AUTHOR INTERVIEW: SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING FOR ...

Hello Buzzers,
We were fortunate to sit down with Barbara Findlay-Schenck,?author of ?Small Business Marketing for Dummies? ,
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Hello Barbara,
First off, for folks out there who are still new to this, what exactly is Marketing really? Is it sales and publicity or? Marketing newcomers aren?t the only ones who ask this question, and even marketing pros give varying and sometimes confusing definitions. That?s why the first sentence of Small Business Marketing Kit For Dummies reads ?You?re not alone if you opened this book looking for an answer to the question, ?What is marketing, anyway???

Here?s my plain-language definition: Marketing is the process through which you win and keep customers. Marketing is the matchmaker between a business and its market.

Publicity, advertising, packaging, distribution and sales are marketing steps. But marketing is the complete process of tailoring products and packages, distribution, messages, online and offline communications, sales and service to meet the desires and win the loyalty of the most important business asset of all: the customer.

Here?s my illustration of the marketing process. I call it the ?Marketing Wheel of Fortune.? It begins with research and continues round clockwise in a never-ending effort to win and keep customers.

Because of the title I just have to ask, is this a book or a marketing kit? It?s both. It?s a book with an accompanying CD-ROM full of nearly 50 forms, worksheets, spreadsheets, checklists and marketing tools. E-book buyers can download the CD contents from the publisher?s website.

The book is titled a 3rd Edition because it replaces the first two editions of Small Business Marketing For Dummies (Wiley, 2001 and 2006) with a new version that?s updated on every single page, including all-new chapters with advice for getting online, using social networks, blogging, and networking.

What is your background? I?m a small business advocate who helps people start, grow, market, brand and, when they?re ready, sell their businesses.

I tell people that I?ve followed an interest in marketers and marketing around the world. My career started in the public relations office of the University of Oregon. After graduating from Oregon State University I moved with my husband to Honolulu, where I was admissions director and writing instructor for Hawaii Loa College (now part of Hawaii Pacific University) before joining Hawaii?s largest public relations firm.

Then one Sunday we saw an ad inviting Peace Corps applications, and within weeks we were off to Malaysia, where we served as community development volunteers for two years before returning to Oregon to start an ad agency, which we sold to new owners after 15 great years.

Since then I?ve worked on a shelf full of business books, including my newest, Small Business Marketing Kit For Dummies, which ships to bookstores and buyers in September. I?m also the author of Selling Your Business For Dummies, co-author of Branding For Dummies and Business Plans Kit For Dummies, and a columnist for the MSN small business channel BusinessonMain.com.

Why do you think the whole ?Dummies? series of books have been so popular? I think people choose For Dummies books because they know that no matter the title or topic, the books deliver straightforward advice in an easy-to-grasp and easy-to-understand way.

In Branding For Dummies I describe the brand as one that deciphers the foreign language of new topics with a lighthearted tone and easy-in, easy-out facts and tips, all with a good dose of humor, lots of examples, and a promise to enlighten anyone interested in the topic without confounding or confusing the conversation.

Beyond the style, though, I think the brand is popular because it?s so reliable. Authors don?t use jargon or terms they can?t explain in people-language right on the page, with no need for cross-referencing. And the books are written so readers don?t have to tackle them from first-to-last page. They can start with the index, go straight to any page, and get everything they need to know. With For Dummies books, readers know that no matter what page or section they open they don?t have to bring any knowledge of the topic with them to get the information they need to know.

The For Dummies publisher, Wiley, is justified in calling it the world?s best-selling reference brand. My resume is proof that I?m a big fan.

Who truly needs marketing? Artists, businesses? Anyone with business goals ?? anyone who wants to positively influence the decisions of others ? needs marketing.

For example, businesses need to influence the decisions of buyers, employee applicants, reporters, bloggers, and others who can spread their stories and contribute to their success. Organizations need to influence the decisions of donors, underwriters, members, service providers, community members and users. Artists need to influence the decisions of reviewers, buyers, curators, show presenters, media outlets, and anyone else who is in a position to appreciate, recommend, share, or purchase creative works.

In all those cases, marketing is the key to achieving interest, winning purchases, earning satisfaction and loyalty, and keeping businesses in business. Put in terms like that, marketing is the single most important activity for anyone with business goals.

I know this will be a tough question but do you have a couple of examples of artists and businesses that are really successful at marketing themselves and why? The best marketers are those who know what they want to achieve. Only then can they craft a plan to get where they want to go. I heard an NPR interview with Jimmy Fallon, who said that even as a kid he knew he wanted to be on Saturday Night Live. ?That was my goal since I was probably 14 of 15,? he said. ?If I ever blew out candles on a cake or wished upon a falling star or threw a coin into a well I?d say, ?I wanna be on Saturday Night Live.? And he knew how he intended to get there. ?Celebrity impressions. That was my big thing. I wanted to be the next Dana Carvey.?

I?ve recounted his interview a number of times because it?s such a great example of what can happen to people or businesses that know what they want to achieve and how they intend to achieve it.

Then, whether the aim is to win a big promotion, achieve clout or leadership in your field, make a difference in your community, ring up higher sales volume, win political office, get on Saturday Night Live, or anything else, you can plot a reasonable plan for getting from where you are to where you want to arrive. That?s what a marketing plan is all about which, by the way, is the topic of the very short, very understandable last chapter of Small Business Marketing

Lastly I know that writing ?Small Business Marketing Kit for Dummies? has really consumed you and it sounds like a MUST buy. Where can we find it when it comes out in late August and what do you hope folks will come away with after reading it?

Thank you so much for that comment and question! First let me say that part of what took time and what contributes greatly to this book is that a dozen amazong marketing experts each agreed to contribute their expertise, adding advice on innovation, networking, e-commerce, mobification of websites, guerilla publicity, using LinkedIn, the list goes on. The result is a book ? a kit ? that gives very current, very hands-on advice and step-by-step guidance for marketing in today?s quick-changing, screen-connected, customer-empowered marketplace.

People can go to my website, www.bizstrong.com for links to book excerpts. To buy the book, nearly any major bookstore should have copies or buyers can go to the Small Business Marketing Kit For Dummies Amazon page.

Also, I welcome questions and feedback at facebook.com/bizstrong, and I stand by to post replies to any comments here on Jaki?s Buzz. Thanks much!

Be sure and tune in Jaki?s Buzz, Live Radio to speak with Barbara directly when she joins us in November.

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Source: http://jakisbuzz.com/blog/?p=1070

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