If you deliver a really terrible customer experience, one of the worst things you could do is get good at sales and marketing…
The end result is that you’ll just develop a bad reputation and blow up everything faster. Often before you have any time to turn around your customer experience.
This is one of the big reasons I CONSTANTLY emphasize delivering great value to clients and customers. Making sure that when you promise to solve a problem, you can actually do so. And that you conduct your business in an honest and ethical manner.
Because without delivering a great customer experience, you only accelerate your time until you’ll be found out and exposed.
The following is a great example of a PR campaign that was good in theory, but ultimately was a big fail…
Because I write these daily articles and create YouTube videos about marketing, advertising, and business, I get a lot of requests.
Most, I ignore. Especially the ones that are, “Hey, would you link to our site or share our article about…”
Even for the ones that are relevant, I don’t do that.
Yes, I link to things all the time. Things I found on my own. Sources I trust and found valuable. Outside projects or pieces of content I was involved with in some way.
But Breakthrough Marketing Secrets is primarily MY VOICE, sharing things that I find valuable (and that I think you’ll find valuable, too, if you find my work valuable).
(I even get people who are offering to pay me to publish their article on my site — that always gets a no from me, too!)
Recently, I’ve gotten a handful of book review requests.
They offer to send me the book for free, in exchange for a review.
Some, I’ve turned down directly.
Others, I’ve accepted and given an honest review.
For example, I gave a rather mixed review to The 1-Page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib.
But I gave a great review to The Heart to Start by David Kadavy.
Both, by my opinion, deserved what they got.
If I’m going to review your book, I’m going to be honest…
I try to avoid accepting any book I’ll give a terrible review to. Because to me, that’s a waste of my time and effort spent reviewing the book and putting together my article or video. And, your time, as a reader.
I absolutely didn’t think that would be an issue when I was asked to review the 2020 edition of The Complete Guide to Facebook Advertising, by Brian Meert.
I’m actively involved with Facebook Advertising.
I’ve bought and read other books on the topic.
This one was well-branded, generally well-reviewed, was the latest in a multi-year series of updated annual editions, from someone who seemed to have some credentials on Facebook Advertising.
I thought that at nearly $40, it was potentially overpriced — but I do know that one good idea for paid advertising can be a worth a fortune, so $40 for that could also be an absolute bargain.
All that to say, when I got the following email, I was happy to oblige…
—
Hi Guys,
I’m working with Brian Meert, CEO of Hollywood’s top digital advertising agency AdvertiseMint, specializing in Facebook and Instagram advertising. Brian’s best selling book, THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO FACEBOOK ADVERTISING 2020 has become THE definitive guide. This book brings a fast-paced and simple learning approach to digital marketers looking to learn more about social advertising. Brian is a Facebook expert and is a brilliant source for news soundbites as the network continues to be part of our social, political, personal, and professional lives.
I would love to send you a copy for review.
REAL BOOK REVIEWS: “This is the book to get, folks. Not only does it dive deep into how Facebook advertising works, but it also breaks down all the targeting and analytics in a very easy-to-follow format. There’s so much useful information that is easy to understand.”
I’m looking forward to hearing from you.
[SIGNATURE]
—
I’ll note: this email seemed to come from someone who maybe is involved with PR for the book, not Brian himself.
Sounds great, right? Well with what came next, the review almost didn’t happen…
I replied, “Can you send me a digital version of the book in both audiobook and ebook format?”
I just wanted to take action.
Other book review requests are pretty much, “Would you like to review this book?” “Sure.” “Okay, here it is.”
So at this point we’re two emails in, and on step two. Sounds good. I expected a link or some other instructions to get the book next.
But what followed was a whole pile of failure. 10 more emails back and forth before I explicitly stated…
—
“This has been an overly-complex process with too much back-and-forth. Other book review requests are pretty much, ‘Would you like to review this book?’ ‘Sure.’ ‘Okay, here it is.’ We’re up to 13 emails and we’re only on step 2. I’m happy to review, but I want to get on with it and not waste time or energy.”
—
Not trying to be a jerk, but if you want me to do you a favor and review your stuff, don’t waste my time!
I was losing hope…
I find competent people surround themselves with other competent people. And the opposite is true as well.
But the next email I got back had a code to actually go buy the book on Amazon. Instead of sending me the digital copy like I requested, they actually sent me an Amazon gift card for the $40 to buy the book.
I thought it was strange.
But, whatever.
I bought the book.
I even sent a screenshot of my receipt (not requested) to confirm I was moving forward.
When I finally looked at the book, it got worse…
If this book is $40, I’m going to assume it has some high-level content in it.
Principles and strategies for effective Facebook Advertising. Not just techniques and tactics, and an overview of the technology.
But without any real warm-up, the book basically dove into every little thing you see on the screen, when you setup your Facebook ads.
It was like it was just copied and pasted from the Facebook Advertising help section, and edited slightly to be in a different voice.
It was terrible.
It’s maybe a technical manual. NOT a complete guide, or definitive source.
It doesn’t really offer anything new beyond what you get by browsing help on the Facebook website.
It has NO perspective, NO strategy, NO principles.
It’s all about WHAT is there, not WHY you want or need any of it, or HOW to use it effectively.
To make matters worse, it’s formatted terribly for Kindle…
I was reading in the Kindle app on my phone. But despite it being a “Kindle” book, it looks more like a PDF. With each page treated like a separate chapter. So you can’t browse it. You can’t skip around easily. You can’t navigate at all.
Which makes even using it as a reference book far more difficult than a Google search.
In the end, I decided it was basically unreadable, and not worth my time, effort, or energy to finish in order to review the actual contents.
I did dig back into the Amazon reviews…
Because I was curious about the good reviews.
Turns out they consistently come in waves, right around the release of the new editions.
They do mostly say they’re from verified customers. But because they bought the book for me, Amazon would consider me a verified customer, too.
And when I look closely at the worst reviews, they mirror my experience.
When I look at the best reviews, I’m not convinced. They seem to have been bought. Full of superlatives. Lacking much detail. And the writing screams “copywriter” to me, but not in a good way.
Somebody might get value out of this book, but not me…
Maybe this is a decent book on Facebook Advertising.
Not for me, though.
Everything about it — and the process of being solicited to give a review — has totally turned me off to it.
In the course of those 10 emails back and forth, I did tell them I’d give an honest review, and promised to link to the book.
So the above is my honest review and experience.
Here’s the link to the book that I promised the PR person: The Complete Guide to Facebook Advertising (2020 Edition) by Brian Meert.
But if you’re looking for a much better book on Facebook Advertising, I’d recommend Perry Marshall and Keith Krance’s book, The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising (Third Edition).
At this point, it is a couple years old. And some of the tactical, technical details have gone out of date. But the fundamental principles and strategies are there, they’re central, and they’re far more useful. You can always get the latest on the technical details from Facebook’s help site.
Your biggest lesson here…
… Isn’t really about Facebook Advertising.
Before you hire a PR agency to go out and promote your stuff, make sure it’s really good, first.
If you want reviews, don’t use them to fake sales stats on Amazon.
Put your effort into delivering high value.
Everything else will follow.
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
