Is Answering Your Customers' Questions the Best Marketing Strategy?

In a small-business conversation published in the Times, Marcus Sheridan talks about how the recession and its aftermath almost destroyed his business. By early 2009, orders had fallen at River Pools and Spas, an installer of in-ground, fiberglass pools in Virginia and Maryland, from an average of six a month to barely two. That winter, four customers canceled their orders. For three weeks running, the company overdrew its bank account.

But Sheridan turned things around by taking an unconventional approach to marketing. He started putting information on his site that most pool builders—most business owners, in fact—are reluctant to divulge.