The full title of this book by Ryan Barton is
The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Checklist: 165 Tips Fuelling Marketing Success
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it 3 Stars.
Here is my review.
Packed with things you need to do in various aspects of your marketing.
I think this book is a nice idea. What are the key factors to look out for as you develop your marketing?
The application of that idea is another matter altogether.
I immediately ran into trouble,. The first section is about branding and the first point is to create a unique and distinctive logo. This should not be the first branding point. You can’t design a logo until you know exactly what the brand stands for and you’ve checked this is different from the competitors.
What’s covered in the book is:
- Branding
- Your website – various aspects
- Strategy
- Competition
- Social media
- Bricks & mortar
- Search engine marketing
- Blogging
- Online digital marketing
- Earned media
Overall, I thought the points raised made a great deal of sense. It is packed with things you need to do right. It did feel it became more of a list of tips about the subject than a checklist which is probably a factor of the different marketing options and the ability to change the “flavour” of the tactic to suit the objective.
Without this type of book, it is hard to do the important things and avoid common mistakes. I’d have liked a bit more text explaining the main objectives and covering the common mistakes made in the categories.
The book is very biased towards online marketing and I would have liked to have seen offline promotional methods covered. It’s a big area to miss for a book described as “the ultimate”. It’s very clearly not the ultimate and promising more than it delivers is the worst kind of marketing since it leads to customer dissatisfaction. Using that one word has knocked a four star review down to three stars.
A book like this could be much longer and more inclusive. I’d have liked to have seen more attention given to both intentional planning and to follow up marketing. The more I think about what could have been included, the more it is in danger of losing another star. Authors should take great care to use such a powerful word “ultimate” with responsibility.
This is a useful book. Most businesses are probably missing out on some obvious points.
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