Book Review: Inbound Marketing

With the Holiday season in full swing, there's always the question of both what to get others and what to tell people who ask what you would like as a gift.  As an entrepreneur, there's always plenty of things to hope for your business that unfortunately can't be conveniently wrapped and delivered to you. Fortunately, there are books.  These hand held items are packed full of knowledge that can help make some of those dreams about your business come true.  Over the next few weeks, we'll be covering some books we believe make a great gift for you or the other entrepreneurs in your life.  

Today's Book: Inbound Marketing by Dharmesh Shah & Brian Halligan

Have you ever read a book that was so good that you didn't want to share it?  Reading this book is like being a Patriots equipment manager and seeing a Jets player left their playbook in the visitors locker room the day before the game.  Dharmesh and Brian open up their playbook to share with the rest of us how they did it and how we can too in their book, Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs.

Most business books follow the same formula: create rule, add a few supporting anecdotes, sprinkle in some humor or wit and repeat for 10-20 chapters.  Fortunately for us, Brian and Dharmesh took a different approach.  This book is literally a 16 chapter guide for creating your online marketing plan for your business and executing it.  They are clear and explicit in walking you through all the steps, from convincing you why it matters to monitoring your progress and your competition.  

The biggest value in this book is its simplicity and clarity; they hide nothing and share everything. Each chapter tells you exactly what they're about, from "Getting Found in Google" to the "Convert Leads to Customers." You know what you're getting with each chapter.

Now, you may say that you already know Social Media and you're on Twitter, Facebook and all of that. Inbound Marketing is still for you; this book has value for everyone across the spectrum of social media. If you've never used social media for your business, then this is a great place to start, and if you're already using social media then this book is a great check-up to make sure you're taking advantage of everything. 

Few books pack as much value and as many real world takeaways as Inbound Marketing  does. Buy one for a friend who's an entrepreneur and grab a copy for yourself. It's a gift that will pay for itself many times over when applied to your business and beats another Starbucks gift card by a mile.