Taegan Lion
“The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you will go.”
– Dr. Seuss
Marketing knowledge comes from a variety of places, from trial and error to learning from industry experts. If you want to kickstart your education or take a deep-dive on a subject, then these are 25 books for you.
Each of these books for marketing students is suggested by a Fupping contributor.
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#1 Market Smart by Lisa Shepherd
This is a 101 Guide for B2B marketing - how to set a strategy, decide on marketing methods, and execute efficiently. It's especially useful for someone new to B2B marketing.
Want to read more reviews of this book or buy it? Check out the links below:
Contributors: Lisa Shepherd from The Mezzanine Group
#2 Relevance Raises Response by Bob Bentz
Relevance Raises Response has something of value for every marketer from beginner to student to the advanced level. Always ahead of the curve, Bob Bentz has decades of experience in marketing, IVR, 800 and 900 numbers, ringtones, and now social and mobile marketing and he covers all areas in depth. He is truly a thought leader in this industry. Unlike other books in this space whose information and statistics can become outdated before the book is ever published, Bentz refers readers to a SlideShare account where the information is constantly updated.
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Contributors: Barb Breeser from Purplegator
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This book provides a comprehensive understanding of Mobile Marketing and the POWER of engagement!
#3 To Sell Is Human by Daniel Pink
This book explains how selling has become an important part of almost every job and equips you with tools and techniques to effectively influence others. One of the tools covered, is the ABCs of sales - standing for attunement, buoyancy and clarity. They remind the seller that in order to influence one must understand others' perspectives, be able to overcome rejection at any step of a buyer's journey, and empathize with customers' problems and offer them solutions.
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Contributors: Nathan Heider from Campaign Creators
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This one is on my radar for some time now.
#4 Killer Facebook Ads by Marty Weintraub
Facebook marketing is critical for both direct marketing and SEO. As such, Marty's book was a real eye-opener when it came out in 2011. It remains part of our Marketing Teams library because the concepts and vernacular remain key today even if the interface has changed considerably. Great for learning about psychographic targeting and interest buckets which are both key to campaign ROI.
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Contributors: Alistair Dodds from Smoking Chili Media
#5 Scaling Up by Verne Harnish
The first major revision of Verne Harnish’s best-selling business classic “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits,” this book shares practical tools and techniques for building an industry-dominating business. By using advice gained from helping tens of thousands of CEOs and other executives successfully scale their businesses, the book illuminates how everyone in an organization can get on the same page in helping their firm to aid in their company’s growth.
The book’s goal is to create a company with an engaged team, with customers doing your marketing for you, and where everyone is making money. “Scaling Up” is a great book for any marketer to show how to align their organization to create something much bigger and better than they ever thought possible.
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Contributors: Sam Olmsted from Align
#6 How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
While categorized as a business & self-help book, in my opinion, it is one of the all-time greatest marketing books. Dale Carnegie's lesson covers how to influence others to take the desired action through communication — which is exactly what marketers are trying to do on a large scale every day.
Some of my favorite tips from the book include: If you want others to like you, don't criticize them; If you want to make a good first impression, then smile; and Never tell others they are wrong because they will only resent you. All of these lessons can aptly be applied to marketing and sales.
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Contributors: Nathan Heider from Campaign Creators
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Amazing how relevant this book still is, so many years after it was published.
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No library is complete without this Book.
#7 Advanced Web Metrics by Brian Clifton
This book is crucial for any student who wants to break into the world of Digital Marketing Agencies. Being able to track your campaigns from start to finish is vital. You need to be able to show ROI and demonstrate the validity of your creative. In addition, the book helps you understand data sets and sample sizes so you can make analytical judgments on your campaign data and test theories to improve conversion rates through the entire sales funnel. This is a book that marketing students should study in depth if they want to get ahead in the Digital Agency world.
