Daniel J. Lewis

Internet entrepreneur, award-winning podcaster, podcast consultant, keynote speaker

Review of Scott Stratten’s Book, UnMarketing

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[easyazon_image align=”right” cart=”y” identifier=”1118176286″ locale=”US” src=”https://danieljlewis.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/UnMarketing-by-Scott-Stratten.jpg” tag=”danieljewls-20″ width=”200″]Business-owners and content-creators need marketing, at least until that can be delegated to someone else. Scott Stratten's book, [easyazon_link identifier=”1118176286″ locale=”US” tag=”danieljewls-20″ cart=”y”]UnMarketing[/easyazon_link], is a concise reference for modern marketing as well as a challenge to overhyped ideas.

[easyazon_link identifier=”1118176286″ locale=”US” tag=”danieljewls-20″ cart=”y”]UnMarketing[/easyazon_link] may not be your most marked-up book. There aren't amazing quotations on every page. But it does contain page after page of actionable advice, case studies, and inspiration to help anyone who needs to “Stop Marketing. Start Engaging.” (That's the book's subtitle.)

I've seen Scott Stratten speak a couple times before and I greatly enjoy his style. He's straightforward, honest, and filled with insight. But he never takes himself too seriously and his presentations are always fun.

Stratten's writing style is no different. It's both authoritative and entertaining. You'll get great marketing information as well as plenty of laughs, especially from the footnotes. Of course, a book called “UnMarketing” would be a very different approach from most dry marketing books!

While reading [easyazon_link identifier=”1118176286″ locale=”US” tag=”danieljewls-20″ cart=”y”]UnMarketing[/easyazon_link], I didn't highlight a lot of things Scott Stratten said, but I did find plenty of new inspiration and ideas I can apply in marketing my own business and content.

Scott Stratten is good at representing common human feelings about marketing and customer service. With that understanding, he's able to present marketing ideas that will truly connect with other people. Some of the ideas seem so obvious that I would think, “Of course that would work!” But most of us have our heads so buried in our work that we miss these obvious opportunities to stand out.

“UnMarketing” is the perfect title. It's like zombies who move like they're alive, but behave like they're dead. That's why we call them “undead.” Stratton's work is the same. It's about marketing, but it's about not marketing. It's really a book secretly about amazing customer service and relationships disguised as a book with “marketing” in the title.

I read UnMarketing within a week and have plenty of ideas to last for years. My favorite chapters were “Hierarchy of Buying,” “Pull and Stay,” and especially “Viral Marketing.” These chapters do have highlights in my copy!

Inside, you'll learn about engaging online and offline; in-person and over the Internet; and attending events and hosting your own events.

I highly recommend [easyazon_link identifier=”1118176286″ locale=”US” tag=”danieljewls-20″ cart=”y”]UnMarketing, by Scott Stratten[/easyazon_link]. I suggest you read it straight through, and then re-read the chapters that inspired you the most. Most of the chapters are short enough to read in only a few minutes. Scott clearly knew UnMarketing would be a great reference book, too, because he includes a helpful index in the back.

This isn't the “SELL SELL SELL” kind of overhyped marketing. It's practical, effective, and engaging.[easyazon_link identifier=”1118176286″ locale=”US” tag=”danieljewls-20″ cart=”y”]Get your own copy of UnMarketing[/easyazon_link] and tell me the biggest insights you gained!

What I Need in a CRM

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My podcasting business and responsibilities have grown enough that I realize I need a customer relationship management (CRM) system.

That feels a little too corporate to me. It's like I'm becoming a robot without a personality. But I'm very quickly overwhelmed with the requests for my attention and this is a way out of that. I really want to be accessible and spend time fully responding to every message, but I can't respond to everything for free, or else I would be a bad steward of my time and my responsibility to provide for my family.

A big source of such stress comes from my multiple inboxes. Requests for consulting, questions about products and services, questions about podcasting, feedback for my podcasts, and more. I can't handle it all, so that's where a CRM can help me and my assistants tag, organize, prioritize, and respond to each important message I receive.

My search for the right CRM has been frustrating. Thus, I invite your suggestions—whether you're a user or employee of a CRM provider.

