Book Reviews We’re Thankful For

We hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving last week (for those of you in the US; I know we’ve got followers from all over the world!). It may be a bit belated, but we’d like to mention some of the bloggers and business owners we’re thankful for, because they’re helping spread the word about our book to other small business owners!

Seeing Eye-to-Eye with Small Business Owners

SCTimes highlighted Saint Cloud-based Adventure Advertising in this post. Adventure Advertising was the agency behind Northern Eye Center’s website, which was featured in our book. David Langton was interviewed about the eye center’s use of an “ad within an ad” concept, which we think is pretty darn neat.

 

Every Day Should Be Small Business Saturday

Dusty Bastian of As Mom Sees It brought up Small Business Saturday (go small biz!), and tied in the fact that small businesses need marketing advice! What was interesting about her book review was that she got the perspective on our book from a few different people:

Having shown this to both a business owner and a graphic designer, I was surprised how both saw benefits in the book, but from different points-of-view. In fact, I had to beg for the book back from the business owner, so I knew it had to be a keeper!

It’s important to us that designers see the value in the examples we provide, but also that small business owners get advice from the case studies in the book as well!

We’re Here to “Help!”

And we were so pleased that Anne Fisher over at Crain’s New York Business highlighted our contributor Help Remedies (whose products, by the way, we  just spotted in Walgreens!). I think Help Remedies’ minimalist design speaks to where design is headed (think: less is more), and small businesses certainly can get in on the trend.

I love what my co-author, David Langton, said for the interview: “Technology puts it within the reach of small businesses to use the kinds of visuals in our marketing that were previously cost-effective only for large corporations. Not only does the Internet make it convenient to find and hire design professionals, but online design tools make it easy to experiment with creating great visual elements on your own.”

Everybody’s Got a Favorite

What we noticed that with each review, the blogger or reviewer picked his own favorite from our book. What’s your favorite? Over on 800CEOREAD’s blog, GGRP’s amazing direct mail phonograph was featured. If you haven’t seen the video, check it out. It’s one you won’t forget.

We are humbled by the number of reviews we have had for the book, and are supremely happy that our book is resonating so well with small businesses! And we love the coverage our contributors are getting! Thanks to all of you!

What We Learn From Our Reviews

The reviews of Visual Marketing are starting to come in, and we’re really excited about what people have to say about the book. We thought we’d share what people are saying, as well as what we’ve learned from the first reviews.

Dainty Squid

Kaylah on The Dainty Squid (love the name) was inspired in what she found in our book (and for good reason! Our 99 case studies know their design). Thank you, Kaylah, for taking such beautiful photos of the book. They’re exactly in line with what we call VizThink (using visual imagery to enhance a blog post, ad, website, etc).

Angie from The Work at Home Wife thought that most of the examples in the book were great for solopreneurs to put into play, although a few she thought would require more tech experience than some entrepreneurs have. Point taken. We tried to include a wide range of examples, and naturally, some will require more tech knowledge, design experience, et cetera, than others.

We also received a video review by Denise O’Berry (thanks Denise, for taking the time!). She calls our book “thick and meaty,” which, if you like steak, is a great compliment for a book! She does a fantastic job of pointing out specific examples, page numbers and all.

What We Learned

Some of the reviews pointed out the fact that a book about design shouldn’t be in black and white.

We understand. Naturally we would have loved to have full color for the book, but then the cost would have gone up significantly. There is one advantage, though, to black and white. It helps focus more on some of the graphical elements we want to highlight when the color is stripped away.

Visual Marketing is designed to provide inspiration, and get your creative juices flowing. We want you to use the case studies as a springboard to your own creativity.