I work in a small office and one of our owners fancies himself a marketing manager. The biggest problem is that he brings in some part time people who are going to help him with the "marketing". Apparently, his definition of "marketing" only includes creating documents in Adobe Pagemaker or Photoshop. Notice, there is no mention of determining actual marketing strategies or determining customer expectations.
In my opinion, the part time person is filling more the role of "graphic designer" and not actually "marketing.
Now, I don't profess to be any marketing expert, nor have I taken any formal classes on the topic. However, I have been spending some time lately reading various marketing books, especially ones that apply to the internet and website marketing.
One of the good ones recently published is called "Call To Action" (Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg). This books says more in the first 20 pages, than most books say in 300 pages. If you have any interest in internet website marketing, you MUST read this book You can find it on Amazon. As I look today, it's released in a paperback version. Get this book!!Also, I have been reading good things about the new book "Waiting for Your Cat to Bark"
(Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg). In fact, Amazon is putting these two books together as sort of a "package deal" (if that sort of thing interests you). In any case, I've heard plenty of good things about this book, and am planning on getting my own copy soon.I started getting interested in this sort of thing after first hearing about Seth Godin's book "Free Prize Inside". This is another great book on basic marketing techniques.
On a final note, I would also recommend the classic "Guerilla Marketing" by Jay Levinson. This is THE book on budget minded marketing ideas, and has become the introductory marketing book for many small businesses. If you haven't read this one yet, grab a copy online or at your local bookstore. There will be at least one idea that could make a huge difference in your own endeavors.
That's it for now. Talk to you soon!!!
Hammster
