The Best B2B Marketing Books – 2021 Edition

Effective creative strategies and campaigns for business owners or marketers. Whether it’s on the Web, in a book, or live in-person, the most effective solutions are those that unexpectedly grab our attention. David Langton and Anita Campbell identify eye-catching and thought-provoking marketing and PR tips, ideas, and creative stunts. This compendium of winning ideas will inspire small business leaders, creative professionals, and students. Why read Visual Marketing? The world is visual. We use our eyes to take in much of the content that influences our behavior, tempers our reactions, and informs our decisions. Whether it’s on the web, in a brochure, or live in person, the most effective solutions are the ones that unexpectantly grab our attention. And in the work-from-home world we now find ourselves in, being visual is more important then ever.

This is one of the best books on selling to other businesses. The key reason is that it encourages the seller to consider the whole product from the buyer’s perspective. Very few products exist in a bubble, and instead often need the seller to consider the other tools the customers are using, and how to fit that into your sales process. Crossing the Chasm is a classic in B2B marketing, especially in the tech space!

B2B marketing is complex, there are several buyers involved in one deal and it takes a robust technology stack to nurture and manage the lead to revenue process. Marketing Automation Unleashed gives marketers a roadmap of how to use marketing automation to best target their buyers, activate their content, align with sales, and drive more leads to build more pipeline. The book is filled with practical takeaways and memorable anecdotes for readers to start utilizing its tactics in their own businesses. It is one that every B2B marketer should read.

One of my favorite B2B marketing books is the Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne because it illustrates the need to position your company for success in open markets where your business is actually needed and not fight the commodity battle many professional services firm and B2B companies fall into. It’s an eye-opening read for most old school executives, especially ones that suggest doing something because we’ve always done it that way or because everyone else is doing it, hence the commodity.

To Sell is Human is the book I adore as it’s the one that thoroughly convinced me that the arts of gentle persuasion and good craftsmanship of words are so worth pursuing.Why?Because we’re all in sales.No matter what you do, no matter if you’re not even at work right now; if you’re trying to move anyone else to action based on what you say, then you’re selling to them your ideas, your viewpoint, your values.This is profound wisdom that once you truly get changes your perspective on life.

Drive by Daniel Pink is important because as a B2B marketer, a lot of your work is going to be directed toward motivating people to do certain things. This book breaks down the ideas around what motivates people, and delivers the insights on what actually motivates someone to act. He gives us the contrast between what business believes to work and what science proves works. Pink shows, through research and studies, that adding monetary incentives does not inspire us like many have believed. It only serves as a temporary boost but winds up fading fast.

The battlefields for B2B marketing (or marketing in general) are all new, but the same tactics work. This is an absolute classic, and while the case studies are dated, the methodology and mindset are even more critical today than ever. Think carefully about where, why, and how to position your brand – and you’ll be able to market successfully, whatever the niche.

This New Rules of Marketing & PR is a book that follows through on its title. It is extraordinarily comprehensive, refined by 5 previous generations, it covers everything internet marketing and more. If you buy any single book on marketing and follow it to the T, make it this one.

Predictable revenue is the strategy that made Salesforce the multi-billion dollar behemoth it is today. It’s old, but the same email strategy Aaron used all those years ago works just fine today.

If you ever want to write content you yourself would care enough to read, ask Ann. She is the content queen, equivalent to J.K. Rowling for marketing.

This is a good book in which we know why B2B marketing and sales are broken and how to fix it.

This book is your guide to transforming your role, your team and your business with the Full Funnel Marketing approach.

If you really, want to grow your business without wasting time and scarce money on marketing, buy this book and complete the exercises inside. You will not be disappointed. The chapters are in a logical order that builds from one marketing principle to another while working toward completing the plan. There are frequent referrals between concepts that tie everything together. Each chapter starts with a summary and a list of what Dib (Author) will be telling you in that chapter. Then, at the end of each chapter, Dib has an action item and instructions for filling in one block of the nine-block marketing plan. It is refreshing to read that Dib believes there is no longer (and maybe never was) a reason for not doing the work of determining the return on investment (ROI) for your marketing budget. Continuous improvement in marketing effectiveness is possible and required for a well-run business.

This book serves to enlighten readers about the challenges that marketers face and lays out a new framework for creating B2B marketing strategies and plans. Taylor is an award-winning senior marketing strategist who covers a lot of ground in her book while giving readers plenty to think about. The book highlights myths in the B2B marketing world. It gives practical advice and real-life stories in order to engage and educate readers.

Carlos Hidalgo provides a clear roadmap and framework on how B2B organizations can implement change management and transform their Demand Generation. Case studies and excerpts from B2B marketing practitioners and ANNUITAS clients who have transformed their organizations and how they accomplished this change are incorporated throughout the book.

Every entrepreneur and B2B business leader would benefit from reading the book Content That Converts: How to Build a Profitable and Predictable B2B Content Marketing Strategy by Laura Hanly. Laura teaches the step-by-step process of using content marketing to bring qualified leads into your funnel and how to convert them to paying customers. Laura demonstrates in her book how to develop recurring content systems and methods of distributing content effectively using email and SEO to expand your audience and create conversion opportunities into sales.

This book takes the approach that the reader doesn’t have any experience with B2B marketing. It starts with the basics, but it progressive to practical advice for how to get started and improve. Marketers of any experience – from none to extensive – can take their strategies to the next level after reading this book.