marketing research reference books

Library & Information Services

Marketing & marketing research guide: find reference books.

• Back to Lovejoy Library
• Marketing & Marketing Research Guide
• Find Reference Books
• Find Articles
• Cite Sources
• Important Library Marketing Databases
• Key Web Resources
• Research Guide to Marketing

  Select Handbooks and Reference Books on Marketing

• Companion Encyclopedia of Marketing by Baker, Michael John, ed. Call Number: Ref. HF5415 .C547353 1995
• The Dartnell Marketing Manager’s Handbook by Levy, Sidney J., George R. Frerichs, and Howard L. Gordon Call Number: Ref. HF5415.13 .D33 1994
• Dictionary of Marketing and Advertising by Rosenberg, Jerry Martin Call Number: Ref. HF5415 .R577 1995
• Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns. 2 vols. by Riggs, Thomas, ed. Call Number: Ref. HF5837 .E53 2000
• Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns. Volume 2 by Thomas Riggs Call Number: Online Resource HF5837 .E53 2007a Publication Date: 2007
• Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Strategies. Vol. 3 by Matthew Miskelly Call Number: Online Resource HF5837 .E532 2013 Publication Date: 2013 Continuation of "Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns."
• Handbook of Marketing by Weitz, Barton A., and Robin Wensley Call Number: Ref. HF5415 .H18665 2002
• The Handbook of Marketing Research: Uses, Misuses, and Future Advances by Grover, Rajiv, and Marco Vriens Call Number: HF 5415.2 .H286 2006
• Marketing Management. 12th ed. by Kotler, Philip, and Kevin Lane Call Number: Secure Bks. Colln. HF5415.13 .K64 2006 One of the classic and long-used text in marketing management.
• Marketing Scales Handbook: A Compilation of Multi-Item Measures. 4 vols. by Bruner, Gordon C., Paul J. Hensel, and Karen E. James Call Number: Ref. HF5415.3 .B785 1992 Handbook of scaling tools published by American Marketing Assoc. between 1992 and 2005
• Marketing Scales Handbook: A Compilation of Multi-Item Measures for Consumer Behavior & Advertising Research. Volume 5 by Gordon C. Bruner Call Number: Online Resource HF5415.3 .B785 2009a ISBN: Marketing Scales Handbook: A Compilation of Multi-Item Measures for Consumer Behavior & Advertising Research. Volume 5 Publication Date: 2009 Continuation of 4-volume print set above.
• Marketing Scales Handbook: A Compilation of Multi-Item Measures for Consumer Behavior & Advertising Research. Volume 6 by Gordon C. Bruner Call Number: Online Resource HF5415.3 .B785 2012a Publication Date: 2012 Online continuation of 4-volume print set above.
• Wiley International Encyclopedia of Marketing [electronic resource] Call Number: Online Resource HF5415 .W54 2011a Publication Date: 2011 To access chapters and articles therein, after linking to the online source, click on "Chapters" under the "FIND ARTICLES" link.
• << Previous: Find Articles
• Next: Cite Sources >>
• Last Updated: Sep 7, 2023 12:50 PM
• URL: https://libguides.siue.edu/c.php?g=370654

Marketing Research

Breadcrumbs Section. Click here to navigate to respective pages.

The Marketing Research Guide

DOI link for The Marketing Research Guide

Get Citation

• Internet sources of data and Internet surveys
• advanced statistical analysis
• decision-making information, planning, and forecasting
• test marketing
• developing valid and reliable measurement instruments
• data-collecting methods
• designing a questionnaire
• determining sampling frame and selecting sampling method
• data-summary methods and research reports
• mail survey design and mailing procedures
• full product testing techniques and procedures

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter chapter 1 | 23  pages, introduction to marketing research, chapter chapter 2 | 23  pages, research designs for management decisions, chapter chapter 3 | 23  pages, experimentation, chapter chapter 4 | 16  pages, measurement, chapter chapter 5 | 43  pages, introduction to data collection, chapter chapter 6 | 21  pages, designing the data-gatheing instrument, chapter chapter 7 | 25  pages, fielding the data-gathering instrument, chapter chapter 8 | 15  pages, sampling methods and sample size, chapter chapter 9 | 27  pages, analyzing and interpreting data for decisions, chapter chapter 10 | 24  pages, advanecd data analysis, chapter chapter 11 | 14  pages, the research report, chapter chapter 12 | 23  pages, industrial and international market research, chapter chapter 13 | 11  pages, mail surveys, chapter chapter 14 | 41  pages, concept/product testing.

• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions
• Cookie Policy
• Taylor & Francis Online
• Taylor & Francis Group
• Students/Researchers
• Librarians/Institutions

Connect with us

Registered in England & Wales No. 3099067 5 Howick Place | London | SW1P 1WG © 2024 Informa UK Limited

• Email Sign-Up

eBook: Exploring Marketing Research | 11th Edition

About this product.

EXPLORING MARKETING RESEARCH, 11E, provides a thorough guide to the design, execution, analysis, and reporting of marketing research to support effective business decisions. The text prepares students to approach marketing research from a management perspective rather than as hands-on practitioners, providing valuable business context while introducing both traditional research methods, such as designing questionnaires, and the latest technological advances, including current data collection devices, data analysis tools, practical approaches to data analytics, and the impact of social media and artifactual online data. In addition to updates based on recent trends and technology, the new 11th Edition features an increased emphasis on ethical and international issues, reflecting their growing importance in modern marketing research.

Root out friction in every digital experience, super-charge conversion rates, and optimize digital self-service

Uncover insights from any interaction, deliver AI-powered agent coaching, and reduce cost to serve

Increase revenue and loyalty with real-time insights and recommendations delivered to teams on the ground

Know how your people feel and empower managers to improve employee engagement, productivity, and retention

Take action in the moments that matter most along the employee journey and drive bottom line growth

Whatever they’re are saying, wherever they’re saying it, know exactly what’s going on with your people

Get faster, richer insights with qual and quant tools that make powerful market research available to everyone

Run concept tests, pricing studies, prototyping + more with fast, powerful studies designed by UX research experts

Track your brand performance 24/7 and act quickly to respond to opportunities and challenges in your market

Explore the platform powering Experience Management

• Free Account
• Product Demos
• For Digital
• For Customer Care
• For Human Resources
• For Researchers
• Financial Services
• All Industries

Popular Use Cases

Customer Experience

• Employee Experience
• Net Promoter Score
• Voice of Customer
• Customer Success Hub
• Product Documentation
• Training & Certification
• XM Institute
• Popular Resources
• Customer Stories
• Artificial Intelligence
• Market Research
• Partnerships
• Marketplace

The annual gathering of the experience leaders at the world’s iconic brands building breakthrough business results, live in Salt Lake City.

• English/AU & NZ
• Español/Europa
• Español/América Latina
• Português Brasileiro
• REQUEST DEMO

5 must-read market research books

Updated May 23, 2024

Our list of the top books for market researchers and business leaders is in! We searched high and low to find the best books on market research - check out some of our favorites and see our full list of must-read books.

