14 min read ⌚ 

Get New Customers, Make More Money, and Stand Out from the Crowd

Do you like money?

If so, Allan Dib would like to reveal to you the fastest path to it:

The 1-Page Marketing Plan.

Who Should Read “The 1-Page Marketing Plan”? And Why?

Marketing is what defines the modern age: in a world of social media and instant global communication, no matter how good you are, if other people don’t know that, then it doesn’t matter at all.

The 1-Page Marketing Plan is a simple guide which should help you cross the chasm between having a great product or a service and building a tribe of followers and brand advocates.

It’s simple and direct, honest and straight to the point; and it’s for everybody who wants to master the art of marketing; especially start-up businesses and future entrepreneurs.

About Allan Dib

Allan Dib describes himself as a “serial entrepreneur, rebellious marketer and technology expert.”

He has started and grown numerous in many branches, mostly IT, telecommunications and marketing.

His ability to turn a startup into a real competitor through evidence-based strategies and tactics showed itself best in the telecommunications industry when his company was named one of Australia’s fastest growing companies just four years after being founded – earning a spot on the coveted Business Review Weekly Fast 100 list.

An instant bestseller, The 1-Page Marketing Plan is his debut book and his only publication so far.

“The 1-Page Marketing Plan PDF Summary”

Introduction

I Have Great Product/Service, Do I Really Need Marketing?

“If I had to summarize the essence of this book in one sentence,” writes Allan Dib at the very beginning of The 1-Page Marketing Plan, “it would be, ‘the fastest path to the money.’”

In other words, Dib is not interested in clichés such as “follow your passion,” “work hard,” “hire the right people,” blah blah blah.

He’s interested in real-world marketing strategies and tactics, because, after all, as Thomas Watson of IBM once famously said: “Nothing happens until a sale is made.”

It doesn’t matter how good your product is or how better your service than that of your competitors; it’s the people, the customers who need to know this so as your business could thrive; and the only way this could happen is if you manage to make a sale.

Think of it this way: no matter how good of a writer you are, unless readers share this opinion, it wouldn’t matter not one bit.

Strategy vs. Tactics

And this is why it’s important to make a distinction between what is strategy and what is tactics. “Understanding the difference between strategy and tactics,” writes Dib, “is absolutely key to marketing success.”

In a nutshell, “strategy is the big-picture planning you do prior to the tactics;” and tactics, on the other hand, is putting the strategy into practice.

Planning how your house would look like and getting the necessary building permits is strategy; hiring the plumber and buying the exact number of bricks is tactics.

Naturally, one can’t do with the other.

Strategy without tactics leads to paralysis by analysis.

“No matter how good the builder and the architect are,” writes Dib, “the house isn’t going to get built until someone starts laying bricks. At some stage, they’re going to need to say, ‘OK the blueprint is now good, we’ve got all the necessary approvals to build so let’s get started.’”

Tactics without strategy leads to “bright shiny object syndrome.”

Dib’s perfect analogy?

“Imagine you started building a wall without any plans and then later found out that it was in the wrong place, so you start pouring the foundation, and then you find out it’s not right for this type of house, so you start excavating the area where you want the pool, but that isn’t right either. This clearly isn’t going to work.”

The problem?

This is exactly how many business owners do marketing: “They string together a bunch of random tactics in the hope that what they’re doing will lead to a customer. They whack up a website without much thought, and it ends up being an online version of their brochure, or they start promoting on social media because they heard that’s the latest thing and so on.”

The solution?

The 1-Page Marketing Plan

Consider the 1-Page Marketing Plan your way out of a pickle such as the one described above; it is a manual on how to build the right marketing strategy so you can start putting it into practice.

The 1-Page Marketing Plan consists of three major phases, each of which consists of three minor parts. Dib’s book is a thorough, step-by-step guide through each of these stages, leaving no stones unturned and no questions unanswered.

