Shelley’s List of Great Marketing Resources

Shelley has compiled a list of great marketing resources covering a wide variety of topics. We want to keep the list growing so send us your favorites!

VC Funding

• The Quintessential Funding Presentation. Guy Kawasaki’s Bible, called The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint, teaches you how to structure your funding presentation. Still as relevant today as it was when written in 2005.
  • http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2005/12/the_102030_rule.html

Naming

• Business name and tagline generator. Can’t afford our professional naming services? Using this step-by-step process you’ll at least do one better than ordering pizza and beer for a naming brainstorm session with the engineering department.
  • http://www.yudkin.com/generate.htm

Guerrilla Marketing

• Wacky and wonderful story of the birth of bacon salt. Everyone knows you have to be passionate about your product or service. And probably a little crazy as well.
  • http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2008/11/20/mayonnaise-wrestling-flavor-fanaticism-and-social-media-on-steroids-the-bacon-salt-story/


• 20 B2B Guerrilla Marketing Ideas You Can Use Today
  Despite the growing strength in the economy, guerrilla marketing never goes out of style. And while many believe guerrilla marketing is most appropriate for consumer products, you'll learn how it can work for business-to-business products and services as well. Packed full of case studies, this 35-minute audio file and accompanying slide presentation will give you 20 invaluable guerilla marketing tips and ideas you can put into action immediately.
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• Great example of how to use an influencer to reach your target audience. Audi struck gold when loaning Guy Kawasaki a high-end car. Is there an influencer in your sphere you can tap?
  • http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2009/02/audi--like-my-b.html

Online Marketing

• How Presidential Campaigning (a.k.a. Marketing) Strategies Have Evolved (Or How Obama Used Social Media to Win the Election). When I was in college I thought I wanted to be in politics. After serving as an intern for both the Democratic Dean of the Senate and the House Republican Staff, I learned that winning an election was primarily marketing a candidate. From that day on I was hooked on marketing.
  • http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2008/tc20080822_700775.htm

Branding and Positioning

• What Start-ups Must Know About Selling to the CIO
  Launch Pad gave Chief Information Officers (CIOs) a soapbox upon which to discuss their perceptions of and attitudes toward start-up companies. The conversations ranged from their concerns about doing business with start-ups to whether the media influences their buying behavior and much in between. Sometimes what they had to say was not surprising; some refuted common wisdom or, at least, provided a more nuanced perspective. In this summary report CIOs tell readers in their own words what start-ups need to do to gain their business.
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• How to Successfully Reposition Your Brand. The economic environment demands the repositioning of many brands. McKinsey counsels companies to focus on achievable results (live up to your brand promise, differentiate, understand customers’ frame of reference) rather than aspirational positioning, or face failure.
  • Solutions Successful Brand Repositioning.pdf

Website Design

• The definitive source for website usability. Never one to mince words (or to waste money making his site attractive), Jakob Nielsen offers facts and educated opinions about designing the most usable website possible. Highly searchable.
  • http://www.useit.com/
  
  
• Website design for left-brainers. Research-based data on website design from an unlikely source: the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The depth and value of the content will make you forget the report actually came from the government.
  • http://usability.gov/pdfs/guidelines.html
  
  
• More user interface help. There’s not as much material and it's not as fact-based as UseIt, but it's helpful and easier on the eye.
  • http://www.uie.com/
  
  
• Landing pages are a science and these guys will prove it. Marketing Experiments hosts great webinars where you’ll watch them improve a landing page before your eyes. Practical information you can use immediately.
  • http://www.marketingexperiments.com/index.php

PR

• Everyone has a story. You’ll get ideas for creating your story by reading this article.
  • http://www.perrymarshall.com/story/

Marcom

• 20 of the Best Free Stock Photo Sites. Wow! What more do you want?!
  • http://psdvibe.com/2009/03/29/20-of-the-best-free-stock-photo-sites/

Email Marketing

• Learn from others’ email successes. Check out this rich compilation of case studies.
  • http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/casestudies/

Copywriting

• Everything you ever needed to know about online copywriting. A collection of articles teaching you everything from how to create impactful headlines to creating your first blog.
  • http://www.grokdotcom.com/2007/10/29/copywriting-101/

Market Research

• Tradeoffs in Business-to-Business Research: Selecting the Right Sample Size
  Since most companies have limited time and budget, tradeoffs must be made between depth of information, precision, and cost. This free, downloadable report from Launch Pad is intended to provide some guidelines to help companies decide when a smaller sample size may be appropriate.
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