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These Books Explain All You Need to Know About Marketing Basics

Books for Learning Marketing Basics

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Reading all one of the following books is all that it takes to go from a complete beginner in Marketing to having a solid understanding of the fundamentals of this skill. Don’t wait to expand your skill-set, take a look below.

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Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

This product was recommended by Elliot Simmonds from DJS Research Ltd

As one of the Founding Fathers of behavioural economics, Daniel Kahneman essentially revolutionised the way we think about decision making and external influences – passive and active – on our cognitive behaviour. For marketers this book provides a framework which should underpin every interaction with customers and prospects – but is particularly relevant to positioning and mar-comms. Developing an understanding that customers are not rational thinkers – be they consumers or business-to-business decision makers and buyers – is key to understanding how to better influence them, and Kahneman walks us through the System 1 and System 2 model of human decision making in an engaging and enlightening way, whilst still providing the rigour expected from a Nobel Laureate. For those who have read Blink (Gladwell) or Inside the Nudge Unit (Halpern) – this is the predecessor.


Email Marketing Mastery by Tom Corson-Knowles

This product was recommended by Valerie Frolova from Snov

This book covers the basics of email marketing and will be perfect for beginners. Through it, readers can learn how email marketing works, analyze when it’s a good time to implement email marketing campaigns in their company, and how to overcome technical difficulties. What we also like about this book is that it offers a practical checklist of factors to consider and provides useful case studies that can help email marketing beginners set up autoresponders and get the most out of them.


Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing for Business by Susan Gunelius

This product was recommended by Valerie Frolova from Snov

This book is a must-read for small business owners, entrepreneurs, and everyone taking their first steps in email marketing. It covers all the basics – from email list building to revenue generation by using email marketing techniques, such as simple conversion funnels, “freebie magnets,” basic list segmentation, targeting methods, etc. In the second part of the book, readers will find information about email list analysis, key metrics, proper usage of personalization, and even basic automation mechanisms.


The New Email Revolution by Robert W. Bly

This product was recommended by Valerie Frolova from Snov

This is a great copywriting book for beginners that teaches its readers how to get subscribers to read their messages. In it, you’ll find secret tactics, copywriting techniques, templates, as well as learn how to use visual, audio, and video content.


How to Be a Brand Boss by Christina Mascaro

This product was recommended by Christina Mascaro from ChristinaMascaro

After meeting with dozens of private clients in Texas and giving workshops on marketing strategy, I put together multiple worksheets that eventually I developed into a book. Not only do I walk my clients through these worksheets, I used the same exact strategy for the auto group AND the startup. This journal has tried and true information that every business needs to answer BEFORE they start spending money on things like Google Adwords or Facebook Advertising. Ideally, you should be in the process of creating your website or perhaps looking at ‘redesigning’ your website so you can apply these strategies


Trade Show Samurai by Mike Moyer

This product was recommended by Mike Moyer from Fair & Square Ventures, LLC

Trade Show Samurai covers a basic marketing engagement strategy for trade show exhibitors that dramatically increases their ability to capture leads on the trade show floor. Most trade show exhibitors take in-booth activities for granted and, therefore, overlook incredible opportunity to increase the overall effectiveness of their efforts. In fact, just one simple change can literally *quadruple* lead flow. This essential guide is a real eye-opener for trade show rookies or experienced executives alike.


Contagious by Jonah Berger

This product was recommended by Karl Armstrong from EpicWin App

The book that I recommend is Jonah Berger’s Contagious: Why Things Catch On. In this book, Berger shares marketing ideas and tips which can help businesses go viral for a small amount of money to nothing at all. One of the stories in the book that stood out to me was about a secret restaurant that you can only have access to if you dial a certain number on a phonebooth. After every meal inside the secret restaurant, customers will receive a business card that states “Please don’t tell.” This idea creates a fun experience for the customers and gives customers a sense of honor. The card that says “Please don’t tell” acts as a trigger for word-of-mouth since most of the people will do tell about their excellent experience. Jonah Berger also introduced a framework called STEPS which allows ideas to stick and be contagious. This framework suggests, for a business to go viral, to have an attention-catching product that can market itself. This particular product should capture the emotions of consumers and should be practical at the same time. Additionally, your concept should fit in a good story for a more marketable strategy.


Fanocracy by David Meerman Scott

This product was recommended by Paige Arnof-Fenn from Mavens & Moguls

David¹s new book is a real world practitioner’s guide from someone who has lived the job from the front line, he has been there and done it so he tells it like it is not theoretically but from the trenches. The name of the game today s how to get your fans engaged online and here is the manual to do it..


