Book Review - The New Rules of Marketing and PR

Here’s a “must read” book that in my opinion, does a great job of presenting how the web has changed things in a big way for us marketers. The full title is The New Rules of Marketing and PR, How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly.

The author, David Meerman Scott, is a well qualified authority and internet veteran having launched a marketing strategy with online content to reach buyers directly on the web way back in the early ’90s. He’s spent the last 18 years or so speaking and consulting with corporations on how to use web content to sell products and services. This book evolved out of David’s vast blog experience and an ebook he published called The New Rules of PR. After more than 200,000 downloads, David decided he had a hot topic on his hands so he went full bore into writing a hard cover. He broadened the subject matter to address marketing as well.

So here’s the essence of David’s insight…

The Internet has not only changed the way people communicate and interact with each other, it has also changed the way businesses can and should communicate with their customers and prospects. We all remember the old days when companies could only communicate indirectly through pricey mass advertising and press releases. The internet has changed all that because now a business can speak directly to and build closer relationships with customers and buyers.

Niche buyers can also be reached more selectively with targeted messages that cost a fraction of the traditional big-budget ad campaign. So rather than bombard them with advertising they’ll likely ignore, David advocates the internet allows a business to focus on getting the right message to the right people at the right time. And when people visit a company’s Web site, he says they aren’t there to get more ad fluff. They want value, information, interaction, and choice. As the book cover overleaf states:

“This one-of-a-kind guide to the future of marketing includes a step-by-step action plan for harnessing the power of the Internet, showing you how to identify audiences, create compelling messages, get those messages to the right people, and lead those consumers into the buying process.”

To top it all off he also includes some great case studies to prove his points.

In a separate presentation David made he summed up the old rules and the new rules of marketing like this:

The New Rules of Marketing™