Marketing in a Small Town-Book Review: How to Market, Advertise and Promote Your Business or Service in a Small Town, by Tom Egelhoff.

Tom Egelhoff founder of Small Town Marketing.Com in Bozeman, MT http://www.smalltownmarketing.com/ grew up working in his family’s small-town florist business and spent 33 years selling everything from clay sewer pipes and farm buildings to business machines and furniture. He has distilled his many years of experience and insights into the book How to Market, Advertise and Promote Your Business or Service in a Small Town.

By Sally Falkow WellsFargo.com

"This is the most practical and usable help for people to market small businesses in small towns that I’ve ever seen," says Mike Reilly, professor of marketing at Montana State University in Bozeman. "The book is full of examples, and the nontechnical language makes it an easy read for a wide audience. There are lots of good ideas here, even for folks with lots of experience."

Here are a few examples of tips from chapters in the book:

Radio: Running several commercials per day over a period of weeks is better than spacing them out over a period of months. If one of the announcers is well-respected in the community, you might want to ask him or her to read your commercial live. This practice continues the "tone" of the radio program and is more likely to keep the listeners’ attention.

Community events: Can you sponsor a community event such as a golf tournament or other gathering that will be well-publicized in the community? Sometimes the positive exposure in the community will bring in new customers.

Create a marketing calendar: Set up at least a six-month plan. If you are a retail store, list events such as half-off sales, an anniversary sale or a Mother’s Day sale, so you can see what promotions are coming up. You will be better prepared to contact media, prepare ads, order merchandise, make signs and budget advertising dollars each month. It also keeps employees updated, so that they can start promoting events to your customers.

In addition, the book addresses how to create a business and marketing plan, find your strengths and weaknesses, and forecast sales. It discusses marketing fundamentals, such as zeroing in on your best customers, finding them and keeping them.

Egelhoff recently published a new book, The Small Town Advertising Handbook: How to Say More and Spend Less, which expands on the advertising and promotion information in the last few chapters of the previous book. It also provides many new marketing pointers.

Eagle Marketing

503 South 14th Street

P.O. Box 271

Bozeman, Montana 59771-0271

(406) 585-0219

Tom Egelhoff

[email protected]

http://www.smalltownmarketing.com

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