Marketing Shortcuts for the Self-Employed: Leverage Resources, Establish Online Credibility and Crush Your Competition [Hardcover]

Patrick Schwerdtfeger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 7, 2011

A quick guide to effective techniques that will boost your business today

Want the juicy marketing secrets that save time and get results quickly for your business? Then this is the book for you. Marketing Secrets for the Self-Employed offers a detailed plan for entrepreneurs, small business owners, salespeople, and service professionals. Filled with effective tactics and strategies ready to apply immediately, this guide supplies a complete toolkit to leverage resources, establish online credibility, and crush your competition!

• Provides practical strategies to promote your business using powerful online tools
• Each chapter can be read in 10 minutes or less and offers an itemized to-do list at the end
• Author has personally used these strategies to promote his business online and has helped dozens of companies do the same

If you're ready to take immediate action and see results quickly for your business, Marketing Secrets for the Self-Employed has all the tools and techniques you need!

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Entrepreneurs, small business owners, and self-employed service professionals often have a small or no staff, limited cash, and too little time in the day to execute a massive marketing campaign. Yet, there's no reason any brilliant business idea should suffer from lack of resources. Truth is, many shortcuts exist for the do-it-yourself professional.

Marketing Shortcuts for the Self-Employed details a step-by-step marketing road map for growing your business, especially online. Today's professionals understand that the Internet offers tremendous business opportunities, but they lack practical strategies to take action. Real profits seem unattainable. This user-friendly guide breaks down what seems like an overwhelming challenge into easily implemented, bite-size solutions.

Each chapter can be read in ten minutes or less and offers an immediately actionable to-do list at the end. Presented in a deliberate and strategic sequence, you'll get advice on more than eighty cutting-edge strategies, including how to:

• Identify your value proposition, and hone your elevator pitch

• Develop killer content that drives SEO and converts website visitors into customers

• Understand Google Analytics data

• Build trust and establish credibility with videos, blogs, and podcasts

• Communicate with precision on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter

• Attract clients with Yelp, Google Places, and Yahoo! Local

• Promote offline events on online channels

• Finally profit from today's online opportunities!

Forget the idea that you need thousands of dollars to take on your competition. Today, you can access powerful tools that cost little to nothing. All you need is the will to succeed. Marketing Shortcuts for the Self-Employed will show you the way.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Marketing Shortcuts for the Self-Employed

"I've been successfully self-employed working a three-day week from my home office since 1971 and earning more than I did as senior vice president for the largest advertising agency on earth. If only I had read Patrick Schwerdtfeger's brilliant Marketing Shortcuts for the Self-Employed before I started! I would have earned more money working fewer hours. I didn't do it, but you can, and I highly recommend that you do. I consider it mandatory reading for the twenty-first century."
—Jay Conrad Levinson, "The Father of Guerrilla Marketing," author of the Guerrilla Marketing series of books

"This is a zero-fluff book. The three- and four-page chapters avoid all the unnecessary discussions and cut straight to the action: where's the opportunity and how do we capitalize on it?"
—Christine Comaford, author of Rules for Renegades

"To be successfully self-employed, one must master marketing, especially web marketing. Patrick and I share a passion for those sneaky little tricks that deliver huge results. This is the ultimate guide to sneaky web marketing tricks that work!"
—Jim Horan, author of The One Page Business Plan

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 257 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (June 7, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1118014200
• ISBN-13: 978-1118014202
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #115,094 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #84 in Books > Business & Investing > Small Business & Entrepreneurship > Marketing

More About the Author

Patrick Schwerdtfeger is the author of "Marketing Shortcuts for the Self-Employed" (2011, Wiley & Sons, Inc.) and is a regular speaker for Bloomberg TV. He has spoken about modern entrepreneurship and the social media revolution at conferences and business events around the world.

Patrick has also authored "Webify Your Business - Internet Marketing Secrets for the Self-Employed" (2009) as well as "Make Yourself Useful - Marketing in the 21st Century" (2008) and has been featured by the New York Times, Associated Press, Businessweek and National Public Radio (NPR) among others.

Patrick is a passionate and dynamic speaker who focuses on delivering valuable content and highly practical strategies people can implement immediately and see actual results. His programs consistently get strong reviews and leave attendees burning to put their new strategies to work.

