Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Marketing Plan: Find Your Most Promotable Competitive Edge, Turn It into a Powerful Marketing Message, and Deliver It to the Right Pros

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

There are hundreds of books devoted to explaining the secrets and techniques of Marketing to the novice. What is unique about this book is the common sense explanation to everything that is recommended in the book. If you are new to the world of Marketing, this becomes very important since you can judge for yourself how to implement your Ultimate Marketing Plan.

The message that will stay in my mind for a long time is the one on the cover of this book "Find your most promotable competitive edge, turn it into a powerful marketing message, and deliver it to the right prospects". I wish the book had been split into those sections - finding the strengths in you that you can market, coming up with the right message, and how to find and deliver to the right people. But the 13 step approach the book takes is still great.

Just for the record, the 13 steps in this book and their chapter headings are - Putting Together the Right Message, Presenting Your Message, Picking the Right Targets, Proving Your Case, Putting Your Best Foot Forward, Getting Free Advertising, Malibuism - Becoming Hot, "Poor Boy" Marketing Strategies, Maximizing Total Customer Value, Fueling Word-of-Mouth Advertising, Creating Short-Term Sales Surges, New Marketing Technologies, Hiring and Firing the Experts.

The first step (chapter) 'Putting Together the Right Message' really got my attention as I started reading about the concept of USP (Unique Selling Proposition) which is nothing but the edge you have over your competition and the reason your clients would buy from you. The author starts out by explaining the power of a great USP and an example USP - "Fresh, hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less, guaranteed" (Domino's). He follows it up with different ways to boost the USP power - with an irrestible offer, "Marketing by Values", etc.

Throughout the book, the author throws in 17 Ultimate Secret Weapons and 5 Ultimate Marketing Sins. I plan on memorizing these and refer to the book when I am working on any type of marketing effort. The book is worth buying just for these 22 tips.

I found two sections in the book the most memorable - one on testimonials and the other on hiring experts. I have always recognized the importance of getting testimonials but never really done it due to one good reason or another. After reading the author's comments, I will never make this mistake again and not let any reason come in my way of seeking testimonials from all my clients. Regarding the author's commentary on hiring experts, it really impressed me because I have seen several people make this mistake time and again. It brought relief to see someone explain this concept of how to work with experts much better than I have ever been able to explain to my friends and colleagues.

Overall, this is a great book on the practice and creation of your Ultimate Marketing Plan. The few bucks you spend on this book pale in comparison to the hours you save by avoiding the obvious mistakes. Do get this book if you own a small business as it is essential for the success of your business. Don't trust this critical aspect of your business to someone else, take control! I wish you the best of luck and I hope you benefit from this book.

One of the most important things about a book is how useful is it. Will you read it again? Do you underline key points? Did you get back way more than what you spent on it? As it pertains to this book, all the answers are an emphatic "yes."

If you're just starting out in business or if you have a small business, and you need good marketing ideas, by all means, buy this book. There are numerous real life stories that the author shares which give a different impression than the standard "academic" approach many take. The key is this: does the author practice what he preaches? In this case, he does. All of the advice is taken directly from his personal experiences or from his clients. They are more useful and certainly more believable than some dry statistic or theory.

I give this book 5 stars for its original content. The price is a bargain. I also give it high ratings for its return on investment. You should be able to reap many times over what this book costs. If you don't, read it again until you find something you can use. There's a lot of gold nuggets in there.

Full of practical advise. Short and to the point. Fun to read. Intelligent. If you run a business, any one of dozen of ideas will pay for the book, and your time to read it, one hundred-fold. Workbook/checklist in the appendix.

As an MBA with strong marketing orientation and small business owner and marketer, I was interested to see how detailed and complete this book was relative to the topic. I was pleasantly surprised and reminded of some aspects I had forgotten, and learned somethings (my real motive for purchasing).

As an educator, I was concerned about how hard it would be to read and understand. The authors have done an outstanding job in this area as well.

Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone who operates a business or is interested in marketing techniques and strategies.

This book had such an impact on me that I signed up for his $39/month newsletter just to gain more of his wisdom. Don't fool yourself into thinking that you don't need this book. You do! It applies to ANY business and EVERY business. I run an Internet-based publishing company and use the strategies in this book, everyday.

The results?

I have doubled my NET profits in three months!

I will trade less that $15 for that kind of money all day and everyday...

Dan Kennedy is great! This book will pay for itself in 2 hours for any business owner who invests in it and puts even ONE IDEA to use. Dan Kennedy is a practical, no-nonsense marketing genius who should be read seriously by any business person interested in greater profits-- rob northrup, atlanta,ga.. ps: his magnetic marketing program is great as well. BUY IT!

I thought I was good at helping my clients increase sales and marketing before I ran across Dan's books. I'm a business coach with results that over 80% of my clients were doubling their business in 3-4 weeks BEFORE I ran into Dan and his materials, but now I've actually been able to increase my own marketing response, and that of my clients by 4-5 times, not just double.

I coach clients on marketing and sales techniques, yet Dan blows me away. Although I was already way above the national average for marketing response and sales, once I started reading and working with Dan and his materials my own figures really went through the roof.

Now I read everything that Dan writes and constantly get better and better results for my own sales and marketing, and for my clients.

What you learn in this book can be applied to more than sales letters. I use the principles for all areas of sales (networking, marketing, cold calling, etc). I've also taken his ideas for a long sales letter and applied them to shorter marketing media such as post cards. My post card response rate went up 4-5 times!! Fantastic.

Dan is probably one of the easiest marketing and sales experts to follow and learn from, and his ideas deliver results.

Dan Kennedy did a great job of making a business sound simple. His writing was extremely easy to follow and motivating at the same time. Kennedy got to the point instead of dragging out the idea until it was lost. It is extremely helpful and interesting to anyone who is interested in starting a business. This book was easy to read. Kennedy not only gave facts but supported them as well. In many ways that was his faulty point, his facts where merely his real life experiences, but they still supported his statements. Kennedy made the buisness world sound so simple.

it has great Ideas,,, but what i really like is the fact that it gives you reasons and motivates you to do things you know you should do anyway but just don't get around to doing. Like press releases and more..... Definitely worth the little money Amazon is asking for.

I have given many copies to clients since it came out. Now, the most recent edition. And I read that several times, as well. Like a ready resource for whatever the need at hand is. My favorite quote from Dan Kennedy's book,is; "The Ultimate Marketing Plan," is; "What is marketing? " . . . getting the right message to the right people via the right media and methods." Truly, a superb tool. ms