Wondering if your marketing message is dancing in thespotlight right in front of your target market or is busycowering by the punch table nowhere near your customerbase? Take this quiz and find out.

1. Overall, you would describe your marketing as:

A. Going strong. You consistently get lots of good leads andsales from your marketing efforts.
B. Getting better. You're seeing some positive results, butyou're always looking for ways to improve.
C. Flat. Your sales are neither growing nor shrinking.
D. Don't ask.
E. You don't do much marketing. Or any marketing for thatmatter. Customers pretty much find you.

2. Your last marketing campaign was:

A. A huge success. It exceeded your expectations.
B. No complaints. You're pleased with your results.
C. Not sure. You didn't notice much change with your sales.
D. A waste of good money.
E. You can't remember your last campaign. In fact, you don'tthink you've ever had one.

3. At the last Chamber of Commerce meeting, you bumpedinto a woman who you felt would be your ideal customer.Her response after you introduce yourself is:

A. "I'm so glad I ran into you. I've been meaning to talk to youin more detail about how your business can help me out."
B. "Oh, I think I remember hearing about you. Tell me moreabout what you do."
C. "Sorry. What did you say you do again?"
D. "Who are you?"
E. "Excuse me. I need to refill my drink."

4. While working out at your health club, you find yourselfexercising next to your sister's new boyfriend. Even thoughyou know he has no interest in your business, he startsquizzing you about what you do. After you tell him, he says:

A. "Oh, that's interesting." And changes the subject.
B. "Yes, I think I've heard about your business." Andchanges the subject.
C. "Yes, I think I saw one of your ads in the paper last week."And changes the subject.
D. "Oh course. I've been seeing your ads all over the place."And changes the subject.
E. Changes the subject.

5. You run into one of your customers at a restaurant. He'ssitting with a large group of people, but still jumps up togreet you. When he turns to introduce you to the rest of thegroup, he:

A. Describes your business perfectly.
B. Gets it mostly right.
C. Manages to describe one aspect okay, although he got acouple major points wrong.
D. Described someone else's business. At least that's whatyou think he was doing. He certainly wasn't talking aboutyour business.
E. Didn't quite get your business' name right. For thatmatter, he didn't pronounce your name correctly either.

6. You feel like you're getting your money's and/or time'sworth from your marketing efforts:

A. Most definitely.
B. Definitely.
C. Not sure.
D. Don't want to talk about it.
E. You're getting a great return -- after all, you spend hardlyany time or money marketing so ANY return is huge.

7. Overall, how would you rate your marketing in terms ofmeeting your overall business' goals?

A. Exactly on track.
B. Doing pretty good. For the most part, your marketing ishelping you meet your business' goals.
C. You're still in business so you guess something must beworking. Although you're not exactly sure what.
D. Business isn't so hot.
E. What goals?

Scoring:

Mostly As. Your marketing message is definitely the life ofthe party. It's getting in front of your target market and yourtarget market is responding to it. Better yet, you aren'twasting your efforts reaching people who have no interest inwhat your business does. Great job.

The only caution I would offer is to not allow yourself to belulled into a false sense of security. Things change. Marketsshift. Don't allow your current success to blind you to a newcompetitor or a new product or a changing marketinglandscape. History is littered with companies who allowedthemselves to lose market share or even be toppled by ashift in the marketplace.

Mostly Bs. Your marketing message may not be the star, butit's certainly turning heads. While you could be getting morefrom your marketing efforts, you've definitely accomplishedmuch. Your target market is both getting the message andacting on it. You're seeing a slow and steady growth in yourbusiness.

While everyone would love to the next "overnight" success,truthfully that's not terribly realistic. Marketing is about slowand steady growth - and even an occasional setback. Whilehuge marketing success is great as a goal, you should bevery pleased with what you've accomplished.

Mostly Cs. Your marketing message has about half of itsdance card filled. Your business is flat. Probably as flat asyour marketing. Your business is certainly not growing andmay even be slowly declining.

While there's nothing wrong with holding the status quo, thisis still a precarious place to be. If you're not careful, youcould find your business sliding into the "business is not sogood" category.

I would suggest taking a hard look at your marketingmessage. Maybe you're not reaching your target market atall. Maybe you're wasting your marketing efforts by gettingyour message in front of people who will never buy yourproducts or services. Or maybe you are finding your targetmarket, but your marketing message isn't persuading themto do business with you. Maybe the marketplace or yourtarget market is changing. Or maybe it's a combination ofthings.

Mostly Ds. Your marketing message is hiding in thebathroom and has been there for awhile. This is not a goodplace to be, but you already know this. If it isn't too late, Iwould suggest a complete revamp of your entire marketingplan. Maybe your target market isn't right. Maybe you havetoo much competition. Maybe you're competing on price(never a wise selling point). Maybe you're not differentiatingyourself enough from your competition. Maybe you're notexplaining your product correctly. Or maybe it's somethingeven deeper, a major problem with your product orbusiness.

But don't lose heart! It's still very possible to turn thingsaround. Remember, all successful people sufferedsetbacks (and downright failures) at some point in theircareers. You can make a comeback.

Mostly Es. Your marketing message is still outside lookingfor a place to park. Many service-based, single-personbusinesses find themselves in this category - for instanceconsultants, coaches, graphic designers and (ahem)copywriters. You never really take the time to put together amarketing plan or market yourself in any orderly manner.When work falls into your lap, you happily snatch it up. Whenit doesn't, you find yourself wringing your hands a lot.

Yes, I too was in this category. When I first started mybusiness, I didn't write down my goals and promotingmyself was haphazard at best. Believe it or not, I wasactually pretty successful for several years using this model.I was lucky. I had good, loyal clients who I could count on forrepeat projects.

However, even with good clients, you still end up with the"feast or famine" business model. Does this soundfamiliar? Work starts raining from the heavens, so you holeyourself in your office and focus on, what else? Getting thework done. And you're so busy with paying work, you stoppromoting yourself. When you finish the work, you pick upyour head, look around and discover there's nothing newwaiting for you. So you rush out, start networking andcontacting people and pretty soon the work is raining downagain. And you stop promoting yourself because you're busyand?you get the picture.

In this model, you aren't really growing your business. Youdon't have time. You're either doing billable work or lookingfor billable work. Even if you use outside help during thebusy times, the busy times don't last so you can't build yourbusiness.

Speaking from someone who's been there, I would strongly,strongly urge you to take a hard look at your business, yourgoals and your marketing model. A regular, sustainedmarketing campaign can lead to regular, sustained work.Your cash flow will even out, and you can start outsourcingcertain tasks on a regular basis so you can start growingyour business.

(A note on Question 4 in case you thought I had the answersreversed. The point of this question is to find out if you'vepicked marketing vehicles that are reaching your targetmarket or if your marketing is so scattered it's reachingpeople who have no interest in purchasing your productsand services. Don't waste your time and money driving justanyone to your business - target people who have theinterest and the means to purchase your products andservices.)

Michele Pariza Wacek is the author of "Got Ideas? UnleashYour Creativity and Make More Money." She offers two freee-zines that help subscribers combine their creativity withhard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to becomemore successful at attracting new clients, selling productsand services and boosting business. She can be reachedat TheArtistSoul.com.