We should first note that the operative term in the title is ‘Non-Marketers’. Think of the CFO who must find the monies; or the generalist boss who must approve the campaign. Or think of the owner of a small SME or even a solopreneur who wear multiple hats besides marketing.

The book is designed to be a guide to that target group and demystify all aspects of the topic. It discusses the key ideas and concepts and the various tools used in Digital Marketing — and help develop an appreciation of the power of all of these for the marketing task at hand.

It’s an ‘irreverent guide’ in the sense that humour is a constant presence in quips and wisecracks all along. But underneath the light touch the discussion is rich, and the topics are detailed with rigour and precision. It has 15 chapters, it’s well written, even if not all jokes land well.

An overview

The first four chapters are on the Foundations — the customer, targeting and the customer journey. The concepts are detailed rather well, with a rich set of examples.

The next four are on Search, Paid Search and Search Ads. Of course the mechanics of this is now changing with Gen AI. The principles will endure (at least till AI agents completely take over!) and the discussion here is rich.

The others address display advertising, email, website, social media marketing, CRM. These are some of the best parts of the book; and of enduring value even as technology evolves.

Then there is a richly done chapter on Measurement. The defining characteristic of digital is data and metrics. This discusses the whole gamut from Abandonment Rates to Lifetime Value.

Every chapter has QR Codes that lead you to additional resources on the web. And there are assignments — which are rather well chosen, such as figuring out digital marketing for security manpower services, running shoes, eye hospital etc. They stay the same throughout the book with some evolution built in. E.g. the Eye Hospital in Chapter 4 is opening a new branch in the city by the time you reach Chapter 7.

So one can figure out the application of the ideas across B2B and B2C businesses; and across products and services; and across stages of a business. There is also a LinkedIn group where a community of peers can discuss the assignments.

AI — GenAI basically — is addressed in a single chapter at the very end. (It’s written with Jaspreet Bindra – renowned “Tech Whisperer”), and does a crisp job laying out its power and what it can do for marketing: personalisation at scale, content generation, customer service.

But the AI development that has a direct impact on the book’s value to the reader is where Platforms are putting AI-based tools at the users’ disposal. E.g., Meta Advantage+ suite or Canva AI. The Platform AI handles targeting, creative testing, budget allocation; Creative tools to create hundreds of variations on your content automatically … pretty much everything end to end. This has a dual effect: renders some of the chapters weak on relevance; and at the same time raises the importance on some others. Let us look at it in detail.

As the author himself notes in the introduction “… some of the stuff in here may very well be wrong [given the] speed with which things are happening”. This is certainly true (notably the set of chapters on Search and Search Ads). Not ‘wrong’ so much as ‘no longer such a big deal’. But by the same reckoning some of the other chapters have become even more of an imperative, particularly considering the growth of AI: the chapters on ‘Understanding the Customer’, the ‘Customer Journey’, ‘Targeting, CRM’ etc.

In other words, Platform AI automates all the mechanical parts of digital marketing — ad placement, A/B testing etc. By that very fact, it simultaneously makes it more important to have insightful answers to the other questions like Who is the Customer, Journey, Relationship etc. The idea is to build the Customer Knowledge muscles well enough to brief and engage with the AI powerfully.

So if you are a Non-Marketer in the shape of an SME without a website or landing page, and is carrying on business over Instagram, YouTube and WhatsApp you would focus more on the chapters on ‘Customer Journey’, ‘Social Media Marketing’, ‘CRM’. Does it mean you just tear up the other chapters, say on ‘Search ads’? Of course not.

YouTube is a search engine. (and indeed the only one for those who need to hear the results (not read) in their language (not English). The principles apply, even if the mechanics of the process change.

Understanding how search works is a useful, transferable skill. As is knowing all the different aspects of digital marketing as such.

As always in any endeavour, one needs a solid understanding of foundational ideas to be able to powerfully wield the tools. And to evoke serendipity. As the saying goes, God can help you win the lottery. But it’s you who has to buy the ticket.

Book details

You can find the book here.

The reviewer is a specialist in Consumer Behaviour and Strategy

Published on April 19, 2026