Simple Marketing For Smart People: The One Question You Need to Win Customers without Gimmicks, Hype, or Hard Selling

by Billy Broas, Tiago Forte, Ali Abdaal

Why do so many smart people struggle with marketing? The answer is smart people love complexity, and complexity brews problems.

Does your marketing feel like it has way too many moving parts?

If so, Simple Marketing for Smart People is the solution you’ve been searching for.

Authored by messaging strategist Billy Broas, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Tiago Forte, this book cuts through the clutter of the modern digital marketing landscape, guiding you to create authentic marketing that resonates with your ideal customers and clients.

The approach is refreshingly simple.

At the core of this methodology is a crucial your customers need certain beliefs to embrace your product. Without these beliefs, no amount of discounts, free content, or tactics will suffice.

You have the power to instill these beliefs. That’s what Simple Marketing for Smart People is all about.

The powerful technique of Belief Building will revolutionize your marketing strategy. Learn how to craft marketing content—email, social media, or your website—that compels customers to act. With the right pieces to solve your marketing puzzle, you can prioritize your marketing efforts effectively, use your limited time wisely, captivate your customers, expand your sales—and have fun doing it.

Billy Broas is renowned for his straightforward and relatable approach to marketing. His strategies have helped countless experts turn their knowledge into successful six- and seven-figure businesses. This book unveils the secrets behind Billy’s marketing philosophy, including how

Simplify your marketing and overcome complexity.Focus your efforts and stop spreading yourself too thin.Move beyond endless funnels, hashtags, and ever-changing channels like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.Master new techniques to understand your customers like never before.See your product from your customer’s perspective.Craft marketing content that makes confident claims and supports them with solid proof.. . . And much more.

Simple Marketing for Smart People provides the clarity you need. Join the ranks of those who have used the strategies in this book to attract ideal customers, boost sales, and enjoy the process.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Self Help, Writing, Professional Development

174 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 7, 2024

Reviews

[Michael Nazari · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read lots of marketing books. This is the one I wish I started my journey with.

Tactics, hooks, pricing strategies, building urgency - none of these matter if your prospect doesn't have the right beliefs.

Key Question: "What does my customer need to believe for the purchase to be a no-brainer?"

[Christine Yen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sort of business book that could have been a paragraph rather than a book - but it was easy to skim and I'm very intrigued by the main idea: that "what does my prospect need to believe in order to buy?" is the only question we need to ask ourselves to build a core message.

[Cooper Easthope · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book quite boring. It’s just another marketing book to add to the pile. I have a couple thoughts on it:

The authors spent the first third of the book talking about their decision to write the book. It went on for far too long.

I enjoyed the way the authors talked about upstream and downstream beliefs that lead to a purchase decision. For a customer to buy your product they must believe that they have a problem, that their problem needs to be solved, and that your company should solve it for them. Each of these beliefs can be addressed separately and they are all necessary for a purchase.
When making a piece of marketing material, you should always begin with the belief that you are trying to instil in the customer. By starting with a belief, you can focus on educating your future customer instead of pandering to them with cheaper marketing tactics.

I was regularly annoyed at the way the authors spoke about ‘smart people’ in this book. It seems as if the authors are trying to pad the reader’s ego about having superior intelligence throughout the book. It’s prideful and off-putting.

The upstream/downstream beliefs were an interesting concept and I’d encourage you to study these through a book summary. I wouldn’t spend time re-reading this book though.

[Davuth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who knew marketing could be this simple?

I love the idea of this book. It resonates a lot with how I want marketing to be. It makes sense.

The format of the book is very easy to read. It's short as it should be. Reading it doesn't feel like a drag. The idea is simple, so the book shouldn't be too hard to read.

If anything, I don't like the title, the part "for smart people". It makes me cringe reading this. I don't want to be labeled as smart people because I am not. So if I'm not smart, should I read this book?

But having read this book, I kinda understand why he names the book that way. His marketing advice heavily focuses on educating people to understand the product and buy. So that educating part kinda implies they are somewhat smart.

So who should read this book?

If you own a product that you truly believe is great. Not just another typical product, but a great product in your opinion. And you want to improve the sale. Then you should read this book. This is not very applicable for those of you who create simple products that are not that special.

[Divya · Rating 4 out of 5]

GPT recommended this book because I couldn’t find a fundamental guide that explains how I can effectively communicate with my target audience. I was overwhelmed by various templates and executions, but none provided a comprehensive approach that focused on the core thinking process rather than just the steps I should take.

