The 1-Page Marketing Plan by
WARNING: Do Not Read This Book If You Hate Money To build a successful business, you need to stop doing random acts of marketing and start following a reliable plan for rapid business growth. Traditionally, creating a marketing plan has been a difficult and time-consuming process, which is why it often doesn't get done. InThe 1-Page Marketing Plan, serial entrepreneur and rebellious marketer Allan Dib reveals a marketing implementation breakthrough that makes creating a marketing plan simple and fast. It's literally a single page, divided up into nine squares. With it, you'll be able to map out your own sophisticated marketing plan and go from zero to marketing hero. Whether you're just starting out or are an experienced entrepreneur,The 1-Page Marketing Plan is the easiest and fastest way to create a marketing plan that will propel your business growth. In this groundbreaking new book you'll discover: * How to get new customers, clients or patients and how to make more profit from existing ones. * Why "big business" style marketing could kill your business and strategies that actually work for small and medium-sized businesses. * How to close sales without being pushy, needy, or obnoxious while turning the tables and having prospects begging you to take their money. * A simple step-by-step process for creating your own personalized marketing plan that is literally one page. Simply follow along and fill in each of the nine squares that make up your own 1-Page Marketing Plan. * How to annihilate competitors and make yourself the only logical choice. * How to get amazing results on a small budget using the secrets of direct response marketing. * How to charge high prices for your products and services and have customers actually thank you for it.
Alchemy by
HOW DOES MAGIC HAPPEN? The Ogilvy advertising legend--"one of the leading minds in the world of branding" (NPR)--explores the art and science of conjuring irresistible products and ideas. "Sutherland, the legendary Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, uses his decades of experience to dissect human spending behavior in an insanely entertaining way. Alchemy combines scientific research with hilarious stories and case studies of campaigns for AmEx, Microsoft and the like. This is a must-read." --Entrepreneur ("Best Books of the Year") Why is Red Bull so popular, though everyone--everyone!--hates the taste? Humans are, in a word, irrational, basing decisions as much on subtle external signals (that little blue can) as on objective qualities (flavor, price, quality). The surrounding world, meanwhile, is irreducibly complex and random. This means future success can't be projected on any accounting spreadsheet. To strike gold, you must master the dark art and curious science of conjuring irresistible ideas: alchemy. Based on thirty years of field work inside the largest experiment in human behavior ever conceived--the forever-unfolding pageant of consumer capitalism--Alchemy, the revolutionary book by Ogilvy advertising legend Rory Sutherland, whose TED talks have been viewed nearly seven million times, decodes human behavior, blending leading-edge scientific research, absurdly entertaining storytelling, deep psychological insight, and practical case studies from his storied career working on campaigns for AmEx, Microsoft, and others. Heralded as "one of the leading minds in the world of branding" by NPR and "the don of modern advertising" by The Times, Sutherland is a unique thought leader, as comfortable exchanging ideas with Nobel Prize winners Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler (both interviewed in these pages) as he is crafting the next product launch. His unconventional and relentlessly curious approach has led him to discover that the most compelling secrets to human decision-making can be found in surprising places: What can honey bees teach us about creating a sustainable business? How could budget airlines show us how to market a healthcare system? Why is it better to be vaguely right than precisely wrong? What might soccer penalty kicks teach us about the dangers of risk-aversion? Better "branding," Sutherland reveals, can also be employed not just to sell products, but to promote a variety of social aims, like getting people to pay taxes, improving public health outcomes, or encouraging more women to pursue careers in tech. Equally startling and profound, Sutherland's journey through the strange world of decision making is filled with astonishing lessons for all aspects of life and business.
Building a StoryBrand by
More than half-a-million business leaders have discovered the power of the StoryBrand Framework, created by New York Times bestselling author and marketing expert Donald Miller. And they are making millions. If you use the wrong words to talk about your product, nobody will buy it. Marketers and business owners struggle to effectively connect with their customers, costing them and their companies millions in lost revenue. In a world filled with constant, on-demand distractions, it has become near-impossible for business owners to effectively cut through the noise to reach their customers, something Donald Miller knows first-hand. In this book, he shares the proven system he has created to help you engage and truly influence customers. The StoryBrand process is a proven solution to the struggle business leaders face when talking about their companies. Without a clear, distinct message, customers will not understand what you can do for them and are unwilling to engage, causing you to lose potential sales, opportunities for customer engagement, and much more. In Building a StoryBrand, Donald Miller teaches marketers and business owners to use the seven universal elements of powerful stories to dramatically improve how they connect with customers and grow their businesses. His proven process has helped thousands of companies engage with their existing customers, giving them the ultimate competitive advantage. Building a StoryBrand does this by teaching you: The seven universal story points all humans respond to; The real reason customers make purchases; How to simplify a brand message so people understand it; and How to create the most effective messaging for websites, brochures, and social media. Whether you are the marketing director of a multibillion-dollar company, the owner of a small business, a politician running for office, or the lead singer of a rock band, Building a StoryBrand will forever transform the way you talk about who you are, what you do, and the unique value you bring to your customers.