Want to see more must-read titles? Check out our free ebook, 24 Essential Books for Researchers in 2024 .

1. The Disruption Mindset: Why Some Organizations Transform While Others Fail

By Charlene Li

Charlene Li upturns our thinking and suggests that disruption doesn’t create growth – growth creates disruption. She argues that disruption goes beyond innovation and provides a roadmap with three key areas: Strategy designed to meet the needs of future customers; leadership that creates a movement to drive and sustain transformation; and a culture that thrives on disruptive change.

By using prominent brand examples, including T-Mobile, Adobe, ING Bank, Amazon, Starbucks, Electrolux, SHNU, Nokia, Microsoft and Southwest, Li gives plenty of  Big Gulp Moments to inspire people to make cultural changes that prepare you for disruption. Invest in this book, think about the ideas and make up your own mind.

2. Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior 

By Jonah Berger

Social influence is the invisible influence, according to the New York Times bestselling author, Jonah Berger. He explores the subtle influences that affect the decisions we make – from what we buy, to the careers we choose, to what we eat.

Berger explores some of the more subtle ways – like imitating other people or avoiding actions that may impact others’ opinions of you – to more overt ways that give you a peek under the cover of an unconscious system.

Read this if you’re looking for a fast read that digs into the psychology around why people sometimes behave differently, or comply with predicted behavior patterns.

3. The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact

By Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Read about the experiment in which two strangers meet in a room, and—forty-five minutes later—they leave as best friends. Author and brother duo, Chip and Dan Heath, bring ‘moments’ into the limelight, with this fantastic collection of stories to delight and inspire you into action.

They explore (as the title suggests) how our most powerful moments are formed and how, by tapping into these elements, researchers and marketers can create more moments that matter and elevate the experiences they deliver.

4. Marketing to Mindstates: The Practical Guide to Applying Behavior Design to Research and Marketing

By Will Leach

Your non-conscious mind will filter out more than 99 percent of marketing you “see” today. So how do you make sure your marketing is part of the 1% that people don’t filter out?

In this book, Will Leach demystifies this nonconscious filter and explains how to bypass it, introducing readers to temporary moments of influence called mindstates. With a book that’s as practical as it is inspiring, Leach provides a powerful handbook for any marketer or researcher who wants to design creative that compels people to listen, care, and act.

5. Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals

By Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic

Storytelling is an increasingly important skill for any researcher. When it comes to presenting your insights and recommendations, the way you present them is often as important as the insights themselves, and getting stakeholders on board ensures they’re listened to and acted on.

Cole Nussbaumer Knafic’s book walks you through the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ of telling stories with data from the way you visualize it to how you communicate it to different audiences. This book should be on every researcher’s shelves, and is packed with practical examples of how you can say goodbye to stale graphics, and use new approaches to deliver research with real impact.

Unlock the secrets to powerful market research

Whether you're looking to sharpen your market research skills or gain new insights into consumer behavior, these essential books are your key to unlocking more effective, impactful research strategies.

Eager to explore further? Download our free ebook to access the complete list and begin revolutionizing your market research approach today.

Free eBook: 24 essential books for researchers in 2024

Qualtrics // Experience Management

Qualtrics, the leader and creator of the experience management category, is a cloud-native software platform that empowers organizations to deliver exceptional experiences and build deep relationships with their customers and employees.

With insights from Qualtrics, organizations can identify and resolve the greatest friction points in their business, retain and engage top talent, and bring the right products and services to market. Nearly 20,000 organizations around the world use Qualtrics’ advanced AI to listen, understand, and take action. Qualtrics uses its vast universe of experience data to form the largest database of human sentiment in the world. Qualtrics is co-headquartered in Provo, Utah and Seattle.

Related Articles

August 6, 2024

Experience Management

Qualtrics’ commitment to secure and private AI

July 11, 2024

4 takeaways for government leaders from X4 2024

June 12, 2024

X4 London 2024: The power of humanised intelligence

June 11, 2024

Qualtrics named a Leader in Forrester Customer Journey Orchestration Platforms Wave

June 3, 2024

Meet the industry leaders addressing rising expectations with XM

May 30, 2024

Must-read customer experience books for 2024

May 24, 2024

How DISH is using insights to set the stage for post-merger success

May 20, 2024

Improving government customer experience: Insights from rankings and research analysis

Stay up to date with the latest xm thought leadership, tips and news., request demo.

Ready to learn more about Qualtrics?

• Business & Money
• Marketing & Sales

Sorry, there was a problem.

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

Market Research in Practice: An Introduction to Gaining Greater Market Insight 4th Edition

Learn the fundamentals of market research with this bestselling guide that delivers an overview of the whole process, from planning a project and executing it, what tools to use, through to analysis and presenting the findings. Market Research in Practice provides a practical and robust introduction to the subject, providing a clear step-by-step guide to managing market research and how to effectively to obtain the most reliable results. Written by an industry expert with over 35 years' practical experience in running a successful market research agency, tips and advice are included throughout to ground the concepts in business reality. This text also benefits from real-world examples from companies including Adidas, Marks & Spencer, Grohe and General Motors. Now in its fourth edition, Market Research in Practice is now fully updated to capture the latest changes and developments in the field and explores new tools of qualitative research using online methods as well as expanding further on online surveys such as SurveyMonkey. Accompanied by a range of templates, surveys and resources for lecturers, this is an invaluable guide for students of research methods, researchers, marketers and users of market research.

• ISBN-10 1398602825
• ISBN-13 978-1398602823
• Edition 4th
• Publisher Kogan Page
• Publication date November 30, 2021
• Language English
• Dimensions 6.69 x 9.65 x 1.06 inches
• Print length 392 pages
• See all details

Products related to this item

From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews

About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Kogan Page; 4th edition (November 30, 2021)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 392 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1398602825
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1398602823
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.92 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.69 x 9.65 x 1.06 inches
• #141 in Business Marketing
• #177 in Market Research Business (Books)

About the author

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 5 star 61% 32% 7% 0% 0% 61%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 4 star 61% 32% 7% 0% 0% 32%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 3 star 61% 32% 7% 0% 0% 7%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 2 star 61% 32% 7% 0% 0% 0%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 61% 32% 7% 0% 0% 0%

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

Top reviews from other countries.

• About Amazon
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Sell products on Amazon
• Sell on Amazon Business
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Become an Affiliate
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Host an Amazon Hub
• › See More Make Money with Us
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Amazon and COVID-19
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices

• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

The Top 10 Marketing Books of All Times (Updated 2024)

• Sales & Marketing

Sinan Hatahet

We have updated this list and added more marketing books that every marketer should cover if they want to accelerate their growth in this field. Below this first list, we have added more marketing books specifically tailored for advanced marketers and essential reads for any digital marketer to add to your reading list immediately.

Suppose you are in the online marketing business. In that case, you already know that regardless of how many academic courses you took in college or how many hours you spent listening to your teachers, the most you will ever gain is some basic knowledge that will not take you to the cutting edge.

Online marketing is a highly evolving field with new techniques, theories, tactics, and tools emerging every day, and the only way to stay on top is to stay tuned and on standby, ready to grab anything new and useful.

