BOOK OF THE WEEK: GET SMARTER MARKETING by JILL BRENNAN

Hello people.

Years ago, I was at an event where a speaker was scheduled to give a motivational speech to young, budding entrepreneurs. As many such speakers are wont to, she started by trying to convince the audience that she struggled before becoming successful. She also kept emphasizing that success is possible and easily attained no matter what a person’s background may look like. 

Her speech resonated with the audience until she began narrating the story of how she got aid for her business by dressing neatly, wearing stiletto heels and going to the headquarters of one of the popular banks in Lagos to demand audience with the bank’s CEO. As the security men made to drive her away, the CEO ‘miraculously’ saw her, gave her audience and voila! funds were given to her for her business.

At that point, my partner and I burst into cynic laughter. This was clearly a case of a fabulous story, which, in local parlance, means a story that is too good to be true. Where in Nigeria will you be given funds simply because you walked up to the security men of a company and demanded to see the CEO? My best part of that event ended up being the food rather than the speech.

Fortunately, Jill Brennan delivers the real thing and not a fabulous story in her book, Get Smarter Marketing: The Small Business Owner’s Guide to Building a Savvy Business. Whereas some marketing books which claim to be targeted at small businesses end up teaching ideas that are clearly not for small businesses, Jill’s book lives up to its promise.

The opening statement of the book: Getting noticed in a world that has gone brand crazy is hard; is one that any small business owner can relate to. She goes on to list the advertising budget of big brands such as Coke [$3.3 billion in 2013] and Nike [$3 billion in 2014]. Of course, by the time one is done reading the statistics, the small business owner already knows that he or she definitely cannot compete with such brands.

Fortunately, Jill puts us out of our misery by stating that it is possible for small business owners to grow their business even without big budgets - but this is only possible when one has a sound marketing plan.

Although there are different components of a marketing plan, according to Jill, the salient ones for growing businesses include:

1. Doing a situational analysis to know where one's business is headed to. She points out that one mistake small businesses make is to jump into marketing without doing enough work upfront. 

Other components she teaches in her book are: 

2. Knowing the target market

3. Marketing Collateral[my favourite chapter]

4. Reaching the target audience

5.Measuring the effectiveness of your marketing strategies, etc.  

One great thing about books, especially non-fiction books, is that the reader learns in hours what it took the author several years to learn, and this is beautifully illustrated with this book. As one reads the book, it is clear that Jill has had experience with small businesses and is talking from the standpoint of experience rather than a theoretical or academic standpoint.

Another thing I love about the book is its easy flow and the fact that it is easy to understand without being too simplistic in its approach to the subject matter.

 Again, I find the conversational manner of the book to be quite refreshing. As one reads, it’s almost like Jill is seated opposite the reader talking him/her through each marketing step. 

It is also clear that buying the book is a fantastic bargain as the reader ends up receiving advice from a marketing expert at a price far below what would have paid if Jill had been invited to consult for one’s business.

I recommend this book to all business owners who are looking to grow their business. It’s a great resource tool worth having and reading again and again.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jill Brennan, a marketing consultant, mentor and founder of Harbren marketing, has over 20 years experience in the small business trenches. Her articles on marketing have been published in the Sydney Morning Herald, amongst others. Find out more about her at harbren.com.