Resourceful Means For MarketingRoll up your sleeves and take hold of marketing success.

When it comes to marketing, entrepreneurs are looking for fast,effective, cost-efficient ways to get the word out. But we all needa little help sometimes. Fortunately, some of the best marketingresources are there for the asking.

1. Start under your nose. Some of the best marketinginformation is the easiest to access, yet it often goes completelyundiscovered. Looking at your own business might give you someimportant clues. Consider the following:

Your customers. Conduct a customer survey or invite someof your customers to participate in a focus group. Ask questionsabout your present marketing, as well as what your customers thinkof your company and which media vehicles reach them.

Your database. Review your customer database. (If youdon't have a customer database, it's time to start one.)Are your customers coming from a specific area? Are theypredominantly men or women? Do they have other things incommon?

Your employees. Ask the people on the front lines whichmarketing vehicles they think work best. What yields the greatestresponse from customers? Do your marketing messages reflect theirimpressions of your business?

2. Build a library. There are literally thousands ofbooks on small-business marketing. Finding the best ones takes somereading, but here are a few to get you started:

Getting Business to Come to You(Putnam) by Pauland Sarah Edwards and Laura Clampitt Douglas. This is a fantasticintroduction to small-business marketing.

Selling Your Services(Henry Holt) by Bob Bly.This is the bible of service-business marketing. Practice what itpreaches.

Publicity on the Internet: Creating Successful PublicityCampaigns on the Internet and the Commercial OnlineServices(John Wiley & Sons) by Steve O'Keefe. Thisbook offers a complete overview of what it takes to get yourbusiness noticed online.