Times are changing. With time, marketing techniques and the overall industry are continuously evolving.

Amid this change, it’s essential to know the ins and outs of the marketing world—not just about the new strategies but also the all-time classics that have always worked and will continue to work.

Whether you’re a seasoned marketer, just starting out, or a small business owner, the wealth of knowledge in the best marketing books can offer new perspectives and refined tactics essential for success. But with thousands of titles, how do you know which will elevate your marketing game?

As a Ph.D. with a deep understanding of marketing’s nuances and complexities, I have curated a list of the 21 best marketing books of all time.

We divided these books into thoughtful categories to cater to diverse needs and interests:

• General Marketing – Essential reads for broad marketing knowledge.
• Consumer Behavior & Persuasion – Insights into the psychological aspects of marketing.
• Content Marketing – Strategies for crafting compelling narratives.
• Social Media Marketing – Tactics for leveraging digital platforms.
• Strategy & Innovation – Guides for forward-thinking marketing approaches.

Stick around until the end, as we’ll also discuss five bonus marketing tips for 2024, leveraging the latest trends and research to help you grow your business.

Top 10 Best Marketing Books of All Time: All-Time Classics

Here are the top 10 best marketing books of all time, each a valuable resource for anyone looking to succeed in the competitive marketing industry.

1. Positioning by Al Ries & Jack Trout

Positioning by AI Ries and Jack Trout is one of the best marketing books of all time. It’s a classic and one of the first books to discuss the problems of communicating to a skeptical, media-blitzed public.

This book takes a revolutionary approach to creating a “position” in a prospective customer’s mind, reflecting a company’s strengths and weaknesses and those of its competitors.

Key Takeaways From Positioning

• Positioning is about perception: Positioning is not just what you do with your product; it’s what you do in the consumer’s mind. (Page 23:)
• The importance of simplicity: A simple and focused message will be more effective than a complex and confusing one. (Page 82: Chapter 6 -)
• Repositioning is difficult: Changing customer perception is hard once a brand establishes a position. It’s much easier to create a new position. (Page 140: Chapter 10 -)
• Differentiation is key: Find a unique selling proposition (USP) that sets you apart. (Page 64: Chapter 5 – )
• Repetition is essential: Repeat your message consistently over time to reinforce your brand’s position and make it more memorable. (Page 94: Chapter 7 -)

2. Conversion Optimization by Khalid Saleh & Ayat Shukairy

Conversion Optimization by Khalid Saleh and Ayat Shukairy is a must-read marketing book. Considering the authors (us) are the experts behind the renowned conversion rate optimization agency Invesp, we know what we’re talking about.

With extensive experience in attracting online customers for businesses, the authors also cover every step of the conversion process, from attracting visitors to closing sales. This book teaches you various techniques to combine successful sales strategies with the specific needs of your target audience. Integrating the efforts of the marketing, product, and sales team is crucial to focus on customer needs and enhance overall effectiveness.

Conversion Optimization offers practical advice on persuading visitors to buy without driving them away through data overload or tedious navigation.

You will learn how to use your site’s marketing principles, design, usability, and analytics to increase your buyer-to-visitor ratio—whether you are involved with marketing, designing a large ecommerce site, or managing a modest online operation.

If you’re seeking a double-digit conversion rate , this is one of the best marketing books to read this year.

Key Takeaways From Conversion Optimization

• Understand Your Audience: Understanding your audience’s needs, preferences, and pain points will help you create targeted messaging and experiences that resonate with them. (Chapter 2, page 17)
• Test ** Everything:** By testing different elements of your website or marketing campaigns, you can identify what works and what doesn’t and make data-driven decisions to improve your conversion rates. (Chapter 4, page 51)
• Focus on User Experience: By optimizing your website’s layout, navigation, and content, you can create a seamless experience that encourages visitors to take action. (Chapter 5, page 73)
• Use Social Proof: Social proof in the form of customer reviews , testimonials , and more will help you build trust and credibility with your audience and increase their likelihood of converting. (Chapter 7, page 106)
• Conversion optimization is an ongoing process: By constantly testing, tweaking, and optimizing your marketing efforts, you can stay ahead of the curve and improve your conversion rates over time. (Chapter 10, page 173)

3. Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy

Written by the founder of the Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency, Ogilvy on Advertising is one of the best marketing books of all time. It offers essential advice on advertising from one of the industry’s legends.

Throughout the book, Ogilvy emphasizes the importance of research-based advertising, compelling copy, and the art of selling.

The best part? He blends his theoretical advice with captivating case studies, real-world examples, and illustrations to provide practical advice that transcends time.

He also discusses the effectiveness of visual aids and insists on professional discipline and relentless testing of different approaches.

Key Takeaways From Ogilvy on Advertising

• Consumer Research is Crucial. Understanding your market through thorough research is foundational to creating effective advertisements.
• Headlines Are Vital. Ogilvy provides extensive insights into writing headlines that grab attention.
• Maintain High Creative Standards. Quality and creativity in ad presentation enhance recall and persuasion. Ogilvy underscores the importance of maintaining high creative standards to stand out.
• Test Rigorously: Ogilvy advocates for rigorous testing of ads to ascertain what works best, suggesting that this practice can save money and increase campaign effectiveness.

Focus on Selling: Ogilvy reminds readers that no matter how entertaining an ad might be, it’s only good if it sells.

4. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries & Jack Trout

The list of the best marketing books wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the 22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing — a 1993 classic by Al Ries and Jack Trout. The 22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing is more of a guideline for marketers who want to make their products and services successful internationally.

Al Ries and Jack Trout highlight 22 marketing laws every marketer should follow in this book. Marketers sometimes spend resources on features that might not add value to their business growth. We recommend this book to marketers who need direction on what battles to fight and what to ignore.

Key Takeaways From The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

• Focus on one thing: According to the authors, the most successful brands focus on a single USP. Trying all things at once might dilute a brand’s message. (Chapter 1, pages 5-10)
• Perception is reality: How consumers perceive a brand is more important than the quality. (Chapter 2, pages 15-20)
• First-mover advantage: Being the first brand in a new category or market allows you to establish yourself as the leader and build a strong brand image before competitors enter the space. (Chapter 3, pages 23-27)
• The importance of consistency: All elements of the brand, including its name, logo, messaging, and advertising, must be consistent to create a cohesive and memorable brand image. (Chapter 9, pages 85-90)
• The law of sacrifice: To succeed in marketing, you must be willing to give up something in the short term to gain something in the long term. This may mean sacrificing some potential customers or markets to focus on your core strengths and target audience. (Chapter 20, pages 167-171)

5. Play Bigger, by Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead, and Kevin Maney

“ Play Bigger ” is a must-read for marketers and entrepreneurs looking to dominate their market and create new categories. Authored by Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead, and Kevin Maney, this book introduces the concept of “category design,” which is about creating and leading a new market category rather than competing in an existing one.

With their extensive experience in Silicon Valley, the authors share insights on how companies like Apple, Salesforce, and Amazon have become market leaders by defining and owning their categories. “Play Bigger” provides a framework for businesses to identify their unique space, develop a category, and dominate the market. Business leaders can leverage these strategies to enhance strategic thinking and decision-making within their teams.

