YABR Yet Another Book Review

Time for YABR, Yet Another Book Review.

I was in the bookstore the other day, just browsing around, and I saw this on the shelf in the business section. Digital Marketing: Strategies for Online Success, by Godfrey Parkin.

Something about the small, paperback and decidedly “not slick” cover design drew me in. Plus, I checked the pub date—it was published in September 2009. That’s about as recent as one can get with a book on any facet of the internet.

The book is generally written for the reader looking to start or improve a B2C ecommerce web site with better digital marketing – web site, email, search, buzz/social marketing. But it’s just as useful for those doing business-to-business or even "just blogging."

The most important feature of the book is that the author stresses planning. You have to have a vision and a strategy to get there before you get started. Makes sense. How else are you going to integrate all your marketing messages towards any constructive outcome?

The book takes time to outline the planning steps that should precede any design and implementation. And it includes a great outline of a digital marketing plan.

But don’t worry; even with all this planning, the author is still on board with rapid prototyping, testing, refinement and even throwing away ideas and starting again. It’s just that all of that works better if your goals are set ahead of time. I agree. It’s far too easy to jump in to digital marketing and start executing. Unfortunately, it can be a catalyst for disaster!

As I mentioned up top, the book was written in 2009, so the examples are fairly up-to-date—at least for a few more months.

The book is brief enough, yet comprehensive enough to be a great guide and reference for the small marketing department—like a valuable consultant. I recommend Digital Marketing: Strategies for Online Success for your bookshelves.

The High Tech Marketing Bible

Every time I re-read the marketing classic, Marketing High Technology, from William Davidow, I’m reminded how the more things change, the more they stay the same.

If you’ve never read this book, you are really missing out. If you have read it, go back and read it again. Sure, the product examples now seem out-of-date. And there’s nothing directly about e-marketing practices.

But that is what makes it so great. You can forget the technology and focus on what marketing is really all about:

“Marketing must invent complete products and drive them to commanding positions in defensible market segments.”

From strategy to good customer service, from working with sales to value pricing, this book covers it all. Here’s another great observation, from Chapter 11, “Do You Have Marketing?”:

“Companies can finance a lot of marketing activity and still not have marketing programs.”

Which brings up the second point—the more things change, the more they stay the same. Many books on marketing 2.0, the new marketing and so on like to hype up the fact that everything is different now. Forget everything you knew about marketing. The rules have changed. Have they?

In my opinion, digital marketing, social media marketing, e-marketing are less a complete change and more the results of the same types of change that technology developments always engender. That is, technology changes the economics—the relationship between cost, speed and reach—of marketing. But none of this really changes the principles of marketing. The “digital marketing” goals of web pages, social media, and e-mail marketing are the same as those of “old marketing.” And they’ll be the same for the next technology enabled innovation.

Of course, from Fan pages to Tweets, there are best practices and things that don’t work. There are amazing success stories and there’s a (big) Wall of Shame. But that has always been true. In the end, it’s creating loyal communities and getting the message out and driving your brand or product or service to a commanding position in a defensible segment.

As a good exercise, read the book and see for yourself how the “old marketing” principles still apply. You’re digital marketing programs will be better off for the effort.