Customer Reviews

Marketing Made Easy

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

No time to read a boring marketing how-to? Want to get your marketing program off the ground for your business? "Marketing Made Easy" is a handy resource and one I'd recommend to just about anyone.

This book covers a broad ground from all kinds of businesses, so it's helpful as an overview on how to get buzz going, how to pick what kind of media, what kind of event and how to measure your results no matter if you are in kids as in "day care" or kids as in "raising goats for the meat specialty market." Or if you are a marketing manager in a corporation or small business.

The book takes you through a "SWOT" (strength, weakness, opportunity and threats analysis) to making an action plan. Then there are examples on what kind of advertising and campaigns might work and how they are measured for effectiveness, and what kinds of feedback from customers you might want to look for.

This is a very basic text in terms of marketing yet it is quite complete in the scope. If you are starting marketing as an entrepreneur, I'd recommend this book be on your "must-read" list and one that you crack open frequently. It's a very well-organized text and easy and fun to read. Big thumbs up.

this book really cuts to the quick in a great way. it breaks down business theories one typically hears about in the classroom and articulates/applies them into real world situations. it's practical and incisive--perfect. i bought 3 copies for my interns this summer to augment their business school and summer jobs. not only perfect for interns, but my high school family friends who are thinking about business, neophyte entrepreneurs, and my girlfriend, who is always asking me about various theories from business week...

I have seen this author in action consulting, and I have to say he has really solid, common-sense, practical advice. He has the gift of making complex subjects clear and straightforward.

I've seen this guy give a speech at a conference: amazing lack of BS! This is going to be interesting...

I am a longtime friend and fan of Mr. E, and his sagacity is truly astounding. He is the archetypal marketing god, and I hate business books as a rule. For 13 bones, you'll not do better.

Entrepreneurial companies, in need of immediate revenues, have a down to earth attitude. Marketing makes leads, leads make customers, customers bring revenues. The entire focus of the is how to do marketing to get money in the shortest time possible. This is not a metaphor. This is a formula: If a customer prospect may buy a $1,000 and the marketeer or sales person has $50 an hour s/he must spend a maximum of 10 hours to have at least 50% margin profit per person. And so on. How many leads we need to close 4 customers? These are classical sales questions, and are answered in this marketing book. Leads collection relevant to a given product are very specific. In the last years, pioneered by Google and Yahoo, these techniques can identify, from the click-through patterns of a visitor, what interest they have, and sending them focused proposals. Anyone is seeing this on Amazon. They propose products you searched for before, the moment you land on the home page. The book touches this subject on page 68 to 71, but on a next edition, the content can be updated.

The book has a lively way to rephrase common sense advise, like "watch the hands, not mouth" (translation "read the body language"), "watch cause" (translation "is the customer ready to buy? Why") or my favorite "Incrementalism" (Translation: don't start from scratch: take all competitor's customer presentations you know of, hire their sales people and call into their accounts")

Is this practical? You bet! Is it original? Yes here, no there. Is it useful? Yes, Yes, Yes. Is it a good book? Yes if you are an entrepreneur and no wonder the book is published by the Entrepreneur Magazine press. Is this boring? Hell, no. An easy and optimistic read.

Clean, crisp and to the point! This is a great read on the do's and dont's of marketing. There's a lot of practical information in the book and it de-mystifies the marketing principles and methodologies.

Easy to read and understand....

This book covered a lots of tips and tools and easy to read, I hightly recommened to everyone. I want to change my mind to 5 stars.
GREAT BOOK

"The right customers are people whom your marketing programs have prequalified and educated about your product's unique benefits. These are people who aren't even thinking about making a choice of solution, because you've educated them such that in their minds, you're the only reasonable option to buy." ~ pg. 14

Marketing Made Easy presents an accessible marketing plan for entrepreneurs in the real world. The step-by-step guide leads you from customer awareness to sales. Kevin A. Epstein takes you through all the major steps needed to ensure your success. Who are your customers and how do you reach them? He gives sage advice when he says:

"More is not always better. Lead generation costs money, and if you generate too many leads-in that your ability to follow-up on leads is overwhelmed-valuable leads are ignored and lost as opportunities." ~pg. 20

If you are interested in topics like "Viral Marketing" and "Affinity Marketing" then this book has a lot to offer. The section on "Advertising Options" will be invaluable for anyone new to the world of sales. Highlights of this book include:

Seven Things You Must Do to Be Easily Findable
Consultant Failures Knowing What Not to Outsource
Retain and Expand Customer Relationships
Overcome Competition

Throughout this useful book there are practical solutions to problems you will encounter and interesting ways to increase profits through visibility.

~The Rebecca Review

This is one of those little books that no matter how much marketing experience you have from complete newbie to old pro reading it will give you a few new ideas, ideas that are worth far more than the surprisingly low cost of this book.

To be sure, this book really concentrates on product promotion. It talks about how to find contacts, convert these contacts into actual leads, convert these to customers, and then sell more to these same customers who already know you. It doesn't say much about things like how to determine what should be in your next generation of products.

As you read the book, keep in mind that he is talking in general terms. You may need to modify some of his thoughts to suit your own situation. For instance he talks about giving away toys (coffee, pens, etc.) to attract attention. He says that cheap toys don't do much good. Basically I agree, I have a 'give away' pen from some company in my pocket but I don't even remember the name on it. But there are instances where things are different.

1. Salesmen like to leave something behind at sales calls. It doesn't matter what. Give them something to leave. Perhaps the customer won't pay attention to it, but your salesman will remember.

2. One time a major customer of mine was moving to a new location. I took over a case of extra large coffee cups. I gave everyone in the office a coffee cup (A 'toy' means more to the receptionist than it does to the manager who is constantly visited by sales people, and the receptionist is the one that makes sure your messages get to the right person.) And there were enough left over to stock their lunch room. When other salesmen called, when their customers visited, they got served coffee in my cups.

Those two points summarize my real thoughts on Mr. Epstein's book. His book is dead on, coffee cups and other toys at trade shows do little or no good. But in marketing rules are made to be broken when you have good reason to break them. And this leads to his next point, test to see if your toys, or any other marketing effort is really working.

Great get started book! Great new idea book.