Key Takeaways From Play Bigger

• Category Design: The book emphasizes the importance of creating and leading a new market category rather than just competing in an existing one. (Introduction)
• Data-Driven Approach: The authors highlight using data analytics to identify market opportunities and design categories. (Chapter 4)
• Category King Advantage: The book explains how becoming a category king can lead to significant market share and revenue growth. (Chapter 6)
• Positioning for Success: “Play Bigger” provides strategies for positioning your company as the leader in your category. (Chapter 8)

Long-Term Vision: The book stresses the importance of having a long-term vision and patience while your category gains traction. (Chapter 10)

6. The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier

Bridging the gap between brand strategy and design (execution) takes a lot of work. Marty Neumeier addresses these issues in his book “ The Brand Gap ” and elaborates on overcoming the brand gap.

The book also explores the five disciplines of great branding—differentiation, innovation, collaboration, validation, and cultivation. Neumeier suggests that to dominate your market or category, you must first master those five branding disciplines. Success stories often illustrate how mastering these disciplines can lead to remarkable achievements.

Key Takeaways From The Brand Gap

• Branding is not just about logos and visual identity. Neumeier argues that a brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company. He calls this gut feeling the “brand gap” and suggests that it is the space between what a company does and what it means to its customers. (Chapter 1, p. 4)
• Successful brands differentiate themselves by focusing on their core values and personality. Neumeier suggests that brands should strive to be “meaningful, memorable, and likable” by developing a clear brand strategy that aligns with their core values and communicates their unique selling proposition. (Chapter 2, p. 19)
• A brand is more than the sum of its parts. Neumeier suggests that a brand is a holistic system that includes visual identity, customer experience, employee behavior, and overall company culture. (Chapter 3, p. 37)
• Brands must be flexible and adaptable to change. Successful brands can evolve, adapt to changing market conditions, and experiment with new ideas. (Chapter 5, p. 71)
• Communication is critical to building a solid brand. Clear, consistent messaging across advertising, social media, and customer service is crucial to effective brand communication. Authenticity and transparency are also vital for building customer trust and credibility. (Chapter 6, p. 89)

7. The Brand Flip by Marty Neumeier

Another classic by Marty Neumeier, The Brand Flip , challenges the traditional way of thinking about branding. Neumeier insists that the brand’s power is no longer with marketers or businesses but has been handed over to the consumer—thanks to social media.

He also challenges the notion that a marketing funnel represents branding. Instead, he suggests that marketers should see this flipped approach to branding as a ladder that customers climb. Satisfaction, engagement, delight, and empowerment are the rungs that make that ladder.

Key Takeaways From The Brand Flip

• The traditional brand model is no longer effective. The conventional brand model, which focuses on creating and broadcasting a polished image to customers, is no longer effective in today’s marketplace. Companies should focus on creating a brand based on authenticity, transparency, and customer engagement. (Chapter 1, pages 10-11)
• Branding is no longer the sole domain of marketing. Branding is now everyone’s job, from the CEO to the front-line employees. (Chapter 2, pages 30-31)
• The most successful brands are customer-driven. This means understanding your customers’ needs and wants and creating a brand that reflects those values. (Chapter 4, pages 76-77)

To succeed in branding, you need to be agile and adaptable. This means experimenting, taking risks, and pivoting quickly to changing market conditions or customer needs. (Chapter 9, pages 200-201)

8. Marketing Management by Philip Kotler

Often used as a textbook in university courses, Marketing Management by Philip Kotler (sometimes referred to as the ‘father of modern marketing’) covers comprehensive marketing strategies and theories.

The book covers a broad spectrum of essential topics, from understanding consumer behavior and segmentation to crafting strategic marketing plans and managing brands. You can easily apply Kotler’s insights in real-world scenarios.

Key Takeaways From Marketing Management:

• Consumer-Centric Strategy: Understanding and meeting the needs of your target customer is fundamental to successful marketing.
• Strategic Brand Management: Building and sustaining a strong brand requires consistently meeting customer expectations.
• Integrated Marketing Communications: Effective communication strategies involve a mix of marketing tools and channels that reinforce the brand message.
• Leveraging Technology: Modern marketing must integrate technology to analyze data, engage customers, and automate tasks.
• Global Marketing Strategies: Understanding global markets and localizing strategies accordingly can lead to international business success.

This marketing book is a must-read for anyone looking for fundamental marketing principles, strategic planning, and customer-centric approaches to reach and engage target audiences.

9. Purple Cow by Seth Godin

Seth Godin created this marketing masterpiece for those who don’t want their businesses to look like every other penguin in a flock. Purple Cow is a book about creating something worth noticing in a congested marketing highway.

Although Seth doesn’t highlight what you need to do, you are more likely to get fired up after reading this book. Incorporating viral marketing can be a modern strategy to enhance brand storytelling and direct communication with buyers, significantly increasing visibility and sales.

Key Takeaways From Purple Cow

• The need for differentiation: To succeed in today’s crowded marketplace, you need differentiation that is remarkable and relevant to the needs and desires of the target audience.
• The power of ideas : Remarkable products and services are based on remarkable ideas. These ideas should be bold, unique, and relevant to the target audience.
• The importance of being bold: Remarkable products and services require boldness and courage to break free from the status quo. This may involve taking risks, challenging conventional wisdom, and being willing to fail.
• The need for constant innovation: This requires a mindset of continuous improvement and a willingness to adapt to changing market conditions.
• The importance of word-of-mouth marketing : Remarkable products and services naturally generate buzz and excitement, which can spread rapidly through social networks and other channels.

10. Zag, The #1 Strategy of High-Performance Brands (One-Off) by Marty Neumeier

Since Zag is Marty Neumeier’s third book on this list, you probably think I’m a massive fan. Well, tell you what, you are right.

Marty Neumeier’s books on branding are a prerequisite for anyone looking for marketing success . Zag is a short but powerful book that will give you ideas on standing out radically in a saturated marketplace.

After reading this book, you will have a brand marketing model that comprises four elements: focus, difference , trend, and communications.

Neumeier also provides 17 checklists for readers to use when developing and differentiating their brands.

The best part? The ideas in “Zag” are easy to understand because Neumeier writes them on a whiteboard.

Key Takeaways From ZAG

• Differentiation is critical to building a successful brand.
• Your brand should have a narrow focus.
• Consistency is crucial for building a strong brand, including your logo, website, marketing materials, and customer service.
• Your brand should have a purpose beyond making money—whether it’s sustainability or social justice.
• Your brand should adapt and evolve to stay relevant as the market and consumer preferences change.

Best Marketing Books on Consumer Behavior & Persuasion

11. buy.logy by martin lindstrom.

How much do we know about why we buy? What truly influences our decisions in today’s message-cluttered world? An eye-grabbing advertisement, a catchy slogan, an infectious jingle? Or do our buying decisions occur below the surface, so deep within our subconscious minds that we’re unaware of them?

Buy.logy by Martin Lindstrom answers all these questions in detail.

