Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Some PR folks will tell you that press releases are a waste of time. I guess that comes from all those lazy PR folks out there that didn’t get any results from mindlessly blasting boring press releases to the media masses. But that’s not really the point of this post. (I’m only picking on the [...]

Business owners always want to know what they should pitch to media folks to generate a story. Guess what, it’s not your 5th anniversary, unless you are the first business of its kind to actually last five years.
The media loves firsts and so does the market. First to market is news!
Your job is to figure [...]

I know this isn’t the most original idea on the planet, but I just felt it was time to create some Duct Tape Marketing t-shirts. I know that I have lots of very talented designer types that read this blog and my newsletter, so I thought, let’s hold a contest.
The whole Duct Tape thing [...]

I’m sure you’ve read about Google’s sitemap initiative, but if not, it’s worth your while to learn enough about it to implement it yourself or demand that your web person understand it.
Basically, Google is allowing website owners to submit a map of their website in a special XML file. This file is then used by [...]

Yesterday, I was sent to voicemail on three phone calls in a row. That’s not unusual these days, but what I found annoyingly silly was the fact that each of the would be called had a voicemail message that said “Hi, this is so and so, I’m either on the phone or away from my [...]

This is fairly typical email I receive so I thought I would answer it via the blog.
John:
I have been listening to your podcasts and enjoy them.
A problem I have been struggling with is “As a dentist how do I ask for referrals from a patient of mine yet maintain my ‘professionalism
Any tips?
Bob
Bob,
The key is to [...]

Remember the K-Mart blue light special? It was created in 1965 by a store manager looking to move slow merchandise and quickly became part of the American lexicon.
Years ago I recall tooling around K-Mart with my mom, shopping for back to school clothes, when all of a sudden an announcer would blurt out those now [...]

Google unveiled another seemingly anti Microsoft salvo when it announced that it is paying a referral fee to AdSense members who promote Firefox with the Google Toolbar.
AdSense members can pick up a bit of code from Google and display a Get Firefox type of ad. Each time someone downloads Firefox the referring site gets a [...]