Everybody Writes by Ann Handley

This product was recommended by Paige Arnof-Fenn from Mavens & Moguls

Handley argues that in an online world everyone is a writer so you need to learn how to create content that attracts and retains people¹s attention. She provides practical tips, easy grammar and usage rules that are valuable whether you are working with a big brand or startup these are best practices that will make your writing better. Great advice we can all benefit from now more than ever.


Strong Girl, Brave Girl by Kelsey Baldwin

This product was recommended by D. Gilson from AutoInsurance

Almost any marketing book can teach you some basics about marketing, from SEO writing to Google Analytics, that will help you, sure, but will also become quickly outdated. I love Strong Girl, Brave Girl because it’s a compelling story about how one woman started a successful marketing-focused company, Paper & Oats, in the face of adversity. A lot of similar memoirs exist on the executive level, from books by Oprah to Howard Schultz, but Kelsey Baldwin gives us a story that is both relatable and inspiring, and further, one that can teach us to take our own journey and make a successful marketing business out of it.


Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller

This product was recommended by Dylan Gordon from HustlerSource

The most influential book on marketing I’ve ever read is called Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller. This book focuses primarily on creating a brand that is easily understandable by your audience, so they get a clear message of what you offer! Since a confused mind always says no, it’s important to make your message crystal clear from the first touch point with your potential customer. It’s a great read if you want to improve your branding and have a better relationship with your audience!


The Marketing Book by Jason McDonald

This product was recommended by Zhen Tang from AiLaw

The Marketing Book by Jason McDonald is one of the best marketing books I have ever read. My favorite part of the book is the lighthearted, fun way that the author digs in on topics like targeting, SEO, brainstorming, figuring out what your customers really want, and much more. The chapters are divided up logically, so it’s easy to skip around if you have expertise in one or more areas already. Even non-business owners will appreciate the lessons in “The Marketing Book” because it pulls the veil off what smart business owners do all the time.


Influence by Robert B. Cialdini

This product was recommended by Ryan Watson from Marketer Abroad

Before you market any product, you first need to understand what your audience cares about and what drives them to say yes. This book gave me the core understanding to be able to persuade, influence and be successful with marketing. It helps you to better understand people and apply it in your marketing.


This is Marketing by Seth Godin

This product was recommended by Layton Cox from N/A

Seth Godin is a fantastic marketer. He inspires marketers to go above and beyond advertising or campaigns. Focusing on how marketing can change the world for the better, and the change that marketing drives is all up to the marketer, Seth Godin not only touches on the fundamentals of marketing in the modern world, but also how marketing can be more than click-through-rates and Jedi mind tricks. All marketers, both experienced and green, should make this a required reading.


Building Strong Brands by David Aaker

This product was recommended by Layton Cox from N/A

David Aaker is a legend in how to build brands and create branding relationships with customers. In Building Strong Brands, Aaker lays out a simple, yet robust, framework for markets, product developers, and executives to use when addressing the idea of a brand. Leverging product advantages and company advantages while humanizing and personalizing brands, Aaker is nothing short of brilliant in his quick and efficient thesis on how to build a strong brand.


Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis

This product was recommended by Serhat Kaya from Growth Show

No matter what size your business is, this book provides an real world examples and processes of analyzing and developing customer success strategies. Especially for startups who would like to grow fast it brings great value. The authors show how big players like Dropbox got their marketing to a viral growth level. The book is structured in two parts: “Part 1: The Method” where it introduces the process of Growth Hacking, how to set up growth teams and the best ways to execute growth hacking in your company. “Part 2: The Growth Hacking Playbook” is where the book explains how to implement the tactics. Deep diving into acquisition, activation, retention and monetization it shows how other great companies already implemented the strategy. It’s a book for marketing practitioners who’d like to grow fast.


Blitzscaling by Reid Hoffmann

This product was recommended by Serhat Kaya from Growth Show

Blitzscaling is must-read literature for marketers in a fast-growing startup. The book covers tactics that might help you design your company for incredible growth. Author Reid Hoffmann, who is a seasoned Entrepreneur and known as Co-Founder of LinkedIn, explains how to blitz scale with cases he has seen and been involved with. For instance, how did Airbnb manage to figure out why its growth is stagnating in New York City, and what did they do to solve the problem? This and more are hidden gems in this book which might inspire one in its thoughts on Marketing.


How To Turn Clicks Into Customers by James Marques

This product was recommended by James Marques from Iconic Genius

I recommend this book because it gives you actionable digital marketing strategies that you can start using before you even finish it! What I like most is that this book shares a few mainstays in digital marketing that will never ever change


Public Relations Strategies For Small Business Owners by Jolene Rheault

This product was recommended by Jolene Rheault from Refresh Marketing

Public relations is one of the fastest-growing marketing strategies available, and yet one of the least understood. It is no wonder that many small businesses have admitted the need for a public relations strategy, but do not know where to begin. Whether business owners face financial, logistical, or educational obstacles, the problem is a real one for most small businesses. This guide has been broken down into digestible pieces in four identified areas of public relations: press releases, social media, community relations, and media relations, that correlate strongly with producing a return on investment.


