I don’t care who you are; you have a marketing problem and it’s a big one. A real money-sucking doozy. Here’s the problem, your marketing team knows a lot less about marketing than they let on. So much so, that you’re going to be shocked.
Think I’m just blowing hot air? We’ll see.
Here’s what I’d like you to do. I just wrote a book entitled, The CEO’s Guide to Marketing; The book every marketer should read before their boss does. (Note the subtitle. It’s a warning to your staff.) I want you to order a copy. When you get it, you don’t even have to read it. Just look it over. I believe it’s the most practical marketing book ever written. Nothing fancy. Just marketing from A to Z. Certainly nothing that your marketing team (and you for that matter) shouldn’t already know. But they won’t know the material, and you won’t either. If I’m right—and I am—that means no one in your company knows what the hell is going on when it comes to marketing. Find that a little scary?
“Oh,” you say, “but we’re making sales.” Maybe the reason sales are ok is because you have a product that is so darn appealing not even lukewarm marketing can turn off customers.
After you’ve skimmed my book, call a few of your “expert” marketers into your office and quiz them a little. Just pick out anything from the book and ask your staff a couple questions. Like I said, it’s just basic marketing—stuff they should already know. I guarantee, it’s gonna be an eye opener.
Imagine sitting your accounting team down and finding out they know diddly about accounting. I bet you’d freak out.
Like I’ve said, you don’t have to take my word for any of this. You can prove it to yourself.
But be kind. This is about taking your marketing team’s temperature, not making them squirm. As a marketing boss, you owe it to yourself and your company to be staffed with professional marketers who at a bare minimum know basic marketing.
If you don’t like what you find out—and you won’t—the solution will be right in your hand. Just buy them all copies of my book. Then dig in and start reading in earnest. What matters is making your marketing team competent and productive. That’s what The CEO’s Guide to Marketing does. It’s a step-by-step instruction manual for marketing. That means your marketing will produce more leads, higher sales and build a stronger brand.
After a few months, you’ll find out that you and your staff can think and talk about marketing much faster. You will have developed a common language around a shared process that will help you solve marketing problems quicker. Everything will run smoother. That’s what having a good understanding of marketing and a good process do for your business.
Another nice benefit is you will find marketing much less stressful. Everything becomes much less ambiguous and much more clear. You will feel confident and in control. Every single marketing promotion you do will be on point every single time.
Reporting on marketing also becomes fun when you follow the process I outline in The CEO’s Guide to Marketing. It makes you look like a smart marketer because you are a smart marketer. You will literally be able to explain step, by step, by step, every inch of the process of every promotion you worked on.
This letter may sound like I’m just hyping my own book but I’m not. At Media Relations Agency, we take our own medicine. We use everything I write about in the book and now you can too. When you order the book and look it over you’ll find out that, 1. You and your team know less that you thought. And 2. The book will live up to what I’ve written by transforming your team and your promotions. Here a couple comments about The CEO’s Guide to Marketing as reviewed by readers on the Goodreads site:
Joe said, This book was a lot like having a trainer go through a powerpoint with you. Each point, piece, and definition is laid out to be the stepping stone for the next piece. I can totally see using these elements to explain the concepts. This is a great marketing book. Heck this is a good read and one you will want for your professional library!
Kimberly said, I was trying to think of something the process left out, but I couldn’t. If you follow this, your team will be well on its way to having a great marketing strategy.
The sooner you get your hands on my book, the quicker your marketing will improve.
P.S. I’m pleased to say that even though my book has only been out a couple months, it is an Amazon best-seller in two categories: marketing, and strategy & competition. It also just received a prestigious Axiom Business Book Award in the field of Advertising / Marketing / PR / Event Planning.
P.P.S. When the internet came on the scene, I wrote a strong letter to 30,000 businesses in our database imploring them to reserve a domain name. I had just reserved URLs including publicity, checkerboard and mediarelations. Pretty much any name you wanted was available. About 4 out of the 30,000 reserved a name. A dozen replied to criticize me about a typo and crying wolf.
Most people sit on their hands. They will read a couple paragraphs of this letter and then move on to something else. If you order my book and quiz your staff, you’ll be in the minority. In marketing, that minority group is called early adopters. The majority of people wait to see which way the wind is blowing. Those folks are called the late majority. Guess which group is the smartest and makes the most money?
