Continuous Self Development-Books of the Month

Two recommendations this month, both hitting in the critical area of "Marketing". Reality Marketing Revolution by Lieberman & Keiles is simple, basic, on point, action oriented and provides follow-thru suggestions with a Resources Directory. I loved the identified five questions the authors use with their clients to craft an effective marketing strategy:

1. What are the company's revenue goals over the next 12-18 months?
2. Who is the exact target audience that will purchase your service?
3. What pains and problems does this target market have when they purchase services like yours.
4. What solution does your company provide to cure those pains?
5. How are those solutions remarkable enough to start a buzz and set you apart from the competition?

This is a great, marketing guide for small to medium sized businesses.

My second pick is Inbound Marketing By Halligan, this is a must read and guaranteed to kick up your effectiveness at leveraging social media and blogs. This book is all about getting found online and driving business in to you! I've yet to read anything better out there on this critical topic to every business. Short on theory and long on action, that's how I like it and that's what Inbound marketing delivers. It will not only tell you why you should be more active in this relatively new frontier, but more importantly "HOW". Ever since reading it, my mind continues to race with ideas, we've put several things in place and know we have a long way to go before we have tapped the potential. I suspect Inbound Marketing will be used like a reference manual for us, and you, for at least the next year in order to leverage so many of the actions that Halligan shares. The internet has the potential to be a game changer for our companies and our sales forces. Once you've read just 30 pages of Inbound Marketing, you will be salivating over the potential and begin putting in place action items to get business coming to you!