Answering the following five questions regarding your web content and marketing approach will put you and your business on a successful path to boosting conversions.

1. Do I Understand My Customer?

Fundamental to the success of any business is a gut-level understanding of your customer base. It may come as a shock, but many business owners approach marketing with a fuzzy-at-best knowledge of their customer base. Sometimes this fuzz results from a slowly shifting market with an underwhelming analysis of current trends. In other instances, this gap in understanding generates from a company’s hyperfocus on their side of the product, with less time spent analysing things from the customer’s perspective. So how do you know if you are falling into this trap?

The next time you explain your business for the first time to someone, give yourself 30 seconds to one minute to summarize what you do. Then ask that person to state it back to you. If they cannot do so, chances are you are missing some component of the storytelling process.

A second, equally helpful evaluation: listen to your customer’s problems, and use their responses to hone your content. If someone searching for your product clicks on your site or reads your ad copy, and it doesn’t jive with the feeling they are having, they are likely to move on. Hit a nerve, and you have them hooked.

2. Does My Content Serve My Customer?

Once you understand the customer, move on to content. Good content–both on your website and in your ads — is essential for effective conversions. Your content should be on point with your customer’s needs, contain a clear call to action, and hit all potential searches your customer base might be looking for. Ad content should align with your web content to ensure your ads draw the right audience to your home base. This practice helps funnel the most viable customers to your site for conversion.

3. Is Our Ad Budget Too Low?

For marketing agencies to aggressively target your potential clients, they need a certain amount of (well-spent) budget to work with. Your marketing budget should align with your revenue goals; over-limiting spending will minimize success and prevent you from reaching potential customers within your scope. Although a precise advertising budget varies and is market-dependent, a reasonable guidepost is 5-10 percent of revenue. Regardless of where your ad-spend ends up, aligning your budget properly with your goals and business scope is essential to an optimized approach.

4. What Is the Competitive Landscape of My Business?

The unfortunate truth is that many markets, particularly commodity-driven ones, are difficult to break into and require an aggressive amount of capital to do so. If your business falls into this category, it is wise to consider an in-depth analysis of your business goals and potentially re-target your capital towards more ripe markets. This is where out-of-the-box thinking comes in handy, as does a good business coach.

5. Did I Give It Enough Time?

Business owners are often understandably anxious to see growth. Ensuring that you have successfully implemented the first four elements mentioned above positions you in the right “ship” for optimization. With the ideal content, messaging, and advertising strategy, you are equipped for successful conversions. But your marketing still has to set sail and cross the ocean of strategic growth. This growth process takes time, tweaking, and experimentation to perfect your targeting. Even as your business grows, there are continuous opportunities on the internet for increasing growth. The key to a successful long-term strategy is sticking to the path of optimization without retreating based on a single metric–as tempting as it may be.