the left-hand side, input your campaign name, keywords, and negative keywords (keywords you don’t want ads shown for).
The next section to right will hold all of your ad variations. There’s room for multiple headlines, descriptions, and URL paths to help you keep track of all of the ads you’re running.
Ads Results Template
This part of the template will easily allow you to track all of the campaign metrics you need. Total cost, impressions, conversions, cost per click information, and more can be recorded here to help you analyze performance.

Now that you’re familiar with our template components, let’s look at managing your PPC campaign.
How to Manage a PPC Campaign
If you’re running PPC campaigns for someone who doesn’t understand the importance of an organized campaign structure, this template will also act as a PPC campaign management task checklist that will enlighten your boss or clients.

We’re going to show you how to use that PPC template in this blog post — so download it now and follow along.
Before we get started, let’s go over a few tips that’ll make using this template even easier:

You will want to clear out the example data I have in the template such as keywords, campaign and AdGroup names, ads, and destination URLs.
Be careful not to erase columns E, G, and I. They contain formulas that will help you in subsequent steps.
Click on the red markers in the top corners of the cells. They contain helpful tips and FAQs. If you ever forget what a cell is used for, they will remind you.

Step 1: Choose your PPC campaign management tools and software.
There are several places to begin your PPC campaign strategy, but my advice would be to start with one platform and expand to another until you cover each channel your audience visits. This tactic works because it keeps your costs low in the initial stages of PPC planning. Rather than paying for an external campaign management tool, you can manage your campaigns natively within the platform on which you’re running the ads.
However, as you expand your strategy to include more sites, you’ll want to scale to a PPC campaign management software that can help you keep track of each platform, each budget, and each set of creative all in one place.
Here are some of our favorite tools for the job:

Marin Software: Integrates with Google and Facebook — two of the most popular PPC platforms.
Wordstream Advisor: Analyzes Google and Facebook ad spend for you to keep you on budget.
SpyFu: Analyze your competitor’s campaigns to build a well-rounded strategy.

Step 2: Understand PPC campaign structure.
Before we do anything with this template, it’s important to understand PPC campaign structure. Far too many marketers will just set up an account, create an ad, direct the ad to their home page, pick some keywords and hit go. This is not the way to do things.
With Google Ads, you have the opportunity to create multiple campaigns. Each campaign may contain several AdGroups, and each AdGroup may contain a few ads and multiple, similar keywords.
It’s wise to create multiple campaigns because you can set daily budget caps, day-parting, and select geo-targeted regions at the campaign level. If you’re bidding on generic keywords and branded keywords, you’ll want to put these in separate campaigns because the economics around these two types of keywords will likely be very different.
As you can see, your template reflects these best practices, providing space for several different campaigns, AdGroups, and ad variations within those AdGroups.
Download this Template Free
Step 3: Identify your landing pages.
The “Destination URL” is the place on your website where you want the PPC traffic to end up. Because there is a marginal cost associated with each PPC visitor you attract, I recommend you choose a landing page URL as your destination URL.
Do not drive them to your home page or a blog in hopes that they will stumble upon a lead generation form. That’s the job of organic search. Drive them to a landing page with a form on it. Don’t forget to put in a tracking token so you know where these leads are coming from.

You will notice that the Destination URL within the AdGroup is the same regardless of the keyword or ad. If you really want to drive a keyword to a different landing page, then create another AdGroup. If you want to get even more specific, create another campaign for that keyword.
You should also keep your sales funnel in mind when you identify these landing pages. Think about which part of the sales funnel each landing page and offer speaks to.
For example, an educational PDF about an industry concept would be appropriate for a top-of-the-funnel offer, while a coupon or a demo would be at the bottom of the funnel.
Manage and create separate campaigns for each part of the funnel. If you scroll down in your template, you’ll see that there’s dedicated space allotted for campaigns in all of these funnel stages.

Step 4: Build your keyword strategy.
Next, select the keywords that are relevant to the landing page and offer. Make sure to keep them as relevant as possible to increase the chance that each visitor you pay for completes the form on the landing page.
Yes, it would be nice to rank for certain keywords, but if the landing page doesn’t answer the keyword query, think twice. Or better yet, create another offer and landing page that speaks more directly to the keyword.

Download this Template Free
To understand search volumes and costs around each keyword you want to select, you can use free tools like the Google Ads Keyword Tool or — if you’re a HubSpot customer — our keywords tool.
If this is your first time managing a PPC campaign, it would be wise to read up on how to design a keyword strategy. In the case of Google Ads, you might also want to learn more about keyword quality scores.
Step 5: Create your ads.
This is the fun part! Both Google Ads and Microsoft Ads allow you to create more than one ad for each Ad Group (hence the “group” terminology). The service will rotate them until it notices that one appears to drive a higher clickthrough rate (CTR). This is how A/B (and C and D) testing works. While this is optional, you should take advantage of the ability to create more than one ad.
Keep in mind that you are allotted 25 characters for the title of the ad, 35 characters for the display URL (the URL that’s displayed in the ad, not to be confused with the destination URL), and 35 characters for each line of copy. But if you’re using this template, we’ll keep track of that for you.

In my experience, the title has the greatest influence on an ad’s CTR. It’s wise to include a keyword in the headline to draw a user’s attention to your ad. An even better practice would be to use dynamic keyword insertion.
A good rule of thumb is to simply try to provide a cohesive experience for searchers — from seeing your ad in the search engine results to completing the form on your landing page — everything should align with the goal of getting them to click through.

