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

Persuaded:I will admit that I picked this book up with grave misgivings. I was asked by the author’s assistant to review the book but declined to do so. Coincidentally, a week later, one of my clients was looking for a way to get his leadership team on the same page when it came to marketing and sales. So, I picked up the Kindle version of the book and promised I’d let him know what I thought.By the time I finished the introduction, I was shaking my head in agreement with Mr. Dib. Halfway through the book, I was confident enough to recommend that my client get the book for himself. Let me explain some of the reasons why I believe this book is worth your time to read.Layout:The chapters are in a logical order that builds from one marketing principle to another while working toward completing the plan. There are frequent referrals between concepts that tie everything together.I appreciate the way Dib starts each chapter with a summary and a list of what he will be telling you in that chapter. Then, at the end of each chapter, he has an action item and instructions for filling in one block of the nine-block marketing plan.Marketing:It is refreshing to read that Dib believes there is no longer (and maybe never was) a reason for not doing the work of determining the return on investment (ROI) for your marketing budget. Technological advances in digital media make parts of the ROI equation very easy to manage. Print media is also much more targeted and traceable than in the past. So, no excuses! Continuous improvement in marketing effectiveness is possible and required for a well-run business.Dib also dispels the myth that print and direct marketing are "dead," or dying. He drives home the concept that all the media can be useful and should be used in a mix that is most effective for your target market. Also, yes, some of the determination of the proper combination will be trial-and-error which is why measuring is so critical.On the target market subject, Dib suggests that a narrow focus is best. We cannot be all things to all people in all markets. Combine a narrow focus with the creation of a customer avatar, and you will be able to create a powerful model for marketing and sales personnel to use as a guide for their work.There are many other great tips and ideas for a highly effective marketing program; too many to itemize here. As I mentioned above, it is well worth your time to read what Dib has to say.Sales:Marketing and sales are very closely intertwined. Generally, the sales process is where I disagree with most sales and marketing trainers or authors on these topics. Try as they might, they cannot seem to get to the point where they stop making the process about making the sale. Many start out saying the right things: “It’s about the buyer; You must add value; You must build trust, etc." Then, inevitably, they wind up inculcating tactics that make things all about the salesperson making the sale. Find out what your customer needs – so you can make the deal. Build a relationship with your customer, because that is what will make them comfortable placing the order. Always be closing.Dib has come the closest I've seen so far to reaching my own sales philosophy – if you want someone to buy, stop selling. People want to buy; they do not want to be sold – no matter how pleasant you are as a salesperson. Today, if I want or need something, I have researched it already, and I either have it or have decided it’s not in my budget. Therefore, if you’re trying to manipulate me (no matter what fancy tactic you use) into purchasing something I don’t need or can’t afford, then you’re serving yourself and not me as the customer.The most egregious sales tactics today are those based on neuroscience. They are designed to use new knowledge about how the human brain works to manipulate people into doing what you want them to do rather than help them understand what it is they want to do. To me, doing that is evil. As a vendor, my job is to be found. That, being found, is why this book is so important and worth reading.Definitions:Dib uses an interesting story to define some of the common terms we use around marketing and sales. “Here's the simplest, most jargon-free definition of marketing you're ever likely to come across: If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying, ‘Circus Coming to the Showground Saturday,’ that’s advertising. If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town, that’s promotion. If the elephant walks through the mayor’s flower bed and the local newspaper writes a story about it, that’s publicity. And if you get the mayor to laugh about it, that’s public relations. If the town’s citizens go to the circus, you show them the many entertainment booths, explain how much fun they’ll have spending money at the booths, answer their questions and, ultimately, they spend a lot at the circus, that’s sales. And if you planned the whole thing, that’s marketing.”As you might imagine, my difficulty is only with the portion that states, you “explain how much fun they’ll have spending money at the booths.” Just show them the booths. They’ll figure out if they want to spend time and money having fun.Bottom Line:As I said, Dib comes closest to meeting my "don't sell" sales philosophy. Moreover, he is right on target with the marketing, branding, and promoting philosophy. This book is the most lucid and most thorough book on this topic that I've read to date. Also, Dib has more useful resources on his website for those who want to dig deeper. I highly recommend the 1-Page Marketing Plan.