Here's what I need in a CRM.

Integrate with/take over email accounts (potentially Gmail)

All of my email addresses are merely aliases that forward to a single Gmail account. These messages do receive some automated filtering and tagging within Gmail. Then, I can send from any these aliases.

I need a CRM to take over these email accounts for future conversations, plus integrate with previous conversations I've already had.

Allow collaboration

Many messages that I receive can be answered quickly by pointing to my large catalog of content I've already created. Thus, I would prefer an assistant to have the first view of incoming messages to particular addresses. That assistant could then reply on my behalf, or tag important messages for me to either address personally or consider for creating further content on my site.

Integrate with MailChimp

I use MailChimp as my email service provider. With any CRM, I need it to integrate with MailChimp to at least let me know whether the person I'm emailing is already on my list (and what group/segment they're in). It would be extra nice if I could easily add them to a list and group from the CRM.

Integrate with social

I want the CRM to show me the person's Twitter, Facebook, and other social accounts, plus maybe even their bios and latest messages from such accounts. Then, show me whether I'm already connected with that person and let me choose to connect with them right from the CRM.

So far, so good, right? The following is where most CRMs begin to fail.

Integration with WooCommerce and an API

I use WooCommerce for selling on The Audacity to Podcast™ as well as Podcasters' Society™. The ideal CRM would show me what products, memberships, or services a person has purchased from me. There would also need to be an API for connecting with my proprietary system in My Podcast Reviews.

Social lead generation

An important part of my business is monitoring relevant conversations on social networks. I have saved Twitter searches that help me find podcasters who need podcasting help or should use My Podcast Reviews™. If possible, I would also like to monitor Facebook groups, Google+ communities, subreddits, Quora, and such (goodbye, most popular CRMs).

Let's take Twitter for example. When I see a tweet matching my detailed search query, I need to immediately see whether I have ever tweeted that person before and whether they're already a customer (through integration with WooCommerce and My Podcast Reviews). Then, give me and my assistants the ability to respond and let me see that it was responded to and who did it. Afterward, that account would be marked as having already received a response from me at some point.

Plus, such searches and responses would be different for different social accounts. Thus, the CRM would need to support multiple social accounts (there goes Nimble, if I didn't already disqualify it).

Template responses

For email and social, I need to have multiple templates my assistants can use to respond. Such templates would be great if they were intelligent enough to prefill with the recipient's name. I know TextExpander can do that, but that means extra software.

iOS app

A mobile-friendly website is nice, but it would be best if the CRM is available as a standalone mobile app that provides all the functionality on mobile.

A single platform

I'm not interested in paying for and managing several different platforms to each do separate things. I want a single place to login and have the tools I need.

Simple

I don't want to spend days learning how to use a complicated CRM, and it would defeat the purpose for me to hire someone only to manage my CRM. Thus, the CRM must be simple enough that I can get working with its workflow on the same day I sign up.

Affordable

I'm willing to pay for this solution because I recognize the value in the time and frustration it will save. But to me, “affordable,” means under $100/month for two or three users.

Got suggestions?

I may update this post with additional needs. Is there any CRM that meets all these needs?

I've looked at Nimble, Insightly, Contactly, FullContact, HootSuite, Zoho CRM, Apptivo, Nutshell, PipelineDeals, Salesforce.com, and OnePageCRM. They all fall short in crucial areas (usually the social integration). I'll also be looking at others. But I'm starting to lose hope.

What do you suggest, based on my needs?

Review of Jeff Walker’s Launch book and Product Launch Formula

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If you make any kind of product, I highly recommend Jeff Walker's book [bl id=”1443″]Launch: An Internet Millionaire's Secret Formula To Sell Almost Anything Online, Build A Business You Love, And Live The Life Of Your Dreams[/bl]. This guides you through his perfected Product Launch Formula® to launch products well.

I'm in the information business. I create training products, one-on-one consulting, group courses, and software services for podcasters. Ray Edwards highly recommended [bl id=”1443″]Launch[/bl], and I knew that I wanted to launch products better. So I purchased the book and read it in a couple weeks.

