Book review: Marketing guru shares one-week formula to build ‘niche magnetic marketing systems’

Author has used the method to build his own marketing firm and believes it works for all

'Like swimming, though, you can't just read about marketing. It doesn't really do you any good until you actually jump into the pool.'

In five days, you can set up an entire end-to-end marketing system, claims Mark Satterfield in The One Week Marketing Plan.

He calls it the "set it and forget it" system and says it can cost as little as US$300 for a small to medium-sized business to create.

Businesses yearn for a long list of clients without cold calling or hard selling, Satterfield says, without having a lot of money or time to invest in marketing.

Satterfield founded Gentle Rain Marketing, of which he is the chief executive, two decades ago. The author says he has developed one-week marketing systems for clients in more than "three dozen" niche industries, having originally used it to take his own business from $45,000 a year to over $500,000 in four years.

Satterfield advocates a form of marketing known as "magnetic marketing" or "lead magnet marketing".

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"Simply put, this is marketing in which you attract new prospects by offering them something for free and then follow up with ongoing messages to build trust and convert them into paying clients," he writes.

The system involves choosing a niche market on day one, creating a "compelling" free offer on day two, building a basic one-page landing website on day three, a series of "drip marketing" messages (seven to send over 11 days) on day four and relevant online pay-per-click advertising on day five to bring in traffic.

Your business does not have to focus solely on one niche, he says, but each marketing campaign does. "We want the prospective client to see a reflection of themselves and the challenges they face," he says.

The book works chapter by chapter through each day of tasks to identify the most "hyper-responsive" niche market and get them to "raise their hands" and express an initial interest in who you are and what you offer. It must be followed in sequence, he warns.

Satterfield offers a dozen examples of creating a niche, such as a PR company that now works only with the pet industry and a financial adviser who switched focus from retirees to widows. He himself found that, while there were many marketers offering help with digital marketing or social media, none offered "marketing system" support – which became his niche. When it comes to the free offer, Satterfield gives the example of Sonny Ahuja, who owned seven mall-based perfumeries but, owing $100,000 to suppliers, decided to go online to find new customers.

He wrote a downloadable free report on 20 ways to spot a fake perfume, the very concern most consumers have about buying perfume online. From that report, he has created an 18,000-strong email list.

One of Satterfield's own "magnets" is a report called "how to write a sales letter" which, due to its evergreen nature, has been running, unchanged, for eight years.

The offer gives prospective clients a "sample of the value you provide", says Satterfield. "Clients are skeptical and the easiest way to show that you can provide value is to do so in your marketing materials."

The book goes on to explain how to create a simple one-page website – or a landing page within your current website. This is called a "squeeze" page, as it squeezes the visitor to make one decision, to opt in or leave.

Another way to do this is a "reverse squeeze", where you show a few pages first before asking for contact information – best for high-value services, says Satterfield.

Then, step-by-step, Satterfield provides ideas and templates for a series of emails to follow up with the prospect and build a relationship, and detailed guides to creating low-cost pay-per-click advertising campaigns in Google, Bing, Facebook and LinkedIn, plus how to set up and use Google Adwords and Google Keyword Planner.

Once you have created your magnet system, says Satterfield, you can move onto "strategic market boosts". He suggests blogging, video marketing, publicity and joint ventures with complementary businesses.

Gentle Rain drinks its "own Kool-Aid", says Satterfield; its marketing using this system. You can opt in to various free offers on Gentle Rain's website and it will run adverts on Google, Facebook and LinkedIn to the landing-page offer and blogs twice a week.

The system is straightforward and the book well laid out but, ultimately, the task feels daunting – especially the initial niche and free offer creation.

Can all of these tasks really be accomplished in a week? "They sure can," insists Satterfield, "but don't feel that you must complete each step in a single day. Work at your own pace. 

"Like swimming, though, you can't just read about marketing. It doesn't really do you any good until you actually jump into the pool."

 

The One Week Marketing Plan: The Set It & Forget It Approach for Quickly Growing Your Business is available in paperback from BenBella Books and costs US$16.33 from Barnes & Noble or $16.08 from Amazon.com