I love it when people understand that marketing is a core business function. I love it when they realize that before you can create a marketing plan you have to have a business plan. You have to know thyself and translate that into something that resonates with people outside your inner circle.

In other words, you have to speak to your audience.

David Newman gets it.

“Good marketing is not about your business. It’s about how your business is different, valuable, and meaningful to customers. It’s about why people should do business with you—and only you.”

Newman has written a terrific new book designed to help business owners implement a business-to-marketing plan that’s both customer-focused and focused on your bottom line. Do It! Marketing: 77 Instant-Action Ideas to Boost Sales, Maximize Profits, and Crush Your Competition focuses on practical advice (and, yes, tough questions) and walks you through the steps needed to market and sell your brand, your products and services, and yourself.

In Make Sure You Know Who You Are, Newman asks you to answer key questions about your business model, your revenue model, and your delivery model. Then he asks, “What do you want to be known for?”

In Stop Selling Sugar, Newman asks you to answer eight big questions designed to move you away from focusing on price to focusing on who your customers are and how they perceive you.

In Determine 50 Reasons People Should Buy From You, Newman asks you to identify 10 answers each for such questions as “why should I buy your product/service?”, “why should I buy from your company?”, “why should I buy at your price?”, and “why should I buy now?”

This book is targeted at entrepreneurs and small business owners, but it’s equally of value for people within larger organizations who want to take a fresh look at how well (or not) they are connecting with customers, clients, and prospects.

Do It! Marketing is divided into 12 key sections plus a 21-Day Marketing Launch Plan. The sections move from business ABCs to how to think and talk like a prospect (and solve prospects’ problems), how get better leads and better prospects, and how to generate the right kind of referrals. Each section has worksheets and examples and case studies to guide your marketing efforts. Do It! Marketing is not about Big Ideas but it’s about something far more useful today: helping you to translate your big ideas into business success.

*Disclosure: I received a free copy of Do It! Marketing in exchange for agreeing to review it–but without any restrictions on what I might say.