Finally, there’s the tricky matter of the display URL. You’re only allowed 35 characters here, but it’s unlikely that your destination URL, the actual URL for your landing page, will be that short. So the search engines allow you to create a display URL, which may not even be an actual URL on your website. The domain in your display URL must be the same as the domain in your destination URL so that users end up in the right place when they click.
Step 6: Share the completed template with stakeholders.
Whether you’re doing PPC for your business or a client, your completed template will ensure alignment between the stakeholders’ expectations with the realities of a productive PPC campaign. If you’re the stakeholder of a PPC campaign, this template will help you think about what you’re doing with the money you’re spending on PPC.
By doing so, you’ll have created a congruous user experience that search engines like to see. This can benefit you in terms of your positioning in the SERPs and, ultimately, your costs. It will also grant you the agility you need to swiftly reallocate and modify your budget as you respond to changes in the marketplace, and drive the maximum return on your PPC spend.
How to Optimize Your PPC Campaign
PPC campaign management isn’t as easy as using a one-time strategy. You’ll need to continually adjust your methods for optimized results. Here are a few things to keep in mind to ensure your campaigns are performing their best.
Location
Geographic targeting is used often in PPC management. You can analyze performance based on location by examining where your resources are being used and whether or not they are profitable. This way you can exclude areas that don’t perform.
For example, if you own a bike shop, targeting areas that are more urban and densely populated may be a better use of your funds than targeting rural areas where most folks need a car to get around.
Performance by Device
Campaigns that are effective on desktop users may not perform as well on mobile users. Consider targeting each group separately to see if there are differences in conversion rate.
If you find that a particular campaign works better on mobile versus desktop, consider allocating funds towards your moble efforts and try a different campaign for desktop users. This way you can ensure that your budget is being spent in areas that have proven to be successful.
Removing Keywords
When running campaigns, not all keywords chosen will prove useful. You’ll need to remove the low performers. These could be keywords that:

Are converting at a very high cost
Have a quality score rating of “below average”
Not converting

Keywords with the above traits should be removed in favor of ones that are performing well so you can ensure that your budget is being spent wisely.
Examine Keyword Bids
When bidding for keywords, you’ll want to determine how much you can pay for each conversion and still make a profit. Google Ads has several tools to help you optimize your bids including:

Bid simulator: This allows you to see how bidding higher or lower can affect the ad’s performance.
First-page bid estimates: This shows how much you likely need to bid to get your ads within the first page of Google search results.

Once you determine the max you can pay for a particular keyword, these tools will help you make the most of your budget.
Performance by Day and Time
Campaign performance will fluctuate depending on the time of day or day of the week. You’ll want to take note of when they perform well and when they don’t. If they aren’t performing during a certain timeframe, you can adjust so that you are only bidding on the most profitable times.
Now that you know how to optimize your campaigns to get the best results, let’s explore the platforms available for running your PPC campaigns.
PPC Campaign Management
Understanding where your audience is spending most of their time online is key, in addition to figuring out what kind of ads work best for your business. It’s imperative to familiarize yourself with the different platforms available to run your PPC campaigns. Let’s continue by looking at some of the most prominent online ad platforms: Google, Microsoft (Bing), Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
Google PPC Campaign Management
Google has been the dominant player in the search engine space for more than 20 years and it still produces some of the most innovative ad experiences on the market. Here’s a look at a couple of the most popular ways to serve ads on Google.
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Google Search Ads
One of the most popular types of Google Ads is the search ad. These ads appear at the top and bottom of the search results for specific keywords that you bid on. Google search ad campaigns are usually run with the goal of driving traffic to a specific webpage — like a landing or product page.
Google Display Ads
Have you ever visited a website that has advertising on the banner, sidebar, or footer of the page? Then you’ve probably crossed paths with a Google display ad. These types of ads are typically visual, featuring colorful graphics, videos, and sometimes audio. Google display ads are helpful for retargeting customers who have visited your website before without making a purchase.
Microsoft Ads (Formerly Bing Ads) PPC Campaign Management
Overall, Microsoft Ads works very similarly to Google Ads. However, here are a few tips that can help get the most out of your PPC campaign strategy for Microsoft Ads.
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Bing Keyword Suggestions
If the bulk of your PPC efforts live in Google Ads and you decide to start bidding on Microsoft Ads, you might be tempted to use the same keywords that you’re already bidding on in Google. The issue here is that Google and Bing are different search engines and it’s possible that your Google keywords won’t see the same search volume in Bing.
Bing’s keyword research and suggestion tool will give you more accurate search volumes for your keywords. You can still use your original list of keywords from Google to start with, but utilize this tool to verify whether you should be bidding on the same keywords, or something similar that yields more traffic.
Lower CPC
Ad bids can end up being quite costly for a business so many marketers are constantly working to decrease ad spend. Wordstream tested the cost of running ads on both search engines and found that Bing’s average CPC was 33% lower than Google’s. Since bidding on Microsoft Ads is less competitive in comparison to Google, it’s likely that you won’t end up spending as much of your budget on this platform.
So if you’re able to find a high MSV keyword to bid on there’s a good chance that you’ll see a positive shift in your return on investment. This may be especially true for specific industries. The table below shows the average industry CPC according to Microsoft Ads.

