Smarter, Faster, Cheaper: Non-Boring, Fluff-Free Strategies for Marketing and Promoting Your Business [Hardcover]

Ok, so there are a ton of books popping up out there on content and customer engagement, but David Garland takes it to the next level in this easy to read (and understand) fun and valuable book.

Mixing a bevy of concrete examples ranging from Gary Vaynerchuk to Patti Stanger (The Millionaire Matchmaker), this book perfectly taps the humanization of brands trends by breaking down what works, what doesn't and how you can implement strategies "smarter, faster and cheaper". He shuns the "old school" mentalities in regards to marketing and makes a solid case for using content, relationships and expert status to get consumers to know, like and trust you/your company.

Here are some particular takeaways that I found helpful:

-The breakdown that the Internet is made up of just three things- content, people and products and how to make the most of that formula.

-Using Interviews to Establish Relationships: As David notes, interviewing can be an amazing relationship builder, as it forges a more meaningful connection between you and the person you are interviewing. David uses his own example of The Rise to the Top and how he used authenticity and a local approach to start and get more referrals and step up to the big names.

-Using a collaborative approach: The book explains nicely how the business mindset has recently changed. Before, the common thought was that if a business was directly competing with you or targeting the same group of customers as you, they were viewed as an enemy. Now, there is a lot of power in teaming up with competitors and viewing them as an ally. You both gain from the relationship, building together to reach a bigger audience.

The Importance of Content: In this social media era that we now live in, creating content on both your own sites, as well as on other sites, is key to marketing your brand. He offers great tips about making your content unique, authentic and distinctively recognizable as your own- a marketing avenue that small businesses have a big advantage over bigger businesses in. Good content will spread, which is an important step in becoming the person/company that consumers "know, like and trust".

A strong marketing reference for the new media age.

David Garland has built a very successful business by using all of the new tools available to all of us. And in the process he has interviewed many of the top thinkers and doers in business today.
This combination of what has worked for him personally combined with the lessons learned by asking (and listening) to what has worked for others is what makes his new book so great.

Smarter, Faster, Cheaper - Non-Boring, Fluff-Free Strategies for Marketing and Promoting Your Business is a savvy and quick read (As most business books should be). As David points out early on, his goal is not to tell you what to do. Instead, by giving you a set of well articulated ideas of what has worked for him and others, he hopes to spark the ideas that will allow you to connect the new tools of social media, branding and PR to the goals of their business.

Now, there are a lot of books by various "experts" on social media,etc... What I liked most about the book was the way the material was presented. Think no-nonsense conversational style vs. complex schemes and formulas.

I also appreciated his focus on the need for every business to first figure out their passion and personality. The forgotten reality that business is and always will be human. Too many businesses want to skip over this critical step and then wonder why their non-human attempts to engage through new media are not successful. If you are willing to let out the personality and humanity of your business then the tools and ideas David explains will prove very valuable.

The book covers video, marketing, community building, web site strategy and, I thought, a particular useful section on a better way to attack PR.

I was fortunate to receive an early copy because David was generous enough to host me on one of his popular webcast interviews. If the book does nothing else but turn you on to the great conversations he consistently hosts on his site it was well worth the price.

I had the pleasure of meeting David at one of his "Rise" Entrepreneurial lunches up in St. Louis and I'm here to say that HE IS LEGIT. I was so pumped to meet him, that I filmed my own thoughts on what it takes to become an entrepreneur.....while I was driving. Kids, don't try that at home. This guy is a firecracker and he knows his stuff.

I was smart and pre-ordered my copy and got it just in time to read it over the Thanksgiving weekend. Let me tell you, this book is IT. For any inspiring small business owner with an entrepreneur bug, this book is for you. David shares many great examples of every day folks that were able to follow their passion, do what they love AND make money doing it.

If you are a dinosaur and want to continue to do things dumber, slower and more expensive, DO NOT buy this book. Keeping pumping dollars into your newspaper ads and billboards. If you are a "scrappy entrepreneur" (as David would say) that has an interest in social media and wants to be inspired by other entrepreneurs that HAVE done it, then add this to your bookshelf today.