Review: Buyer Personas: How to Gain Insight into your Customer's Expectations, Align your Marketing Strategies, and Win More Business

Buyer Personas: How to Gain Insight into your Customer's Expectations, Align your Marketing Strategies, and Win More Business by Adele Revella
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Seems like great information, but focused on larger companies with a budget and resources for full studies/focus groups/etc. or for professional marketers who get paid by companies to do precisely this work.

It is a bit more difficult and less relevant for the entrepreneur/small business operating a shoestring.


Having said that, the 5 rings seem like good insight and I took notes on those. I will see if I can apply them independently to my business.




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Review: The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising

The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising by Kenneth Roman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very interesting and, for all intents and purposes, unbiased biography of David Ogilvy, one of the original "Mad men" and a pioneer in marketing.

I knew little to nothing about him, aside from the name, so I found this insightful. I confess it made me even more curious about Leo Burnett, so I will be looking for a biography of his as well.



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Review: One Million Followers: How I Built a Massive Social Following in 30 Days

One Million Followers: How I Built a Massive Social Following in 30 Days by Brendan Kane
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This should have been a dnf for me, and I'm sort of annoyed at myself for reading the entire book (I was hoping the sections on other types of social media would be redeeming). 

The book should have either been an informative article, or a longer full-length book concentrating on Facebook. The author obviously has a predilection for Facebook, basically discarding Twitter, snapchat and (somewhat) Instagram. He mentions how LinkedIn is better for B2B, but doesn't go into nearly as much depth for that or Google Adwords (both of which have always worked best for me, and this book hasn't really convinced me otherwise). He also pretty much glosses over Youtube, despite mentioning it is the best place to have longer videos. He doesn't even mention Tiktok, Discord, Telegram, etc. 

It seemed odd to me how he mentions that people on LinkedIn are already there for business purposes, but that Facebook is still a better place to market. This strikes me not only as more geared toward B2C, but for a particular form of B2C (showbiz/entertainment for the general public). My takeaway is that it is probably better to find the budget to pay an influencer for a few posts rather than try to become one myself. 

Having said that, there is quite a bit of detail about Facebook (not quite enough, in my opinion, which is why this would have made a good book solely about Facebook marketing), specifically about A/B tests and about targeting emerging markets. 

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Review: Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen

Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The author basically equates your brand message with a movie, and, using movie plots, shows you how to structure the message. It seems a bit of a stretch, to be honest, but it is very well structured and I took quite a few notes so I'm curious to see how it works. We'll see...

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Review: No B.S. Wealth Attraction for Entrepreneurs: The Ultimate, No Holds Barred, Kick Butt, Take No Prisoners Guide to Really Getting Rich

No B.S. Wealth Attraction for Entrepreneurs: The Ultimate, No Holds Barred, Kick Butt, Take No Prisoners Guide to Really Getting Rich by Dan S. Kennedy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Things I hate about the book:

Geez could it look any scammier? I was literally embarrassed to carry this around and even to add it to my list here on Goodreads. I mean, did his direct marketing experience tell him this type of title/cover/look would be best? Regardless, I hate it. 

Things I don't hate about the book: 

Most, if not all, of the advice seems very sound and useful. Some of my notes:

If you understand how you're earning money (from a certain method or tactic), then teach it to others for a fee. 

Don't follow your passion. Find out what drives market demand, and find something you can do within that market that you're passionate about. 

You don't have to be motivated to get your work done. Just do it. 

His Behavioral Congruency point is the "Leading vs. Lagging indicators" point made by Cal Newport in Deep Work.

Other things I hate about the book (Albeit not as much as its overall look):

- He's always upselling his website and his products. It gets to be a bit much. Get me interested, then I'll be the one trying to look you up. 

- A lot of Donald Trump name dropping.

The final section of testimonials (so many of them from people in real estate!) is sort of a waste. One of them mentioned "the power of system", which was not mentioned in this book but that the author apparently covers in his sessions. It sounds like this is more or less the same as the one mentioned in E-myth revisited and Built to Sell, in which case it would have been nice to include that.

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Review: Critical Business Skills for Success

Critical Business Skills for Success by Clinton O. Longenecker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While this is a very interesting and educational book, if read from the point of view of an entrepreneur trying to improve their own business, there are plenty of parts that can be skipped. Most entrepreneurs don't need to worry about hostile takeovers, their factory having to lay people off in France, or supply chain issues dealing with conflict minerals, etc. 

If you are in the services industry (as I am), listen to the first professor, but you can skip the second one (mostly about production operations management). In the third one (Accounting), you can listen to the Managerial Accounting lecture, and, if you have any big investments, the time value of money. The fourth section is very good too, especially if you work in an organization (with other people). The last section (Marketing) is probably the most important. At least that's where I took the most notes. 

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Review: The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand out From The Crowd

The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand out From The Crowd by Allan Dib
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Some of my notes from this book (since they don't fit in the private notes, once again. Come on Goodreads!):
4 stars for now. We'll see how it pans out once I apply all this. But I appreciate that everything seems actionable with little or no fluff.


*****
a good plumber isn’t necessarily the best person to run a plumbing business

Apply 80/20 to the 80/20 rule: 64/4 rule, or 96% of the stuff you do is a waste of time.

BEFORE: (prospects):

You want to work with them, they value your work, they are profitable

Target market:
What keeps them up at night? What are they afraid about? Angry about? angry at? what do they read/watch? What is their day like? What ONE thing do they want above all?
Create avatar.

Craft message:
Why do they want to become translators?
Don’t confuse them. (not too many options).
What objections do they have?
Take away pain points.


Reach market
Don’t get your name out there. Get prospect names in here.
One is the most dangerous number in business (do you just have one client? one supplier? one source of leads? offer one product?


DURING (Leads):

Capturing
Don’t be a hunter, be a farmer (long term relationships)

Nurturing:
Continuously nurture (more like 12 contacts before they become a client)
Market them until they buy or die.
Don’t be a pest, be a welcome guest.

Sales Conversion
How do I minimize risk? (guarantee returns? Testimonials!!)


AFTER (customers)

World class experience
Build a tribe
Sell them what they want, but give them what they need
Tell the audience about the effort going into this. (all the skills, the checks and balances, the backstory, etc.)

Increase customer lifetime value
Upsell: Sell the expensive thing, upsell cheaper things.
Try a voucher? (for every x spent you get something). Tipo if you get consulting you get the course for free or something.

Stimulating referrals
Just ask (was a pleasure working with you. If you know anyone in a similar situation, they can get a voucher for 10% off their consultation, and you receive 10% your next one).
orchestrate referral
Who has your clients before you?




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