What No One Ever Tells You about Marketing Your Own Business: Real-Life Marketing Advice from 101 Successful Entrepreneurs

by Jan Norman

Book Overview

Marketing issues are among the top concerns of business owners and managers. Yet most small businesses lack the expertise, time, and/or money to develop elaborate marketing campaigns. The most... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0793185726
• ISBN13: 9780793185726
• Release Date: July 2004
• Publisher: Kaplan Publishing
• Length: 238 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Inspirational success stories

Basically each chapter is a success story from a different entrepreneur. It covers a wide-range of marketing ideas. Check out the book... perhaps a few of these success stories may be a source of inspiration to apply to your own business.

Great Case Studies

Although this is the only the third review for this book, it deserves more attention than it's getting. Each very short chapter is really a condensed case study from small businesses across the U.S. It's not full of long-winded philosophies, and broad concepts, but practical ideas from people who have grown their businesses into successful, and highly profitable enterprises. More like a marketing handbook. Each chapter also has a bulleted overview at the end.

Outstanding Book For Marketing Ideas

"What No One Ever Tells You About Marketing Your Own Business: Real-Life Marketing Advice from 101 Successful Entrepreneurs" by Jan Norman is an excellent book to give entrepreneurs ideas about how to market and promote their businesses. The book contains 101 two-page stories where successful entrepreneurs share their marketing advice. Norman writes: "Every marketer has many different tools and tactics from which to choose, so emphasize the ones that capitalize on your style and preferences... Analyze both your business and yourself before developing a well-thought-out marketing plan that matches your personality and image..." Marketing tactics Norman discusses include: 1. Understanding point-of-sale merchandizing. 2. Database marketing. 3. Direct mail. 4. Marketing on the Internet. 5. The importance of tracking marketing success. 6. The importance of location and using maps to guide customers. 7. Infomercials and radio advertisements. 8. Public speaking and networking. 9. The importance of product distribution. 10. The importance of understanding your customers and their motivation to buy. Norman points out some entrepreneurs neglect marketing when they get busy. This leads to erratic profits. She suggests entrepreneurs list their marketing efforts in a marketing calendar so they can identify when no marketing is active. Norman writes: "The key is to plan so that you're always marketing in some way." Many of the businesses featured are unique. To help us understand how pricing effects sales, Norman features an online pet store AnimalMania (animals.com) which uses management software to track how price affects sales. It helps the store decide the best price for green iguanas, turtles (three for $8), or neon cardinal fish. Norman writes: "Computer analysis also helped Mike identify errors in product deliveries. He orders 2,000 goldfish and 1,000 guppies twice a week. His inventory would indicate he had 20,000 fish on hand but his tanks were empty. So he started counting the fish, difficult as that was, which routinely uncovered shortages in deliveries. ... analyzing his profits and adjusting prices quickly doubled Animalmania's profitability in two years." Curiously, another company featured by Norman developed pattern recognition technology to help identify fish. Norman writes that a meeting: "... made DataFlow [the company featured] executives aware of the federal government's interest in identifying and tracking fish without physical tags that can harm them. The concept was to photograph and 'tag' fish using their skin spots based on pattern-recognition technology." Apparently, there is a whole industry centered around counting fish. Who knew? This case shows the importance of finding solutions to customer problems. Norman says you must leave your existing beliefs behind and seek to understand customer motivation. "Capitalize on customer dissatisfaction. Never underestimate the marketing value of solving a problem that irritates custo

Something for every business!

I have been a CPA for over 25 years. This is the first book that put lots and lots of great marketing ideas together. All my small business clients should read this book. Thank you...TheLazyCPA.