Want to read more reviews of this book or buy it? Check out the links below:
Contributors: Alistair Dodds from Smoking Chili Media
#8 Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne
If there is a single marketing book I would recommend to a student it would be Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. This book highlights the importance of understanding the landscape you're marketing in and your competition.
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Contributors: David Pagotto from SIXGUN
#9 Growth Hacker Marketing by Ryan Holiday
It is a great up-to-date piece that provides information on how a modern marketer should work like. Nowadays, people working in marketing have to be all-around specialists and that is why every startup that wants to grow fast hires at least one growth hacker. Such people are able to look further than on just marketing itself but can connect their work with sales and development.
Such an approach provides you with a better outlook on how to acquire new customers and do the marketing part in a more efficient way. The book is packed with real-life examples of how companies such as Dropbox, Airbnb, and Uber used unusual marketing techniques that made them skyrocket. If you learn, learn from the best.
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Contributors: Jakub Kliszczak from CrazyCall
#10 Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
This book was a life-changing read for myself. It goes into real-world war examples of decision making and then transitions into the business world decision making, which is exactly the same. The overall message of this book is to take control of your surroundings and be a leader no matter what role you play in a team. It will be very hard to find a book that I enjoy more than Extreme Ownership.
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Contributors: Bryan Pattman from What The College
#11 SEO For Growth, by John Jantsch and Phil Singleton.
I would recommend any book that goes into detail about white hat SEO and link building. If I had to choose one, it would be SEO For Growth, by John Jantsch and Phil Singleton. An online presence is crucial for businesses today. If your company can’t be seen, people won’t buy. SEO is something that takes experience to learn, but learning the basics will help in all situations.
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Contributors: Josh Matteson from Lula
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Amazing read! This really did put me on the map for SEO.
#12 The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
Read this book for a great way of thinking about problems and how to act in a more agile, and data-driven way which can only benefit your marketing efforts.
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Contributors: Ben Harper from Clarity Stack
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I must read this one, the audiobook really did not stick well with me.
#13 Expert Secrets by Russell Brunson
I've got a degree in marketing and worked for marketing teams for a business and three marketing agencies in UK and Australia and even I learned a thing or two in this book! Its a must read and is actually practical in terms of what you can implement for your business.
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Contributors: Dan Jet Elson from Chasing Flags Digital
#14 Trust Me I’m Lying by Ryan Holiday
Holiday includes incredible stories of his own experiences with creative viral marketing strategies in the online world and then gives everyone reading a blueprint how they can achieve similar results. It's a great blend of case studies and real-life examples combined with practical how-to advice and a must read for any aspiring marketer.
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Contributors: Stacy Caprio from StacyCaprio
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Another one on the radar for some time…..
#15 BRANDcebo by Doron Malka
The reason I'd love to suggest this book is that in the new book, Dr. Malka takes us through an extraordinary journey to investigate the ultimate power brands possess, the power to change us physiologically. It lays out the key ingredients of placebo and dives into ways we can become smarter humans, consumer, and business professionals.
The premise of this is that the way brands interact with consumers' minds today is that they often take on the placebo effect and if marketing to the digital consumer is done correctly impacts behavior and performance. Per Dr. Malka's insight, this is done through a process of priming, conditions for an expectation and creating a desire, with the end result being brandcebo. The is incredibly important for all new marketing professionals as it truly speaks to the millennial marketing demographic.
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Contributors: Alex James from Ameba Marketing
#16 The Challenger Customer by Brent Adamson and Matthew Dixon
The reason is simple-- It is the most exhaustive study of B2B buyer behavior that I'm aware of. And you cannot be an effective marketer without understanding your prospective buyer. The key theses put forward include deep understandings of consensus buying behavior, use of mobilizers, and commercial insights. The authors lay out clear strategies for businesses to compete given these buyer realities.
For young marketers, being able to tie strategies and tactics to real, substantive business outcomes is a massive gap that usually takes years. This book can shape advanced thinking in a single reading.