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For a deeper dive into Microsoft Ads check out this tutorial.
Facebook PPC Campaign Management
Facebook Ads Manager is a platform that connects 1.6 billion people worldwide to businesses on Facebook. It’s a great tool to target specific audiences and to promote brand presence.
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Some of the most popular ads you can incorporate into your Facebook campaigns are:
Story Ads
Stories are thriving on social media platforms, so why not develop a few ads to meet your audience where they’re already spending time?
Stories are only posted for 24 hours so these types of ads are best to use when you have a specific promotion occurring. Like personal stories, story ads can be shared in the form of a video with a link or a series of still photos that lead the viewer to take a specific action.
Playable Ads
Gamification is always an innovative way to catch a lead’s attention. Facebook’s playable ads allow you to create a brief interactive version of a game or app so users can get a feel for what your product is like.
You’ll want to keep the functionality as simple as possible, so you won’t deter any potential customers, and of course, make it fun!
Messenger Ads
If you’ve ever used Facebook’s messenger tool, you’ve probably seen an ad appear among your conversations. The great thing about this is that a potential customer could choose to instantly connect with your business directly from their messages.
So, if you have a sales customer service team that connects with people via chat this is a great way to establish an instant connection. You can also send a lead to your site or a specific landing page from the ad.
To start building your own ad campaign on Facebook check out HubSpot’s Facebook Ads Training Course.
Twitter PPC Campaign Management
Twitter Ads Manager makes it easy to plan the ad you’d like to run on Twitter while providing reporting on campaign performance.
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People spend 26% more time viewing ads on Twitter than on any other leading platform, so you’ll want your ads to be catchy enough to stop someone mid-scroll. Some of the types of ads you can include in your Twitter campaign are:
Promoted Tweets
The only difference between a regular tweet and a promoted tweet is that you’re spending money for the promoted tweet to appear in the feeds of people who aren’t following your business. This allows your business to convert users, or simply gain new followers which will help with your brand’s awareness
Promoted Moments
Twitter moments are several tweets that focus on a specific topic or event. Essentially you want this collection of tweets to communicate a story for your audience. These are great for more fun or trendy topics since Moments includes categories such as trending, sports, entertainment, and more.
Promoted Trends
If you’re someone that loves seeing what’s trending on Twitter you may want to experiment with promoting a trend for your target audience to interact with. This will be displayed in the timeline, the explore tab, and the “Trends for you section.”
Once someone clicks on the promoted trend they’ll see various search results for the specific trend or topic and your brand’s promoted Tweet. If your business has identified an engaged Twitter audience you may be sitting on an untapped goldmine.
Learn more about Twitter Ads Manager for your business and get to tweeting!
YouTube PPC Campaign Management
Including YouTube in your ad campaign strategies is a must. If your business can create something catchy enough to convince someone not to click ‘skip,’ you’re already winning.
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As part of the Google Display Network, YouTube has become a core part of marketers’ ad strategies. With over a billion active users and the ability to be accessed in 76 languages, there’s no denying that YouTube is reaching a massive amount of people on a daily basis.
Let’s take a look at some of the different types of Youtube ads.
Skippable In-Stream Ads
These are probably the ads that you’re most familiar with already because we’ve all clicked that magical little button that says “skip ads” to start viewing what we searched for as soon as possible.
The ads can play before the ad even begins, which means the viewer never sees it, or they’ll have to wait five seconds before they can skip. Five seconds isn’t much time to convince some not to hit skip, so make sure the hook of your ad is immediately enticing. The good thing about this is that if they skip within those first five seconds, you don’t have to pay for the ad.
Non-Skippable In-Stream Ads (Including Bumper Ads)
Since so many people opt to skip ads on YouTube, advertisers have the option to create non-skippable ads. If you’ve developed a strong creative as you feel will resonate with your target audience this may be the option for you.
However, make sure that you’re avidly measuring results to ensure you’re getting what you’re paying for. If the results aren’t in your favor, you may want to revert to a skippable ad instead.
Video Discovery Ads (Formerly Known as In-Display Ads)
Discovery ads are what users see in the search results. Remember, YouTube is the second largest search engine and shows more than 1 billion hours of video to users each day – so you’ll want those ads appearing in search results too!
These ads will include a thumbnail and a few lines of text as a description. Since many people prefer visuals over text this is an opportunity to get someone to view your video instead of reading a competitor’s textual resource.
Start Your PPC Campaign Today
PPC management is all about researching, budgeting, testing, reporting, and doing it over until you get the results you need. You don’t have to do it alone, though. With the right tools and instructions outlined in this guide, you’ll be able to implement a PPC campaign that yields results for your business.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in May 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Compound Annual Growth Rate, CAGR, is your rate of return for an investment over a specific period.
Calculating CAGR by hand is a rather involved process, so below we’ll go over how you can quickly calculate CAGR in Excel.

CAGR Excel Formula
The formula for calculating CAGR in Excel is:
=(End Value/Beginning Value) ^ (1/Number of Years) – 1
The equation uses three different values:

End value, which is the amount of money you’ll have after the period has passed.
Beginning value, which is the amount of money you began with.
Number of years, which is the total number of years that have passed.

Below we’ll go over an example of how to calculate CAGR for a five years time frame in Excel using the sample data set shown below:

1. Identify the numbers you’ll use in your equation. Using the sample data set above,

The end value is 2143 (in cell B6).
The beginning value is 1000 (in cell B2).
The number of years is 5 (in cell A6).