Zero to One Zero To One By Peter Thiel

This product was recommended by Dipesh Purohit from Blogging Kraft

It is a Great book for all the Bloggers and entrepreneurs or anyone thinking of starting a business. This book goes through all the aspects of starting a business and building it. Buried within a book on business and startups is a deep thesis about the relationship between technology, society, and our historical moment. There are subtlety and thoughtfulness that are rare in the business book Genre. In the author’s own strange but beautiful philosophy startups is a kind of salvation from societal decline and stagnation. This makes the book more interesting and important. I recommend this book for all the bloggers and entrepreneurs because it gives a new insight or perspective into business.


Psycho-Cybernetics by Dr Maltz

This product was recommended by Dipesh Purohit from Blogging Kraft

In psycho Cybernetics as its name implies, it guides you through a journey of exploring how does the human mind perceive the environment and it is psychological makeup. The thing that really impressed me was that this book is considered the guru of self-help books written since 1960, and many of the books I’ve read contained many principles Dr Maltz mentioned. The writer was a plastic surgeon he wasn’t a psychologist. He noticed that many of his patients came to him complaining about their ugly noses or an apparent scar and believing that due to those disfigurements they had a miserable life or unsuccessful business or marriages. After the surgeries their lives changed dramatically, the question raised was, why? The beautiful nose nor the scar changed their environment or that their IQs increased. Thus there must be something in their own minds something has to do with their own perception of the environment and attitudes towards it that changed, something that didn’t come from the outside, it came from within!


The Entrepreneur Mind by Kevin D Johnson

This product was recommended by Dipesh Purohit from Blogging Kraft

This is the real story of what it will take to succeed, from a guy that has done it. Right from the introduction, Kevin lays out the roadmap to successful entrepreneurship succinctly, directly and without hype or fluff. Elite entrepreneurs respond quickly, put their business first, consult with mentors often, hire the best team, create an environment of stressful urgency, use time wisely. – Kevin Johnson As Kevin clearly spells out, your critical thinking processes and your ability to deliver are the keys to determine your reality, not your status, standing, enthusiasm or potential. He also focuses on some of the more specific topics around your life, attitude & what it will take to develop a winning entrepreneurial mind. I reckon he might’ve also had his eye on some us older, more seasoned campaigners when he wrote this book. Kevin D Johnson’s book is without question the best I’ve read this year, and any aspiring (or struggling) entrepreneur should make this the very first book that they read before they take another single step. So do yourself a favour; learn the rules, and play. I personally liked this book a lot and It really helped a lot in my blog’s success. I recommend this book to everyone who wants to be an entrepreneur.


The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss

This product was recommended by Dipesh Purohit from Blogging Kraft

Timothy Ferriss’s book the Four Hour work Week is incredible in its own way. A few of the managers came back pretty impressed, so I cadged a copy off of a manager and skimmed/read it one sitting Friday night. Then add a dash of narcissistic personality disorder to get an idea of the tone of this book. The part of the book that I greatly enjoyed concerned time management and gave valuable tips on how not to be such a fucking patsy at work. He offers great advice on handling email (check only twice a day) and handling it (send clear if-then emails). But in this day of telecommuting, this is really less radical than he makes it sound. He makes a good case for quitting any job that doesn’t allow working from home on a regular basis. It’s too bad that the rest of the book couldn’t take on the same humorous and likeable tone while making its sometimes valid points. I guess you could sum up this book like this: There’s no TEAM in I. This book is one of the books that influenced me to quit everything and start a blog and it is working fine by me.


The One Thing. by Gary Keller

This product was recommended by Dipesh Purohit from Blogging Kraft

The one thing is another such book that actually changes the way you look at things. This book is really deep. While the title is easily marketable I felt the insight was really profound and one of those books I’ll definitely need to reference throughout my journey. This book goes through the mental aspect of the business and how can you focus more and more on what you do.


NO BS Direct Marketing by Dan Kennedy

This product was recommended by Kyle Battis from NH Strategic Marketing

Dan is the godfather of direct marketing and this book is a great foundational book for anyone aspiring to learn the basics of marketing.


DotCom Secrets by Russell Brunson

This product was recommended by Kyle Battis from NH Strategic Marketing

While this is a newer book and more focused on Online marketing, it has some phenomenal explanations of the basics of marketing that should help anyone looking to understand marketing.


