The 1-Page Marketing Plan (Book Review)

The 1-Page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib is a concise, actionable compilation of great marketing advice.

Long version

Not everyone can distill complicated subjects into concise, understandable, and actionable information. Allan Dib can, though. He’s done it in this short but valuable work, The 1-Page Marketing Plan.

The marketing industry is filled with wordy people – that’s one reason we get into marketing in the first place! As a result, we’re inundated with books about marketing. I’m guilty of contributing to that clamor myself. You could do nothing but read, analyze, and learn from marketing books. I’d recommend Douglas Burdett’s Marketing Book Podcast, if you’re interested in surveying the best of the lot.

What if you’re not a lifelong student of marketing, but only want to know the essentials for your business?

That’s where this book comes in. It’s an ideal solution for:

• The entrepreneur figuring out how to best position and launch a business
• The small business owner trying to differentiate and attract the right customers
• The solopreneur who doesn’t want to spend too much time on marketing

For those people, and for anyone who is overwhelmed by the mountain of marketing advice, The 1-Page Marketing Plan offers a welcome reprieve.

The structure

The book is designed to help you create the very thing promised in the title: a marketing plan on a single page.

This one-page plan has three main sections, one for each phase of the customer’s journey:

1. Before (attracting and nurturing prospective customers)
2. During (the actual conversion of a prospect to a customer)
3. After (as you continue to serve the customer)

Each phase has three subsections, or sets of questions to answer.

The structure of the book and its chapters mirror the structure of the proposed plan, so you always know where you are in the process.

Aside to nonfiction authors: If you write prescriptive (how-to) nonfiction, note the clarity of this book’s structure. Dib creates uses the one-page plan as his foundation and outline, and the text fills it out. Graphics, headings, and the book’s structure combine to deliver the central promise of the one-page plan. It’s crystal clear and well designed.

The book isn’t about the theory of marketing. No, it’s about the decisions you make as you create your marketing plan, and the subsequent actions you’ll take. Dib guides you through those decisions with clarity and humor. If you’re diligent, you’ll finish the book with a complete marketing plan – and a good one at that.

What I love most about this book

I firmly believe that marketers need to pay as much attention to what happens after the purchase as they do to acquiring and converting leads. (See my book Subscription Marketing for that discussion.)

Dib dedicates one third of the marketing plan to what happens after the sale, with chapters on:

• Delivering world-class experience
• Increasing customer lifetime value
• Orchestrating and stimulating referrals

Like the rest of the book, these chapters are filled with sound advice, rather than lip-service to customer experience. Here’s one piece of advice I particularly like:

Become a voice of value for your tribe.

If you’re looking for a terrific guide to marketing basics, pick up the The 1-Page Marketing Plan and spend the time to work through it. You’ll be glad you did.

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