Bottom Line: This book is a "recipe" or a roadmap for business leaders who want a strong digital marketing strategy/ team, not step-by-step instructions for carrying out different digital marketing tasks. If you understand what this book covers and what it doesn't before you read it, you're going to love it. If you go into it thinking you're going to learn how to build a website, blog, or manage your social media on your own, you won't get what you want out of it.

It's a quick read - I finished it in a couple of days. You're probably going to want to read it cover-to-cover, then go back to the different sections as you're getting ready to implement things/ fill different roles.

Longer Version:
If you're a business owner or leader who is just getting started with marketing, have hit the wall on what you can do for yourself, or aren't getting return from marketing, this book is your new BFF. I've read a ton of marketing books and most are either very complicated or miss stuff. This takes a different approach.

With the author's "recipe," the business owner isn't responsible for carrying out all the tasks. You can't, and shouldn't, do it all. Unless you're an expert in all areas of digital marketing (and who is?!?), you're not going to get returns. That approach is also not scalable. You only have so many hours in the day. So, his approach is to put an expert in each role. That may sound scary if you're worried about budgets, but the book also addresses this. You learn which types of digital marketing to set up first and who to hire first, so you start to see revenue from that and can roll it into your future efforts. You also learn how to find good people, what they need to be successful, and how to make sure they're producing results for you.

In this sense, it's also very different from other marketing books. Most are very process-oriented. It's nice to know how to do things, but as a business owner, you don't actually need to know the nuances. For example, if you're not a website designer, you shouldn't be building your own website and you don't need to know how to code or set up a page to increase conversions. You need to know how to choose a great designer and oversee their work or select someone to oversee their work. That's how you get a website that actually grows your business and how you build a scalable digital marketing program. You should be focusing on your business and letting the pros do what they do best.

I especially like that, in addition to covering the roles and tasks, the book gets into some of the tools you need, like project management software and content calendars. That makes it a bit easier to envision what your full setup will look like when you're up and running and what else you'll need to do along the way.

The one thing I think might be an issue for some people is that the book picks apart why full-service digital marketing agencies miss the mark. The premise is that no one person is an expert in everything (a theme you'll hear throughout the book) and that agency owners are not immune. Ergo, if you hire an agency, you're usually either getting someone who thinks they are an expert in everything when they really aren't (which hurts your results) or they're smart enough to know that they aren't and they outsource it (which you could be doing yourself to reduce cost and ensure initiatives align with your goals). I know lots of agency people and this is spot on. I'm not anti-agency (and the author doesn't seem to be either), but you really do have to get to know who you're hiring and have a very deep relationship with that person if you go that route.

Overall, I think this brings a unique perspective into the mix and I found it quite insightful. For what it's worth, I got my copy free as part of a social media contest but I still would have appreciated it even if I had to pay for it. I'll be referring back to it for some time to come.