2. Input your values into the formula. 
Excel offers many shortcuts, so you can simply input the cell numbers that contain each of your values into the equation. Using the sample data set above, the equation would be
=(B6/B2) ^ (1/A6) – 1
This is what it looks like in my Excel sheet:

Note that the equation changes color to correspond with the cells you’re using, so you can look back and check that your inputs are correct before running the equation.

You can also enter actual values into the formula instead of cell numbers. The equation would then look like this:
=(2143/1000) ^ (1/5) – 1
3. Once you’ve entered your values, click enter and run the equation. Your result will appear in the cell containing the equation, as shown in the image below.

CAGR Formula in Excel as a Percentage
Your default result will be shown as a decimal. To view it as a percentage, right-click on the cell your result is in, select Format Cells and then Percentage in the dialogue box.
Your result will be converted to a percentage, as shown in the image below.

Now let’s go over a shortcut for calculating CAGR in Excel using the Rate function.
How To Calculate CAGR Using RATE Function
The RATE function helps you calculate the interest rate on an investment over a period of time.The formula for calculating CAGR is: 
=RATE(nper,, pv, fv)

nper is the total number of periods in the time frame you’re measuring for. Since you’re calculating annual growth rate, this would be 12.
pv is the present value of your investment (must always be represented as a negative)
fv is future value.

Note that the standard RATE equation includes more variables, but you only need the above three to calculate your CAGR.
Let’s run an equation using the sample table below where nperi is 12, pv is 100, and fv is 500.

1. In your sheet, select the cell that you want to contain your CAGR. I selected cell B5.
2. Enter the RATE formula and input your numbers. Note that you always need to express your present value as a negative, or you’ll receive an error message.
This is what my formula looks like.
Note that you can also simply enter the cell numbers that your values are in. With my sample table the formula would look like this:
=RATE(A2,,-B2,C2)
3. Click enter and run your equation. Using the sample data, my CAGR is 14%.
Now you know how to quickly and easily calculate your CAGR in Excel, no hand calculations required.

Finding a new job can be a nerve-wracking experience. You pour your heart and soul (not to mention your entire work history) into this document and wait by the phone (or your inbox) for the interview requests to come in.
Fortunately, there’s a better way to communicate your skills and achievements to a potential employer than the traditional resume and summary.

Before you send out resumes for your next career move, learn how a statement of qualifications can help you stand out as a candidate.
What is a Statement of Qualifications?
A Statement of Qualifications (SoQ) is a shortlist that highlights your most applicable skills and experiences. Your traditional resume, fleshing out each qualification through your relevant work history follows your SoQ.
You can think of a Statement of Qualifications in relation to the adage “don’t bury the lead.” It comes from the world of journalism and it’s a constant reminder that you should write the most important thing first. Why? Because if you don’t hook the person reviewing your information in the first few sentences, there’s a possibility they won’t read the rest of your resume.

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Your job as an applicant is to make sure that you put your most impressive qualifications at the top of your resume so the reader can’t miss them.
A well-written Statement of Qualifications will instantly capture the recruiter or hiring manager’s attention and encourage them to read your resume thoroughly and with the mindset of “this person is well-qualified for the role.”
How to Write a Statement of Qualifications
Now it’s time to dive into how to write a statement of qualifications that stands out.
1. Review SoQ examples.
Starting with a solid example can help you get started. We’ve included some Statement of Qualification examples below to aid your writing. A bit of research before you start writing will save you time in the long run and help you create the most professional-looking product possible.
2. Select your strongest skills and most impressive accomplishments.
No doubt you’ve achieved a great deal during your career. Look at the SoQ as an opportunity to highlight the most important achievements and the skills that best serve you in your role. This brings us to…
3. Tailor your SoQ to the job you’re applying for.
If you only take one piece of advice away from this article, please let it be this. Your SoQ must be tailored to the specific job you’re looking to get.
You should use keywords from the job posting and touch on each of the main qualifications through your bulleted list of accomplishments. You’re basically saying, “I’m the best person for this job because I’ve already succeeded at what you need me to do.”
4. Focus on results.
It’s one thing to say that you “Improved sales for the Eastern region of XYZ Company.” It’s another thing (and incredibly more powerful), to say that you “Increased sales by 600% and became the highest-grossing sales manager in the history of the company.” If you can, demonstrate the tangible results you’ve created to be a standout candidate.
5. Use action verbs.
Use an active voice throughout your resume, being very direct in your SoQ. You can use words like:

Reduced
Expanded
Managed
Facilitated
Improved
Created

6. Use fewer words for more impact.
We’ve all been forced to read something that used 400 words to communicate what could have been done in five. Don’t be that person. When it comes to your SoQ, think short, impactful, and to the point.
7. Review your spelling and grammar.
Between spellcheck and (free) programs like Grammarly, your resume, and any other materials you send out into the world to represent you should be error-free.
That being said, it’s very difficult to edit your own work. Once you’ve sent your resume through a grammar program, ask a friend to review it for you. Employers want to know that your written communications are strong and if hired, you work with strong attention to detail.
Statement of Qualifications Template and Examples
When drafting your SoQ, take care to structure this section properly for maximum effect. You can use the following Statement of Qualifications template to hit all the important points:

Your current job title or relevant certification and your years of experience
Two or three qualifications and skills you possess that would help you excel in your desired role
Tangible outcomes (with data) pertinent to the responsibilities you would have in this position

Let’s take a look at two different SoQs for the same person, a call center employee interested in moving to a similar role in a new company.
What Not to Do

Experienced call center employee with customer service skills.
Responsible for addressing customer concerns.
Fast and accurate data entry skills.
Applauded for good work.