I have read a lot of marketing books and remained hopeful when I purchased this one that perhaps I would find a book worth reading. Most of what I have read falls in the old genre I made a million selling swamp land and so can you. They promise the stars and deliver the swamp. No value. I was skeptical but hopeful.The Jerry McGuire line "you had me at hello" was appropriate for me in what I think of this book. From the very beginning this no nonsense and no BS approach to sharing a playoff how to actually build a marketing strategy was invaluable. My MBA marketing courses didn't teach me as clearly as this book did. I cannot recommend this book highly enough and book 5 copies for my employees. No more random acts of marketing for me...Ron HurstPresidentDeveloping Leaders Inc.

Do not let the low cost of this book fool you into taking it lightly. If you really, really want to grow your business without wasting time and scarce money on marketing, buy this book and complete the exercises inside. You will not be disappointed.Over the last 9 years I have paid coaches to help me develop my business - over $56K (not to mention the cost of travel, hotels, etc... to attend training sessions). And while I learned quite a lot about the mechanics and systems of my particular business, no coach or combination of coaches were able to help me develop a solid marketing plan that would hold up month after month, year after year (since they didn't really have one either). So I was always on the lookout for books and courses regarding marketing my business (and I have read quite a number of books on the subject).That said, I am stunned that I have learned more about marketing in the 21st century and also the specific action steps to perform to develop a solid, functional and sustainable plan from a $2.99 e-book than any other coach or book to date. I think I need to ask all those coaches I hired in the past for my money back.It was almost like the light bulbs were turning on in my brain as I read the pages and performed the exercises. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. At the end of the book I had a complete, robust, inexpensive and sustainable marketing plan for my business. In fact, my marketing plan is so complete that I've already started implementing it.I'm a speed reader and I probably could have read the book in an hour or two. However, because I decided to compete the exercises in the book (they made a lot of sense to me and my previous coaches had not had me do the majority of these exercises) it took me over a week to compete the book.But wow, what a week of learning it was. The book is as complete as it gets. It logically progresses from the best definition of marketing I have seen, to walking through the steps and activities to define your market place, to developing the type of marking thrust across multiple marketing legs to attract clients, get clients to trust you and want to do business with you, to retaining and growing the individual customers to continue purchasing over time.No matter what business you're in, whether it's service related or manufactured goods, if you want to learn to market in the 21st century, and if you're willing to follow the advice and perform the exercises that the author Allan Dib provides in this book, then buy this book and you will learn to develop a marketing plan that will allow you to compete successfully and make you money.PS: Please don't tell my competitors about this book. I enjoy the advantage this gives me.

This book is a must for anyone trying to devise a marketing plan. Perfectly suited to professional services but really applies to any service type business. Before, I couldn't really say that I had a marketing plan, I was just doing what he calls "random acts of marketing". Some of them, it turns out, were good things to do but they weren't enough to constitute a purposeful plan. This is a brilliant book with many, many nuggets of wisdom. Don't waste your time reading all these reviews, just buy it.

I am not finished with the book yet but I love it so far. I am an entrepreneur of many years, but never successful because I never had a plan. I had a stroke six years ago, which brought me to my knees, changing my life completely. I am now re-entering the professional world with an entirely different view of the way I want to do things and I have this book as my guide. This book is a treasure!

This is the best book ive ever read. for years ive struggled, having a couple failed business under my belt. This is not for making a business plan, business plans are all about setting up your store, getting loans, paying taxes. all irrelevant if you have no customers. This book is the solution. You read the book through and at the end of each chapter fill in the square on the page. I personally chose to read each chapter, read it again answering the questions in a notebook, then transfer my answers to the one page marketing plan template. The questions in each chapter force you to think about things in a way i've never found so simple before. This isnt a quick one page formula, this is an excellent book that guides you to get the answers you need from yourself, and put them all in order in a way that sheds a lot of light onto the sale techniques you can use, the opportunities your missing out on, and the things youre doing wrong. Its taken me four days to complete the whole plan upto now. I have one more quare left to fill and then im going to read the whole thing one more time and analyse my answers to make sure ive got a fully watertight plan. ive attached a pic of how the plan looks as you fill it in. right now i feel more excited, confident, and raring to go than ive ever felt before. Its time to make this dream real.