Despite not being a fan of the title “Smart People,” I found the book to be actually resonate with how I was feeling the overwhelm of needing a marketing degree.


What I liked was it took the brand and product purpose, consumer journey, product story, early adopters and made it relatable from a human lens, bringing in daily examples of how we think instead of more and more ads as examples. I guess he intentionally didn’t use the marketing regular jargon

So - how you argue and assert for your product, connecting first and giving the feeling of conviction and validation to the consumer, implicit proof with multi sensory cues etc.

[Bhushan Patel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is short and sweet and very conducive to audiobook format. I liked the personal background of the authors and how it led them to writing this book. I think they distilled a lot of complex content into simple terms (as they promised). I got a few good ideas I’ll try to implement. The most helpful was how to get started. I think their core question “what must the customer believe in order to buy?” Is so simple yet so instructive and I think it really streamlines everything downstream. If I’m thinking of a channel to use or a content to make, I can directly tie it back to a belief I claim building. I think most of us unintentionally do this but it’s good to hear it written out. I do wish there were more real world examples.

[Alex Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Build those beliefs

This is not like other marketing books. Get ready to know your customer and their beliefs so they want buy your service. They'll be ready for the optimal solution and so you need to get them results. I don't think you'll look at marketing the same. I appreciate that two authors each have their perspective so it's almost like two books in one concept. Recommend to anyone looking to grow a business online through belief building and marketing easily and effotlessly so customers autnamtically and naturally want what you sell. Thanks for this awesome compilation of marketing to ready to buy customers.

[Ahmad hosseini · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of the book seemed a bit tempting and seductive and I hoped the content of the book would be good. It was good.
At first Authors try to fix some mistakes about marketing and after that use an educational approach to educate marketing to readers. The core message of the book is about how to communicate your value effectively and authentically. To achieve this goal, they introduce upstream/downstream marketing metaphor and belief building process.
Belief Building: The process of bringing a prospect to the point where they fully understand and value our offer. Buying from us becomes their only logical choice.

[Whitney Brion · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone should read this book!

As someone who’s been in branding for years I loved the insight shared in this book. I’m launching a new physical product and coming from the service industry I wanted to refresh my views around marketing. I loved how you both broke down the essentials and it gave me a new perspective on my upcoming journal business. Thank you so much!

[Roger · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little long winded for their straightforward central theme. All marketing answers the central question - what beliefs does my customer need to have in order to buy. This helped my pinpoint why my customers couldn't see the value of my service and what messages my marketing should have to help them.

Couldn't have done it without this book. For a 2 hour investment it's invaluable.

[Dave Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for those wishing to up their marketing game because it forces you to forget about basic tactics like whether to advertise with Google AdWords or Facebook Ads. Instead, it puts the focus squarely on understanding your potential customer's beliefs and what you need to do to counter negative beliefs that are holding back your sales.

[Edward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must Read for Copy

Absolutely did a great job explaining the differences between a simple product and a complex one in that you need to describe and explain why for a complex product more in order to sell it. The example I would give is the difference between selling socks and a SAAS program it’s something you need to explain.

[Sanjeev · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books on marketing

A very time-efficient read packed with useful and actionable information, page after page. Some experience with copywriting will be useful along with this book.

[Weirui Ye · Rating 5 out of 5]

simple and honest

they share their real life experience and show the clear method to get to know your prospects and do belief building

[Jim Livingstone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book cuts through all the bullsh!t. Still a lot of work to do, but it does simplify the selection and implementation processes. Good Investment

[Elisabeth Valienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 rounded down.

A solid book about marketing! Very simple and clear and has LOTS of great advice for business owners and professional marketers alike.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5

Awesome marketing advice

[Lindsey Reeder · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good starting guide for a newbie marketer.

[Mitch Olson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. Chain of beliefs is a powerful idea the authors borrow but they add little or no value to what has already been written about it. Mostly a sales pitch for Tiago’s product.

[Anand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mooi simpel en begrijpelijk framework voor marketing. Menselijk en dus makkelijk te implementeren

[Ashutosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best primer on marketing psychology. Read my full review here: https://wowashuwow.com/blog/simple-ma...

[George Burgess · Rating 2 out of 5]

Should’ve been a blog post

[Kimberly Eddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good basics for marketing and copywriting to keep you from overthinking.