Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Organicism is a philosophical orientation that asserts that reality is best understood as an organic whole. So, now you know I know how to use Wikipedia, but the word Organicism has such a true ring to it for the small business. Small businesses do have brands, can take full advantage of branding, but not like [...]

Yes, if you have a small business, even a one-person shop, you have a brand. Many small business owners don’t think this way, but when you grasp what a brand really is, I think it may become a clearer. Read the rest of my thoughts on the Small Business Marketing Guide site brought to you [...]

This is a special guest post as part of Make a Referral Week 2009.
By Pamela Slim of Escape from Cubicle Nation
As small business owners, the line between our business and personal lives can be a little bit challenging to define. Some people worry that the term “personal brand” means sharing about their twelve cats, [...]

Hopefully you’ve concluded that today’s marketing requires lots of content, lots of education and lots of trust building via expertise sharing. And you’ve also likely concluded that all of that is a ton of work. It is a ton of work, well worth it in the long-run, but work to build no matter.
The secret to [...]

I did a 3 part interview with George and Mary-Lynn of The Bigg Success Show. The subject was one that I get a lot these days – Marketing in Tough Times.
Check it out – they do a nice job with this show and include lots of text content from the interviews. Listen to Part 1 [...]

“Markets are conversations – talk is cheap, silence is fatal” – from the cluetrain manifesto – Levine, Locke, Searls & Weinberger
The statement above embodies for many the changed landscape of marketing. Bigco started to embrace this over the course of the last few years and now it’s time for Smallco to aggressively do the same.
This [...]

Far too often businesses of all sizes leave the official job of marketing to, well, the marketing department, which can also be known as the owner of the business or top sales person turned into the marketing person. But, here’s a little flash – anyone associated with your business that comes into contact with a [...]

So, honestly now, have you ever heard the words in the title to this post from a long-time customer? We all have, I’m afraid, and shame on us.
When a customer becomes a customer, it’s usually to purchase a specific product or solve a specific problem. When we solve that problem or ship that product the [...]