The Marketing Plan Handbook: Develop Big Picture Marketing Plans for Pennies on the Dollar

by Robert W. Bly

Successful marketing consultant Robert W. Bly cuts through the clutter of short-lived marketing techniques and trendy gimmicks and reveals the12 critical steps necessary to build a practical marketing plan that produces the results of an expensive consultant without the hefty costs. Entrepreneurs learn how to zero in on their marketing goals, choose the best marketing tactics, integrate timeless and up-and-coming techniques, create a success measuring system, and more. They also discover the pay off of big-picture thinking, focusing on what works not what’s hot—ultimately, creating a long-term plan for marketing success. • Addresses two to the most common queries among new business owners and entrepreneurs—How do I write a winning marketing plan? and Is there a sample marketing plan I can reference? • Provides 12 steps for developing a marketing plan that an outside consultant would charge $5,000 to $10,000 to create • Includes practical, utterly pragmatic, battle-tested marketing tactics proven to work in the real world • Covers new marketing technologies and current trends

Genres: Business, Nonfiction

334 pages, Paperback

First published February 5, 2010

About the author

Bob Bly is a freelance copywriter with 4 decades of experience in direct response and business-to-business marketing. He is the author of 100 published book on topics ranging from science, sex, satire, and science fiction -- to small business, writing, advertising, and online marketing. McGraw-Hill calls Bob Bly “America’s top copywriter.”

Reviews

[Kari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid advice on developing and following a marketing plan. Have to extrapolate what applies to marketing a service rather than a product, but I took a lot of notes.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rented from the library and only a few chapters in I knew I needed to get my own copy to hold on to. This was everything I was looking for and the worksheets are super helpful. Now to put it all into action...

[Stephanie]

DNF. The first half was information I already knew related to marketing; the second half wasn’t really applicable to a therapy practice, and therefore, wasn’t applicable to my business.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished most of this before I had to take it back to the library. I liked it and it was a great primer for my marketing class this semester. I would have liked to gone back and re-read it and taken more notes. Very much focused on the small business / internet business model that Mr. Bly is so familiar with, the information is fairly easily extrapolated to other situations.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book explained marketing planning in a simple enough way that this non-marketing brain could understand and use. I'm trying to grow my little wedding photography business into something more...and this will be very helpful. I'm returning my library copy and buying my own copy so I can keep it for reference.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are starting a business or thinking about starting a business, read this book. It's full of excellent suggestions. The worksheets in the book are useful and make it easy to build a marketing plan. My only complaint is that the author doesn't include a downloadable version of the worksheets.