Recent Blog Posts

Social Media ROI by Olivier Blanchard Book Summary

Top Three Quotes Book Theme Social Media ROI’s main theme is demystifying social media’s impact on business performance, focusing on how to measure, manage, and optimize social media activities to generate clear, quantifiable ROI. Why You Should Read This Book You manage marketing budgets and must demonstrate clear, measurable returns on investment to executives or stakeholders. You need to prove the business value of social media initiatives and show how they contribute to revenue or cost savings. You want to move beyond surface-level metrics such as likes, shares, and followers, and instead focus on meaningful business outcomes. You are looking

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My Goodreads Data Story: Dashboards, an Interactive Chart, and 5-Star Recommendations

Reader Beware: Any blog post tagged as “Data Driven David” may not be as related to marketing as most of my content. I truly love data and love it even more when it is well visualized and wrapped in a great story — now, that’s good marketing. Since 2013, I’ve been tracking every book I’ve read in Goodreads. It’s been a fun way to look back on years of reading, especially since probably 80–90% of what I pick up is business-related, usually focused on marketing. In this post, I’m sharing some of my favorite charts and stats that highlight my reading

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Self-Publishing With Amazon Ads by Bryan Cohen Book Summary

Top Three Quotes Book Theme Self-Publishing With Amazon Ads is a hands-on, realistic guide for self-published authors to use Amazon Ads strategically to build long-term royalties, develop profitable advertising campaigns, and regain control of their author career. Why You Should Read This Book If you’re a self-published author frustrated with marketing methods that drain your time or money, Bryan Cohen’s approach offers sustainable, low-cost, repeatable strategies. This book focuses on mindset, profitability, and the importance of patience in building ad success, making it invaluable for anyone serious about long-term book sales on Amazon. Key Ideas and Arguments Presented Book Outline

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Advertising Breakthrough by Eugene Schwartz Book Summary

Top Three Quotes Book Theme Breakthrough Advertising (not financially feasible to buy currently) centers on understanding and channeling existing consumer desires rather than attempting to create new ones. Schwartz emphasizes that successful advertising identifies the stage of awareness of the target audience and crafts messages that resonate with their existing desires and knowledge. Why You Should Read This Book This book is essential for marketers, copywriters, and business owners who seek to deepen their understanding of consumer psychology and enhance their advertising effectiveness. Schwartz provides a framework for identifying consumer desires and tailoring messages that align with their awareness levels,

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The Next CMO by Peter Mahoney Book Summary

Top Three Quotes Book Theme The Next CMO book is a guide to mastering operational marketing excellence—helping CMOs and marketing teams execute smarter and align every action to business outcomes. Why You Should Read This Book Key Ideas and Arguments Presented Book Outline Key Takeaways Key Techniques Author’s Qualifications Mahoney, Todaro, and Faulkner bring 70+ years of combined experience in marketing, tech, and executive leadership, including founding Plannuh and leading at Nuance Communications. Comparison to Similar Books More operational than Seth Godin’s philosophy, more strategic than Donald Miller’s frameworks, and focused entirely on marketing unlike John Doerr’s general OKRs. Target

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Visualize This by Nathan Yau Book Summary

Top Three Quotes Book Theme Telling stories through data visualization. Visualize This explores how to make raw data understandable, beautiful, and compelling by using visual tools to uncover and communicate the stories hidden in the numbers. Why You Should Read This Book If you work with data—whether as a marketer, researcher, journalist, designer, or developer—this book will equip you to move beyond spreadsheets and create meaningful visuals that reveal the underlying narrative. Key Ideas and Arguments Presented Book Outline Key Takeaways Key Techniques Author’s Qualifications Nathan Yau is a statistician and creator of FlowingData.com. He holds a Master’s degree from

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