Name: Marketing Made Simple
Rating: 4.2 (222 reviews)
Author: Donald Miller

What’s in it for me? A proven strategy for effective marketing.

Each quarter, your company brings in a pretty solid stream of sales — and that’s great! But, just imagine, in addition to those base sales, there’s a whole world of potential clients you could’ve reached, but didn’t.

Essentially, there’s always room to grow — and these blinks can show you how.

This manual delivers a five-part plan for cultivating sales. It describes specific steps that will attract, and keep, new customers. You’ll learn how to develop a smooth and efficient sales funnel that catches new clients, engages with their needs, and then closes the deal, again and again.

Use the strategies presented here, and your business will finally attain its true potential.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

why marketing is like dating;
how to conduct a grunt test; and
what three things go into a good one-liner.

Marketing creates new customers through curiosity and enlightenment.

Let’s say you’ve created a brilliant new product. Maybe you’ve written a phenomenal book that’s full of action, adventure, and insight. Perhaps you’ve built an innovative stereo system that delivers that pristine sound audiophiles crave.

Or maybe you’ve simply made the perfect breakfast pastry.

Now, you have this amazing product, so customers should be lining up all around the block, right? If only it was that easy. The truth is, even if you have a perfect product, no one will buy it if they don’t know about it. And that’s where marketing comes in.

The art of marketing is all about connecting people to goods and services that they don’t yet know they want.

The key message here is: Marketing creates new customers through curiosity and enlightenment.

Oftentimes, people conflate marketing with branding. But these are two very different things. Branding molds how people feel about your company – it gives your products a character, based on images, design, and logos.

Marketing is different. It makes customers understand what your company or products can do for them. In other words, it communicates a specific offer.

Good marketing is a process that comes in three stages. The first is curiosity. All you need to do here is catch a potential customer’s eye. More often than not, it’s about a split-second decision or snap judgment.

Maybe the customer sees a flashy picture of your product, glimpses a well-designed advertisement for your service, or simply hears a friend mention your company. Either way, they’re now curious to know more.

They’re ready for the next step: enlightenment. At this stage, your marketing campaign fills in the details. You explain what problems your product solves, what solution your service provides – in other words, how the customer’s life will change after they’ve made the purchase. This could be as simple as giving a flashy synopsis of that thrilling novel. Or, it could be more engaged: perhaps a technical explanation of why your stereo delivers superior sound.

Finally comes commitment. This is the crucial stage where you actually ask the customer to make a purchase. And you should ask – giving your customer a direct call to action is often necessary for sales.

For instance, placing a prominent buy now button on your website is a simple way to remind visitors to close the deal.

Of course, all of this is easier said than done. But there is a way to streamline the process. We’ll delve into this five-part plan in the next blinks.

Sell your business with a short and sweet one-line pitch.

Hollywood is a fast-paced town. It often takes studio executives just seconds to make judgments about which films get made and which ones end up in the bin. So, when an enterprising young writer has a script they really believe in, they have to make an effective pitch – and fast.

That’s why every writer whips up a one-liner for their project. It’s a snappy sentence designed to catch an executive’s attention. A good one-liner needs to be short enough to deliver in a brief meeting or short elevator ride, but enticing enough to conjure the image of an entire hit blockbuster movie.

Create a list of potential clients with lead-generating PDFs.

Imagine you’re at a party, mixing and mingling with a diverse crowd. As the night goes on, you jump from one conversation to the next. Some are dull and listless, others are so thrilling that you crave for more.

You’re nearing the end of the night. One or two fellow revelers have really caught your attention. You think meeting them again would be fun and rewarding. So, what do you do? Obviously, you give them some way to stay in touch; a business card, a phone number, or maybe just your email address.

Cultivate a strong client relationship with a two-level email campaign.

Picture a typical romantic relationship. How do two people go from exchanging their first suggestive glances from across the room, to exchanging “I do’s” at the altar?

Well, for most couples this transition doesn't happen overnight. There’s usually a long and involved courtship process. First, they exchange numbers. Next, one calls the other for a date. Then the two build trust, compatibility, and rapport over many days and weeks.

Put your marketing campaign into action with six meetings.

Meet Doug and Maria. This couple is happily married and they’ve just purchased their new home; a large, elegant Victorian mansion. The only problem is, their dream house is a bit of a fixer-upper. The roof is leaking, the walls need painting, and the kitchen could use a thorough revamp.

So there they are, looking at their new ramshackle abode. They are understandably overwhelmed. But, rather than take a messy, ad-hoc approach to tackling the job, they sit down and write out a detailed plan, complete with steps and milestones.

Kernaussagen in Marketing Made Simple