What To Do

Detail-oriented call center representative with 7+ years of experience delivering outstanding customer service.
Achieved an average call time 15% shorter than the team average.
Retrained struggling co-workers resulting in a 25% decrease in repeat calls.
Won “Highest Call Taker” award 15 months straight.

SoQs for Special Situations
One of the most common questions regarding SoQs is: “What if I’m early in my career, or making a career transition and don’t have demonstrated experience?”
Everyone was a beginner at one time. There’s nothing to be ashamed of, and you’ve probably achieved more than you think. When you have recently graduated and are just joining the workforce, it’s acceptable (and encouraged) to discuss both your education and any internship experience you’ve had. An example of this could be:

Business Attorney graduated Cum Laude from XYZ University with a 3.9 GPA.
Internship experience in administrative, transactional, and employment law.
Attended multiple court appearances, including evidentiary hearings.
Reviewed discovery and assisted in the preparation of depositions.

As you progress throughout your career, your bullet points will strengthen. As a mid-level employee, you’ll discuss personal on-the-job achievements, and then eventually, as you move into senior leadership, you’ll have leadership achievements to touch on — not only what you achieved for yourself, but how you contributed to the organization as a whole.
Of course, there are very few people in the workforce that knew what they wanted to do directly out of college and have stayed the course over a 40-50 year professional lifetime. Most workers will move into entirely new companies, roles, and industries, at least once. For those looking to move into an entirely new field, an SoQ will look slightly different.
A Statement of Qualifications example for an individual changing fields will have less to do with specific accomplishments in the industry they are choosing to leave and will focus more on the transferable skills that will appeal to recruiters in the new industry. These skills include (but are not limited to):

Leadership skills
Management skills
Teamwork skills
Communication skills
Problem-solving skills
Project management skills
Interpersonal skills

Notice that every single one of these skills is important for any industry you can think of. If you can prove that you’ve demonstrated these skills in another environment, you build their confidence in your ability to perform well in a new situation.
Use a Statement of Qualifications To Stand Out From Other Applications
Applying for jobs can be a daunting task for even the most qualified individuals. Thankfully, using a strong and well-written Statement of Qualifications at the beginning of your resume can help you stand out.

Lorde says, “Maybe the Internet raised us” in her song, A World Alone. This line stuck with me when I first heard the song and remains with me today, especially when considering what shapes my behaviors and quirks. I grew up and came of age in a world where people loved to share every little bit of their lives (maybe a little too much).Despite this (or maybe because of it), I became resistant to the idea of sharing things, from achievements to failures. But thinking about my career and personal growth, I can honestly say that I wouldn’t be here without the oversharers. A YouTube video here, a LinkedIn post there – my life is a scrapbook of the lessons I learned from other people’s journeys.At the end of 2021, I decided to give a little peek behind the curtain of my life by sharing some of my goals for 2022 on Twitter. Primarily for accountability, but also just because sharing your journey to achieving your goals makes the journey feel less lonely.2022 goals (pinning this for future me)- make more money and grow my portfolio 💰 – join @beondeck’s marketing fellowship 💻- move out of my parents’ basement 🤦🏾‍♀️- start a newsletter/finally write a book✍🏾- travel to 3 countries ✈️— tamilore (@tamioladipo) December 5, 2021

At Buffer, one of our values is ‘default to transparency,’ which means that we’re a glasshouse – everyone can see what’s going on inside. It’s one of the things that drew me to working here. Another way to put it is that we ‘build in public,’ which is a concept that more people, especially founders, are adopting. It’s not just for them — transparency can apply to anything, including writing a book or working on an album (see the TikToker sharing her journey to creating a Disney musical).Most people balk at the idea of transparency. What if you make a mistake? What if nothing comes of your idea/project/company? But there are benefits to sharing your journey — including the struggles. This article delves into why you might want to take the transparent approach to goal-setting and achieving.Why consider transparency at all?One of the key ideas behind transparency or building in public, mainly pushed by Karthik Puvvada (KP), includes “expanding your luck surface area.” The idea is that transparency gives you or your business more opportunities to reach the community, investors, or audience that will connect with your journey. A few other reasons to consider transparency:Encouraging someone on a similar journey: An underrated part of sharing your journey is how much you can inspire others.Finding community: Having a community rally around you as you work towards a goal can encourage you to keep at it.Building trust: This is especially important if people count on your goals. By being transparent (and including proof of work) about where you are at each stage, you can build trust.Showing your expertise: Sometimes, building something in public or transparently sharing your journey to a specific goal is all the social proof you need.Staying accountable: If you’re constantly sharing what’s happening with your goals or project, you have people to answer when you start to flag – however medieval that sounds.Pushing the industry forward: One of the driving forces behind our choice to be transparent at Buffer is so we can encourage others to do the same. Checkly’s Pay Calculator is a great recent example partly inspired by Buffer’s own Salary Calculator.Lessons from experts on building in publicWho are the people who are taking on the challenge of building in public? Apart from pioneers like Joel Gascoigne (Buffer’s CEO) and Ryan Hoover (founder of Product Hunt), we wanted to highlight other folks you can look to for inspiration. So we asked them all questions about building in public and practicing transparency, and this is what they had to say.Q: How do you practice transparency?A: Sharing revenue publiclyMonica Lent, Founder of Affilimate: “I spent about a year doing public income reports on my blog, where I shared the revenue from all my income streams: a content blog, a paid community, and my SaaS company. This was a great exercise in goal setting, and many people told me it inspired them to go full-time on their projects.At the time, I detailed how much revenue my businesses generated and what I spent on expenses like software, tools, contractors, and administration. My goal was to show people that revenue isn’t everything, and running a business can be expensive.”A: Documenting the process of buildingRitika Mehta built Marked (now acquired): “My newsletter & Twitter is where I talk about building products and my experience with building & running a startup.Guys👋, I have an exciting news to share 🤗🎉I sold @trymarked 😅 for $10kI knew it was going to happen someday but just happened so fast, on 1st Feb.The product was still on beta version, looked scrappy, had ~90 active users & started 9 months ago.Here’s a short 🧵— Ritika Mehta (@_ritikamehta) February 3, 2022