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Contributors: Eric Quanstrom from CIENCE
#17 DotCom Secrets by Russell Brunson
This looks at the secrets behind how agencies and some of the world's best marketers are seeing insane results with online marketing. Online marketing isn't the future, it is now! And this book explains concepts that can be implemented in your business today to take it to the next level! Even the agencies (very successful) didn't understand or even reach this level especially when it came to how important dedicated landing pages and marketing automation can be!
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Contributors: Dan Jet Elson from Chasing Flags Digital
#18 The New Strategic Selling by Robert B. Miller & Stephen E. Heima
This book encompasses the unique sales system that is proven by the world's best companies. Even though this is aimed at salespeople and business development, it will help to shape your thinking around finding the proper decision makers, figure out how to get a steady revenue from marketing, and avoid the errors that your competition is making. There are straightforward concepts and real-world examples that will help you be open-minded to how business really works.
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Contributors: Bryan Pattman from What The College
#19 Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins
It's just 92 pages long. But the 92 pages clarify everything that underpins advertising – and indeed marketing in general. You learn the true purpose of advertising, how to remove the guesswork from marketing, how to win customers, the value of being specific, why it pays to give things away for free and a hell of a lot more.
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Contributors: Chris Bilko from Toffee Copy
#20 Influence by Robert Cialdini
Influence was never designed to be for marketers but is one of the best books on marketing. This book teaches some of the basics of cognitive biases. This helps you understand why people make buying decisions that can seem irrational.
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Contributors: Brian Carl from BrianCarl
#21 Get Rich Click by Marc Ostrofsky
A great, must-read business tech book is Get Rich Click! The Ultimate Guide to Making Money on the Internet by Marc Ostrofsky. Ostrofsky is an investor who has fine-tuned the art of Internet domain investing; he lives and breathes his craft. After reading this book, our perspective on marketing our business has drastically changed for the better. Even as the Internet and technology continue to evolve year after year, the fundamental lessons, proven business strategies and techniques found in this book still serve as inspiration and motivation for us in our day-to-day business activities.
I have read this book at least twice, and some of our workers and interns have followed in my footsteps and have read this great book cover to cover. This book shows anyone how to jump into the mix early on and capitalize on an idea. After reading a book like this, your perspective on your business or potential business will drastically change for the better.
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Contributors: Ian Aronovich from Government Auctions
#22 Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping by Paco Underhill
This is the book that made me think about all of the details that go into the shopping experience. Originally written in 1999 and updated in 2008, the book highlights everything from the colors, scents, and textures that you experience in a clothing store to the design of supermarket end caps and how effective they are giving you what you need when you need it. It's a short read, but the shopping psychology that you learn about will be long-lived.
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Contributors: Scott Fish from 32° Digital Marketing
#23 Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk
This book is a must read if you plan on working in the social media marketing world. Gary Vee is an industry leader when it comes to social media and puts out daily content with practical advice on how to grow a business in this space. Coupled with some F-bombs and motivational rants. If this guy makes a book about social media then I’m buying.
Want to read more reviews of this book or buy it? Check out the links below:
Contributors: Tim Absalikov, co-founder, and CEO of Lasting Trend
#24 Purple Cow by Seth Godin
This book is unique in the sense that it’s not just a book written from one person’s point of view but from many successful people’s point of view. The overall message of the book is to find a way to stand out in a sea of competitors. He uses the analogy “if you drove by a herd of cows and standing in the field is a purple cow you have to tell someone because it is so different.” When something forces you to remark on it, it is by definition remarkable.
Want to read more reviews of this book or buy it? Check out the links below:
Contributors: Tim Absalikov, co-founder, and CEO of Lasting Trend
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Must have!
#25 Traction by Gino Wickman
This book goes over each tried, tested and true marketing channel that any marketer should test out for their business. It gives real results and pitfalls from the field and how to approach each one. This is a great way to approach a new business or product for the first time.
Want to read more reviews of this book or buy it? Check out the links below:
Contributors: Kean Graham from MonetizeMore
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