Allan Dib is a serial entrepreneur, rebellious marketer, and the bestselling author of The 1-Page Marketing Plan. He is also the founder of The Marketing & Business Academy, an online community where entrepreneurs learn essential business and marketing skills. He’s started and grown several multimillion-dollar businesses, one of which was named in Australia’s Business Review Weekly’s (now AFR) Fast 100 list.
Allan’s made it his mission to provide clear and simple frameworks for marketing success. He thrives on taking business owners from confusion to clarity as it relates to marketing. So far, he’s helped more than 300,000 entrepreneurs worldwide troubleshoot their marketing plans, build their internal marketing capability, and unlock the door to exponential growth.
Allan translated this know-how into an internationally bestselling book, The 1-Page Marketing Plan. It’s held the position of Amazon’s #1 Global Marketing book since its launch in 2016. Huffington Post named it one of the “10 Best Marketing Books for Small Business Owners.” It has sold more than 200,000 copies, has been translated into 15 languages, and has changed how small-to-medium-sized businesses are marketing globally.
Through his business, Successwise, Allan offers one-on-one coaching, an online Marketing & Business Academy program, and a certification program for people interested in becoming a 1PMP coach. You can follow Allan on social media or join his inner circle, where he shares his tools, tactics, and tips for successfully marketing small-to-medium-sized businesses.
What is Successwise all about?
Successwise is a virtual marketing consulting business founded in 2016.
Marketing has become far more complex, and as a result, too many business owners focus on tactics instead of strategy. Without your marketing blueprint, it’s almost impossible to level up your business.
Successwise provides practical marketing and business growth strategies for entrepreneurs and owners of small-to-medium-sized businesses across the world. We help you build your internal marketing capabilities rather than outsourcing your marketing to an agency, which can be costly.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
I’ve been an entrepreneur since my early twenties. I tried working for someone else, but I wanted to be a business owner. I’d been mad about computers since a teen, so I started in IT. This is where I made all of my mistakes and learned vital lessons.
It took me ten years to scale and exit that business. Next, I built a telecommunications company, and in four years, I grew that business to be named in Australia’s Business Review Weekly’s Fast 100 List.
Then, around six years ago, I hit a wall. The tech company I’d built was booming. But it was high pressure, and I needed a change. I wanted something that could feed my soul, and while I didn’t know what that would be, I knew it had to be a lifestyle business. So I created a vision board.
It listed the following:
- I never have to wear a suit for work again.
- My office will have a great view of the bay.
- I won’t work more than 30 hours each week.
- I want to work with people whom I enjoy helping.
- I want to work on projects that excite me—no more boring stuff.
- I’ll be fired up for Mondays.
- I’m never going to commute for work again unless I want to.
So that led me to start Successwise. I knew I wanted to be in success education, but that’s quite broad. So I chose an area which I’d spent a lot of time and money on. And that was marketing.
It had been vital to the expansion of my previous businesses. Now I teach business owners how to build a detailed marketing plan, implement direct response marketing, and scale their companies with methods that actually work.
What would you say are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur, and why?
Visionary – Entrepreneurs need to be visionaries. You’re the ideas people. You need to know where you want to take your business, where you can bring value. No one else can do that but you. So being a visionary is massively powerful.
Curiosity – I’m always learning new things. I’m a ferocious reader. Whether it’s a business book, an industry white paper, or an interesting article, I’m always reading. I attend thought-leadership and networking events. I hire consultants to train myself and my team on the things we don’t know. So curiosity is massively important if you want to be a successful entrepreneur.
Persistence – This skill most often separates successful entrepreneurs from those who shut up shop and return to working for someone else. But what do I mean by persistence? It’s the entrepreneur who does a few small things every day that wins. You can have a brilliant idea, but if you don’t follow through, it’ll only ever be an idea. So the entrepreneurs who win are those that don’t give up. They keep looking for ways to innovate, attract leads, and convert them to customers.
How do you separate yourself from your competitors?
When I wrote my book The 1-Page Marketing Plan, this was virtually an untouched hyper niche. So, as I mentioned earlier, I wanted to focus on success and success education. But it needed to be in an area where I wouldn’t have much competition.
Now I knew that many business owners struggle with putting together their marketing plan. I wanted to give them an easy way to do this.
So I built the 1PMP framework, which makes building out your marketing strategy easy. In nine steps, you’ll have identified who your ideal target market is, what message would make them act, what media to advertise in, and then what you need to do to build relationships and convert them into lifetime customers.
This was a game-changer for me and the industry.
What were the top three mistakes you made starting your business, and what did you learn from them?
You can’t hack marketing. So you can’t decide to do a little marketing and expect great results. Randomly posting a laundry list-like advertisement in a newspaper or opening a business Facebook page will not rake in new customers. I spent thousands of dollars on bad advertising that didn’t bring a single lead to my business. You need to have a plan. You need to know each step in your plan and how it will eventually lead to new customers.