So you can find your way around the book better, here’s a blank template of the 1-Page Marketing Plan. By the end of the summary, you’ll understand what each of these squares means and how you should fill it before doing anything in terms of marketing.

Act I: The “Before” Phase

The “before” phase is all about prospects:

Prospects are people that may not even yet know you exist. In this phase, you’ll identify a target market, craft a compelling message for this target market and deliver your message to them through advertising media.
The goal of this phase is to get your prospect to know you and respond to your message. Once they’ve indicated interest by responding, they become a lead and enter the second phase of your marketing process.

Chapter 1 – Selecting Your Target Market

One of the main mistakes most businesses make is targeting everyone; of course, this eventually backfires and results in no customer conversions.

Not to mention in a loss of a lot of money as well.

The trick is to market your products to a niche.

First of all, because as humans we value specialists much more than jack-of-all-trades; the latter is pejorative for a reason.

Secondly, being a big player in a small niche is much better than being a small player in a the great outdoors; to quote our favorite “misquoter” Michael Scott: instead of being a little fish in a big pond, be the top dog in a fairly large pond; the dog is the real boss.

Of course, merely saying that you should market to a niche isn’t enough; you need to choose the right niche for you.

To do this, Allan Dib proposes Dr. Frank Kern’s PVP Index (Kern is an attorney at law and chief engineer with NASA) which allows you to give each market segment you serve a rating between 1 and 10 and decide according to the final score.

PVP stands for:

P – Personal fulfillment: How much do you enjoy dealing with this type of customer?
V – Value to The Marketplace: How much does this market segment value your work? Are they willing to pay you a lot of $$$ for your work?
P – Profitability: How profitable is the work you do for this market segment? Remember it’s not about the “turnover,” it’s all about the “left over.”

Another great tool for getting into the mind of your prospects is becoming one of them temporarily.

Yes, we’re talking about creating avatars, “the marketing equivalent of method acting.”

With method acting you win Oscars; with avatars – customers.

Chapter 2 – Crafting Your Message

Most advertising is – according to Dib – “boring, similar and useless.” In the end, it all comes down to a simple formula: company name + company logo + a laundry list of services offered + claims of best quality, best service or best prices + offer of a “free quote” + contact details.

If you want to stand out from the crowd, this is not the way to go!

It’s time you start marketing the way people play chess: purposefully, with a very concrete beforehand strategy in mind.

Dib’s rule of thumb is one ad, one objective; you have to be clear on the purpose of your ad and only then make it.

It’s wrong to try to sell through the ad: the ad should only intrigue and invite the customers to find out more; nobody would buy something from someone who sells something in general terms and through a boring ad.

Speaking of – quality and service are too abstract and too expected to be part of your ad; you need to have a USP, aka unique selling proposition; this is how you stand out.

Include in your ad an elevator pitch: people don’t buy products but solutions to problems; it is the latter you need to pinpoint in your ad; target the prospect’s pain and focus on the benefits of your products.

People are much more willing to pay for the cure than for prevention, so targeting existing pain results in much higher conversion than promising a bright future.

Choose a relevant name for your product; think of it this way: if you need to explain it, then you’ve made the wrong choice.

Chapter 3 – Reaching Prospects with Advertising Media

What gets measured – gets managed.

Unfortunately, “the reality is that most small businesses do little if any tracking of advertising. Not measuring where your leads and sales come from and not tracking ROI on ad spend is the mark of the amateur.”

ROI, of course, stands for return on investment. Not knowing the numbers that matter – customer lifetime value and acquisition cost – means not knowing whether you’re losing or earning money through your advertising campaign.

Neither Dib nor we have to tell you that we live in the 21^st century and that if you’re not using social media to create customer relationships, then you’re not really doing the job right.

However, don’t think of social media as a selling environment; think of it as a way to create and manage customer relationships and turn them into something more for you, aka financial benefit.

Of course, that means that whether on Facebook or on Twitter, whether through emails or SMS, you need to act as a friend to these people and not as a marketing rep.