Harvard Business Review Entrepreneur's Handbook by
The one primer you need to develop your entrepreneurial skills. Whether you're imagining your new business to be the next big thing in Silicon Valley, a pivotal B2B provider, or an anchor in your local community, the HBR Entrepreneur's Handbook is your essential resource for getting your company off the ground. Starting an independent new business is rife with both opportunity and risk. And as an entrepreneur, you're the one in charge: your actions can make or break your business. You need to know the tried-and-true fundamentals--from writing a business plan to getting your first loan. You also need to know the latest thinking on how to create an irresistible pitch deck, mitigate risk through experimentation, and develop unique opportunities through business model innovation. The HBR Entrepreneur's Handbook addresses these challenges and more with practical advice and wisdom from Harvard Business Review's archive. Keep this comprehensive guide with you throughout your startup's life--and increase your business's odds for success. In the HBR Entrepreneur's Handbook you'll find: Step-by-step guidance through the entrepreneurial process Concise explanations of the latest research and thinking on entrepreneurship from Harvard Business Review contributors such as Marc Andreessen and Reid Hoffman Time-honed best practices Stories of real companies, from Airbnb to eBay You'll learn: Which skills and characteristics make for the best entrepreneurs How to gauge potential opportunities The basics of business models and competitive strategy How to test your assumptions--before you build a whole business How to select the right legal structure for your company How to navigate funding options, from venture capital and angel investors to accelerators and crowdfunding How to develop sales and marketing programs for your venture What entrepreneurial leaders must do to build culture and set direction as the business keeps growing HBR Handbooks provide ambitious professionals with the frameworks, advice, and tools they need to excel in their careers. With step-by-step guidance, time-honed best practices, real-life stories, and concise explanations of research published in Harvard Business Review, each comprehensive volume helps you to stand out from the pack--whatever your role.
Howard's Gift by
"This work offers wonderful wisdom for navigating the inflection points in our lives." -- Mehmet Oz, MD An iconic teacher. A warm friend. A generous mentor. For more than 40 years, Howard Stevenson has been a towering figure at Harvard Business School: the man who literally defined entrepreneurship and taught thousands of the world's most successful professionals. Now - spurred by Stevenson's heart-stopping brush with death - his student, colleague, and dear friend Eric Sinoway shares the man's wisdom and inspiration. Through warm and engaging conversations, we hear Howard's timeless and practical lessons on pursuing both success and fulfillment, beginning with: - Create a vision of your own legacy through a process called "business planning for life." - Be entrepreneurial in driving your career ahead (even if you're not an entrepreneur). - Exploit the inflection points in your life - whether "friend," "foe," or "silent." - Cut risk in tough career and life decisions by shining the "light of predictability" on them. - Plan for the ripples, not just the splash from your actions and choices. Reading Howard's Gift is like having a wise, caring friend sit down and say, "Let's figure all this out together." And the deeply personal perspectives from guest contributors - such as CNN correspondent Soledad O'Brien, Teach for America Founder Wendy Kopp, two-time Super Bowl Champion Carl Banks, and legendary MTV Founder Bob Pittman - reinforce the practical lessons in this clear-sighted book that will help readers "define success in their own terms," and "live a life with no regrets."
How to Write a Business Plan by
Step-by-step advice on preparing a business plan You need a sound business plan to start a business or raise money to expand an existing one. For over 30 years, How to Write a Business Plan has helped fledgling entrepreneurs--from small service businesses and retailers to large manufacturing firms--write winning plans and get needed financing. This bestselling book contains clear step-by-step instructions and forms to put together a convincing business plan with realistic financial projections, effective marketing strategies, and overall business goals. You'll learn how to: figure out if your business idea will make money determine and forecast cash flow create profit and loss forecasts prepare marketing and personnel plans find potential sources of financing, and present your well-organized plan to lenders and other backers, and learn about best practices for raising money, from SBA loans to equity crowdfunding.
