We never want to recommend you limit yourself as a business owner or marketer to reading just one book on marketing. Why straightjacket your mind? No single author, no matter how great, can cover everything. There are just too many good ideas out roaming the planet.
But, if you are ever forced to grab one small business marketing book before you bail out of a plane we recommend you latch onto one of Jay Conrad Levinson’s Guerilla Marketing books. He is a fantastic authority when it comes to marketing ideas for chief marketers and business owners of any size firm.
Guerilla Marketing: Secrets for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business is another of those books that we first read over ten years ago; although the first edition of Guerilla Marketing has been out for more than twenty. Clearly, Levinson’s ideas have staying power among entrepreneurs.
OK, there are so many Guerilla books out there by Jay Conrad Levinson that we can’t cover them all. Let’s just state this fact: the Guerilla tactics outlined by Levinson are among the best on earth for small business marketing. Levinson is one of the first professional marketers to really focus on small business. Levinson isn’t writing these books for ad agencies or Fortune 500 in-house marketers; he is writing for you, as small business owner.
Time and again Levinson emphasizes brain-power over money-power in marketing. Of all the lessons in the book, this is our favorite–small business marketers can outsmart the competition; hence, the title, of guerilla marketing. Guerillas are typically outnumbered and outgunned, and so their tactics must be different than the conventional warriors.
Guerilla Marketing contains chapters on virtually every marketing channel: radio, PR, newspapers, television, etc. Need a quick refresher to make sure your radio spend is as efficient as it could be? This is a great resource to use to just pick up and review to see if you are leaving anything out in your current tactics when you are using this channel.
We also find chapter 5–Secrets of Developing a Creative Marketing Program–a good intro course for anybody beginning a new marketing strategy. Here Levinson outlines “Seven steps to creative marketing”–a worthwhile checklist for any small business marketer to use. Again, this is a great tool to use to review any campaigns you are launching or already have in the works.
Especially helpful is Chapter 29–How Guerillas Win Battles. Levinson offers timely suggestions on how to sustain your marketing once it works. He actually warns of what to do when you encounter success by using the guerilla methods. For those of you familiar with Michael Porter’s works, you’ll know the vital importance of sustainability in any competitive business.
Guerilla Marketing: Secrets for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business is definitely a worthwhile read.
Remember: Brand (who you are) + Package (your Face to the Customer) + People (customers and employees) = Marketing Success.
© 2006 Marketing Hawks
