How can you get an edge on your competition to make 2019 your most successful year yet? By arming yourself with the wisdom of the world’s best marketers.
In a dynamic, ever-evolving field, it’s essential to stay updated with blogs, news and social posts to keep ahead of industry trends, but marketing books offer invaluable, more in-depth insight that you won’t often find elsewhere. Learning from the successes and failures of the pros will help you develop your marketing skills and create more effective campaigns.
As you tackle your marketing strategy and push for growth in 2019, check out our list of the 8 best marketing books to help you get there. (Take a look at our list of the top podcasts too!)
1. Top of Mind: Use Content to Unleash Your Influence and Engage Those Who Matter To You (2017)
by John Hall
“A game-changing framework for staying top of mind with your audience―from the No. 1 company dominating content marketing. It’s the winning approach John Hall used to build Influence & Co. into one of ‘America’s Most Promising Companies,’ according to Forbes. In this step-by-step guide, he shows you how to use content to keep your brand front and center in the minds of decision makers who matter.”
2. Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade (2016)
by Robert Cialdini, Ph.D.
“The acclaimed New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller from Robert Cialdini—’the foremost expert on effective persuasion’ (Harvard Business Review)—explains how it’s not necessarily the message itself that changes minds, but the key moment before you deliver that message. With the same rigorous scientific research and accessibility that made his Influence an iconic bestseller, Robert Cialdini explains how to prepare people to be receptive to a message before they experience it.”
3. Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen (2017)
by Donald Miller
“New York Times bestselling author Donald Miller uses the seven universal elements of powerful stories to teach readers how to dramatically improve how they connect with customers and grow their businesses. This revolutionary method for connecting with customers provides readers with the ultimate competitive advantage, revealing the secret for helping their customers understand the compelling benefits of using their products, ideas, or services. Building a StoryBrand will forever transform the way you talk about who you are, what you do, and the unique value you bring to your customers.”
4. This Is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn to See (2018)
by Seth Godin
“Seth Godin has taught and inspired millions of entrepreneurs, marketers, leaders, and fans from all walks of life, via his blog, online courses, lectures, and bestselling books. Now, for the first time, Godin offers the core of his marketing wisdom in one compact, accessible, timeless package. This is Marketing shows you how to do work you’re proud of, whether you’re a tech startup founder, a small business owner, or part of a large corporation.”
5. Outside Insight (2016)
by Jørn Lyseggen
“Tomorrow’s most successful brands are already embracing Outside Insight, benefitting from an information advantage while their competition is left behind. Drawing on practical examples of transformative, data-led decisions made by brands like Apple, Facebook, Barack Obama and many more, in Outside Insight, Meltwater CEO Jørn Lyseggen illustrates the future of corporate decision-making and offers a detailed plan for business leaders to implement Outside Insight thinking into their company mindset and processes.”
6. They Ask You Answer: A Revolutionary Approach to Inbound Sales, Content Marketing, and Today’s Digital Consumer (2016)
by Marcus Sheridan
“A revolutionary marketing strategy proven to drive sales and growth, They Ask You Answer is a straightforward guide to fixing your current marketing strategy. Content marketing is no longer about keyword-stuffing and link-building; in fact, using those tactics today gets your page shuffled to the bottom of the heap. Quality content is the key to success, and you already have the ingredients in-house. This book shows you how to structure an effective content strategy using the same proven principles that have revolutionized marketing for all types of businesses, across industries.”
7. Blue Ocean Shift: Beyond Competing – Proven Steps to Inspire Confidence and Seize New Growth (2017)
by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
“Blue Ocean Shift is the essential follow up to Blue Ocean Strategy, the classic and 3.6 million copy global bestseller by world-renowned professors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. Drawing on more than a decade of new work, Kim and Mauborgne show you how to move beyond competing, inspire your people’s confidence, and seize new growth, guiding you step-by-step through how to take your organization from a red ocean crowded with competition to a blue ocean of uncontested market space.”
8. Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content (2014)
by Ann Handley
“In Everybody Writes, top marketing veteran Ann Handley gives expert guidance and insight into the process and strategy of content creation, production, and publishing, with actionable how-to advice designed to get results. Ann deconstructs the strategy and delivers a practical approach to create ridiculously compelling and competent content. It’s designed to be the go-to guide for anyone creating or publishing any kind of online content — whether you’re a big brand or you’re small and solo.”
From fresh strategies for specific platforms to timeless persuasive techniques, these books offer a variety of content, perspectives, and lessons that will help you level up your skills and accomplish all of your marketing goals this year.
So get to reading!