While this guide teaches you to use the same principles as global corporations, small business marketing ideas don't have to be expensive to be effective. There are guidelines as to what kind of budgeting you will need to do and you may be surprised – most of the ideas in this guide can be implemented for less than US$1000. You will also find information on how to tell if your marketing efforts are working, and what kind of research you should do in order to get to know your customers better, and what you can do with this information once you have gathered it. There are exercises that will help you build an annual promotional action plan for your business, and they have been specifically designed so as not to take up too much of your valuable time as a business person or business manager.

You are a small to medium business owner or manager, seeking to grow your business; you are a new business owner just starting out. You have a great business, product or service concept but have no idea how to get it known or how to promote it in the marketplace. You need a simple, effective way to market your business, product and/or service, some basic guidelines to follow and activities you can execute inexpensively and without large-scale staffing problems.