Be conversational, engaging, give valuable information.

Also, complement email with snail mail; it may sound regressive, but it works – especially if it’s what makes you different from your competition.

How would you feel if you receive a postcard from a business? Wouldn’t you be a bit more connected to it on an emotional level, even if merely subconsciously?

Act II: The “During” Phase

If the “before” phase was about prospects, the “during” phase is about leads:

Leads are people that know you and have indicated interest in what you have to offer by responding to your marketing message. In this phase, you’ll capture these interested leads in a database system, nurture them with regular value-building information and convert them into paying customers.
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. Once they’ve bought from you, they become a customer and enter the third and final phase of your marketing process.

Chapter 4 – Capturing Leads

As we said above, selling directly from your ad is wrong, dead wrong! And this is because “the vast majority will not be ready to make a purchasing decision on the very day they read your ad—even if they are interested in what you do.”

Why?

Because the market for your product or service usually looks like this:

If you’re selling through your ad you’re basically targeting only the 3% who are ready to buy immediately, and you’re missing out on at least 37% of your audience!

And you can go from 3% to 40% – increasing the effectiveness of your advertising by 1,233% – through an ethical bribe.

An ethical bribe is something free which helps you generate leads; if someone takes it, then he’s identifying himself as one of the 37% your sell-immediately ad won’t reach out to.

Don’t be a hunter, says Allan Dib, because that means you’re in a constant battle to be successful: if you don’t kill something today, there won’t be a lunch for your family.

Be a farmer: plant the seeds, water them, and tend to your crop; then – start harvesting!

Chapter 5 – Nurturing Leads

Apparently, half of the salespeople give up after one contact, 65% give up after two and four-fifths give up after three shots.

However, farmers don’t work like that: they water their seeds over and over again until they either produce or die.

That’s what nurturing leads boils down to: evolving from a pest to a welcome guest by being persistent. Becoming a factor in the lead’s mind requires at least five contacts; after the ninth, you have a 90% chance of being called:

Chapter 6 – Sales Conversion

“Sales conversion,” writes Allan Dib, “is all about creating enough trust and demonstrating enough value to motivate interested leads to become paying customers.”

Of course, this starts with positioning. If a boxer is too eager to attack, he will probably lose the match; if you’re too eager to sell, you’ll lose the trust of the customer.

Build the trust by delaying the sale and providing your customer with valuable information throughout; this will position you as someone of value in his/her mind.

Another thing that should help you is understanding the common fears of your customers; if you can address them before the sale, then you have a very tangible competitive advantage.

Also: never give your prospects and leads too many options; this results in paralysis by analysis and lack of a final decision.

Giving your leads only two or three options and pricing is the best way to go; especially if you can combine this with a “try before buy” sample.

Act III: The “After” Phase

Finally, the “after” phase is all about your customers and how you can keep them and turn them into brand advocates:

Customers are people that like you and what you have to offer enough to have paid you money at least once. In this phase, you’ll turn your customers into raving fans by delivering a world-class experience. You’ll then find ways of doing more business with them and increasing their lifetime value. Finally, you’ll create an environment where referrals continually come your way.
The goal of this final phase is to get your customers to trust you and buy more from you. This phase continues in an ongoing “virtuous cycle” where you deepen your relationship with customers, do more business with them and get more referrals.

Chapter 7 – Delivering A World Class Experience

Good businesses have customers; great businesses have raving fans.

Building a tribe of fans requires commitment and awareness that the final goal is not to convert a prospect into a customer; but a customer into a raving fan.

To do so, you need to:

• Continually focus on wowing your customers;
• Attempt to create and foster lifetime relationships;
• Make it easy and fun to deal with you;
• Create a sense of theatre around your products and services (remember Apple’s 1984 ad?);
• Build systems which will guarantee that you’ll reliably and consistently deliver a great experience.

Chapter 8 – Increasing Customer Lifetime Value

Remember Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist?

