Duct Tape Marketing: Book Review

It is a rare freelancer that enjoys marketing. It is even rarer to find one who knows how to do it right. With so many means of advertising your business, which do you chose? Which method brings in sacks of money, and which one will only deliver quick kicks to the ahem…you get my drift.

The problem many freelancers run into is that they spend all their time researching and experimenting with several advertising methods when they should be first identifying their ideal clients and then develop their marketing message.

Sound like market-mumbo-jumbo to you? Don’t worry, John Jantsch’s book Duct Tape Marketing cuts through the bull and delivers sound marketing advice.

Why do I need to read this book?

As a typical freelancer I put the cart before the horse when it came to my marketing. I spent a lot of time looking at newspaper advertisements, yellow pages ads, and even weekly magazine columns. I figured that if I experimented with each one I could track which one had the greatest return and then fine tune that method.

So wrong. I was getting way ahead of myself.

Duct Tape Marketing demands that you start at the very beginning. There is no reason to start looking at ways to advertise when you have not spent any time defining who you want to advertise to. If my ideal clients are successful business women between the ages of 25-45, are they going to even use the yellow pages? Are they going to be reading the newspapers I want to write columns for? You see what we’re getting at. You have to define who you want to sell to before you start selling.

But you don’t like marketing? It’s boring and it’s hard and it gives you a rash?

Author John Jantsch wants you to understand the basic truth – every business is actually a marketing business. That’s right, you can’t avoid it. Marketing is part of every activity of your business, so you better get used to the idea.

What’s inside?

What is Duct Tape Marketing anyway? Put simply, duct tape marketing is marketing that sticks! That means developing marketing that gets people that have a specific need to know, like, trust, and contact you. It’s putting your business in front of people who are ready to buy. It’s like having a whole bucketful of Glengarry Glen Ross leads.

Put it this way, if you can figure out how to make your marketing sticky, you can forget about the steak knives because you’ll be driving the Cadillac Eldorado home.

The Process

Duct Tape Marketing goes step-by-step though the marketing process.

• Who is your ideal client?
• What is your marketing message?
• How can you put your marketing massage where your ideal client is going to see it?
• What does you website say about your business?
• How can you get referrals?
• How do you keep your marketing focused and on track?

The book delivers more than just generalized advice and doesn’t get bogged down in confusing marketing speech.

Conclusion

Having a copy of Duct Tape Marketing on your shelf is a no-brainer for a lot of freelancers. In fact, it’s probably already been recommended to you from a fellow freelancer. But for those who don’t have a copy, it is well worth a read. And for those who do have a copy, it is probably worth a re-read.

Even if you have clients coming out of your nose and you don’t think you need to market yourself anymore, remember that every business is in the marketing business. Who knows? Perhaps you can improve your clients, your rates, and your projects by improving the stickiness of your marketing message.

Travis King is a freelance designer and he’s currently drinking way too much green tea.