Marketing Made Simple

A Step-by-Step StoryBrand Guide for Any Business

By: Donald Miller, Dr. J.J. Peterson

Narrated by: Donald Miller, Dr. J.J. Peterson

Length: 4 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

This guide from New York Times best-selling author Donald Miller is a must-have for any marketing professional or small business owner who wants grow their business. It will teach you how to create and implement a sales funnel that will increase traffic and drive sales.

Every day, your company is losing sales simply because you do not have a clear path to attract new customers. You’re not alone. 

Based on proven principles from Building a StoryBrand , this five-part checklist is the ultimate resource for marketing professionals and business owners as they cultivate a sales funnel that flows across key customer touchpoints to effectively develop, strengthen, and communicate their brand’s story to the marketplace. In this book, you will learn:

• The three stages of customer relationships
• How to create and implement the one marketing plan you will never regret
• How to develop a sales funnel that attracts the right customers to your business
• The power of email and how to create campaigns that result in customer traffic and a growth in brand awareness
• The keys to wireframing a website that commands attention and generates conversions

The inability to attract and convert new customers is costing business owners valuable opportunities to grow their brand. This prevents companies, both big and small, from making the sales that are crucial to their survival. With Marketing Made Simple, you will learn everything you need to know to take your business to the next level.

©2020 Donald Miller (P)2020 HarperCollins Leadership

Critic reviews

"'Just heard from one of my clients that she's getting 18 ideal client leads a day from her website. Before we redid her wireframe, she averaged around 1-3 leads a week. And that's just with updating her website." (Amy Schutte, owner of Hudson and Co LLC)

"My last email campaign I delivered raised $20k. Thank you Donald Miller for giving me a system that I know works." (Ian Stewart, owner/creative director of Root Source Digital)

STORYBRAND

This whole book is about Donald promoting his brand - STORYBRAND, if you would like to pay for ads... This book is for you.

Loved this book

I’m a huge fan of Donald Miller / Storybrand and this book did not disappoint. I’ve read Storybrand multiple times, did the Business Made Simple online course, and listened to all of the Storybrand podcasts and was unsure if this book would really have anything new to say but it was once again filled with valuable information that can be implemented easily (well depends on your skill level). These books and courses have literally changed my life as a web designer and SEO specialist. THANK YOU, DONALD AND THE STORYBRAND TEAM!!! 💕

To be or not to be the hero ?

Listening to this masterpiece of information “Marketing Made Simple”, I’ve realized I am not Frodo in the story. I am Gandalf the grey, helping Frodo save middle earth.

After a few days of reading, or should I saying listening, I have come to love marketing. I recently listened to the story brand audible, and it has skyrocketed my ideas for my screenplay as well.

Thank you Donald Miller, and J.J Peterson.

Don didn't disappoint!

Have been a fan of Don Miller for some time now through his podcasts, then the book Story Brand and his daily Business made simple videos. There wasn't a lot I could learn then what I had already through the above mentioned sources. However this was a good source on audio to get polished and reminded on his fundamentals. Follow Don Miller if you are running a business, small or a big one. Best Source to be always educated

Actually Works!

I've spent so much money on marketing & gotten nowhere over 6 years of hiring "experts", then used their framework verbatim and have a few qualified leads opting in to my funnel every day. I'm a big fan of Story brand and this takes that to another level. As they mention multiple times you should be successful IF you put action behind it. Takes a lot of time, but it's almost become a given that we generate leads from our website now, which NEVER happened before. I went from ~1 lead per quarter to ~2-4/day by following the PDF.

Marketing Made Simplistic

Problems:
* 1st 4 chapters were mostly a waste of time: they had basically 2 points: 1) you need to execute on the plan to benefit, and 2) OUR APPROACH IS AMAZING AND GUARANTEED TO WORK AND IT'S AMAZING. I kept waiting for the book to start...and then, when it did, he said Don't think about what You want to say. Think about what your Customer needs! Would be a better book if he followed his own advice and made every chapter focused on giving away useful info, not on self-promotion.
* The sub-title says this book is "for any business," but clearly it's only for the fraction of businesses that are 1) centered on a website and 2) a good fit for email campaigns, which most of his suggestions center on. To some extent it also assumes that you'll be okay with being a bit sleazy and manipulative, e.g., insulting your potential customer if they close your pop-up ad. Yuck. If all those fit you, skip the first 4 or 5 chapters and dig in.