In “Buy.logy,” Martin Lindstrom unveils the findings from a groundbreaking neuromarketing study. This three-year, seven-million-dollar project involved brain scans of 2,000 volunteers worldwide as they viewed various advertisements, logos, brands, and products.

The results dramatically challenge our traditional understanding of what captures our interest and drives our purchasing decisions.

The book uncovers results from the study, which hints at how our brains respond to branding and advertising in complex and often unconscious ways, which can influence our purchasing decisions without realizing it.

The book also talks about how companies that focus on creating strong emotional connections with their customers rather than simply promoting product features are often more successful in building lasting brand loyalty.

12. The Psychology Influence of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini

Dr. Robert Cialdini, an authority in influence and persuasion, has conducted thirty-five years of rigorous, evidence-based research. This extensive study, including a three-year intensive program, underpins his acclaimed work.

The Psychology Influence of Persuasion details six universal persuasion principles—an integral part of marketing. You’ll learn to master these principles to become an effective persuader and shield yourself from manipulation.

In “Influence,” Dr. Robert Cialdini explains five fundamental principles that motivate people to say “yes”: 

• Reciprocation means we return favors
• Social Proof shows we follow the crowd
• Authority suggests we listen to experts
• Commitment and Consistency make us stick to our choices
• Scarcity drives us to seize rare opportunities

Understanding these can make you more persuasive.

13. Made to Stick by Chip Heath & Dan Heath

In this marketing book, Chip and Dan Heath tackle why some ideas thrive while others die and how to improve the chances of worthy ideas. They reveal the anatomy of ideas that stick and explain ways to make ideas stickier, such as applying the “human scale principle,” using the “Velcro Theory of Memory,” and creating “curiosity gaps.”

Provocative, eye-opening, and often surprisingly funny, Made to Stick will show you the vital principles of winning ideas and how to apply these rules to make your messages stick.

Best Content Marketing Books of All Times

14. epic content marketing by joe pullizzi.

Epic Content Marketing by Joe Pullizzi is one of the best content marketing books of all time.

Joe Pullizzi founded the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), one of the leading content marketing educational resources for enterprise brands.

It is safe to assume that Pullizzi knows a thing or two about content marketing, and in this book, he gives plenty of great advice about how to do it right.

“Epic Content Marketing” systematically involves developing stories that inform and entertain customers without telling them to act. Epic content enables you to position your business as a trusted expert in its industry, which is what customers share and discuss. Inbound marketing is a foundational concept for digital marketing success, emphasizing the importance of attracting and engaging customers through valuable content.

There are six principles:

• Your content must fill an unmet need or answer a question for your customer
• Deliver content consistently
• Your content should be in your voice, preferably with some humor
• Express an opinion rather than give a balanced history report
• Avoid sales speak, as it destroys the value of your content
• Produce the very best content in your niche

The book covers the basics, the importance of content distribution, and the channels you can use to reach and engage your audience.

Finally, you’ll also read about how content marketing success hinges on your ability to measure and analyze results and use those insights to refine your content strategy over time.

15. Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content by Ann Handley

Ann Handley’s “ Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content ” is indispensable for anyone looking to succeed through content marketing or simply wanting to create good content.

Handley discusses how, in a content-driven world, everyone is a writer in some capacity. This book is a practical manual with tips on crafting engaging content that resonates with audiences.

She covers everything from grammar and story crafting to how to create compelling blog posts and social media updates.

And you won’t just get boring discussions. The book offers actionable insights that are easy to implement, making it particularly valuable for content marketers looking to enhance their writing skills and engage more effectively with their audiences.

Best Social Media Marketing Books

16. social media roi by olivier blanchard.

In the book Social Media ROI , top branding and marketing expert Olivier Blanchard attempts to demystify the biggest question that many business managers ask:

What is social media’s return on investment?

Why should my business use it?

Finally, how do we justify the investment?

You’ll learn the best practices for strategy, planning, execution, measurement, analysis, and optimization in Social Media.

The book also highlights that social media ROI is not just about financial returns but also non-financial returns such as customer loyalty, brand awareness, and reputation.

17. No B.S. Guide To Direct Marketing by Dan Kennedy & Kim Walsh-Phillips

No B.S. Guide to Direct Marketing gives you a cheat code on how to succeed in marketing.

In this book, Dan S. Kennedy teamed up with Kim Walsh-Phillips to dare readers to think beyond vanity metrics—likes, shares, and comments—and focus on generating leads and sales.

Sprinkled with many case studies and examples, this is a book you’d want your social media manager to go through before they even attempt to post anything. This book covers practical strategies for leveraging social media as a lead magnet.

The book also discusses the importance of targeting the right audience, crafting compelling offers, and providing clear calls to action.

You’ll also learn about testing and tracking to refine strategies and the significance of follow-up to build trust and increase sales likelihood.

Best Marketing Books on Strategy & Innovation

18. permission marketing by seth godin.

Permission Marketing by Seth Godin is one of the best digital marketing books of all time and a must-read for those looking to excel in this competitive business world.

You’d have to live under a rock if you haven’t heard of Seth Godin, especially if you have been in this business long enough. For the uninitiated, Seth Godin is one of the most influential and brightest gurus in online marketing.

Whether it’s the TV commercial that breaks into our favorite program or the telemarketing phone call that disrupts a family meal, traditional advertising is based on the hope of snatching our attention away from whatever we are doing.

Seth Godin calls this Interruption Marketing. Instead of annoying potential customers by interrupting their most coveted commodity, time, Godin offers consumers incentives to accept advertising voluntarily.

By reaching out to only those individuals who have expressed an interest in learning more about a product, Permission Marketing enables companies to develop long-term relationships with customers and significantly improve the chances of making a sale.

This book’s key point is that by asking for permission to communicate with your audience, you can provide more valuable content and invoke their trust and loyalty.

The book also details the importance of segmenting your audience based on their interests, offering incentives, and continuously nurturing relationships with your subscribers.

19. Competing Against Luck by Dr. Clayton Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon, & David Duncan

Looking for a game-changing marketing book to learn how to develop and market products and services that customers can’t say no to? Dr. Clay Christensen and David Duncan’s book, Competing Against Luck , is all you need.

This book focuses on the The-Jobs-To-Be-Done (#JTBD) theory of innovation—a powerful approach to understanding customer behavior.

The book suggests that to outperform both competitors and chance, one should create a product or service specifically designed to fulfill customers’ requirements.

Using this book, you will learn how to use the #JTBD theory to: 

• Define the business you are through the lens of the customers
• Understand your direct and indirect competitors – according to your customers’ eyes.
• Understand what drives customers to hire or not to hire your products
• Understand why customers would fire certain products
• Understanding your customers’ emotional and social needs.
• Identify conversion opportunities that can help grow your business
• Build a product or service that is customer-centric

20. Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard P. Rumelt

What goes into developing a marketing strategy? What’s the difference between a good and bad marketing strategy? Richard P. Rumelt’s book Good Strategy, Bad Strategy answers all these questions sufficiently.

Although he doesn’t specifically discuss marketing, the core principles discussed in the book can also apply to marketing.