Marketing Made Simple by
This guide from New York Times bestselling author Donald Miller, is a must-have for any marketing professional or small business owner who wants grow their business. It will teach you how to create and implement a sales funnel that will increase traffic and drive sales. Every day, your company is losing sales simply because you do not have a clear path to attract new customers. You're not alone. Based on proven principles from Building a StoryBrand , this 5-part checklist is the ultimate resource for marketing professionals and business owners as they cultivate a sales funnel that flows across key customer touchpoints to effectively develop, strengthen, and communicate their brand's story to the marketplace. In this book, you will learn: The three stages of customer relationships. How to create and implement the one marketing plan you will never regret. How to develop a sales funnel that attracts the right customers to your business. The power of email and how to create campaigns that result in customer traffic and a growth in brand awareness. The keys to wireframing a website that commands attention and generates conversions. The inability to attract and convert new customers is costing business owners valuable opportunities to grow their brand. This prevents companies, both big and small, from making the sales that are crucial to their survival. With Marketing Made Simple, you will learn everything you need to know to take your business to the next level.
Measure What Matters by
#1 New York Times Bestseller Legendary venture capitalist John Doerr reveals how the goal-setting system of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) has helped tech giants from Intel to Google achieve explosive growth--and how it can help any organization thrive. In the fall of 1999, John Doerr met with the founders of a start-up whom he'd just given $12.5 million, the biggest investment of his career. Larry Page and Sergey Brin had amazing technology, entrepreneurial energy, and sky-high ambitions, but no real business plan. For Google to change the world (or even to survive), Page and Brin had to learn how to make tough choices on priorities while keeping their team on track. They'd have to know when to pull the plug on losing propositions, to fail fast. And they needed timely, relevant data to track their progress--to measure what mattered. Doerr taught them about a proven approach to operating excellence: Objectives and Key Results. He had first discovered OKRs in the 1970s as an engineer at Intel, where the legendary Andy Grove ("the greatest manager of his or any era") drove the best-run company Doerr had ever seen. Later, as a venture capitalist, Doerr shared Grove's brainchild with more than fifty companies. Wherever the process was faithfully practiced, it worked. In this goal-setting system, objectives define what we seek to achieve; key results are how those top-priority goals will be attained with specific, measurable actions within a set time frame. Everyone's goals, from entry level to CEO, are transparent to the entire organization. The benefits are profound. OKRs surface an organization's most important work. They focus effort and foster coordination. They keep employees on track. They link objectives across silos to unify and strengthen the entire company. Along the way, OKRs enhance workplace satisfaction and boost retention. In Measure What Matters, Doerr shares a broad range of first-person, behind-the-scenes case studies, with narrators including Bono and Bill Gates, to demonstrate the focus, agility, and explosive growth that OKRs have spurred at so many great organizations. This book will help a new generation of leaders capture the same magic.
Pulling Profits Out of a Hat by
Grow Your Company By Multiples Not Increments Company's like Apple, Amazon, IKEA, Uber make growth look like magic. That is because it easier to believe business success is the result of luck or mysterious forces rather than careful, consistent, and disciplined behaviors. What truly sets great companies apart is their ability to instill and master the 5 Disciplines of Exponential Growth. These disciplines are universal, and any company, of any size, in any industry can foster them to achieve massive growth in all areas of their organization. Pulling Profits out of a Hat demystifies business growth and provides an actionable guide to mastering the 5 Disciplines to achieve: -Long term sustainability through sound strategy. -Sales predictability through improved business development; -Greater company wide stability by effectively developing people; -Consistent company performance through more efficient execution; -A more powerful emotional connection with your employees, customers and community - the magical potion of exponential growth. Are you ready to take your company to the next level? In the book you will discover how each of the 5 disciplines: strategy, business development, people, execution, and mission give you the processes needed to best satisfy your 5 constituents: your company, yours customers, your team, your stakeholders, and your community. Assess your own company's performance in each of the disciplines by using taking the 5 Disciplines Assessment that is included in chapter 6 of the book. This book is a must read for any CEO, corporate executive, entrepreneur or business owner that is tired of small painful incremental growth. It will inform, inspire, and show you the steps you must take to achieve exponential growth. Now go make business magic
Steal These Ideas! by
Working for nearly thirty years with and for leading companies including Citigroup, American Express, Epsilon, Apple, and Fidelity-with notable political and not-for-profit campaigns along the way-Steve Cone has the kind of hard-earned, high-level experience that translates into valuable, tested ideas on what really works-and doesn't-in marketing. In Steal These Ideas! Cone delivers hundreds of pearls in a sharp, no-nonsense, and witty style on all facets of marketing, branding, and advertising with all the candor and freshness one would expect from a knowledgeable good friend in the business. Illustrated throughout with examples of the good, bad, and ugly in advertising, this is the secret stuff that no one ever teaches. Anyone can now steal these ideas and become a marketing star today.
