Book review of "No Time Marketing"
by Gordon Graham, Editor, SoftwareCEO
The best way to get through any downturn is to do the best marketing.
Most people agree, that means having a plan.
Have you tried doing a marketing plan, without much success?
Have you checked out the planning tools on the market? These range from simple templates in Word to massive spreadsheets that would take an army to plow through.
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But who has time? This practical guide makes planning your marketing quick and painless... even if you've never done it before. "No Time Marketing: small business size steps in 30 minutes or less" is only $12.95 or $9.95 for the Kindle version. We think it's worth 100 times that much, easy. |
Author Alyssa Dver has many years of experience as a product manager, entrepreneur and consultant.
"The over-abundance of information from our hyper-connected world... is numbing to most busy people," she says. With so many marketing channels to consider, it's tough to know where to focus.
"I hope this book cuts through some of the clutter, and helps you understand essential marketing concepts that you can apply to your business—immediately and effectively."
It certainly does. Her book boils down a mass of marketing ideas into an easy read of just over 100 pages. If you could only read one book on marketing in your entire career, this would be a good one to pick.
We like her pragmatic focus: "Marketing dollars spent must generate clear sales results."
We like her down-to-earth tips: "The best way to understand your customers and prospects is to... talk to a few of them."
Forget the formulas they teach in college
In terms of leads, says Dver, quality is more important than quantity.
There's no point getting leads you can't handle, she says. In a startup or small to medium-sized firm, the right number of leads may be how many you can properly handle... and no more.
We like her step-by-step process:
1. Take inventory of what you know and what you don't.
2. Then talk to some customers to fill in the gaps.
3. Next, work out your one-sentence positioning.
4. Then set your pricing.
5. Finally, decide how you're going to find and nurture leads.
Your goal is not some big written report to put on a shelf. It's a brief presentation you give to your colleagues and get their feedback. Ten slides: that's it, that's all.
To help implement this advice, the book provides fill-in-the blank forms that each take 30 minutes or less to use. You can download the forms for $4.95 from the No Time Marketing site.
These help transform doing a marketing plan from an overwhelming chore to an achievable exercise.
The book is also backed up by an online course you can access for $99.
If you need to plan or redo your marketing for a small to medium-sized firm or a startup, there's no better way to do it.
Copyright © Computing Technology Industry Association, Inc. Reprinted with permission.
