Page 17 - Duct Tape Marketing

Introduction

Welcome to the 2nd edition of Small Business Marketing For Dummies,
updated for faster and easier use by the millions of small businesses
that comprise the vast heart and soul of today’s business world.

Since Small Business Marketing For Dummies first hit bookshelves in 2001, I’ve
visited with hundreds of small business owners to learn how they’ve used the
book, what they’ve found most useful, and which marketing issues they con-
tinue to find most pressing. Again and again I’ve heard that the needs of small
businesses are far more immediate than those of their big-budget corporate
cousins. You don’t want to know why as much as you want to know how. You
are constantly in search of solutions to put to work — right now.

In response to requests for more guerrilla-style tactics, you’ll find more bull’s-eye
Tip icons in the margins throughout this edition. Each flags a cost-effective,
do-it-now idea to act upon.

In response to the reality that small businesses either use advertising or alterna-
tive means to get the word out, you’ll find the contents of this edition are
arranged so that all information on advertising is consolidated into Part III,
and all information on how to get the word out without advertising — using
direct mail, publicity, Internet communications, and promotional literature —
is in Part IV. This way you can flip right to the part featuring approaches that
fit best with your business.

Finally, in response to the fact that today’s consumers are wooed by competitive
alternatives as never before, this edition includes an all-new Part V, with
advice for converting prospects to customers, making sales, developing cus-
tomer satisfaction, and cultivating loyalty.

Whether you’re running a home office, a small firm, a family business, or a
nonprofit organization, winning and keeping customers is your key to success.
This book shows you how.

How to Know That This Book Is for You

Are you just starting out in business? Or are you so busy trying to run your
business that you barely have time for marketing? For that matter, do the
words marketing, advertising, and sales seem interchangeable or confusing?
Do you wish some marketing guru would step in to help you out?