The main point of that story is that, if you’re looking for a treasure, it’s probably best to start looking for it in your own backyard.

That’s Dib’s marketing advice as well: “Most businesses have a rich ‘diamond mine’ in the form of existing customers which remains largely untapped, yet they leave this ‘family’ of existing customers after the first few transactions and spend all their marketing energy, money, and resources on seeking new sources of revenue.”

This is wrong!

Because your existing customers will accept almost anything from you if you turn them into raving fans.

For example, do you know that “Would you like fries with that?” is responsible for hundreds of millions of McDonald’s dollars on a yearly basis?

Why?

Because of what Cialdini calls in Influence “the contrast principle,” aka upselling. If you’re buying a suit, then two more shirts seem comparatively cheaper, and you’d have no problem buying them as well; it’s difficult the other way around.

Use the logic of upselling to your benefit; raise your prices and make your products more exclusive; even better, move your existing customers to your higher priced products and services (ascension).

Increasing the frequency with which your customers buy from you through reminders, vouchers, or subscriptions is another way to go.

Finally, you should never underestimate a reactivating campaign: your past customers can also be your future raving fans if you play your cards right.

Chapter 9 – Orchestrating and Stimulating Referrals

Relying on “word for mouth” referrals is not that dissimilar from hoping for a free lunch to feed your family; Allan Dib is adamant: systems create great businesses.

And when it comes to referrals, there are a few things you should have in mind.

The most important one?

People refer a company to other people not because they want to help the company but because they want to help their friends or loved ones.

That’s why a good strategy to get a referral is if you offer an existing customer a gift or a voucher for his/her friends or family.

Asking for a referral before delivering a result is like asking for a kiss the first second of a blind date: it makes you look bad.

However, asking a referral after delivering the goods may even make your customer feel closer to you; sometimes this works even better than offering a percent for a referral; the latter is a business transaction, but the former a friendly engagement.

And marketing is about your customers’ emotions; even if it sometimes means toying with them.

Key Lessons from “The 1-Page Marketing Plan”

1.      The “Before” Phase: Dealing with Prospects
2.      The “During” Phase: Dealing with Leads
3.      The “After” Phase: Dealing with Customers

The “Before” Phase: Dealing with Prospects

The 1-Page Marketing Plan consists of three phases.

The “before” phase is the one in which you’re dealing with prospects, people that may not even know that you exist.

In this phase, your job is to select your target market (always a niche), craft your message (never unoriginal) and deliver this message through the advertising media (don’t sell through your ad!)

The goal is to make yourself familiar to your prospects and inspire them to respond to your message; once they do this, they’ve become leads, and you’re ready for Phase #2.

The “During” Phase: Dealing with Leads

The second phase, aka the “during” phase, is all about the leads – the people who have indicated some kind of interest in the products and/or services you offer.

To capture them, you need to ethically bribe them and nurture them with regular value-building information; only after delaying the sale, you’ll be ready to make it.

And that is the goal of this phase: turning your leads into customers.

The “After” Phase: Dealing with Customers

Of course, that is not the end of your marketing journey: now you need to turn these customers into raving fans, get their money, and inspire them to refer you to other people.

You do this by delivering a world-class experience and turning yourself into a tribe leader capable of increasing customer lifetime value and orchestrating and stimulating referrals.

This, finally, results in an ongoing “virtuous cycle” which is the way a good business becomes a great one.

Like this summary? We’d like to invite you to download our free 12 min app for more amazing summaries and audiobooks.

“The 1-Page Marketing Plan Quotes”

Our Critical Review

The 1-Page Marketing Plan – as its title suggests – is as simple as marketing books go: perfectly structured, free-flowingly written, blatantly honest and pleasantly (if sometimes too pop-artsily for its own sake) illustrated.

You’ll find faults with it only if you hate money; we guess that you’re didn’t choose a career in marketing because you do.

Emir Zecovic

Emir is the Head of Marketing at 12min. In his spare time, he loves to meditate and play soccer.