Top 5 Business Educational Tools – Topic: Marketing

Now is a great time to talk about marketing.  Experts say, “Don’t diminish your marketing efforts in a slow economy.”  But, what is the best way to deploy scare dollars? Below is a Top 5 roundup of useful – and  free – marketing information and resources, followed by ideas for the classroom.

#1. Marketing Plan Series from Network Solutions
This is emerging into an incredibly detailed tutorial on doing a marketing plan. And, it’s free! We learned about this from the Twitter stream of Network Solution’s Social Media Swami: Shashi Bellamkonda.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

#2. Duct Tape Marketing
It’s a bit hard to get around all the offers and sub-links, but, there are some good nuggets in here.  Big small business advocates.

Sign up for free report

#3. Seth Godin’s Blog
Seth Godin is the author of entrepreneurial marketing favs like “Purple Cow” and “The Dip.” Here are a couple of favorite posts:

Top 10 Secrets
What Every Good Marketer Knows

#4. Free Reports from Marketing Sherpa
Word on the street is that if you can get marketing sherpa to cover your marketing technique, it’s money.

Marketing Sherpa Free Reports

#5. NFIB’s Small Business Toolbox

Marketing Category

Honorable Mention: Marketing Profs “Daily Fix”
You have to see the blog to access free information. Here are a couple of interesting posts:

Spray and Pray Marketing
Skittles Bold Social Media Experiment

The basics: How To do Market Research-101
And, for those beginning at the beginning – A very basic, downloadable Market Research Guide.

Note: This document is an excerpt from Visa’s Practical Money Skills Curriculum developed by yours truly in partnership with the NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation.

Ideas for the classroom:

1.      For follow-up classroom exercises about  marketing in the context of a business plan, see the free EITC curriculum (registration required), Exercises 3-3 and 3-4 in the Module 3 PowerPoint.

2.      To channel the marketing discussion into a conversation about “marketing oneself,” see the EITC Alternative Exercise A-1 “Speed Networking.” Link to free EITC curriculum.

Subscribe to our blog to receive automatic updates to your favorite newsreader.  See the “Subscribe” button at the top of the column to the right.