Introduction 1
About This Book 2
What You’re Not to Read 2
Foolish Assumptions 3
How This Book Is Organized 3
Part I: Getting Your Marketing Bearings 3
Part II: Laying the Foundation for Marketing Success 4
Part III: Marketing in a Screen-Connected World 4
Part IV: Getting the Word Out with Ads,
Mailers, Promotions, and Publicity 4
Part V: Winning and Keeping Customers 5
Part VI: The Part of Tens 5
Icons Used in This Book 5
Where to Go from Here 6
Part I: Getting Your Marketing Bearings 7
Chapter 1: Framing the Marketing Process 9
Seeing the Big Picture 10
Following the marketing wheel of fortune 10
Understanding the relationship between marketing and sales 12
Jump-Starting Your Marketing Program 13
Marketing a start-up business 13
Growing your business 14
Scaling your marketing to meet your goal 14
How Small Business Marketing Is Different 15
Dollar differences 15
Staffing differences 15
Creative differences 16
Strategic differences 16
The small business marketing advantage 16
Making Marketing Your Key to Success 17
Chapter 2: All about Customers 19
Anatomy of a Customer 20
Collecting customer information 20
Geographics: Locating your market areas 24
Demographics: Collecting customer data 25
Psychographics: Customer buying behaviors 27
Determining Which Customers Buy What 29
Viewing your sales by market segment 29
Matching customers with distribution channels 31
Catering to screen-connected customers 33
Forms 34
Chapter 3: Seeing Your Product through Your Customers’ Eyes 35
Getting to Know Your Product 35
When service is your product 36
Your product is what Google says it is 38
Illogical, Irrational, and Real Reasons People Buy What You Sell 38
Buying Decisions: Rarely about Price, Always about Value 39
Calculating the value formula 40
Riding the price/value teeter-totter 41
Evaluating your pricing 42
Raising prices 43
Presenting prices 43
The Care and Feeding of a Product Line 44
Enhancing the appeal of existing products 45
Raising a healthy product 46
Developing new products 47
Managing your product offerings 49
Forms 51
Chapter 4: Sizing Up Competitors and Staking Out Market Share 53
Playing the Competitive Field 53
Speaking the language of competition 54
Knowing what you’re up against 55
Understanding how to compete 56
Winning Your Share of the Market 56
Defining your direct competition 56
Moving up the competitive ladder 58
Calculating Your Market Share 59
Sizing up your target market 59
Doing the math 59
Increasing Your Market Share 61
Forms 62
Chapter 5: Setting Your Goals, Objectives, Strategies, and Budgets 63
Where Are You Going, Anyway? 64
The “vision” thing 64
Your statement of purpose 65
Success stories 65
Defining Goals and Objectives Simply 66
Setting goals and objectives 67
Planning strategies 68
Putting goals, objectives, and strategies into action 68
Following the fail-safe planning sequence 70
Budgeting to Reach Your Goals 70
Realistic talk about small business marketing budgets 71
How much should you be spending? 71
Forms 74
Part II: Laying the Foundation for Marketing Success 75
Chapter 6: Taking Stock of Your Business Image 77
Making First Impressions 77
Encountering your business through online searches 79
Arriving at your website 80
Managing e-mail impressions 81
Arriving by telephone 82
Approaching your business in person 84
Auditing the Impressions Your Business Makes 87
Surveying your marketing materials and communications 88
Creating an impression inventory 89
Improving the impressions you’re making 90
Forms 90
Chapter 7: Forging Your Brand 91
What Brands Are and Do 91
Unlocking the power and value of a brand 92
Tipping the balance online 93
Building a Powerful Brand 93
Being consistent to power your brand 95
Taking six brand-management steps 95
Your Market Position: The Birthplace of Your Brand 97
Seeing how positioning happens 97
Determining your positioning strategy 98
Conveying Your Position and Brand through Taglines 99
Balancing Personal and Business Brands 101
Maintaining and Protecting Your Brand 102
Staying consistent with your brand message and creative strategy 102
Controlling your brand presentation 104
Forms 106
Chapter 8: Creating Marketing Communications That Work 107
Starting with Good Objectives 108
Defining what you want to accomplish 108
Putting creative directions in writing 109
Developing Effective Marketing Communications 114
Steering the creative process toward a “big idea” 115
Brainstorming 116
Following simple advertising rules 117
