The 1-Page Marketing Plan By Allan Dib

These are my personal book notes of The 1-Page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib.

Let’s dive in.

Facts

  • Author: Allan Dib
  • Title: The 1-Page Marketing Plan
  • Subtitle: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand Out From The Crowd
  • First published: 2006
  • Type: non-fiction
  • Genre: marketing
  • Author’s website: successwise.com
  • Additional resources: here
  • Rating: 5/5
  • Recommended: Yes (Hell, Yeah!)

Your job as an entrepreneur is to be an innovator and a builder of systems.
- Allan Dib

Table Of Contents Of The Book

  • Introduction
  • Act I - The “Before” Phase
    • Chapter 1 - Selecting Your Target Market
    • Chapter 2 - Crafting Your Message
    • Chapter 3 - Reaching Prospects with Advertising Media
  • Act II - The “During” Phase
    • Chapter 4 - Capturing Leads
    • Chapter 5 - Nurturing Leads
    • Chapter 6 - Sales Conversion
  • Act III - The “After” Phase
    • Chapter 7 - Delivering a World Class Experience
    • Chapter 8 - Increasing Customer Lifetime Value
    • Chapter 9 - Orchestrating and Stimulating Referrals
  • Conclusion
  • About the Author

Video Summary

Key Concepts & Ideas

I wish I could tell you all ideas in this book were my inventions and that I’m some kind of marketing and business genius.

The truth though is I’m a collector of elegant ideas.

I rarely invent anything and when I do, it’s rarely worth writing about.

An early business mentor of mine, Mal Emery would often say:

“I’ve never had an original idea in my life - it’s just too bloody dangerous.”

Yet he was and continues to be an extremely successful businessman and marketer.

The secret of his success and subsequently mine, was to just model things that were known to reliably work rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.

Knowing and not doing is the same as not knowing.
- Allan Dib

Allan Dib And His Mentors

Some have been personal mentors to him, while others have been mentors through publications and other works they’ve produced.

In no particular order:

  • Mal Emery
  • Dean Jackson
  • Joe Polish
  • Pete Godfrey
  • Dan Kennedy
  • James Schramko
  • Jim Rohn
  • Frank Kern
  • Seth Godin

The 1-Page Marketing Plan Canvas

The book is following a simple process.

Here’s the 1-page marketing plan canvas:

1-Page Marketing Plan Canvas

You can download the 1-page marketing plan canvas here.

The plan shows 3 phases and 9 blocks overall:

The “Before” Phase (Prospect)

  • Select your chosen niche/specific target market
  • Create your message to the target market (think of it as your first try, your first draft. It’s very likely you’ll iterate over it again and again, refining your message with each iteration, slightly changing it or coming up with something entirely new. The goal of this block: A working message to market match)
  • Specify how you will reach your prospects/specific target market (advertising/media buying/SEO/social media marketing/…)

The “During” Phase (Lead)

  • Plan your lead capture system (opt-in and squeeze pages)
  • Nurture your generated leads (follow up)
  • Specify how you will convert your prospects into a customers

The “After” Phase (Customer)

  • How will you over-deliver/positively surprise your customers? (people today have endless options, so you need to stand out and be special/different. How can you “wow” them?)
  • Plan how you can increase your LTV (when you have an existing customer, it’s easier to sell to him over and over again than attracting a new client. Come up with ways to help them even better, provide even more value)
  • Implement a systematic referral system

Direct Response Customer Lifecycle Marketing Process

Take a look at the complete direct response customer lifecycle:

Direct Response Customer Lifecycle Marketing

You can download the graphic here.

Definition Of Marketing

Here’s the simplest, most jargon-free, definition of marketing you’re ever likely to come across:

If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying “Circus Coming to the Showground Saturday,” that’s advertising.

If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town, that’s promotion.

If the elephant walks through the mayor’s flower bed and the local newspaper writes a story about it, that’s publicity.

And if you get the mayor to laugh about it, that’s public relations.

If the town’s citizens go to the circus, you show them the many entertainment booths, explain how much fun they’ll have spending money at the booths, answer their questions and ultimately, they spend a lot at the circus, that’s sales.

And if you planned the whole thing, that’s marketing.

Yup, it’s as simple as that.

Marketing
The strategy you use for getting your ideal target market to know you, like and trust you enough to become a customer.

All the stuff you usually associate with marketing are tactics.

By far the biggest leverage point in any business is marketing.
- Allan Dib

Small And Medium Business Marketing

Direct response marketing is a particular branch of marketing that allows small businesses cut through the noise and gives them a competitive edge on a small budget.

It’s designed to ensure you get a return on investment that is measurable.

Some of the main characteristics:

  • It’s trackable
  • It’s measurable
  • It uses compelling headlines and sales copy
  • It targets a specific audience or niche
  • It makes a specific offer
  • It demands a response (“call to action”)
  • Multi-step, short-term follow-up
  • Maintenance follow-up of unconverted leads

If You Confuse Them You Lose Them

Understand that your prospect has essentially three options:

  • Buy from you
  • Buy from your competitor
  • Do nothing

You may think your competitors are your biggest problem, but in reality it’s more likely to be a fight against inertia.

Therefore you need to first answer the question of why they should buy and why they should buy from you.

The Most Dangerous Number

One is the most dangerous number in your business.

It makes businesses brittle.

Does your business have only one source of leads?

One major supplier?

One major customer?

Rely on one type of media?

Offer one type of product?

To borrow a computer system term, does your business have “a single point of failure?”

If so your business is brittle and a small change in circumstances outside of your control could have a devastating effect.

  • What if your largest customer leaves you for a competitor or what if they go out of business?
  • What if there is a change of government legislation and the product you currently offer gets outlawed or regulated into oblivion?
  • What if your main advertising strategy stops working?
  • What if your advertising costs rise dramatically?
  • What if your currently high search engine rankings disappear or pay-per-click rates rise sharply?
  • What if your biggest supplier raises prices, has a supply shortage or goes out of business?
  • What if you rely on email marketing and the government cracks down further on this strategy?

All of these scenarios can and do happen.

If you rely on one of anything, you are leaving yourself in an exposed position - you’re effectively building your house on a sandy foundation.

When the storm comes and the floods rise, the house is going to collapse.

Identify and eliminate single points of failure in your business.

Profitable Media Buying/Advertising

The art and science of being able to consistently turn a dollar of paid advertising into a dollar or more in profits through direct response marketing will make your business resilient and can help you turn the tap on to rapid business growth.

Lack of information isn’t the issue holding back the bottom 80% of business owners. It’s human behavior and mindset. That certainly hasn’t changed in the last 100 years.
- Allan Dib

The Definition Of An Entrepreneur

My definition of an entrepreneur:

Entrepreneur
Someone who solves people’s problems at a profit.

How You Need To Be Perceived

And that is exactly who you need to be perceived as in the eyes and mind of your prospects - as someone who educates them and solves their problems.

The Key Marketing Numbers

Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) and Customer Acquisition Cost (CPA) are two of the key numbers you need to know to measure marketing effectiveness.

Closing Thoughts

My book notes only cover small parts of the book.

So if you like what you read, please consider buying the book from the author.

Thank you for reading and stay awesome,

Tim for Online Business Dude

PS: Start Your Own, Profitable Online Business From Scratch, Step-by-Step, Today!

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