Rumelt provides dozens of examples of good and bad strategies. According to Rumelt, a good strategy consists of three elements: a diagnosis of the problem, a guiding policy, and coherent action.

Well, I have to confess—this is one of my favorite marketing books of all time.

21. The Anatomy of Buzz by Emanuel Rosen

In The Anatomy of Buzz , former marketing VP Emanuel Rosen pinpoints the products and services that benefit the most from a buzz-a universe that embraces everything from high-tech equipment to books, various consumer and entertainment products to legal and other support services and offers specific strategies for creating and sustaining effective word-of-mouth campaigns.

After interviewing over 150 executives, marketing leaders, and researchers who have successfully built buzz for major brands, Rosen describes the ins and outs of attracting the attention of influential first users and “big-mouth” movers and shakers.

He also discusses proven techniques for stimulating customer-to-customer, including how companies can spread the word to new territories by using customer hubs and networks on the Internet and elsewhere.

Top Five Essential Marketing Strategies for Success in 2024

The best marketing tips are all centered around human behavior.

Understanding human psychology is essential to ensuring the effectiveness of your conversion optimization, SEO, design, and ad efforts.

In this section, I highlight some of the best marketing tips that, if properly implemented, will help you grow your business.

1. Set a Goal(with metrics) and a budget.

I want to increase sales by 25%.

I want to increase our MQL by 13%

These are different examples of goals businesses can set for themselves.

For e-commerce businesses, this could mean increasing sales of their merchandise, apparel, and beauty products by 30%.

The psychology behind this is that with a goal and a budget, it becomes easier to determine whether your campaign succeeded.

Here are a few tips for setting your marketing campaign goal and budget:

• Choose 1-5 KPIs to measure. Qualified leads, traffic, and direct revenue are the most popular KPIs to measure.
• Set a realistic budget. The U.S. Small Business Administration recommends spending 7-8% of total revenue on your marketing campaigns.
• Focus on the process, not the goal. Once you set your goal, create a method for achieving it, using your KPIs to measure and continually improve that process.

2. Always conduct user research.

Before launching a product, you must know if there’s a need for your product in the market.

Sometimes, businesses develop services and products that users don’t need. The result? They end up dying off!

Founders often make the mistake of believing that if they market their ideas, they’ll find a demand in the market.

This goes against the core and fundamental principles of marketing. You don’t force products on people. You can’t create demand—you can only channel existing demand.

Failure to do this sets up your product for the ‘product death cycle.’

Here is one of my favorite quotes from Legendary copywriter Eugene Schwartz; ‘The greatest mistake marketers make is trying to create demand.’

3. Invest in influencer marketing

We’re in the creator economy—another name for influencer marketing.

The truth is every niche has influencers. It doesn’t have to be someone shouting in front of a camera and getting engagements, but there are individuals with considerable influence in every industry.

Here are some steps to creating a successful influencer marketing campaign:

• Select your KPIs
• Focus on the social media channels where your target market is most present.
• Find a credible influencer
• Plan your publishing schedule
• Consistently improve and measure your outcomes

Here’s an example of how Walmart used Influencer marketing to drive interest in their Black Friday deal:

Image Source

In this case, Walmart reached out to TikTok Influencers. They used influencers to get eyeballs on their hashtag #Dealdropdance.

Walmart contacted six specific influencers: ourfire, bdash_2, montanatucker, kidrl, dreaknowsbest, and kingcamo_1.

All these influencers had to do was motivate and encourage their followers to post videos while dancing or having fun in Walmart stores.

At the end of the campaign, the posts reached 16 million followers,

Leverage Video and Viral Marketing

According to the latest video marketing statistics , people are 52% more likely to share video content than any other type.

These stats highlight the growing preference for video as a primary form of content consumption.

Video marketing is not just about grabbing your target audience’s attention quickly. It is a way to dynamically tell your brand’s story, demonstrate your products in the best light possible, and explicitly convey emotions.

They also help you educate your audience and position yourself as an authority in your industry.

For instance, Home Depot has made strides with DIY enthusiasts by posting how-to videos on everything from fixing a leaky faucet to building a backyard pergola.

These videos empower customers while positioning Home Depot as a helpful and knowledgeable ally in home improvement.

Here are some more tips to help you make the most out of your video marketing strategy: 

• Capitalize on storytelling
• Invest in high-quality video production
• Optimize for mobile viewing

5. Develop Real Relationships Through Email Marketing

59% of marketers claim that email is their most effective marketing channel for revenue generation; this is one strategy you don’t want to ignore.

If you haven’t started building your email list, here are some steps you can consider:

• Create a long-term content strategy to drive organic traffic to your website.
• Create multiple opt-in offers
• Utilize an email list popup form
• Add a banner with an invitation to subscribe to your email list with your business signature.

Wrapping Up: Key Takeaways from the Best Marketing Books!

So, there you have it! Diving into some of the best marketing books is like giving yourself a masterclass in cutting-edge marketing strategies. Some even help you hone your business strategy in everyday life.

Whether it’s gaining deeper insights into consumer behavior, mastering content creation, or making the most of social media, each book packs a powerful punch of knowledge that can help grow your business with a winning and successful marketing strategy.

And remember the marketing tips for 2024! These strategies are fresh and geared to keep you ahead of the curve. So, pick up some marketing books based on your industry and interest, use what you learn, do market research, and watch your business grow.

Resources You’ll Love.

1. What are the 4 Ps of Marketing? Understanding the Basics

2. How to Manage a Remote Team in a Way that Drives Business Growth

3. How To Build Thought Leadership From Scratch For Your Business

4. 12 Entrepreneurship Lessons Every Entrepreneur Must Know

5. 13 Best Product Marketing Books in 2023

Share This Article

Join 25,000+ marketing professionals.

Subscribe to Invesp’s blog feed for future articles delivered to receive weekly updates by email.

Discover Similar Topics

Net Promoter Score: A Quick Guide for E-commerce Businesses

8 Ways to Optimize Your Ecommerce Customer Journey

Our Services

• Conversion Optimization Training
• Conversion Rate Optimization Professional Services
• Landing Page Optimization
• Conversion Rate Audit
• Design for Growth
• Conversion Research & Discovery
• End to End Digital Optimization

By Industry

• E-commerce CRO Services
• Lead Generation CRO Services
• SaaS CRO Services
• Startup CRO Program
• Case Studies
• Privacy Policy
• © 2006-2020 All rights reserved. Invesp

Subscribe with us

• US office: Chicago, IL
• European office: Istanbul, Turkey
• +1.248.270.3325
• [email protected]
• Conversion Rate Optimization Services
• © 2006-2023 All rights reserved. Invesp
• Popular Topics
• A/B Testing
• Business & Growth
• Conversion Rate Optimization
• Copywriting
• Infographics
• Landing Pages

Learn how to improve your marketing — for free.

Get the weekly newsletter keeping thousands of marketers in the loop.

My 26 best marketing books of all time to read in 2024

Discover the best marketing books of all time you should read in 2024, regardless of which stage you are in your professional marketing career.