Making Media Selections 118
Selecting from the media menu 118
Deciding which media vehicles to use and when 119
The Making of a Mass Media Schedule 121
Balancing reach and frequency 121
Timing your ads 123
Evaluating Your Efforts 123
Forms 124
Chapter 9: Hiring Help When You Need It 125
Reaching Out to Marketing Pros 125
When to bring in marketing experts 126
Who to call for help 126
What kind of expertise to hire 127
Choosing and Working with an Agency 128
Requesting agency proposals 129
Interviewing agencies 130
Preparing the client-agency agreement 131
Understanding agency fees 132
Working with your agency 133
Hiring Help for Website Creation 134
Looking for help 134
Getting clear about your needs 135
Interviewing website designers 136
Finalizing your choice 137
Handing off the content 138
Forms 138
Part III: Marketing in a Screen-Connected World 139
Chapter 10: Establishing an Online Presence 141
Pulling People to Your Business Online 141
Setting Your Goals for Online Visibility 143
Claiming Your Online Identity 143
Registering for a domain name 144
Reserving your social media user name 145
Establishing Your Online Home Base 146
Website basics 147
Contact sites 147
Brochure sites 148
Support sites 148
Lead-generating sites 148
Mobile websites 148
E-commerce sites 150
Building Your Site 151
Cracking the site-building code 151
Incorporating attributes of a good site 152
Optimizing your site for search engines 154
Evaluating the strength of your site 155
Promoting your site 156
Advertising Online 157
Banner ads 157
Pay per click (PPC) ads 157
Forms 158
Chapter 11: Getting Interactive with Social Media 159
Benefiting from Social Media Activity 160
Getting Started in Four Necessary Steps 160
1. Define your objectives 160
2. Choose the name you’ll use across all social media networks 161
3. Develop your social media introduction 162
4. Set up an online home base 163
Diving into Social Media 163
Facebook 164
Twitter 166
LinkedIn 168
Google+ 169
Pinterest 169
Location-based and check-in sites 170
Rating and review sites 171
Announcing Your Social Media Debut 173
Keeping Your Social Media Efforts Active and Engaging 174
Sharing content 174
Becoming a content conduit 175
Getting conversational 176
Keeping an Eye on How You’re Doing 176
Monitoring your social media mentions 176
Measuring your social media effectiveness 177
Forms 178
Chapter 12: Packaging Your Message for
Blogs and Other Online Channels 179
Joining the 200-Million Blog Contingent 180
Who blogs? 180
Why blog? 180
Launching a Blog 181
Getting started 182
Committing to a blog 183
Crafting your blog-post approach 185
Using blog posts as the backbone of your online content-distribution strategy 187
Adding video to blog posts 188
Cross-Promoting Off-line and Online Content 189
Turning news into content 190
Giving long life to presentations 190
Forms 191
Part IV: Getting the Word Out with Ads, Mailers, Promotions, and Publicity 193
Chapter 13: Creating and Placing Print and Outdoor Ads 195
Writing and Designing Your Ads 196
Packing power into headlines 196
Writing convincing copy 198
Making design decisions 199
Translating ad production terminology 201
Making Sense of Print Media Rates 202
Placing Newspaper Ads 203
Scheduling your placements 204
Using small-budget, small-size ads 204
Requesting your ad placement 205
Finding value in the classified section 206
Placing Magazine Ads 206
Selecting magazines 207
Scheduling placements 207
Considering Yellow Pages, Directories, and Their Digital Alternatives 209
Creating and placing print directory ads 210
Getting found in online directories 211
Using Billboards and Out-of-Home Ads 211
Chapter 14: Broadcasting Your Message on Radio, TV, and Online 213
A Guide to Buying Airtime 214
Knowing some station and ad-buying terminology 214
Achieving broadcast reach, frequency, and rating points 216
Bartering for airtime 218
Broadcast Ad Guidelines 219
Establishing your own broadcast identity 219
Writing your ad 219
Turning your script over to the producers 220
Producing Radio Ads 221
Producing TV Ads 222
Hiring professionals 223
Airing preproduced manufacturer ads 223
Considering Infomercials 224
Logging In to Webinars 225
Forms 226
Chapter 15: Snail-Mailing and E-Mailing Your Customers Directly 227
Using One-to-One Marketing 228
Direct Sales: Do-It-Yourself Distribution 228
Marketing with Direct Mailers 230
Setting up for success with direct mail 230