80% out of the drawer is better than 100% in the drawer. Suppose someone else can do it 80% as good as you can, delegate. I can’t be at the center of things. Nothing gets done. So I’m not a middle man. I’ll openly admit that I’m a bottleneck. Whenever people are reporting to me and waiting on my go-ahead or for my feedback, projects stall. I’m at my best when I can focus on the things that I’m good at. So learn to delegate.
Start with the exit in mind. While you may be fully committed to your business today, there will come a time when you decide you want out. Perhaps you’re bored and in need of a change. Maybe you’re sick, or you’ve reached retirement and can’t continue to run the business. When that day comes, you’re going to want to be able to sell your business for a profit. And you can’t do that if you haven’t built systems or a database of raving fans who will continue to buy from your company long after you’re gone and if you don’t have great talent working for you.
If the running of your business requires you, sadly, you don’t have a business. Instead, you are the business, and investors aren’t going to bite. So even if you don’t think you’ll ever sell your business, build it for an exit. You’ll thank yourself one day.
Tell us a little bit about your marketing process. What has been the most successful form of marketing for you?
Direct response marketing. A lot of businesses treat marketing like a hunter. They’re constantly trying to hunt for their leads. And one month it can be famine, and another month a feast.
I prefer to treat marketing like a farmer. You’ve got to plant at the right time. You’ve got to nurture and care for them. So you water and tend to your crop until you’re ready for the harvest.
The point of direct response marketing is to target the pain. I know that my ideal market needs help building out their marketing plan. So I address this pain with my book The 1-Page Marketing Plan. It’s my primary lead magnet.
Throughout the book, I invite readers to opt in to my inner circle mailing list to download the 1PMP template, access resources, and receive more helpful content. So, most people come to my website as a result of having read my book.
They’re already pre-framed and pre-qualified, so I know they’re high-quality leads.
Once they’re in my CRM, I can continue to build the relationship through value-add email marketing until they’re ready to buy. This has been by far my most successful form of marketing. My list is about 45,000 strong and still growing.
What is the one thing you wish you knew before starting your business?
That marketing is the key to scaling your business.
I want to share a little story with you. Roughly 18 or so years ago, I was complaining to a mentor of mine. I was frustrated because our customer-base and bank balance didn’t reflect how good we were technically. And he taught me a valuable lesson. Here’s what he said.
“The first time your customers know how good your product or service is after they’ve bought from you. Before that, they only know how good your marketing is. So if you want to grow your business, you have to become a really good marketer.”
This lesson has stayed with me through my entrepreneurial journey.
For sure.
Systemology by David Jenyns. Systems are vital to business growth. They make it easy to expand, escape, and one day exit your business. So if there’s any book you should be reading this 2021, it’s David Jenyns’ Systemology.
SuperFastBusiness podcast by James Schramko. If you want to build a lifestyle business, then SuperFastBusiness is the podcast you want to listen to. James has been a mentor of mine for several years now, and he’s helped me start and scale my coaching business. It’s allowed me to work from home, with clients from all over the world, doing the things I love. So if you have the goal of building a lifestyle business, this is the podcast to listen to.
Instagram Domination with Nathan Chan of Foundr Magazine. As a coach, my clients often ask the gold standard for doing something, and I need to answer. Now I’m not big on social media, but I still need to know what to recommend. A little while ago, I took Nathan Chan’s Instagram Domination, and let me just say that it’s packed with useful information. It gives you great tips on building your Instagram following quickly, so if you want to use Instagram in your marketing arsenal, I recommend this course.
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
Marketing can scale your business rapidly, and you can do this on your own without the help of an agency. I spent years learning how marketing works for small businesses, so you don’t have to spend a fortune on advertising or hire an expert.
You have to figure out what’s going on in your target market’s head. What keeps them up at night? What kind of pain they’re in, and how are you going to make their life better?
Then become their pain relief. Create content that answers their questions. Make yourself indispensable. Get this right, and you’ll steadily grow your list of prospective customers week on week.
Who should we interview next and why?
I’d suggest Paul Higgins. He wrote the book Build. Live. Give., and teaches entrepreneurs and business owners about how to use LinkedIn to attract high-quality leads. LinkedIn is growing in popularity each year, and it’s becoming more difficult to cut through the noise.
Despite this, it still drives the highest number of leads to B2B websites out of any other social network. So if you want to learn how to write your LinkedIn Profile and craft posts that get attention from the right kind of lead, check out Paul’s service.
How can we get in touch with you?
The easiest way to get in touch with me is to connect on LinkedIn. Just look for Allan Dib and drop me a message. You can also try googling Successwise or The 1-Page Marketing Plan. This will take you to my website, where you can find more information.
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