Over the years, I've read a lot of terrible books about marketing. But a few of them completely changed my life. In this post, I'm going to give you a list of some of the best marketing books out there so you don't have to waste time reading the bad ones.

I'm eight years into my marketing career , and nothing has ever propelled me to a new level of insight and knowledge the way marketing books have.

They've helped me find my dream 6-figure job in marketing, live a digital nomad lifestyle, and make me feel like I've finally picked the right career path.

Okay, maybe I'm being a bit dramatic in saying that books did all of that.

But they definitely did make me stand out when I had conversations about marketing.

I wasn't always an avid reader. As a kid, I hated reading. But as an adult, I grew to really like it because it completely rewired my brain and improved my mental health.

There’s just something about reading as a medium.

It’s such an active way to consume content, as compared to listening or watching (which are passive).

YouTube videos, podcasts, TikTok...

All of these have their time and place.

But, many of today’s mediums of consuming content are decreasing our attention spans .

And what I’ve come to notice about reading (for myself) is that it actually restores my attention span — allowing me to focus on other tasks ever so slightly more. There’s no scientific evidence I can provide for this, I’m just speaking from personal experience.

If you want to cut to the chase, I recommend reading these three marketing books this year:

• Breakthrough Advertising
• The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
• Scientific Advertising

If you want to find a list of other marketing books that I also highly recommend reading, keep scrolling.

What is the best book for online marketing?

The best for marketing on our list will probably be Breakthrough Advertising .

It's, in my opinion, the best marketing book ever written. While it wasn't written during a time when the internet existed, it's a book that will help you think about the right things when you start marketing online.

Pair this book up with a more digital marketing focused book like Dotcom Secrets, and you'll be ahead of most marketers today.

Why read marketing books?

In a world where digital marketing gurus constantly want to sell you information, it's tough to know whether that information is from original thought or just rehashed from elsewhere.

What's the best way to learn marketing? Take a marketing course , read a book, or both? It can be confusing.

More often than not, many of today's marketing "influencers" are simply preaching what has already been documented in books for decades, even centuries.

As mentioned earlier, reading is an active away of learning. It forces your brain to only focus on one task.

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to listen to a podcast, take a walk, and stare at nature all at the same time? It's a lot harder to do that when you're physically reading.

Your brain has to work a bit harder to read, so it takes in information in a more engaging way. A way that engrains the material into your conscious and subconscious mind.

On top of that, when people write marketing books they are a lot more thoughtful about the words they are typing. Blog posts are great too, but books seem to be more thoughtful. This is because it can take months, sometimes years, for someone to write a book.

When you read a book, you're literally consuming all the information that was deep in the authors brain. The author had to sit down and put everything on paper. Then they had to rewrite and edit the whole thing multiple times because they knew it would be published to the world.

This is why books are magical.

Which books should I read for marketing?

The best marketing books go over the fundamentals — consumer behavior, advertising, copywriting, sales, pricing, branding, etc.

They teach you what motivates people to buy, how to reach potential customers, and how to get them to be excited about you product.

If you're a beginner, it's best that you start with the fundamentals. Books one through ten in the list below should do just that.

As you progress further into your marketing career, you should aim to be the best in one particular field of marketing — be it, SEO, content marketing, advertising, email marketing, or social media.

As a marketer, you want to be somewhat of a generalist, but you also want to specialize in an area that fascinates you the most. This way you'll stand out to candidates when looking for a job.

So without further-ado, let's go over some of the top marketing books.

At the end of this post, I'll also mention my top four books to read if you're looking to pick something up today.

Top 26 best marketing books you need to read in 2024

Here's a list of the best books on marketing:

• The Copy Book
• Play Bigger
• Content Design
• The Greatest Salesman in the World
• Epic Content Marketing
• How to Launch a Brand
• Dotcom Secrets
• Building a StoryBrand
• This is Marketing
• Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
• Hacking Growth
• Intercom on Marketing
• Blue Ocean Strategy
• The 1-Page Marketing Plan
• Upstream Marketing
• Crushing It!
• Invisible Influence
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
• Made to Stick
• The ONE Thing
• Good to Great

Okay, let's dive a bit deeper into each one.

1. Scientific Advertising

Written by Claude C. Hopkins, Scientific Advertising is an advertising-related book that was published in 1923. It's one of those books that is so fundamental that the information revealed still applies even a century later. It's a must read for all marketers, no matter what stage you are in your career.

This is a notable book in the marketing world because it was the first documentation of processes such as split testing, loyalty programs, and coupon-based tracking. The overall summary of the book is that it goes over how to approach advertising through testing and measuring.

2. Breakthrough Advertising

Breakthrough Advertising is one of the best books on marketing — probably the most influential one in this list. Written by award winning copywriter Eugene M. Schwartz, the book was first published in 1966.

Many founders and marketers have attributed this book to helping them make millions. And although the book is technically in the “copywriter” category of marketing books, it talks a lot about the state of awareness customers go through and how you should structure your messaging in your marketing efforts.

The book feels more like a dictionary, rather than one you read from beginning to end. I’ve found it to be a bit heavy of a read at times, mainly because I constantly want to put the book down to take notes.

It is a bit on the pricer side if you try to purchase this book on Amazon, but it is cheaper if you purchase it directly through the books website. If there’s one book to read from this list it’s this one.

3. The Copy Book

I bought this book in one of NYC's best bookstores, Strand Book Store, and its quickly become on of my favorite book purchases of 2024. It has lessons from over 53 award-winning copywriters — with ad examples from each copywriter.

Each lesson is super easy to digest as they're only a few paragraphs, followed by a handful of the best ads from each copywriter. The combination of copywriting tips plus actual examples make it a super inspiring and actionable book. What better way to study the greats than to have them give you their own personal lessons from decades of writing ad copy?

This is one of those books I think every marketer should own. Even if you don't write ad copy, the tips and lessons give a lot of insights on how to think about writing in general. And they're tips I use every day to write blogs just like this one. Definitely a 10/10 recommendation in my book (no pun intended).

4. Play Bigger

Marketing is about driving awareness to bring things to market. So, what's the best way to tackle a market? Create your own.

Play Bigger, by Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead, and Kevin Maney, is a book about just that — a guide to show you how to be a category creator, so you can dominate your market.

The book focuses on showing you how competition is an old game to play. Rather, the new game is to define a new marketing category, develop it, and dominate it over time.

It’s why some companies are always just top of mind. For example, when you think of ecommerce you might think of Shopify. When you think of search engines, you might think of Google. When you think of live streaming, you might think of Twitch. And so on.

These companies are leaders in their category (aka industry), and Play Bigger dives into how to actually become a category creator.

This is a great book to read if you’re a marketer working at a fast growing company, or one that is trying to scale.

5. Content Design

Written by Sarah Richards, Content Design is a book about designing content for the web. Published in 2017, this book feels more like a handbook rather than a book you read straight through.

It's a great read for designers, specifically web designers. But I added it to this list because marketing is about communication. And this book goes over how to design your content so it communicates your message about your product or service effectively.