Patrick was born in Vancouver, Canada, and received his Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing and Finance) from Carleton University in Ottawa (1993). He never knew he was an American citizen until he was 27 years old and moved to Los Angeles just six days after receiving his first American passport. Patrick now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Social Media Bible June 2, 2011

By Kevin Harville

Format:Hardcover

I just attended a seminar by Mr. Schwerdtfeger and the only thing less than excellent about it was trying to pronounce his last name. I am a web business consultant and the problem is that the possibilities of social media are endless. Mr. Schwerdtfeger makes the steps that work clear and sorts out clearly what does and what does not work, and how exactly to use each form of social media. Each chapter is about 4 pages on one subject, and has a checklist of action steps at the end. This is as close to an action plan as you can find. Anyone using or needing to use social media must have this book. He doesn't say "Use Twitter," he tells you how to make it work for you. He doesn't say "Use Linkedin," but tells you what works and doesn't. BTW--he gave an excellent presentation, but you would also want the book as the details are outlined there. I have been to the workshop, reviewed the book, and read the first 8 chapters. I am definitely finishing it this weekend to develop polish up my social marketing action plan.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "Shortcuts" is an understatement. This book saved me months of research time. January 9, 2012

By Mike Lund

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I sold my bricks and mortar business in December 2010 and decided to retire. Two months later, my honey-do list was finished and I missed the high from building, maintaining and improving a business. I decided to start another business in a field that fascinates me but knew little about, mobile and internet marketing. I went to my local library and worked with a research librarian to get me as many resources as possible to start getting up to speed. As a fluke, Patrick's book was one of the few books that was actually on the shelf, most of the titles that we thought were more appropriate had to be reserved. When I got home I browsed all six books. Patrick's was the last. When I saw how it was organized, short chapters on specific subjects, I became more interested and thought I would just read the first few chapters. After the first 5 chapters (there are 80), I decided to start taking some notes. I couldn't put the book down (and honestly, I am not a reader, my wife was stunned). Two days and 29 handwritten pages later I feel like I am entering a whole new world. Thanks to Patrick's book, I have a roadmap to learn what my young competition who was raised on the internet knows. I'm 65 and recommend this book to anyone in business, and especially those thinking about starting a business, regardless of age and regardless of their type of business. I downloaded the Kindle App on my iPad 2, then opened an account on Amazon. I downloaded the Kindle version of "Marketing Shortcuts for the Self-Employed" and now I have my "mobile and internet marketing resource center" digitized. Wherever I am, I can search on a keyword and review a chapter, section or just a specific word.

Thank you Patrick for helping me to develop a road map so quickly. The best $8.99 I have ever spent!

Mike Lund
[e-mail]

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Secrets to Web Domination for the Individual and Self-Employed June 26, 2011

By Thomas M. Loarie TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Author, international speaker, and web communication expert, Patrick Schwerdtfeger, has shared his secrets to web domination in his just released "Marketing Shortcuts for the Self-Employed." Schwerdtfeger promises to deliver on how one can "leverage (scant) resources, establish on-line credibility, and crush your competition" ...and he delivers.

Technology and now, social media, have changed the way we do business forever. We have seen the massive overhaul of numerous industries - travel industry, lay news media, publishing, retail (auto, electronics, clothing, books), and many more during the past decade. Major brands like Borders, Blockbuster, Circuit City, & The Seattle Post-Intelligencer have evaporated due to the heat generated by the friction of disruption. Many more are in trouble and will also disappear, creating a new playing field for survivors.

"Marketing Shortcuts" is for those who want to survive and thrive. The book details how individuals and small companies can compete successfully in "the new world" by providing a no-nonsense (and affordable), easy-to-follow approach for applying the new communication tools to any reader's specific needs. Schwerdtfeger does not suggest a cookie-cutter approach but, rather, a recipe for customization. He covers the use (and rationale for use) of Facebook, Youtube, Blogs, Website development, Podcasts, email marketing, groups, twitter, linkedin,, the understanding and use of analytics, podcasts, and SEO (search engine optimization).

The book is organized by eighty chapters (3-4 pages each) with an implementation checklist at the end of each chapter. The reader will find the book's structure useful for picking and choosing relevant topics and later, for referencing.

"Marketing Shortcuts" has a broader audience than the title suggests. I have recommended "Shortcuts" to executives of medium and large corporations who are anxious about digital communication and its promise (ignorance is not bliss in this space), and to executives, managers, and professionals displaced by the "Great Recession" leaving them "in-transition."