Design to Sell: Use Microsoft® Publisher to Plan, Write and Design Great Marketing Pieces (Bpg-Other) (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: marketing plan worksheet, layout guides, planning your way, Publisher Design, Microsoft Publisher, Work Design (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Not a designer? Don’t have a big marketing budget? Now you can design effective marketing materials yourself with this guide written by best-selling author and design expert Roger C. Parker. This one-stop guide to marketing gives you the basics for creating effective messages and step-by-step instruction for using Publisher 2003 to design compelling, easy-to-read marketing materials that deliver your message successfully.

Even if you’re not a designer or you have no marketing experience, you’ll get expert advice and learn how to: • Develop a market empathy, think like your market, and solve their problems using their language • Format your message so it’s attractive and easy to read—by taking a crash course in graphic design • Save time and money by using Publisher to create several different types of effective marketing pieces—including postcards to promote your business and newsletters that keep you in touch with your customers • Use techniques for quickly harnessing powerful Publisher capabilities • Do it right from the start and avoid common pitfalls and design mistakes

Each chapter includes an interactive exercise as well as review questions with answers on the author’s companion Web site. Also on the Web site are downloadable worksheets and templates, more illustrations of the projects in the book, additional before-and-after project makeovers, and other resources.

From the Publisher

Key Book Benefits: - Demystifies design in clear, simple, everyday language that is easy for non-designers and non-marketers to understand - Focuses on the key steps needed to create attractive, easy-to-read marketing and training materials - Emphasizes tips, techniques, and how to avoid expensive mistakes that spell the crucial differences between messages that are read and messages that are ignored - Includes before-and-after project makeovers, worksheets, review questions, and glossaries of new terms appearing in each chapter - Offers bonus templates, worksheets, and more on the companion Web site

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press (April 12, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735622604
• ISBN-13: 978-8120330061
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #602,057 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #16 in

  Books > Computers & Internet > Microsoft > Applications > Publisher

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Even An Old Dog Like Me Learned A Few New Tricks, May 16, 2006

By	Basil J. Gilger "Freelance Copywriter" (Las Vegas, NV USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am a freelance copywriter without an ounce of native design talent in my bones. However, in "Design to Sell..." Parker showed me that talent isn't required if you have some common sense.

The first myth he replaced with common sense is the myth that high-priced suites of design tools are necessary to get professional results. Showing me how easy it is to get great looking results without spending a ton of money on tools and training more than repaid the minimal cost of this book.

You'll have to get your own copy of this book to discover other common sense solutions to great-looking design.

If you write for a living, get this book. It makes your work prettier.

If you are a graphic designer, get this book. It will improve your skills and business.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Think of a Design and Then Implement it, March 30, 2006

By	John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Microsoft Word has a tremendous amount of design and formating capability, but Word is oriented to text processing. When you want to go beyond word into things like preparing an advertisement, business card, advertising brochure or something like that, it's difficult to do the things you want just using Word. Enter Microsoft Publisher that will allow you to do these kinds of enhanced layouts.

This book really has two major points:

First it is a book on design. What makes a good design? What is appropriate (and inappropriate) use of color on printed materials? The goal of this book is not to produce material that helps you sell, not just be pleasing to look at.

Second, it is a tutorial style book on using Microsoft Publisher to produce the designs you have created. It does not have a CD, but it does have a companion web site that includes more material as well as downloadable worksheets and templates.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Parker understands marketing and content and how to use design in concert with goals, November 12, 2006

By	David M. Scott "David Meerman Scott" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Many readers of my blog and my most recent book Cashing in with Content: How Innovative Marketers use Digital Information to turn Browsers into Buyers know that I insist (and often rant incessantly) about content as the most important aspect of a Web site, ebook, white paper, newsletter and the like. I really hate seeing cool deign with nothing of substance in the way of content behind it.

But I do have to admit that I don't know a lot about design and decided to learn. Robert C. Parker's Design to Sell provided me a terrific overview of how to use design as a competitive asset. While the book has a focus about using Microsoft Publisher to plan, write, and design great marketing pieces, the chapters in the front of the book gave me the grounding I needed.

One of the reasons that I chose this book is that Parker totally understands marketing and content and how to use design in concert with goals. I didn't want to read a book that was just focused on pretty stuff - I wanted to know how design is an important component to enhancing the great content that is created in newsletters, white papers, ebooks, Web sites and so on.

Check out Parker's companion blog to his book. Is this an awesome deign or what?