I tweet small updates weekly or bi-weekly & the newsletter is the leading platform through which I share my journey. It doesn’t only limit to positive parts but sharing struggles & vulnerabilities too. As a founder, it helps me build a community around my product, get initial users, feedback & marketing before I launch the product.”A: Applying personal practices to company valuesSamantha Anderl, Co-founder of Harlow: “My co-founder Andrea and I practice transparency in two ways. One way is the way we interface with our community, and the other is how we’re building our company. We’re building Harlow to help freelancers stress less and work happier. Part of that happens in the product, the other part comes through sharing our struggles, wins, and lessons learned with the community.”I’m on vacation this week for a friend’s wedding in a beautiful place, but we’re also gearing up for @MeetHarlow launch.Normally, I disconnect while traveling and focus solely on rest, relaxation, and fun.But this time, I’m doing things a little differently 👇🏻— Samantha Anderl (@SamanthaAnderl) March 18, 2022

A: Sharing personal experiences of building a businessLesley Sim, Founder of Newsletter Glue: “From day 1, we’ve built in public. Rather than share revenue numbers and metrics, I’ve always focused on sharing my experiences building the business, our roadmap, and screenshots of stuff we’re working on.Building a newsletter template directory.You can click on a template, and head immediately to a sandboxed demo to play around.Cool? pic.twitter.com/mSIIjuUX70— Lesley 🍕 (@lesley_pizza) March 25, 2022

I think everyone chooses to share different things, and there are corresponding upsides and downsides. I think the channel you choose to share on also matters a lot and determines what and how you communicate. Personally, I use Twitter. I’ve found it the best and easiest way to chat with like-minded folk without much mental overhead.”A: Share retrospectives and plans for the futureAllison Seboldt, Founder of Fantasy Congress: “I post monthly reflections on my blog called “retrospectives.” In each post, I share income and statistics from the past month, reflect on what I did the previous month, and discuss what I want to do next.”This is a bit late, but I’m picking up my monthly retrospectives again! Starting with a quick recap of last year for Fantasy Congress:- $12,806 total revenue- $949 MRR- Averaged around 6% churn per month- 3,363 new users- 275 new leagues👇(1/3) #buildinginpublic— Allison Seboldt (@allison_seboldt) February 13, 2022

Q: What advice would you give to anyone considering transparency?A: Take public feedback with a grain of saltMonica: “Many people have opinions, but very few have done what you’re doing and understand your customers and your business like you do. You can get all kinds of input, but it’s still on you to make the right decision for your business!”A: Build a relationship with your audienceRitika: “[Bulding in public] is like building a strong bond by sharing ups and downs. You’re being more honest to your customers & they build trust with you.”A: Write down your experiences for future reflectionSamantha: “When you’re building, you are moving quickly, and you don’t always have time to share your story at each exact moment. But if you can reflect on the notes you’re taking along the way, it will help you figure out the important pieces of the story your audience needs to hear. As an additional benefit, It’ll also help you reflect on the journey and see how far you’ve come.”A: Share a little more than what you’re comfortable withLesley: “A big part of the reason people are attracted to build in public posts is that it pulls back the curtains and gives lived experience and insight. So if you’re sharing super generic stuff, you’ll never see good results from building in public.”A: Just do itAllison: “It’s the most beneficial thing I’ve done on my entrepreneurial journey. The barrier to entry is low and the returns are huge.”Tips for being more transparentTransparency requires a conscious effort. You may not remember or see a reason to share specific events relevant to your efforts to build in public. However, even minor moments can help you find your community or vice versa. Here are some tips for practicing transparency.Share your goalsAlong with publicly documenting your goals, make it a habit to update what you’re working on as you go along. I chose Twitter – a popular platform for building in public – and I’m working on a more detailed personal blog post about my goals. In addition, some people use Medium or write newsletters on a weekly or monthly basis to share their progress (this may also be a good way to break in Twitter’s newsletter feature).To paraphrase Samantha, documenting your journey can help you reflect personally and determine which parts you want to share with your audience.Connect with a communityYou may need to do some research, but there’s nothing like working alongside like-minded people. There’s NaNoWriMo through which several writers have gotten their best-selling manuscripts. Or programs like Women Make where entrepreneurs and makers can support each other as they build products. Or even Flow Club, which is a great way to motivate yourself to work through tasks and stay accountable.🚀 Just F*ing Ship It 🚀30 days to build and launch something! 💪 Kick your ass and ship alongside the Women Make community. 💞Registrations are now open & everyone is welcome! 👉 https://t.co/IA6WbKWX2UA big thank you to @ahrefs for sponsoring the event!— Women Make (@women_make_) February 10, 2022

