100 best kept marketing secrets - free ebook

Small Business Trends has put together 100 of the best kept marketing secrets, dished out by 100 marketing experts (they could only find 99 experts, so my tip is on page 12)

Anita Campbell, the publisher of Small Business Trends, made these observations about the secrets revealed in the book:

Throughout the submitted tips, I noticed three themes over and over:

Simple and inexpensive tools are more popular than complex or pricey approaches.  “Duh!” you might be thinking. “Isn’t it obvious that entrepreneurs and small businesses, being on tight budgets, would favor low-cost approaches?”

Well, yes and no. What was surprising is just how many of the tips cost literally nothing but your time. A large proportion of others, such as those that focused on using business cards or blogging, can be done for hundreds, not thousands, of dollars. So don’t be tempted to throw up your hands and say “I can’t afford marketing.” You can.

Authenticity, friendliness and relationships matter. When you count your customers in the single or double digits, as opposed to the thousands or hundreds of thousands, relationships tend to matter much more deeply. The importance of smiling and being friendly was brought up again and again. Doing something nice for others and being yourself were common themes.

Most small businesses are NOT about mass marketing campaigns. Instead, we rely on attracting and retaining a relatively small number of customers to be successful. A solo consultant or small Web design firm may have as few as five or six regular customers. For small businesses, investing in relationship building goes a long way.

Creative online marketing plays a key role. We drew tips from those who are active online, so on the one hand you might think that the results would naturally be skewed toward online marketing. And to a degree I suppose that’s true. But I was surprised by the sophistication of the online marketing—especially on limited budgets.

Some of the online approaches are very detailed and go far beyond the plain-vanilla “create a nice Web site” type of advice. A number of the small-business marketing techniques represented in this document get into advanced online marketing, including social media marketing.

While you're certainly read some of the tips and think...well, duh...there's plenty of good thinking among the 100 tips.   If you get just a handful of new ideas, it's well worth your time.

Download the e-book for free right here.

Comments

[Karin H.]

Hi Drew

I Like the approach of counting clients in single or double digits - simple but IMHO very effective to 'get personal' instead of seeing an overwhelming number.

will download the report - thanks for the tip!

Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

[Karin H.]

Hit a snag: every time I sign in by facebook to try to download the file it won't let me - it comes back with my 'Scribd' homepage again.

Karin H

[Peter Korchnak]

Thanks, Drew, great stuff as usual. I appreciate your pointing people to valuable e-sources out there.

I'm sure this marketing secret is in the book somewhere: "Make it easy for your target audiences to obtain your product, even if it's free." But I wouldn't know it's there, because Scribd asks me to sign up for an account if I want to download the e-book instead of reading it on their site. Call it a pet peeve. Looks like others may have some technical difficulties as well. Free has a price I guess.

[Claire Celsi]

Thanks for the e-book, Drew! Good stuff!

[Drew McLellan]

Karin,

Were you able to download it? Lots of interesting thinking among the 100 secrets!

Drew

[Drew McLellan]

Peter,

I changed the download to make it easier. I struggled a bit with Scribd as well.

Try it again from the link on this post. Let me know if you have any trouble.

Drew

[Drew McLellan]

Claire,

Glad to share it!

Drew

[Dina Giovale]

I downloaded it and am anxious to read it. Thanks for the great info!

[Karin H.]

Drew, managed to download it after all. Thanks for the alternative link you sent me

Karin H

[Scott Fox, Author of Internet Riches]

They couldn't find 100, so I'm #12. LOL!

[Drew McLellan]

Karin,

You bet -- that seemed to work better for people, so I changed it in the post too.

Thanks for letting me know it worked.

Drew

[Daria Steigman]

Hi Drew,

Thanks for the heads up on the e-book. I just downloaded and started skimming, and it has a lot of food for thought. Love your entry and totally agree with you. And "do less" isn't just for marketers; it's a good business rule about prioritizing and aligning strategies and tactics with your business goals.

Years ago I argued with a client who thought the best way to caption the photos in his newsletter was BOLD, ITALIC, UPPER CASE, (and) UNDERLINE. I lost that battle, but have kept arguing ever since for restraint.

Best,
Daria

[Peter Korchnak]

Thanks, Drew. The pdf download worked swimmingly. Can't wait to read the volume!

Best,

Peter

[Drew McLellan]

Daria,

"Years ago I argued with a client who thought the best way to caption the photos in his newsletter was BOLD, ITALIC, UPPER CASE, (and) UNDERLINE. I lost that battle, but have kept arguing ever since for restraint."

I am only laughing because it's so true and because we've all had that conversation with a client at some point.

Drew