Get Scrappy: Smarter Digital Marketing for Businesses Big and Small Hardcover – May 12, 2016

I have assigned this book as required reading in my MBA graduate classes and undergraduate classes in Social Media and Marketing for the past several semesters (at the University of Louisville). The students found the book to be very informative and useful. Get Scrappy is one of the best textbooks on the subject and I plan to continue to include it as a required text in my forthcoming classes.In my Social Media Practicum class, the students prepare a social media marketing plan for a "real world" organization and Get Scrappy is the text we refer to when preparing our plans for the various client organizations included in the class. On several occasions I have recommended Get Scrappy to representatives from these organizations and they have commented very favorably on the practical and useful approach outline in this book.Get Scrappy's coverage of social media and its applications to marketing greatly enhanced the learning experience in my social media classes and provided us with material for enjoyable and insightful discussions on various topics related to social media and marketing. I would strongly encourage my fellow professors and other educators to adopt the book in their marketing/business classes and recommend it to members of the business community as well.

I’ve been evaluating trends and refining my small business marketing solutions for the last decade. Without a doubt, every individual, organization, thought leader, and influencer has been focused on one thing and one thing only: THE CUSTOMER. How people want to be served in the Digital Age is literally 180 degrees from the way products and services were marketed in the Industrial Age. Yet, to this day, few organizations have actually chosen to embrace the changes of this new marketing reality.In GET SCRAPPY, Nick Westergaard not only explains the how and why the trends have evolved, but he also provides readers with no-nonsense strategies for staying ahead of the massive waves of change in the marketing and PR worlds. If you’re like me, you’ve been reading white papers, following influencer blogs, and subscribing to the RSS feeds of thought leaders for a long time, constantly seeking the next new idea that will give you an advantage. Unfortunately, the volume of noise designed to acquire your/our attention is becoming overwhelming.Do yourself a favor and take Nick’s advice: Grab a highlighter, pen and notebook... Find a nice quiet place to relax... and GET SCRAPPY. You’ll be amazed at how quiet your world becomes when you have a plan.

This book was very mediocre in my opinion. I have 10+ years of experience in Online Marketing. I was hoping to learn some new SMB Marketing tactics. But, Personally, I got very little new insights out of this book. Perhaps Business owners with zero Marketing experience will get much more out of it. Some of the tools and tactics in this book already seem to be outdated in 2020 (Like Snapchat). Plus I didn't like that the author spent so much text on unnecessary sentences like "we will talk more about this subject in chapter X" and the reundent pop culture references. I gave 4 stars instead of 3 because I used to listen to Nick's Podcast and I think he's a great guy.

Full disclosure: I wrote the foreword to "Get Scrappy." But I agreed to write it only because I truly believe that "Scrappy" delivers a necessary perspective for marketers.I talk frequently to marketing teams of all sizes -- from 1 to hundreds -- who hail from companies of all industries. And the two things they all share are 1) a feeling that Marketing is increasingly complex, and 2) they don't have enough budget. (No one EVER has enough budget!)Nick Westergaard's book delivers a prescription to focus on what matters (and not get overwhelmed by the complexity). And it helps you figure out how get things done no matter the depth of your pockets (and without going insane).Because great marketing is more about brains than it is about budget!

If Goodreads allowed half-star increments, I would probably rate this a 3.5-star book. There is a lot of good advice to be found here in terms of a general approach to marketing — both traditional and digital — with a "scrappy" mindset. However, as an entrepreneur running a business with only one full-time employee (me), I thought Westergaard's advice was tilted more towards organizations that have a dedicated marketing staff rather than a small business owner like myself.Also, while I appreciate the necessity of leveraging digital/social media marketing tools as a key component of the "scrappy" approach, I think the book was a bit light on how to integrate old-school marketing efforts with today's digital/social media tools.

Excellent book that should give small business owners or even startups the confidence t realize they can compete with larger competitors or market leaders using some creative thinking and modern marketing techniques. The author is somewhat provocative, yet accurate and effective with his message - that with the many tools & techniques that are now available, marketing done properly with modern approaches & tools does not have to be expensive and in some cases, having a small budget can be an advantage in that it incentivizes a marketer to be creative. In the end, the book provides a valuable & helpful framework for an SME to follow in order to challenge bigger competitors.