A well presented book, and a must read for every entrepreneur. Lots of golden nuggets for both the new and the experienced entrepreneur.Filling out the nine components of the one-page marketing plan will force you to think through the most critical aspects of your business marketing - an exercise that could save you a lot of pain in the future.This is a book I won’t recommend to a competitor, but to everyone else, grab a copy now!Thanks, Allan - I’m now part of your “tribe”.

I bought this book based on the US reviews and found it to be a really good read. It covers in detail, marketing to clients before, during and after the sale. The book is very logically presented and easy to follow. Plenty of great ideas and lots of practical advise on how to build your small business. I would definitely recommend having a pen and paper ready to take notes.I tried this book on the kindle with audio option and found it more practical to listen than to read - great option to have if you spend an extra few pound.

This book is brilliant!Clear and straight to the point, all delivered in plain no-nonsense English.I've read, and struggled through, many books on Marketing and on more than one occasion had the feeling the authors were being paid by the word, as theory and explanations were consistently drawn out and laboured.But no here.Allan's book gets to the point with quality information, and also offers lots of advice on actually implementing the concepts in the real world.If you need to get your marketing up and running, and need a guide, this book is it.100% recommended!

Awesome book with lots of ideas to think about and how these have been applied in reality. Good tips on what to look out for, how to build a good marketing strategy, learning from other company mistakes, and how not to waste resources on methods that are proven not to work. Instead how to use your Emily energy and resources on tactics that do work. Thanks Allan

This book will show you, what to do about selling your products and services, in a way that works! The book is full with a good solid marketing advice, and what is written in it, makes sense! I have red other popular marketing and copywriting books, from the top people in the field, but this one really shows you in a practical way, the nuts and bolts of marketing and selling! Thank you Alan!

A brilliantly written book, in an easy style and format which strips back the basics of marketing to the key tasks we should all be doing. Good examples, templates, practical steps and advice - there are 10's of thousands of business books out there, but this is easily in my top ten! Loved it.

This is a great book about marketing. Lots of valuable information and all legit as far as my knowledge goes. Only thing... if you follow the steps, it would never fit on a single page. The questions to ask yourself do, the answers and actual plan certainly don't.

I really think this is one of the best business books that I have ever read. Allan Dibbs comes across as a passionate business investor who implores other business owners to focus all their efforts on finding, winning and keeping the best customers in their target market. I am certainly going to follow his prescription and ensure that I invest my tight resources in developing my own sales lead conveyor belt. This book is just full of practical guidance and should be read by all start up owners.

Being a small business owner I have a plethora of business self-help books but this is by far the best. It made me see my business in a different light and I have learnt a lot of new information in such a short time. Includes links to some useful downloads although I would have liked more room to input my business-plan details as I found there was insufficient room. However, don't let this put you off. I highly recommend this book.

Gaining customers and "marketing" were always abstract to me and I always assumed all successful business owners knew something no one else was allowed to know, but the author of this book has perfectly demonstrated the power of marketing and how it's best used, and the whole subject is very clear to me now. I've read numerous free articles online and bits and pieces here and there but this is by far the best piece of work I've read about marketing. Concise, understandable and inspiring.

Thank you for putting in writing and reminding me of some of the reasons my first very small business was successful but my new business is limping along as I thought I had to change strategy for a different market and I got confused and lost my passion in the process while trying to compete on the same level as the multiples. I am inspired again after reading your book and that is what I am thankful for.

I had the e-book but it was so useful that the paperback was an essential addition to my book shelf. Compact and complete - everything you need and nothing you don't. If you are starting out in marketing or starting your own business for the first time this book is essential.

Highly recommend this book to new start up owners or beginners to marketing. I've always found marketing information to be contradictory and complicated. But Allan makes things simple and gets straight to the point. I can't wait to put this book into practice and reap the rewards.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Allan really made it to be enjoyable. I got really focused on my following tasks and better organized on my new business in terms of what I should care and what I shouldn’t. The knowledge shared is priceless and I am looking forward to make it real.