Bristol-based Bryony Thomas kicks-off marketing mission to help small businesses make marketing pay
One Bristol-based business woman and author of Watertight Marketing, Bryony Thomas, has turned to crowdfunding in an alternative move to fund her mission to help stop small businesses leaking profit and wasting money on poor marketing.
Seeking backing through Pleasefund.us, a crowdfunding site set up to help small businesses and creative projects get off the ground, the Watertight Marketing pleasefund.us project only has until 21 November 2012 to raise £5,000 with supporters receiving rewards in return. But, in an ‘all or nothing’ deal, every penny will go back to backers if the crowdfunding target isn’t reached.
The book, Watertight Marketing, is coming out in January and provides a step-by-step framework for small business owners to put a marketing operation in place that delivers long-term sales results. By raising money through crowdfunding, Bryony Thomas will also launch a powerful companion website to go alongside the book, providing practical action plans and tools, templates, videos and downloads, and even a tracking system to help readers measure the business results of putting the book’s ideas into practice.
Bryony Thomas, author of Watertight Marketing, said: “It will happen, I’ll make sure of it but crowdfunding is the only way I’m going to make the website happen now and in time for 2013 – making it the year that small businesses finally turn their marketing efforts into genuine sales.”
The book itself has already received phenomenal feedback from business owners who’ve seen a preview copy. Rave reviews include “This is a breakthrough marketing book for small businesses. It ditches all the fluff and nonsense and gives a business owner exactly what they need to get their marketing into gear,” Mark Mason, CEO of Mubaloo and IOD South West Director of the Year. “Watertight Marketing is a long overdue book” says Prof. Merlin Stone, and Nick Dean from Bristol-based Ad Lib Recruitment, comments: “Watertight Marketing is brilliant.”
Bryony Thomas concludes: “Hardworking 60+ hour weeks are typical, but I’m yet to find a business owner that isn’t throwing some of their time and marketing budget straight down the drain – it’s heart-breaking.
“They are under a constant barrage of marketing advice, some of it downright dangerous, leaving them struggling because they don’t know what’s right for their business. I’m going to change that, and make sure that small businesses get payback on every minute and every penny they put into their marketing. The payback of making better marketing decisions is long-term sales results and through crowdfunding support, I can turn my one person mission into a small business marketing revolution.”
Backers can pledge anything from as little as £1 upwards and receive rewards in return. These rewards include pre-publication copies of part one of the book ahead of its January launch, marketing residentials and even a hands-on workshop at the backer’s own business to put a Watertight Marketing plan into action.
To find out more about the Watertight Marketing crowdfunding project and to make a pledge, visit: http://pleasefund.us/projects/watertight-marketing.
James Bailey, Co-Founder PleaseFund.Us: “With so many small businesses cumulatively employing the majority of the UK workforce, there is an obvious need to help keep those businesses in business, and ‘Watertight marketing’ seems to be one way that can genuinely help. There has already been a very positive response since the campaign went live.”
ENDS
Notes for editors
What is Crowdfunding?
Crowdfunding is a simple concept whereby a large number of people support an idea, each with a relatively small amount of money relative to the total funding required. PleaseFund.Us is the leading UK crowdfunding platform and offers an exciting new way for creative ideas to be financed by a supportive community that is equally passionate about funding creative projects.
In this blog post, Bryony Thomas talks about why she chose crowdfunding for Watertight Marketing: http://www.pleasefund.us/blog/article/guest-blog-why-i-chose-crowdfunding-for-watertight-marketing
Early reviews of Watertight Marketing:
“Watertight Marketing is a long overdue book. Too many marketing books are either too academic – stuffed with over-complicated ideas, which can’t be implemented – or full of hype. Watertight Marketing is neither of these. It guides busy business folk through the steps to making marketing work and pay – with minimum waste and maximum benefit.” Prof. Merlin Stone, Research Director, The Customer Framework
“This is a breakthrough marketing book for small businesses. It ditches all the fluff and nonsense and gives a business owner exactly what they need to get their marketing in gear. You’ll want to read it with a pen in hand because you will have ideas to put into action on every single page.” Mark Mason, CEO, Mubaloo
“Watertight Marketing is brilliant. Bryony has delivered a book that is free of jargon and a compelling read that makes you sit up and quickly realise where the holes are in your plans, the potential cost of these holes to your business and ultimately how to fill them and ensure your business is robust and successful.” Nick Dean, Managing Director, Ad Lib Recruitment
“Any business who is serious about growing needs to read this book. Watertight Marketing is a well written, easy to read but heavy-weight and comprehensive blueprint for effective marketing. No clap-trap. No padding. It is chocker-block full of great ways to fix your business development processes, systems, copy, plans and activities so you stop leaking profit and see your business grow – the watertight way. I act as a business coach to my clients, helping them grow their own client portfolio, and thought I really knew my stuff on marketing. I still found this book to be a highly valuable read, and probably the first real marketing book that bridges the gap between real life, traditional marketing and social media. As a result of reading this book, I was able to clearly identify why our own business growth has plateaued, and because of the common sense contained in the book will be working to fix that.” Heather Townsend, author of ‘The FT Guide to Business Networking’ and co-author of ‘How to make partner and still have a life’
About PleaseFund.Us
PleaseFund.Us was launched in August 2011 by two entrepreneurs, James Bailey and Tarkan Ahmet, who had done the rounds trying to raise money for their ideas and who had come up against the difficulties that all young start-ups come across. Since its inception the company has developed partnerships with numerous other creative organisations such as Big Society Network, Nexters, and IdeasTap. The goal has always been to help creative ideas get the funding that they deserve.
