1-PAGE MARKETING PLAN SUMMARY

Allan Dib will be quick to tell you that the book itself combines the ideas of a lot of other books into one.?What he feels is unique is his 1-Page Marketing Plan canvas, which captures all those ideas onto one page.?Please note this is more geared toward a small working businesses, not testing business ideas, like Lean Startup canvas.?

Introduction

Vilfredo Pareto 80/20 rule.?

20% of your time gets 80% of the results. Apply it twice over to your time …is the 64/4 rule.

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Marketing as defined by Allan Dib

• If the circus is coming and you paint a sign saying the circus is coming that’s advertising.
• If you put the sign on an elephant and walk it into town that’s promotion.
• If the elephant walks through the mayors flower bed and the news covers the story that’s publicity.
• If the mayor laughs about it that is public relations.
• If the citizens go to the circus and spend a bunch of money that is sales.

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Don’t try to market like a big company

Large companies are in a different life cycle stage, have a different agenda and a different budget.?Don’t try to copy them and compete on their terms.

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Small and medium business marketing:

Everything must be trackable and measurable.

1. Use compelling headlines and copy.
2. Target specific audience for niche.
3. Make a very specific offer.
4. Demand a response.
5. Include multi step short-term follow up.
6. Incorporate maintenance follow up of unconverted leads.

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The 1-Page Marketing Plan has three phases:

1. Before
2. During
3. After

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BEFORE

Chapter 1 – Selecting your Market

Niche marketing

Allows the most effective use of resources both time and money. Which should ideally be narrow and deep. This also helps make price irrelevant to identify ideal customer per Frank Kern:

• P – personal fulfillment
• V – value in the marketplace
• P – profitability

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Create an Avatar (detailed persona)

Most Sales Development Reps (SDRs) call this an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).?The more narrowly defined, the better.

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Chapter 2 – Crafting Your Message

Most business owners think the purpose of their ads is branding (“getting the name out there”) letting people know about their products and services, making sales and getting people to call for a quote. These are all very different and you cannot possibly do all of these in one ad. By trying to maximize the dollar they try to do too much and they end up achieving none of the above.?

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The rule thumb is one ad equals one objective?

• If you confuse them, you lose them.
• You must be able to explain your product and the unique benefit it offers in a single short sentence. iPod: 1000 songs in your pocket.
• You MUST be CLEAR

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Be clear about what they should do next and what they will get in return

The “call to action” needs to provide multiple ways to take that action from call email online mailing coupon etc.?The ad should be focused on serving customer’s needs, not talk about how great you are.

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Develop a Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

• Think of marketing as an amplifier. If one or two people are not interested in what you do telling 10,000 doesn’t create a different result.
• Answer the question: why should I buy from you rather than your nearest competitor? Quality and great service are expectations.?They only establish parity, not something unique.

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Do not try to compete on lowest price

• There’s always someone willing to go out of business faster than you. Page 58
• You want to make sure people are comparing apples to oranges.
• Develop a USP, deliver on it and make those you deal with play your game on your terms.

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Create your elevator pitch?

This is longer than your one sentence user USP.??Bad marketing is highly product focused and self-focused. Good marketing, especially direct response marketing, is always customer / problem solution focused.?

Three sentences:

1. A question about the problem that starts with “you know how there are…. or…you know how most people…”
2. A statement of what you do.
3. An example of someone who did not do that and got screwed or did buy your product with amazing results.

Example: Do you know when there are power outages that bring down critical systems and large businesses??Well, what I do is install backup power systems for companies that rely on having a continuous supply of power for their operations. In fact I installed the system at XYZ bank and they’ve had 100% uptime since the system was installed.

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Craft your offer

Questions:

• What is my target market really buying question insurance for peace of mind?
• What’s the biggest benefit to leave with?
• What are the best emotionally charged words and phrases that will capture and hold the attention of this market?
• What objections do my prospects have and how well I saw them?
• What outrageous offer/guarantee can I make?
• Is there an intriguing story I can tell?
• Who else is selling something similar and how?
• Who else has tried selling this target market something similar and how has that effort failed?

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What does my target market want?

• Purchasing is done with emotions and justified with logic after the fact. You must supplement asking with observing. People who buy expensive luxury cars say they want quality liability and comfort but they really want status.
• Henry Ford said if I asked people what they wanted they would’ve said faster horses. What needed to be revealed was they actually wanted to simply get places faster.
• Look at products in categories that are trending on Amazon and eBay. Use Google ad words keyword planner. See what topics for training on social media and industry new sites.