Don’t Sell Me, Tell Me by Greg Koorhan

This product was recommended by Greg Koorhan from Don’t Sell Me, Tell Me

A bestseller on Amazon for more than 22 weeks, the book has been praised, not only for simplifying storytelling structure and techniques, but also for the chapters on positioning your brand and finding your unique value. The included workbook and exercises serve as brand therapy giving you. as a business owner, a solid, meaningful foundation on which to build your marketing message.


The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott

This product was recommended by Stephanie Lane from SafeSpaceHub

This book has become a marketing tool classic. It reviews how to use social media, online video, mobile applications, blogs, news releases, and viral marketing to reach customers. It offers readers an action plan for using the internet to boost sales and the brand’s name, all while being frugal. With new tools and case studies to learn from, this book is a must-read.


Accidental Genius by Mark Levy

This product was recommended by Roy Harmon from Advertoscope

The technique Levy describes in this book has helped me solve marketing problems, develop marketing strategies, write great marketing content, and more. It’s easy to implement, and I made a free tool to make it even easier.


Purple Cow by Seth Godin

This product was recommended by Alex Capozzolo from Brotherly Love Properties

Hard to not love a book with this title. Purple Cow is foundational across all industries when it comes to marketing because it starts with your mindset. This book will save you time and make you more money as a marketer, business owner, or entrepreneur. Godin has saved me hours and hours of wasted marketing efforts through the relevant examples he outlines in the book. He reminds us all that we don’t need to reinvent the wheel, but we do need to be different. Create your own category within an existing category for demand, and your ‘Purple Cow’ does most of the marketing for you.


Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith

This product was recommended by Manny Hernandez from Wealth Growth Wisdom, LLC

This is a less well-known but amazing book packed with excellent tips for marketing to consumers! The author gives a great introduction to value-based selling propositions and valuable insight into the emotions that affect customers’ decisions. It is extremely interesting and essential for people in sales but helpful to all walks of life. It is also an easy read yet contains a large amount of actionable advice.


Brand New Name by Jeremy Miller

This product was recommended by Ahmed Ali from DSRPT

Whether you are naming a company, product, service, or even an idea, choosing a brand name is the most challenging and important business decision that you will make. An excellent name defines your business and brand and it can shape the future of your business. In this book, you will discover how names can persuade people and get stuck in their minds.


Content Marketing For Traffic And Sales by Daniel Daines-Hutt

This product was recommended by Ahmed Ali from DSRPT

It is perfect for any marketer who feels like their content isn’t doing what it should. It’s ideal for you if you feel like your content is missing something. This book shows you what content will turn things around for you and then tell you how you can make the most of that content. This book will teach you how to effectively set up your content so that it sells on automation. When your marketing is automated, you’ll reduce your costs.


#AskGaryVee by Gary Vaynerchuk

This product was recommended by Ahmed Ali from DSRPT

Vaynerchuk’s most recent book is the best book for marketers right now. It has the most comprehensive and up-to-date ideas about how to sell online. It’s been described by other reviewers as honest, practical, unconventional, and even outrageous. With this book, you can learn how to use Twitter effectively, hire the right people, create a personal brand, and even stay healthy.


The Brain by David Eagleman

This product was recommended by Shayan Fatani from PureVPN

I am suggesting this book because it is a fun and informative guide into the science of how complex we are as human beings. It is an essential part of marketing to understand consumer behavior. The book scratches the surface of neuroscience not making it too complex to comprehend and helping the reader understand and digest the information provided. As a marketer, it helped me understand consumer behavior and how mere decisions can make a huge impact. One example of this is Priming, where you can use associations made in the user’s subconscious to drive a decision for example if you play french music in your retail outlet, it may increase the sales of french wine.


Permission Marketing by Seth Godin

This product was recommended by Nick Bond from Renovation 320

This book is great for anyone learning the basics behind the consumer mindset and is foundational for how we look at marketing today.


The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco

This product was recommended by Mike Beatty from Make Time Online

This book is not strictly about marketing, it is more about overall business lessons, particularly for start-up entrepreneurs. But it is one of the best books I have read to help with marketing. MJ even claims that… The Queen is the most powerful piece in chess and it is also in business. Marketing can convince people to buy mediocre products. The book goes into more specifics about how to rise above the noise and the power of brands instead of businesses. If you have any interest in building a business or marketing then this book will certainly be one of the best ones you’ll pick up.


The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout

This product was recommended by Benjamin Houy from Grow With Less

When i read this book for the first time, I was blown away by how much sense it made. It made me aware of lots of obvious mistakes I, and other businesses were making. This is an essential read for anyone who wants to create successful marketing campaigns and avoid common mistakes. It’s also a rather short book so there is no excuse not to read it.

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