Simply Business Coaching

Review of 'Inbound Marketing'

Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs (New Rules Social Media Series)

This is a hardcover book with 226 pages, including a useful index at the back.  It’s divided into 4 parts:  Inbound Marketing; Get found by Prospects; Converting Customers; and Make Better Decisions.  There are 16 chapters, each with a To-Do list at the end, followed by a few Tools & Resources and a selection of 26 ‘Tips from the Trenches for Start-Ups’.  The occasional helpful screenshot, a few tables of statistics and a few cartoons break the text up nicely.

We keep hearing that ‘push’ marketing is out and ‘pull’ marketing is the way forward, and the authors provide lots of ideas to help small businesses attract new prospects and clients online. 

A complete newcomer to the internet would probably find this book hard-going, but any small business owner who has been online for a while will enjoy the useful step-by-step guide.  Experienced internet marketers could be left searching for more in-depth and advanced techniques.

As a self-taught blog and website owner, I found some new techniques to try out and was pleased to have confirmation of being on the right track with others. This book came highly recommended and I soon discovered why.

The chapters follow a logical path, enabling the reader to put the lessons into action (using the To-Do list) before moving on to the next.   The format makes it a useful guide or workbook too.  I wish this book had been around 5 years ago as it would have considerably shortened the time it’s taken me to put all the pieces together by myself.

There’s quite a bit of self-promotion throughout the text, although most of it is as examples to reinforce different points being made by the authors.  Although noticeable, it didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the book.

If you’re serious about learning the best way to use a blog, search engine optimisation and social media to promote your business online and you already have a bit of internet savvy, this book will explain what you need to do.

Review of 'Get Content. Get Customers'

Get Content. Get Customers.

Subtitle:  How to use content marketing to deliver relevant, valuable and compelling information that turns prospects into buyers.

This book discusses the shift away from reliance by businesses on ‘traditional’ marketing methods like advertising and sponsorship, and how they can leverage their ability to reach and communicate with many people at the same time using the internet.  The recurring message is of the need for businesses to provide high quality content to all their online visitors in order to convert them to customers, and continue to keep them as happy customers.

There are four main sections: Coping with the Content Marketing Revolution; How to Put Content Marketing to Work; Learning from Smart Marketers; and Putting the Lessons into Action.

It’s well-organised and  easy to read, with plenty of before and after examples as well as website screenshots.  There are 16 ‘best practice success stories’ taken from large corporations right down to small one-person businesses right across the world.  The authors present a diverse range of business types to illustrate how their principles apply to all.

Reading the case studies will both give you ideas and help you decide which types of content to use for your business situation, both offline and online.  Chapter 4 (How to Select the Content Types that Best Match Your Strategy) provides a helpful list and brief descriptions of several options including blogging, newsletters, e-books, podcasts and video.

The final chapter takes us through an in-depth case study, using a fictitious company, as they develop their content marketing strategy from start to finish.  Following the same steps will enable you to do the same for your business.

Get Content. Get Customers. (aff link) shows us that there are many different ways to be in closer contact with our clients and prospects without the need for massive corporate budgets of old.  The lessons for businesses online are just as relevant today as when the book was published (in 2008) - probably even more so.

If you’ve ever wondered what type of content to produce for your business and how to present it online, I recommend you read this book.

Review of ‘Rework’

ReWork: Change the Way You Work Forever This book goes against most ‘perceived wisdom’ and business advice.  Written by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson from 37signals, this is NOT a dry how-to guide.  It is a collection of short, pithy opinions & suggested ways of working for small businesses - and which have definitely worked for 37signals. 

The contents are organised into 12 categories including: Productivity; Progress; Go; Competitors; and Evolution - this is a very quick read, especially as each short chapter is preceded by a full page graphic.

As an avid reader and owner of several business books (300 and counting), I have often struggled to understand why I need to follow some of the traditional processes and advice in my one-person business.  This book confirms my unspoken thoughts and tells me I don’t have to do a lot of that stuff!  Keeping things simple and applying liberal doses of common-sense are recurring themes, mixed together with solid ideas & some golden nuggets for small business success. 

My only complaint about the book is that it wasn’t long enough!  With so many pages of images, I reached the end of the book before I was ready.  Some of the points could have been explained in a little more depth (a few came in at under a page long).  But you can probably tell I’m scratching around for something to find that I don’t like about the book.

If you’re looking for a step-by-step how to guide, with graphs, figures and tables, you won’t find them in this book.  But if you want short bursts of inspiration, fresh-thinking and common-sense, there’s a lot of each packed into 270 pages.  Because of the short chapters, it’s an ideal book to carry around and dip into whenever you have an unexpected 5 minutes to fill.

ReWork: Change the Way You Work Forever  (affiliate link) has been added to my ‘must read’ list for business owner clients.

Book Review: The New Rules of Marketing & PR

This book is divided into three main sections:

‘How the Web has changed the rules of Marketing & PR’
‘Web-Based Communications to Reach Buyers Directly’
‘Action Plan for Harnessing the Power of the New Rules’

There are easily understandable descriptions of the different media covered (thankfully just the main ones) and guidelines on how to use them (this is by far the longest section).  I wasn’t disappointed by this book and was pleased to learn some new techniques to include in my own marketing campaigns.

While the author is keen to point out that online methods shouldn’t replace the existing offline marketing & PR efforts, there is a definite bias towards the new; and a veiled warning that traditional media needs to look to its laurels and keep up.

What makes this book so valuable is that the comprehensive content can be applied to such a wide variety of organisations – from corporation to solo consultancy, non-profit, church, school – the list is all-encompassing.

There are plenty of case studies to demonstrate the major points, including some of the author’s personal experiences.

I have been using many of the techniques covered to promote my business for some time, and was pleased to find that this book still provided new ideas for me to try, as well as explaining others which had been a bit unclear beforehand!

A complete novice might find the comprehensive contents overwhelming, but should still be able to follow the step-by-step action plan to extend their online presence.   By keeping each chapter short, the author ensures there is time to absorb one concept before moving on to the next.

Because of the incredibly fast-moving nature of the internet, elements of this publication are probably already out of date.  However, the overall concepts surrounding the use of social media in marketing will remain true for a while longer.

Any business making the transition to online marketing will find useful guidelines in this book.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly (New ... & PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs,)

Book Review - Business Stripped Bare

Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur *

This is Richard Branson’s business journey from student magazine to building one of the world’s most recognisable and successful brands contained in just over 300 pages!  Written in a conversational style, which makes it easy to read and follow, the overall impression is that the man himself is engaging with you on the pages. 

Because he is synonymous with his brand, he could possibly also be said to be the founder of ‘personal branding’ which is just now becoming the next best thing in marketing.  And, because of his celebrity status, he is able to voice his personal opinions knowing that the book will sell no matter what he says!

The book is divided into clear sections/chapters providing 8 success factors for every business to model: People; Brand; Delivery; Learning from Mistakes and Setbacks; Innovation; Entrepreneurs and Leadership; Social Responsibility.  All these factors are essential elements required to build any successful business.