21st Century Marketing: What it is, Why it Matters and How to Do it by Chris Kent

21st Century Marketing: What it is, Why it Matters and How to Do it by Chris Kent

21st Century Marketing: What it is, why it matters and how to do it is a comprehensive full colour guide to the 21st Century Marketing System. It takes you through the entire process step-by-step and show you precisely how to create your own 21st Century Marketing Blueprint specifically tailored to your exact business needs.

It's been over two years in development and is based on solving a real problem experienced by real entrepreneurs and small business owners on a daily basis. During my research a common complaint was best articulated by one business owner in Jersey who said:

It's a real jungle out there and it's all so complex - what with digital marketing, social media and everything else. Plus there are so many self-proclaimed experts talking about so many different things it's impossible to know who to trust and where to start. Marketing generally is just so confusing these days it's a real nightmare for people like me.

The 21st Century Marketing System offers a simple solution to a complex problem. This book is your map of the modern marketing jungle, drawn by an expert who's fought their way through the highs and lows of the modern marketing landscape and cut a path for you to follow. A well experience and highly qualified professional you can trust - and someone who actually 'walks their talk'.

This is the first book in the 21st Century Marketing series, its purpose is to give you a solid foundation in modern marketing - and a fighting chance It covers a number of key business and marketing concepts and you'll come away with a good understanding of the modern marketing landscape.

You'll also discover exactly what you need to do to increase your sales, attract your ideal customers, and generate that all important words-of-mouth to get ahead of the game and put your business firmly on the map

In my early twenties, I began my first business, but within a few years, I'd screwed up, gone bankrupt, and buried myself beneath a pile of debt. I'd 'lost my shirt,' had become a start-up failure statistic, and was on first-name terms with a local bankruptcy lawyer by the age of 26. I suppose that's where the story begins... The Most Important Takeaway Having a fantastic product was only one half of the puzzle. I discovered the hard way that marketing is significantly more important - and that it is a skill I needed to learn before trying again.

To perfect my marketing talents, I studied every marketing book I could get my hands on, went to every seminar my credit card would allow, and worked nonstop. It was fantastic. That became become a hobby for me. It was all I could think about!

Some were successful, while others failed miserably! At least, that is, until the Internet arrived and began to turn the commercial world upside down. Expensive Frustration I struggled for years with the flurry of new innovations, trying to figure out how everything fit together. Not to mention blowing a hole in my wallet by attending weekend seminars led by self-proclaimed gurus touting the latest Internet trend.

The digital snake oil salesman left me dissatisfied, perplexed, in debt, and with hundreds of hours of DVDs to go through in search of a single nugget of information I might apply to my next business venture. The stress of living life in the fast lane eventually caught up with me, and I was diagnosed with a major cardiac problem. That halted me in my tracks, and my doctors insisted that I cease working and rest! I started to grasp the logic behind what I'd been doing for so long, but the larger digital picture escaped me.

That is, until I enrolled at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2012 for a Master's Degree in Digital Marketing. During my final year, the fog began to lift and everything became evident. The impact of the digital marketing skills gap on small business owners was the focus of my research dissertation, and boy, was it eye-opening! The Next Chapter After graduating in 2015, I decided to help other entrepreneurs and small business owners navigate the new marketing landscape rather than drown in a sea of social media and digital information overload.

Every entrepreneur I spoke with throughout my research said that knowing how current marketing works before starting their business would have made their lives so much easier! A New Mission In August 2017, I published my first book, 21st Century Marketing: What it Is, Why It Matters, and How to Do It, based on my study. My current goal is to assist any interested entrepreneur or small business owner in establishing a solid foundation in modern marketing before they make the same mistakes I did when I initially started. If you want to cut through the noise and have your voice heard in a 24/7 connected world controlled by technology, social media, and 'digital everything,' you must put marketing at the very center of your business.

And it isn't easy!