Benefits, for me anyway:
* Know that when people first open your web site, they skim quickly, so show them what they need to see--FAST. (He actually said scan, which means the opposite, but clearly he meant skim). It's a small point, but important.
* Some other tidbits about making websites customer-friendly.

I've read several books on marketing and SEO. This wasn't a complete waste of time--so 2 stars rather than 1--but it was the worst of the ones I've read.

Boring narration

Voice sleepy . Context nothing new . Waste of money and time for me
It’s a sleeper

Love it from beginning to end

Not just an audio book but a business success manual, so much practical advice you won’t regret it.

All Solid Content! No filler. Loved it!

I really enjoyed Building a StoryBrand, and I enjoyed this book just as much. This book gives the foundations of what all your businesses marketing should be aimed at, what language you should use and how to frame it. It doesn’t give advanced copywriting techniques nor does it tell you exactly what to say but it DOES put you on the exact path you should be on. They follow their own advice and give you simple concise instructions to follow with clear language. I love these authors, their podcast, and I even bought their Business Made Simple University which goes into even more detail.

Simple, clear, effective marketing guide

As a small business owner (psychotherapist), I’m wary of marketing gurus but need guidance in how to get my message and services out to potential clients. I found Marketing Made Simple clear, inspiring, and do-able. I’ve already begun developing my marketing message and sales funnel and look forward to completing it within the next few weeks and putting it into action. Miller inspires confidence through competence, not hype. I can’t recommend this book highly enough for business owners like myself who’ve been confusing “marketing” with “branding” for too many years. Once I get my marketing plan in place, I’ll see if there’s a way to edit this recommendation and update readers with my results.

All you need for Marketing (seriously)

As a follow up to the StoryBrand, this book offers a ton of actionable advice (especially at the end).

If anyone were to ask me about starting a business I would strongly advice that they listen to this first (and StoryBrand) before wasting money of advertising. It provides exactly what it says in the tin.... marketing so simple your grandma could follow it.

Thank Donald and JJ... you guys are my saviour!

And I thought I knew it all...

Nothing short of brilliant. This book made me look at marketing in a different way. Now I'm re-doing my website, landing pages and I'm even changing the way I introduce myself! Love these guys, they have made my business fun again.

Simple and clear

Very well written and well structured story with simple and clear instructions on how to market your products or services.

Provided a Detailed Step by Step Guide

As the name suggests, Marketing Made Simple. This book provided a very detailed, step by step guide on how to market your product, teaches the framework, and even outlined the meetings you'll need to have to execute the plan.

Great framework

A great step by step framework that even if you only implemented 10% it will definitely help your business

Brilliant and easy book

Loved that the book was so straight to the point

Enjoyed q&a st the end. Would enjoy more of this with practical company before and afters as examples make it even easier to understand

so good i bought the paperback

fantastic listen. very informative and broke down marketing in to easy to follow steps.

Unbelievable value

A great step-by-step guide to setting up your website and also marketing list. It is 100% relevant to every business.

Good book on marketing, but maybe not for everyone

This was a good book on marketing but I dont think its suitable for everyone. It's well explained and everything is very simple as the title indicates. I think it's a good book for someone was no experience in marketing like myself. Not everything in the book is very relevant from my situation but even this that is the case I think he can learn something from the concepts an idea the ideas they present in the book. The accompanying pedius is excellent but they did of course their own marketing trick you had to fill in your email address but I think for the price of the book and the information you get it's definitely a good listen.

Wow..

Love it help me a lot..

Thank you so much for this.
Book, I will keep this one for awhile
Love the clarity