Episode 18: Douglas Burdett: Lessons from 200 Marketing Books
+ FollowWho couldn’t apply at least a few insights from 200 top marketing and sales books? In this episode of the Manage Your Message podcast, host Jim Karrh talks with Douglas Burdett, host of The Marketing Book Podcast. Douglas interviews an author of a marketing book each week—and reads the author’s book in full before each interview.
Douglas is a marketing expert in his own right. He had years of experience at a prominent New York advertising agency prior to founding Artillery, a firm that helps manufacturers grow their businesses with qualified leads.
As Jim admits early in the episode, he is like many listeners in that his appetite for books can surpass his capacity for reading. Douglas can help us all to “catch up” by discussing the most significant themes and lessons from his first 200 episodes.
The first theme Jim and Douglas discuss is how the most successful marketers have deep insight into clients. Douglas describes how companies such as Amazon succeed in large part because of their focus on the customer, recommending Think Like Amazon by John Rossman. He notes that marketers should understand that they are selling something deeper than a mere product (see Buyer Personas by Adele Revella), may be helped by trying to “nail a niche” (see From Impossible to Inevitable by Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin), and need both empathy and concentrated time with customers (see Roadmap to Revenue by Kristin Zhivago and Small Data by Martin Lindstrom).
The second theme that Jim and Douglas discuss is why the most effective marketing plans are surprisingly simple. They discuss the few basic strategic areas that marketing plans need to consider, such as target markets, product distinctness, and finances (see On Marketing Planning by Malcom McDonald and The 1-Page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib). They also discuss the importance of customer experience (see The Lost Art of Closing by Anthony Iannarino—who has also been a guest on The Manage Your Message Podcast—and What Customers Crave by Nicholas Webb).
A third theme is that the best marketers understand sales. Douglas notes how the line between marketing and sales has blurred, and how marketing now closely involves sales (see The Content Promotion Manifesto by Chad Pollitt, Aligned to Achieve by Tracy Eiler and Andrea Austin, and Unbranding by Scott and Alison Stratten).
Finally, Jim and Douglas discuss content as “the atomic particle of marketing” (see Content: The Atomic Particle of Marketing by Rebecca Lieb). Douglas notes that the place of advertising has changed, and that providing educational content is crucial in today’s market (see Your Ad Ignored Here by Tom Fishburne and They Ask You Answer by Marcus Sheridan). In closing the conversation, Douglas makes one last recommendation (Artificial Intelligence for Marketing by Jim Sterne), talks about alterations he has made at Artillery based upon what he continues to learn, and provides closing thoughts about people’s fear of change and the need to walk customers through the change that their purchases involve.
Additional Links
Learn more about The Marketing Book Podcast: https://www.artillerymarketing.com/marketing-book-podcast
Connect with Douglas Burdett on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarketingBook
Connect with Douglas on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglasburdett
Read the article Jim mentioned from the Harvard Business Review (July-August 2018 Issue):
“How CEOs Manage Time,” by Michael E. Porter and Nitin Nohria
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