Create boundariesDetermine where you’d like to draw the line. What are you unwilling to share? Limit what you share and respect those limits. Monica shares some advice regarding boundaries, saying, “…building in public doesn’t HAVE to mean sharing all your revenue and metrics. You can build in public without disclosing detailed financial figures. So it’s not all or nothing – you can apply a build-in-public mindset without necessarily going full “open startup” and still get the benefits.”Lesley also summed up boundary-setting saying, “Be careful about what you choose to share. Building in public is a continuum, it’s not all or nothing.”Propose your ideas and ask for feedbackIt might be enough just to say you’re working on something and update once you’ve made progress. But asking people for feedback can help you refine your ideas and find inspiration among shared advice.Articulate your roadblocksLet people know about the challenges you’re facing and share how you overcame/plan to overcome them. Communicating your blocks can also be a good opportunity to seek advice from a community of people who might have gone through the same. By sharing your challenges, you can find a way to overcome themLesley shared a technical challenge she was facing on Twitter and was able to get a ton of helpful advice (and a solution) in her replies.Can I get some help troubleshooting?Twitter no longer shows up on my browser and I don’t know why?😅I’m using @ThomasWang’s excellent Minimal Theme for Twitter chrome extension. Disabling it doesn’t bring back twitter. So that might not be relevant. pic.twitter.com/1ZyYm15FQ8— Lesley 🍕 (@lesley_pizza) February 7, 2022

Share sneak peeks People love looking behind the scenes, so let them in on what’s to come. This gets people excited about your ideas and provides a fountain of positive commentary to look at when you’re hunting for inspiration. This could be a good strategy, especially for writers. For example, sci-fi author Brandon Sanderson constantly communicates with fans through live streams, blog posts, and “first looks” into his new books.Live with Brandon Sanderson (Secret Project Two Spoiler Stream) https://t.co/zNxtfJYJgJ— Brandon Sanderson (@BrandSanderson) March 16, 2022

Hannah Nicole Mae (@hannahnicolemae) on TikTok also does this with her fictional series that she’s turning into a book – and over 200,000 people are following along her journey. @hannahnicolemae The most giggly I’ve ever been writing anything #morallygrey #fantasy #assistanttothevillain #romancebooks #fyp ♬ original sound – Hannah Celebrate your wins – and share your failuresWe asked our contributors about the downsides of building in public, and Samantha said it best, “Building in public can be messy. To truly be transparent you need to share the wins, the struggles, the mundane – all of it. But that’s what makes it so compelling. People want to understand the full gravity of what it takes to build something.”Being vulnerable, both about your journey to success and the missteps, can help you and someone else in the same boat find empathy and inspiration to keep going.

Market research is an overarching term for gathering information from you customers about your business, and focus groups are one way to conduct market research.
Whether your focus group’s goal is to give feedback on a product or service or help you assess how your brand stands out in your competitive landscape, thought-provoking, open-ended questions are essential to a productive discussion.
Focus group questions should dive into the mind of a consumer. What do they think? How do they make their decisions? You want more than a yes or no answer, and your questions need to generate them. However, it is easier said than done. What can you ask beyond “What do you think of our product?” to provoke the most fruitful answers?

Here, we have compiled the most insightful questions you can ask in your next focus group to get the best insights from your participants.
Copy-and-paste the questions you like below into this note taking template for a ready-to-go, printable document you can bring to the session.
Featured Resource: Market Research Focus Group Template

Download the Template
For a free template for note taking during focus groups, a guide on conducting market research, and several other templates, download our Market Research Kit.

Focus Group Question Examples for Building Trust Among Focus Group Members
Before diving into deeper questions, it’s best to warm up the group with a couple of open-ended questions that allow participants to get to know each other a little bit. Participants should have the liberty to decide how much they want to share with the group. Don’t force anyone to share something they may not feel comfortable sharing.
By including a question that allows people to talk about something tangential to the topic of the focus group, your participants will begin to build empathy for each other. That empathy can grow into trust, which is essential for eliciting honest insights out of your group.
Here are a few questions you might ask to build trust:

“Share an aspect of your work or life experience that has brought you here today.”
“Why did you decide to join our focus group today?”
“When and how did you first come across our brand/product/service?”

Focus Group Question Examples to Encourage Follow-up and Continuation of Ideas
The most helpful insights that come from focus groups are often the most specific points. Challenge your participants to reflect on their comments if something sparks your curiosity. For instance:

“That’s a fascinating point that [name] just said — what do you all think of that?”
“Do you agree or disagree with [name]’s statement, and why?”
“[Name], you’ve been a bit quiet recently. Did you have any thoughts on this topic that you wanted to share?”

Focus Group Question Examples for Understanding Customer Perception of Your Product or Service
These questions will help you understand how people truly feel about your brand, product, or service. The focus here is on your company — not the larger industry landscape or your competitors.
Avoid stopping conversation here unless the group gets sidetracked. Open-ended questions can be daunting at first. Participants may not know where to start. However, hearing from the other participants will spark reflection on various aspects of your product or service. Be sure to allow each group member who has something to say to speak up before moving on to the next question.

“How would you describe our company to other people?”
“How would you describe our product/service to other people?”
“What words or feelings come to mind when you think about our company?”
“How likely are you to recommend our product/service to a friend?”
“How well do you feel we incorporate feedback from you, our customers, into our service/product?”
“What ultimately pushed you to purchase this product/service?”
“Where would you buy this product/service?”
“What do you like about this product that you may not find in a similar one?”
“When you think about our industry, which brands come to mind first?”
“Which other brands in our industry did you consider when you were shopping around?”
“Why didn’t you go with one of our competitors?”
“What other products/services come to mind when you look at this one?”