Deciding between e-mail and “going postal” 231
Making your offer 232
Personalizing your mailer 233
Putting Surface Direct Mail to Work 234
Developing a great list 234
Creating your mailer 237
Sending your mailers 237
Following up 239
Keeping your list current 240
Knowing the difference between direct mail and junk mail 241
E-mail Marketing 241
Keeping your e-mail legal and welcome 242
Rating your e-mail marketing 242
Sending e-mail that gets read and gets results 243
Forms 244
Chapter 16: Brochures, Promotions, Trade Shows, and More 245
Publishing Brochures 245
Differentiating types of brochures 246
Copywriting 248
Designing and printing brochures 249
Getting brochures into the marketplace 251
Making the Most of Newsletters 252
Planning your newsletters 252
Packing newsletters with useful content 253
Producing and circulating e-newsletters 254
Finding Marketing Opportunities throughout Your Business 257
Turning your packages into ad vehicles 257
Building business with gift certificates 257
Getting good use out of business cards 258
Making the most of advertising specialties 259
Choosing and Using Trade Shows 260
Building Sales through Promotions 261
Forms 263
Chapter 17: Public Relations and Publicity 265
The Relationship between Public Relations and Publicity 265
Taking a wide-angle view of public relations 266
Focusing on publicity 267
Becoming a News Source 267
Creating a media kit and online media center 267
Establishing and maintaining an all-important list of media contacts 268
Getting real with publicity expectations 270
Spreading Your News 271
Preparing news releases 272
Managing media interviews 278
Staging news conferences — or not 279
Crisis Communications: Dealing with Bad News 280
Forms 280
Part V: Winning and Keeping Customers 281
Chapter 18: Making Impressions through Networking and Presentations 283
Building a Far-Reaching Network 283
Making Introductions 285
Introducing yourself 285
Introducing your business 286
Polishing Your Presentation 288
Stepping up to the microphone 288
Presenting your proposal or product 289
Forms 293
Chapter 19: Making the Sale 295
Turning Prospects into Customers 295
Navigating the Sale Process 298
Selling redefined 299
Getting off to a good start 300
Negotiating mutually agreeable solutions 302
Watching for buying signals 304
Asking for the order 305
Making buying easy 305
Chapter 20: Enhancing Customer
Service and Developing Loyalty 307
What Customers Want 307
The Fundamentals of Customer Service 308
Mastering the service cycle 308
Evaluating and improving service levels 309
Cultivating “best customers” 310
Creating a customer service environment 312
Dealing with Concerns and Complaints 313
Understanding why customers don’t complain 313
Encouraging complaints 313
Reading customer clues to dissatisfaction 314
Turning complaints into loyalty springboards 314
Making Loyal Customers for Life 315
Valuing your customers 316
Benchmarking satisfaction levels and cultivating loyalty 317
Closing the quality gap 320
Building loyalty through service 320
Launching loyalty programs 321
Forms 322
Part VI: The Part of Tens 323
Chapter 21: Ten Questions to Answer before Choosing a Business Name 325
What Kind of Name Do You Want? 325
Is the Name You Want Available? 326
Is It Easy to Spell? 326
Is It Easy to Say? 327
Is It Original in Your Market Area? 327
Is It Unconventional? 327
Does It Work in Markets Far and Wide? 327
Is It Memorable? 328
Can You Live and Grow with This Name? 328
Are You Ready to Commit to the Name? 328
Chapter 22: Ten Ways to Attract People to Your Business Online 329
Commit to Becoming Findable Online 329
Set a Goal for Your Online Activity 330
Decide on Your Online Identity 330
Establish Your Online Introduction 331
Stake an Online Home Base 331
Build an Online Media Center 332
Get Active Across Social Media 332
Develop a Content-Sharing Program 333
Monitor Your Online Reputation 333
Get and Stay Active Online 334
Chapter 23: Ten Steps to a Great Marketing Plan 335
Step 1: State Your Business Purpose 336
Step 2: Analyze Your Market Situation 336
Step 3: Set Goals and Objectives 336
Step 4: Define Your Market 337
Step 5: Advance Your Position, Brand, and Creative Strategy 337
Step 6: Set Your Marketing Strategies 338
Step 7: Outline Your Tactics 338
Step 8: Establish Your Budget 339
Step 9: Blueprint Your Action Plan 340
Step 10: Think Long Term 340
One Final Step: Use Your Plan 340
Appendix: About the Downloadable Content 341
Index 347
