Marketing know-how for entrepreneurs
Professor Paul Farris at the University of Virginia’s Darden School once joked that, “Marketing is what fills that space between what the customer wants to buy and what your company wants to sell.”
My take on his statement is that we, as marketers, need to stay on our toes at all times. With changing media, technology, customer preferences, and products - staying the same does not work. A great product will not reach its potential without great marketing. A lousy product will not succeed (usually) even with great marketing.
I try to look around a few minutes each day to learn a few skills and techniques to improve my marketing toolbox. Today’s blog entry is focused on some of the top experts in this area. Although many of them do not exclusively cover small business, I’ve selected the ones that I think would be most helpful to a small businessperson or entrepreneur.
First off, if you want the answer by drinking through a fire hose, check this out! Noted blogger, Todd And who writes The Power to Connect, created a reasonably scientific ranking methodology to identify The Power 150 - Top Marketing Blogs. Yes, you’ll need to spend some time looking through these. His list is great to have.
The maven of small business marketing is John Jantsch… which is clear from his blog and his book, Duct Tape Marketing. If you have a lot of passion and are short on time and money, this is the blog to read. Jantsch is scrappy - which fits my blog perfectly. He gives you the insight to focus on high impact marketing techniques on a small business budget.
Church of the Customer - by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba - is a classic with case studies, lessons learned, and up-to-the-minute insight regarding connecting with your customers. Their two recent books, Citizen Marketers: When People Are the Message and Creating Customer Evangelists - put you in the shoes of your customers.
BlogWrite for CEOs is right on track if your small business has a blog or wants to start one. My fellow Washington, DC resident - Debbie Weil released The Corporate Blogging Book: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know to Get It Right in 2006. Her blog has very clear tips for what you need to do in order to make your blog a valuable part of your business messaging.
Understanding customers is where Kelly Mooney is second to none. Here blog - mooneythinks.com - gives you example after example of what works and what doesn’t work. She adds a lot of value to her news and facts by adding her observations regarding the big picture of customer trends and preferences.
If you want to laugh while you’re working and see marketing innovation at its best, check out the Ice Blog published by jewelry retailer Ice.com. Marketer, strategiest, and (I think) accidental comedian - Pinny Gniwisch - has loads of fun while aligning every element of Ice.com messaging with the customer in mind.
A few minutes a day is all you need to pick up some great marketing ideas… and small businesses can out-market the big players when we can use our scrappy size to innovate faster than the giants.
All is well.