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Create an irresistible offer

• What is the most valuable thing you can do? What is the result?
• Sell lifestyle jargon here with innuendos, not features, benefits and specifications
• Reason why. Clearing of all stock. Damaged inventory.
• Personally experienced the problem myself.
• Value stacking. That’s not all…blah, blah, blah
• Tack on a service that is higher margin once they buy into the low margin item.
• Payment plan. Discounts for lump sum payment upfront.
• Satisfaction guaranteed is not good enough. Make it a risk-free transaction.
• limited time offer.

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Target your customer’s pain points

Copywriting for sales. You can’t bore people into buying.

He says to avoid phrases like “best” and “synergistic” and “strategic alignment.” Use words that you would use in conversations with friends. Doesn’t believe in sounding “professional.”?Too boring and doesn’t stand out.?People respond pictures and videos of other people.?Choose words that have big emotional triggers as outlined on page 71. The five major motivators of human behavior are

1. Fear
2. Love
3. Greed
4. Guilt
5. ?Pride

Allan likes clickbait titles

• Proof that doctors are more dangerous that guns!
• Profits that lay hidden in your farm!
• How a Fool Stunt made a Star salesman
• Amazing secret discovered by….

Enter the conversation already going on in a prospect mind

• Address the enemy in common… taxes, government, no money no opportunity, etc.
• Address the elephant in the room.
• This might be security, syncing accounts, or any other obvious objection a customer might have.

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Naming: Always choose clarity over cleverness.

Allan advocates something simple like “Sherman’s Plumbing Services” but I wonder if bland names are less memorable.??

• Shorter is easier to remember, but for SaaS where internet presence is key, start with your URL.
• Short names that incorporate financial or money, etc. are all going to be taken.
• Clever to me is OK, IF it creates memorability.

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Chapter 3 -Reaching Prospects with Advertising Media

• What gets measured gets managed.
• The basic ROI question is: did the marketing campaign make you more money that it cost you?
• Make sure you track your customer acquisition cost. This can also help you determine which marketing methods are most effective.
• Also measure the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). If the immediate sale means they buy a printer there’s a certain amount of profit. This is called the front end. Over time however, the customer continues to spend money buying ink cartridges and support. This is called the backend.
• Generally, want your acquisition cost to be at least break even with your front end revenue, making the real profit on the backend through repeat purchases.

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Ad campaign has 3 parts

1. Market
2. Message
3. Media

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Social Media Advice

Keep in mind if you’re going to play the social media marketing game you need to have someone who makes consistent and scheduled posts but also be able to respond to every ridiculous comment on every media platform at all times.?Responding to comments can be time-consuming.?Allan Dib is not a fan of direct social media marketing because trying to build up a following on a single platform such as Facebook or Instagram or Twitter means you’re effectively paying rent to a landlord (Facebook) who owns you and can change the rules or the rent cost at any time.?Yes, you have to have a presence wherever your target market hangs out.?However, he prefers direct marketing via email.?

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Don’t spam

When you email, be human. Write something very personal. Use a commercial email marketing system.

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Email regularly

He says best practices close to weekly it says some people do daily.

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Give them value

If you only email your subscriber list when you want them to buy, they will unsubscribe quickly.?Most of your emails should not be sales pitches.?All relationships are based on mutual value.

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Automate

• How to get it delivered – To avoid spam filters don’t contain spam and phrases or too many images or links.
• How to get it opened- This is where you use the cheesy subject lines he advocates in chapter 2.
• How to get it read – Whether they are long or short depends upon the target market

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Snail mail

He feels email doesn’t replace postal mail but complements it. Physical objects have a special power of moving people emotionally.?Moving people emotionally toward a desired action is what marketing is all about.?As much as you possibly can have an unlimited budget for marketing that works.?If this creates more demand then you can fill, then it’s perfect opportunity to raise your prices.

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One is the most dangerous number of your business.

One source for leads. One major supplier. One major customer. One major type of media. One type of product. This is called “a single point of failure” in the computer world.?This is the very definition of a business that is brittle.

DURING

Chapter 4 – Capturing leads.

The goal of this phase is to get your leads to like you and what you have to offer enough to buy from you for the first time.

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Hunting vs. Farming

According to Allan, do not try to sell directly from an ad. He feels the point marketing is to find people who are interested in what you do, put them in a database so you can build value for them, position yourself as an authority and create a relationship built on trust.?When you do this, sales will naturally follow as a result.

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