Jeff Walker's story is amazing—almost too amazing to believe. But like everyone else, Jeff started with little or no influence. His Product Launch Formula has helped others launch more than $500 million in sales, and he has made millions off his own product launches following the formula he figured out.

This is not magic, luck, or “get rich quick” fluff. I'm very alert to that kind of stuff and I strongly avoid it. (Sometimes, I think I resist it so much that I also resist legitimate, proven marketing strategies, to my own hurt.) [bl id=”1443″]Launch[/bl] contains stories of people who got their start with a meager $1,600 product launch all the way up to more than a million dollars in a launch.

The first thing you have to know is that influence is the most important factor. Influence is divided into two sides: how many people you reach and how well you can inspire them to take action.

Yes, product launch successes rely heavily on numbers. But before you have a massive following, you have to start your momentum somewhere. We all started with zero!

Jeff Walker's Product Launch Formula, as presented in his [bl id=”1443″]Launch book[/bl], is simple and effective.

  1. Build an email list. Offer an incentive like a free report, ebook, video, or autoresponder series. I recommend Aweber or MailChimp for email lists.
  2. Provide valuable content before your launch. In a series of emails, address both a problem and its solution. Each “prelaunch content” is an opportunity to build trust, authority, anticipation, reciprocity, and other “social triggers” (I'll mention in a moment).
  3. Launch with urgency and bonuses. After building up enthusiasm for your product, launch it with extras that early buyers can appreciate, and make the launch offer expire at some point.

That's my quick summary of Jeff's Product Launch Formula. It makes total sense and I think presents more value and builds better relationships that simply launching and announcing a product's availability.

This all works because of “social triggers.” These are psychological things that inspire us to take action on something. Jeff covers several in Launch, and several more in his Product Launch Formula course . Here are just a few to give you the idea.

  • Trust—By creating valuable content that isn't focused on selling something, your audience will begin to trust you.
  • Authority—When you consistently create content that is accurate and helpful, you become respected as an authority and influencer on the subject.
  • Reciprocity—Following the Product Launch Formula, you're giving away great information for free. If that content helps or entertains your audience, they'll feel more like reciprocating when they have an opportunity.

Jeff discusses many more, and the relationships between each of them, in his book [bl id=”1443″]Launch[/bl].

I know a big object you may raise, and I did, too, “He has this success because he has a big email list already.” It's certainly true that the larger your following, the more leverage you have for bigger action and thus more profitable launches. But Jeff Walker's Launch book and Product Launch Formula course also explain the idea of a “Seed Launch”—launching something with no list and not even a product!

  1. Build an email list, even if it's tiny. I recommend Aweber or MailChimp.
  2. Ask your list what they want to know about the subject your product will address.
  3. Answer their questions in a series of messages.
  4. Expand on the answers to develop the product.
  5. Launch!

It's brilliant! You're taking your current knowledge, discovering the needs and wants of your audience, finding ways to meet those needs and wants, and then providing the solution in a relevant product you can launch to an audience that already needs and wants it.

Each chapter of [bl id=”1443″]Launch[/bl] starts with a story of someone's launch. These stories are inspiring and relatable. There are stories of people with barely any money but a great idea, people launching new businesses, and already-successful people expanding their reach with something new.

I have plenty of highlights of actionable items, powerful paradigm shifts, and effective reminders throughout my copy of [bl id=”1443″]Launch[/bl]. I plan to use this formula for my upcoming podcasting products and services.

Jeff Walker's Product Launch Formula isn't just about dollars, either. It's about building momentum that will lead you from success to success. Yes, you'll have failures, as Jeff has, too. But failures are easier to overcome when you already have momentum—even from small successes.

I think that Product Launch Formula can work even outside the world of launching products. You could easily use the same strategies to launch a podcast, a conference, a community group, a fundraiser, a new blog or website, and more.

I highly recommend Jeff Walker's [bl id=”1443″]Launch book[/bl] and, by extension, his Product Launch Formula course.

Did you read [bl id=”1443″]Launch[/bl]? What did you think and how are you planning to implement the strategies?