Focus Group Question Examples to Learn What Your Leads and Customers Want to See From You
Listening to your customers’ feedback and suggestions for improvement is crucial to retaining customers and turning them into promoters of your brand. It may be difficult to hear the answers to these questions, but turning customer pain points around will elevate your product or service to the next level.
Avoid defending your product or service or setting any limitations on these questions. Instead, frame them in a way that allows anyone to voice their feelings. Recognize that it can be daunting for anyone (especially people with whom you’ve built relationships) to share negative feedback, so thank them for their candor.

“If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about our product/service, what would it be?”
“What would you most like to add to or improve about this product?”
“What do you envision is the lifespan of this product/service before you upgrade or replace it?”
“Is there anything we haven’t touched on today that you would like us to know?”

Focus Group Question Examples for Understanding Your Buyer Personas
The following questions will help you understand the motivations of your target buyer persona, their habits, their responsibilities and decision-making power, and their preferences.
These questions will spark discussion about topics other than your company, product or service, and the competitive landscape.
Don’t worry if the conversation seems to stray far from your brand. The insights that people share will likely reveal what they find significant in their life and work. However, you must keep the group focused on the specific question you ask.

“Describe your job title and your day-to-day responsibilities.”
“What is one task where you feel you spend way too much time?”
“How do you define success in your role/your life?”
“What is the biggest challenge you face when it comes to the problem that this product is supposed to solve?”
“When you browse online, on which websites do you spend most of your time?”
“What are the first three apps you open on your phone in the morning?”
“How do you prefer to receive communications from our company? (Specify what type of communication here — product updates, renewal notices, product/service coaching, meeting reminders, urgent alerts, etc.)”
“Would you be the one using this product/service most in your household/job? If not, who would be?”

Focus Group Question Examples for Competitor Research
These questions should spark discussion about the brands in your industry that are top-of-mind for consumers. It helps remove any biases that your team might have as people who work in the industry and know various players very well.
To encourage honesty, avoid agreeing with disparaging comments made about your competitors. Instead, use the opportunity to ask follow-up questions about what the participants don’t like about a specific product or brand.
Competitive research helps you identify competitors while also evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. This information allows you to compare how your products align within the industry and pinpoint any industry trends you may have overlooked.

“What companies come to mind when you think of our industry?”
“Which company do you consider first when shopping in our industry and why?”
“What are these companies doing well?”
“What do these companies need to improve?”
“What products/services do they have that you’d like to see from us?”
“What would it take for another company to beat out your top choice in our industry?”

To conduct a complementary research-based analysis of your competitors, download our Market Research Kit to access a S.W.O.T. analysis template.

Download the Template
Focus Group Question Examples for Generating Content on Your Industry
You might be looking to develop a content strategy for your brand, branch out into a new content medium, or generate new content ideas. Any successful content strategy prioritizes what your target buyer persona finds most engaging. A focus group is an effective way to ensure that you produce material on the right topics in the medium that your audience wants to consume.

“What is one recent trend you have noticed in our industry?”
“What is one strategy or tactic you think is underrated in our industry?”
“Where do you go to get a pulse on the things going on in our industry?”
“Who are the people in our industry who you look to as experts?”
“What format of content do you consume to keep up with our industry? Social media posts? Blogs/long-form posts? Podcasts? News outlets?”
“Which specific sources do you go to for information on our industry?”
“What gaps do you see in the content about our industry online? What are the topics on which you would like to see more education?”

Focus Group Question Examples for Understanding Product Demand for Something You Haven’t Yet Put Out in the Market
These eleven questions will help you understand the demand for a new product or service. These questions will uncover buying habits for a product you envision and whether there is a true product-market fit.

“What was your first reaction to the product?”
“How often do you/would you use this type of product?”
“Would you be the one deciding to purchase this product/service? If not, who would be?”
“When and where do you use our product?”
“When you think about the product, do you think of it as something you absolutely need, something you could do without, or something that’s somewhere in the middle?”
“How much would you be willing to pay for a product like this?”
“How would you ideally like to buy this product? Would you talk to a sales rep, or would you prefer to purchase it on your own?”
“What do you think this product is missing?”
“How would you describe someone you think would use this product/service?”
“If you ended up liking your experience with this product, could you see yourself repurchasing it? If so, how often?”
“If you could either have this product/service or the equivalent dollar value for you/your business, which would you choose? Why? (Specify the dollar value of your product/service when asking this question.)”

Focus Group Question Examples for Branding
The following questions help run word association brainstorms and generate potential names for a new product or company.

“What words come to mind when you think of our product category? (Example: “What words come to mind when you think of food delivery?”)”
“What words come to mind when you think of [insert a word that symbolizes the main value prop of your product/service here – for example, ‘efficiency,’ ‘speed,’ ‘health’]?”
If you have candidate names already:

“What is your initial reaction to this name?”
“What words come to mind when you hear this name?”
“How would you pronounce this? (Spell out the name on a piece of paper or whiteboard.)”

Ask, and you shall receive.
In your business, your consumer is the most important person. What they think is central to your business strategy — how they view your company and industry, what drives them to make a purchase, what their interests are. The answers to the above focus group questions will shape how you approach your business. You now have dozens of questions to get the conversation started, and you didn’t even have to ask.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in November 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.