Are you looking to improve your business in 2019? Or maybe you’re searching for some new marketing books to add to your reading list?
At Brandetize, continuous learning is baked into our culture. It’s part of everything that we do.
Constant learning and reading means that we’re able to offer our clients the most current and cutting-edge marketing strategies to help grow their business.
That’s just the way we like to do things…
As Brian Tracy says:
“Read an hour every day in your chosen field. This works out to about one book per week, fifty books per year, and will guarantee your success.” – Brian Tracy
We asked our company what their favorite marketing books were and rounded up a diverse list that showcases the many facets of marketing that exist in business today. If you’re serious about marketing and growing your business, read these books.
Here are 17 of the absolute best marketing books, handpicked for you by the marketing “Sharks” at Brandetize.
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1. Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
If you think you’re a rational person, you’ll start second-guessing yourself after reading this book. Ariely explores the decision making process and how our behavior is easily influenced. As a marketer, you’ll learn how to leverage your influence to reach greater levels of success.
2. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
The classic book on persuasion explains the psychology of why people say “yes”—and how to apply these understandings. Dr. Robert Cialdini is the seminal expert in the rapidly expanding field of influence and persuasion.
3. Contagious by Jonah Berger
If you’ve wondered why certain stories get shared, e-mails get forwarded, or videos go viral, Contagious explains why, and shows how to leverage these concepts to craft contagious content.
4. Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator by Ryan Holiday
Trust Me, I’m Lying was the first book to blow the lid off the speed and force at which rumors travel online—and get “traded up” the media ecosystem until they become real headlines and generate real responses in the real world. The culprit? Marketers and professional media manipulators, encouraged by the toxic economics of the news business.
5. So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love by Cal Newport
This book is a refreshing offset to the typical Millennial career brainwashing young marketers suffer from. In it, M.IT. technologists debunk the popular societal belief that “follow your passion” is actually good advice. Instead, Newport argues that true work satisfaction comes from choosing a profession you are both naturally good at and that is actually in-demand in society. This book is a must read for any marketer who is still waiting for “their childhood dream to come true.” They may find that marketing, is the profession they were actually destined to excel at all along.
6. Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz
A classic marketing book. This is a Marketing Bible for all marketers.
7. The Secret to Success by Eric Thomas
From being homeless and a high school dropout, Eric breaks down his experiences in life to demonstrate the key principals that lead him from having nothing to becoming a successful motivational speaker and author.
8. UnMarketing: Everything has Changed and Nothing is Different by Scott and Alison Stratten
The book serves as a great reminder to all marketers that as times change, algorithms get more advanced, and targeting gets easier and narrower, we have to remember that it is still always about the experience. Give the customer what they want – don’t give them what they don’t want. Make them feel understood, heard, and supported.
9. Better Web Typography For A Better Web – Matej Latin
This is a fantastic book that explains the importance of typography and how it’s used as a tool for the web beyond the written word. You will learn the importance of line length and how that can influence your traffic to read more or less.
10. Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis
An accessible and practical toolkit that teams and companies in all industries can use to increase their customer base and market share. This book walks readers through the process of creating and executing their own custom-made growth hacking strategy. It is a must read for any marketer, entrepreneur, innovator or manager looking to replace wasteful big bets and “spaghetti-on-the-wall” approaches with more consistent, replicable, cost-effective, and data-driven results.
11. Ogilvy On Advertising by David Ogilvy
Told with brutal candor and prodigal generosity, David Ogilvy reveals how to get a job in advertising, the secrets behind advertising that works, and how to write successful copy—and get people to read it.
12. Don’t Make Me Think Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug
Websites are the primary interface between most businesses and their customers. So all the great marketing campaigns in the world won’t work well unless the site is effective at handling the customers marketing brings to it. Every marketer with a website needs to read this book periodically.
13. Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard
This book talks about how the mission shaped the company and how they stuck to it. They wanted to change consumerism and that resonated with people to get the brand to where they are now.
14. It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be by Paul Arden
A great book, not just about marketing and business, but about creative thinking in general and thinking outside the box. It’s a really quick read with lots of imagery.
15. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Gladwell defines a tipping point as “the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.”
The book seeks to explain and describe the “mysterious” sociological changes that mark everyday life. As Gladwell states: “Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread as viruses do.”
16. GIVE by Nicholas Kusmich
Although it is written to be a guide to Facebook marketing, this is a book you’ll return to every time you’re working on a new strategy. His compelling way of describing how to pinpoint your market and how to master your message is an enjoyable reminder and you’ll always walk away with tons of new inspiration and ideas.
17. Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team by Alina Wheeler
Whether you’re the project manager for your company’s rebrand, or you need to educate your staff or your students about brand fundamentals, Designing Brand Identity is the quintessential resource. From research to brand strategy to design execution, launch, and governance, this book is a collection of tools for branding success and best practices for inspiration.
There you have it…
Hopefully, there are a few books on this list that you haven’t read yet. They’re all worth reading.
What’s your favorite marketing book? Leave it in the comments below so we can add them to our reading lists. We suggest a new marketing book in each of our bi-weekly newsletters. Sign up below.
*Most book descriptions and images are rounded up from Amazon.com