One Page Marketing Book Review

Melchor Tatlonghari

Don't let the title of the book fool you, it's much more than that. This book is a crash course on building your public brand, a touch on human psychology, and alot of marketing lessons. Coming from almost non-existent marketing knowledge, reading the book has change the way I look at the industry as a whole.

The book is especially aimed for novices and could act as a cheat-sheet for small business owners and startup founders, hence the 1 page marketing plan. It goes in detail how to go about branding, e.g: how pick your Niche, how to invoke an emotional response from your potential customers, what are possible brand names, how to start collecting emails and cultivating trust with your audience.

The book is divided into three parts, mainly: prospecting and leads generation, making the sale, and nurturing the after-sales customers.

If you are planning to be an entrepreneur or just entertaining the idea of it, this is the crash course for marketing you've been looking for.

Favourite Qoutes

...if the ad just reels off a laundry list of services, then it’s not speaking to either prospect, therefore it’s not relevant, and it will likely be ignored by both market segments.

Niching Makes Price Irrelevant...

A great way of figuring out your ideal target market is to use the PVP index (Personal fulfillment, Value to the marketplace and Profitability)

Different people have different preferences when it comes to the modality of communication. Give them multiple means of response so they can choose the one they are most comfortable with.

Stop selling business cards, brochures and printing, and start asking open-ended questions, such as, “Why are you coming to a printer? What is it that you want to achieve?” The prospect doesn’t want business cards and brochures. They want what they think business cards and brochures are going to do for their business.

Most elevator pitches suffer from the same problem as overinflated job titles. It leaves the recipient confused or thinking “what a douchebag” rather than the intended effect of impressing them.

The best formula I’ve seen is: You know [problem]? Well, what we do is [solution]. In fact, [proof].

One of the ways I recommend doing market research is by analyzing what your target market is actually buying or looking for. Look at products and categories that are trending on marketplaces like Amazon. Find out what people are searching for online using a search engine keyword tool. Lastly, see what topics are trending on social media and industry news sites. What are people commenting on and reacting to?

...as discussed previously in this chapter, you need an outrageous guarantee. One that totally reverses the risk of doing business with you. People have been disappointed so many times that they don’t trust any of the claims you make. It’s nothing personal.

Here is just a small sample of the most common compelling words: • Free • You • Save • Results • Health • Love • Proven • Money • New • Easy • Safety...

The five major motivators of human behavior, especially buying behavior, are: 1. Fear 2. Love 3. Greed 4. Guilt 5. Pride If your sales copy isn’t pushing at least one of these emotional hot buttons, then it’s likely too timid and ineffective.

Part of the job of good sales copy is to tell potential prospects who your product or service is NOT for.

“The enemy in common” rattles their cage, enters the conversation already going on in their mind and stirs up the emotions that are already there, just below the surface.

...if you need to explain the name, to me that’s an automatic fail. The title should reflect the content.

One of the craziest things I see small business owners doing is setting a “marketing budget.” By setting a marketing budget, you are implying that either your marketing isn’t working and hence it’s a pure expense...

That’s why I always say have an unlimited budget for marketing that works.

The only time to set a marketing budget is when you’re in the testing phase. In the testing phase, I advise that you fail often and fail cheap until you have a winner.

Advertise with the intention of finding people who are interested in what you do. Do this by offering a free resource or valuable piece of content that presents a solution to a problem they’re experiencing. This positions you as an expert and as an educator rather than a salesperson.

Now that you have a database of high-probability prospects, your job is to market to them until they buy or die.

Here are a few of the assets you might consider deploying in your marketing infrastructure: • Lead capture websites and landing pages • Live, prerecorded and hybrid webinars • Email newsletters • Articles, resources and long-form content pieces • Industry reports, white papers and case studies • Direct mail sequences • Email sequences...

Another important attribute of high-growth businesses is that they’re not timid with their offers. They take risks, use compelling copy and make outrageous guarantees.

...how much better can your IT support or accounting services or bread be than that of your competition? Once you’ve reached a level of competence, the real profit comes from the way you market yourself.

Instead, you need to move towards the model of “educate, educate, educate.” With education, you build trust. With education, you position yourself as an expert. With education, you build relationships. With education, you make the selling process easier for both buyer and seller.

You must stop selling and start educating, consulting and advising prospects about the benefits your products and services deliver compared to each and every competitor in your category.

To be truly effective when using this technique, you must avoid the vague crap that everyone says; for example, satisfaction guaranteed, service, quality, dependability. Your guarantee should be very specific and address the fear or uncertainty that the prospect has about the transaction.

...offering a “standard” and “premium” variation of a service or product. The “premium” version is priced at about 50% above the “standard” but offers twice or more value than the “standard” variation.

...excellent strategy for removing this risk is to offer an “unlimited” variation of your product or service at a fixed price.

A rule of thumb often used is that 10% of your customer base would pay ten times more and 1% of your customers would pay 100 times more. Make sure you’re not leaving money on the table by not having ultra-high-ticket items in your product mix.

Plain and simple, the purpose of any new technology in your business is to eliminate friction. We want the fastest and easiest path to the sale, while increasing customer satisfaction.

One of the major distinctions between successful entrepreneurs and “wantrepreneurs” is that successful entrepreneurs are predominantly content creators whereas wantrepreneurs are predominantly content consumers.

...tell your audience about all the effort that goes into delivering your product or service.

Mr. Customer, it’s been such a pleasure working with you. If you know anyone who’s in a similar situation to yourself, we’d love you to give them one of these gift cards which entitles them to $100 off their first consultation with us. One of the reasons we’re able to keep the cost of our service down is because we get a lot of our business through referrals from people like you.