Marketing Book Reviews

In my review of this classic advertising book

Ogilvy on Advertising

by the legendary David Ogilvy, posted on Amazon.co.uk I rated the book at the Four Stars level. This means I consider it to be in the range of good to very good.

Here is my book review.

Fascinating look at advertising history which still offers practitioners plenty of lessons

This book tells the history of advertising from the perspective of one of the recognised greats. This was powerful information back in the 1960s and ‘ 70s.

But that’s also the problem with the book. The world has moved on. The way marketing messages reach consumers and business customers has changed. Fortunately, the underlying motivations that drive purchases hasn’t, so there’s still plenty to gain from reading this book. [continue reading…]

The full title of this book by Charlie Hutton is ”

The Business Owners Guide To Making Out Like A Bandit: How To Get Even The Most Greedy… Penny Pinching… Money Hoarding Customers Spending Money Like They Used To!“.

In my review at Amazon.co.uk, I gave this book a rating of FIVE STARS. This means I consider it to be excellent.

Here is my book review.

Excellent summary of Jay Abraham style profit improvement techniques

I encourage all small business owners and entrepreneurs to read Jay Abraham ‘s book Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got: 21 Ways You Can Out-Think, Out-Perform, and Out-Earn the Competition. and this makes a lovely, practical follow-up. In a review of another of the author’s books, I felt he was channelling Dan Kennedy.

This will teach you the importance of back-end marketing. That’s selling more to existing customers through upsells and cross-sells as well as reaching out to new customers through different means. [continue reading…]

The full title of this book by Drayton Bird is

“51 Helpful Marketing Ideas: Simple, tested, yet often neglected ideas guaranteed to improve results“.

In my review on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book a rating of Four Stars. This means I consider it to be good to very good.

Here is my book review.

Interesting book badly let down by Kindle formatting

Drayton Bird is the British copywriter who can stand shoulder to shoulder with the American greats but his ideas are more in tune with our sensibilities.

In this book he shares helpful ideas. You may have heard most of them before but do you regularly put them into practice? [continue reading…]

In my review of

Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing by Drayton Bird

on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it a rating of Four Stars. This means I consider it to be in the range of good to very good.

Here is my book review.

British direct response marketing

This book is written for business owners, marketing professionals and students of marketing. For a text book, it’s great and I wish my MBA had included a direct marketing module.

As a book for business owners, it’s a bit daunting. It’s bigger and heavier than normal and looking at it feels more like work than reading the lighter style marketing management books. [continue reading…]

The full title of this book by Joan Mullally and Evelyn Trimborn is

“Postcard Marketing Success: How to Use Postcard Marketing To Promote Your Business“.

In my review at Amazon.co.uk, I gave it a rating of Four Stars. This means I consider it to be in the range of good to very good.

Here is my book review.

Plenty of good practical advice about postcards

Direct mail is an important way to target potential customers and postcards can be very helpful as part of a sequence of contacts.

This book is packed with good practical advice to help you succeed. [continue reading…]

The full title of the book by Pat McCord is

Postcard Marketing Update: What You Need to Know Now

In my review posted at Amazon.co.uk, I gave it 3 Stars.

Here is my review.

Practical advice on using postcard in your marketing

A useful book that can help you to use postcards in your marketing.

It would have been much better if it had included examples since you need immediate impact with this technique of direct mail. Postcards get a glance but the photo or headline on either side must be strong enough to demand more attention and get the card read. Otherwise, it’s all too easy to dismiss it as “junk mail”.

What’s in the book is fine but I feel you need to know more if you’re going to use postcards as part of your marketing campaigns.

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The full title of this book by Charlie Hutton and Emma Hutchinson is

“The Orgasm Effect: The Business Owners Guide to Get Customers Screaming…Yes, Yes, YES!“.

In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book a rating of Four Stars. This means I think it is good.

Here is my book review.

A good book with Dan Kennedy / Frank Kern style ideas of direct response marketing

This is a risky title so it may be better on Kindle. I’ve had to hide another marketing book I bought a couple of weeks ago called “Getting Naked” for fear of giving people the wrong impression.

In my coaching I often talk about the 5 Ms of Marketing – market, message, media, measurement and mindset. This is one of the few marketing books that tackles mindset issues and as a book about direct response, measurement is heavily featured too. So many books focus almost entirely on the media, the way the message reaches the potential customers. [continue reading…]

The full title of this book by Sammy Blindell and Miles Fryer is

The 7 Reasons Why Customers Don’t Choose YOU!: And How You Can Change That

In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it Three Stars. This means Worthwhile.

Here is my review.

This is a book about branding and that surprised me given its title

This wasn’t the book I was expecting to read because the title doesn’t summarise the contents.

I was expecting to read about the seven reasons why people (not customers) don’t buy. Things like they don’t know you exist or they don’t believe your claims or they don’t think your value exceeds the price you charge and especially when compared to the competition. [continue reading…]

In my review of

Summary: The Sticking Point Solution: Review and Analysis of Abraham’s Book

posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave this summary Three Stars. This means it is Worthwhile.

Here is my review.

Not the place to start with Jay Abraham

I’m a very big fan of Jay Abraham ‘s ideas for developing a business and I help business owners who are stuck, get unstuck.

I should love the full book (The Sticking Point Solution) and this summary but I don’t. Perhaps part of the problem is that my expectations are sky high and it’s tough to match, let alone exceed them.

The other problem is that I don’t feel this book is well conceived or well executed. It has the feel of a book hurried out to meet a publishing deal. There’s too much crossover between the identified sticking points and that means the solutions merge into each other. It also rehashes old Abraham concepts rather than introducing much new insight.

Many of the best ideas from Jay Abraham ‘s extraordinarily careers have been borrowed by those of us who follow, often without proper credit back to this author. If you’re a business owner or entrepreneur, you need to be familiar with the main concepts but it’s much better to start with Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got: 21 Ways You Can Out-Think, Out-Perform, and Out-Earn the Competition.

I’m sorry but I thought the full book was dull but I thought I’d try through summary version in case I’d missed something. This is also dull. The ideas are valid but they’ve been expressed much better elsewhere.

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