The power of books goes beyond what can easily be expressed through words, which is quite ironic. There is no end to learning and this fact has been repeated by most of the most influential people in the world. This is also the case with digital marketing – the day you stop learning, you stop growing.
The learning curve in digital marketing
Survival in the digital marketing industry depends on how eager you are to learn and how quickly you learn things. Both are properties that you can easily memorize and edit. The better you get, the better you will do in this industry.
A good digital marketer is always aware of the latest trends and technologies that are coming to the market. While the rise of online digital marketing courses has been extremely helpful for aspiring marketers, the only way to teach the nuances of the profession is through books.
Top 15 books for every digital marketer
To get a deeper understanding of the various aspects of digital marketing, here are the top 15 books that every digital marketer needs to read:
1. Sell the invisible
From Harry Beckwith
In this book, the author has discussed the ways people go before buying, buying a service and where the end product is invisible. What he means is that marketers should be more focused on the things people can see, how they look, how they look, their website, etc.
By focusing on the emotional benefits of the things they can see, you are encouraging them to invest in your product or service.
2. Made to Stick – Why some ideas survive and others die
From Chip and Dan Heath
As the title suggests, the book walks you through techniques to capture ideas. It also explains the “Velcro Theory of Memory”, which helps conceptualize good ideas.
Reading this book will definitely help you improve your communication skills and come up with ideas that are effective.
3. Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Hold Your Customers
By Jay Baer
This book is designed to help readers understand how to deal with customers and ensure they stay with you. It’s about getting the message across that digital marketing is so much more than just good campaigns.
It will help you understand how the customer’s mind works. You will gain a better understanding of how to deal with positive and negative feedback that you receive on social media and other online channels. Combating negative feedback with humility is one of the most important things it will teach you.
4. Permission Marketing: Strangers become friends and friends become customers
By Seth Godin
The book focuses on the basics of digital marketing “Permission Marketing” and explains in detail the process of running campaigns and how to create brand messages that your audience will like.
It helps understand how fancy thinking builds strong relationships with online prospects. At its core, it is about how marketing done with permission ends up in a situation that is profitable for both the company and its prospects.
5. Guerrilla Marketing
By Jay Conrad Levinson
The author urges readers never to limit themselves to using only ideas that are close to what the others are doing. It’s about allowing yourself to pursue ideas that go outside the box.
Whether it’s a specific tactic or just a variety of ideas, guerrilla marketing is about making sure you don’t set any limits to your creativity.
6. Ogilvy on advertising
By David Ogilvy
This book is intended to help readers get an idea of the basic principles of advertising as these are very important to a digital marketer. You will learn what kind of brand messages work, with which target group type and how you can position your brand in such a way that it comes into its own more effectively.
It helps in understanding the various digital marketing techniques as it goes back to the roots. In the end, you’ll get a much clearer knowledge of how to get your audience’s attention and get them familiar with your products.
7. The E-Myth revised
By Michael E. Gerber
Debunking the popular “entrepreneur myth” glorifying the sole business owner discusses the importance of preparing a good team and a set process that ensures quality is maintained.
This book should be on every digital marketer’s bookshelf as it provides an in-depth knowledge of how to run a business without constant intervention.
It emphasizes the importance of putting together a good team because without one you are doomed as a single person can only do so much. You need more people to grow.
8th Experience: The 7th Era of Marketing
By Robert Rose and Carla Johnson
Focusing on helping new age marketers understand the importance of experimental marketing in our time, the authors explain how much consumer expectations are constantly rising in the highly competitive marketplace. It helps marketers gain valuable insight into the current marketing scenario.
9. Scientific advertising
By Claude Hopkins
The fact that we keep coming back to books after the endless information available on the Internet is a remarkable achievement in itself, and proves that books have stood the test of time.
In this book, Hopkins explains that marketing is based on lines of thought. What he advocates is achievable is the quantifiable ROI (return on investment). He explained how marketers have used numbers to create effective campaigns since the coupons began.
Numbers and research are the two factors that will help you understand your audience better, and both practices have stood the test of time.
10. Building a story brand
By Donald Miller
Every digital marketer out there knows the importance of good storytelling and the impact it has on audiences. With the help of his book, Miller introduces readers to concepts that help create clear content that brands can use to communicate effectively with people.
Your campaign should not only excite the audience but also the creator. This is the mindset that reading this book will help the reader develop.
11. How to tell your story in a noisy social world
By Gary Vaynerchuk
With the ever growing number of users, the noise and clutter that social media houses create is on another level. This book will help marketers gain a deeper understanding of how each platform works and how you should plan your campaigns taking into account how different platforms work differently.
It helps marketers understand the different social media platforms and make sure their campaigns get noticed.
12. Contagious – Why things prevail
From Jonah Berger
One of the greatest sensations that the digital space has brought to the world is called virality. Everyone knows the term, but the art behind the phenomenon is still not clear. People like to be social, share things, and express their opinions. All of these things have been explained at length in this book by Berger.
13. The Copywriter’s Guide: A step-by-step guide to writing a sold copy
By Robert W. Bly
Since content creation is about finding the right words, learning the basics of copywriting as well as designing creative campaigns is an essential part of being a successful digital marketer.
All the basics are covered in this book by Robert Bly. Whether you are interested in the creative or the analytical aspect of digital marketing, this book will be helpful for growing a digital marketer’s career.
14. The Lean Startup
From Eric Ries
This book by Ries explains the author’s popular “lean” startup concept. A “lean” startup first creates a minimum product and then tests it on real people after the small version of the proposed website, product, etc. becomes a reality.
The features can then be increased when people give positive feedback, rather than increasing functions that no one will enjoy. Digital marketers should take up this book to understand that nobody gets it right the first time. It’s a process.
15. Hooked: How to build habit building products
From Nir Eyal
All of the big brands like Facebook, Google, and others have mastered consumer psychology which has helped create lasting value. As you progress in digital marketing, you need to understand why certain products or services are being sold while others are not. All of these concepts and much more are covered in depth in this book.
Conclusion
If you haven’t read any of them, or maybe you haven’t read some of them and are even able to cover five books a year, this will help you improve your digital marketing skills tremendously. The question now is: how committed are you to becoming a good digital marketer?