If you're a marketer that deals with content (whether it's copywriting for landing pages or writing blog posts), or works with other designers, this book is one I highly recommend. I find myself picking it off my bookshelf pretty often when I'm focused on projects that involve a lot of copywriting.

6. The Greatest Salesman in the World

A favorite among many people in sales, The Greatest Salesman in the World, by Og Mandino, is an absolute must read.

Published in 1968, many of todays sales principles and books are based off of this one.

The book tells the story of Hafid, a poor camel boy who achieves a life of abundance, and serves as a guide to a philosophy of salesmanship and success.

This book is a special one, mainly because Og Mandino writes it in a way that is very inspirational and moving. It's book that's  hard to put down once you start reading it, and being only 111 pages makes it a fairly easy book to finish.

7. Epic Content Marketing

Originally published in 2013 by Joe Pulizzi, Epic Content Marketing is a bestseller that opened my eyes to the world of content marketing and SEO (search engine optimization) content writing for the first time.

It was the first marketing book I ever read, and was gifted to me by a former manager when I was a marketing intern. It actually set the foundation for me to work as a Content Marketing Manager in San Francisco just a few years later.

This book is a great read for entry level marketers that are looking to help small businesses or start ups acquire more customers through content. Especially if you want to be a content marketing manager.

While it may not go over everything regarding the content marketing landscape today (it does change really fast), it will definitely give you a strong base of knowledge you can build on in the future.

8. How to Launch a Brand

If you're looking to help startups with their brand identity, naming, or positioning, How to Launch a Brand, by Fabian Geyrhalter, is a must read. It's a great book for brand marketers and early stage founders.

It’s sort of like a workbook that guides you through a step-by-step process to building a strong brand identity.

Depending on your field of work in marketing, you may never have to dive deep into branding. But this is one the best brand marketing books to have around and good to refer to from time to time if you’re working at a super early stage startup that is still trying to figure out and communicate its brand message to customers. It’s also a great book to have around if you want to build your one brand one day.

9. Dotcom Secrets

Dotcom Secrets, by Russell Brunson, is one of those books that I read early into my marketing career. It made me get excited about internet marketing and learning how to sell online. If you‘re a digital marketer, or just want to learn about general digital marketing strategies, this book is a must read.

Today, I don‘t necessarily agree with everything this book stands for. As I've gained more marketing experience throughout the years I started to shift my mindset away from internet marketing tactics, to thinking more holistically about the art and science of marketing as a whole.

However, I do think this is still one of the best digital marketing books for an absolute marketing beginner. The book definitely had an impact on me early on which is the only reason why I added it to this list.

10. Read Me

I came across Read Me, by Gyles Lingwood and Roger Horberry, from a TikTok video — I know lol. But it’s one I often refer to from time to time.

I highly recommend this to anyone that does work involving copy. It’ll show you how to write effective copy and how to create sticky headlines that enhance brand identity. The book includes case studies, copywriting techniques, advice from real copywriters, and tons of ad campaign examples.

Make sure to get a physical copy of this one, given it‘s full of images and you'll want to refer to them easily from time to time.

11. Building a StoryBrand

Building a StoryBrand, by Donald Miller, is one of those marketing books that’s pretty hard to put down once you start reading. I have most of my books on a Kindle, but I bought this one in a physical copy so I can highlight all over it, tear pages out, and easily refer to it. Ya, that’s how much I like this book.

The main bulk of the book is about the seven-step storytelling framework Donald has developed. It gives you clear examples and frameworks on the art of storytelling, and shows you how important it is when it comes to brand marketing.

I would probably put this as my second favorite marketing book, behind Breakthrough Advertising. Every marketer should read this one.

12. This is Marketing

This is Marketing, by Seth Godin, is a cult classic among marketers.

The main message of the book is that marketers should use marketing to solve problems their customers face. Marketing is not about the business or the company they work for. But rather, a way to communicate solutions to problems people have.

This is one of those books that reminds you that marketing has a powerful role in society .

Seth has created a strong personal brand for himself writing books. He has a couple of other great books from the late 1900s and early 2000s called Permission Marketing and Purple Cow that are worth checking out.

However, if you're going to pick one of Seth's books to read for the first time, I highly recommend reading This is Marketing as it takes a lot of knowledge from his previous books and modernizes them for the digital age.

13. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, by Nir Eyal, is a national bestseller that shows you how successful companies build irresistible products.

Great marketing can sometimes not look like marketing at all. In fact, some of the fastest growing brand become successful because of word of mouth. But how does one capture word of mouth?

It's all about user retention. The longer someone stays on (and revisits) your website, app, ecommerce. Repeat users and customers are your greatest marketers. This is because the longer someone uses your product or service, the more likely they are to recommend it to others.

The more your products get people hooked, the more likely those people are the spread the word. And as the word spreads, new users get hooked. And those newly hooked users go to spread the word even more. It's an infinite growth loop .

14. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk!, by Al Ries and Jack Trout, is a widely popular book about marketing.

The book was written pre-internet era, so it can feel a bit outdated. But I added it to this list because it's a very foundational book. While the medium in which we communicate today (i.e. the internet) has changed, the way we communicate has not.

If you're in a strategic marketing or sales role, is book is a must read.

15. Hacking Growth

Hacking Growth, by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown, is a great book for learning more about growth marketing.

While the term "Growth Hacker" seemed like a buzzword back in 2017, one should not associate this book with "hacks." It is more about the concept of finding ways to grow a business quickly in the digital era.

If you are working at a tech startup, this is one of those books that can help you start thinking about the right things.

16. Intercom on Marketing

Intercom on Marketing, by the team at the software company Intercom, is full of lessons that helped Intercom grow to one of the top customer support platforms.

If you're responsible for launching a product and looking to get your first paying customers, this is definitely a book you should check out.

The book is completely free (just needs you to opt-in).

17. Blue Ocean Strategy

Blue Ocean Strategy, by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, aim to change your view on go-to-market strategies.

There are lots of marketing campaigns out there that try to talk down on competitors and fight for their piece of the pie.

However, the Blue Ocean Strategy, similar to the book Play Bigger, aims at showing you that competition should be irrelevant.

Rather than competing in a red ocean, you should go after a blue ocean where their is a potential for you to have the biggest piece of the pie.

18. The 1-Page Marketing Plan

The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand out From The Crowd, by Allan Dib, isn't just a marketing book — it's a business book.

If you're a founder, or someone in charge of strategic marketing, you need to read this book.

It's one of those books that's clear and to the point, and can seriously help you break through if you're stuck thinking about your quarterly marketing planning .

19. Upstream Marketing

Upstream Marketing: Unlock Growth Using the Combined Principles of Insight, Identity, and Innovation, by Tim Koelzer, offers a refreshing take on marketing strategy.

This is one of those foundational books that shows you that digital marketing is just one piece of the equation.

For a business to succeed, it needs to provide the best solution to its potential customers. And it must think about all the different principles of marketing and corporate strategy.

This is a must read for any marketer, regardless of what position they hold.

20. CMO to CRO

CMO to CRO: The Revenue Takeover by the Next Generation Executive, by Mike Geller, Rolly Keenan, and Brandi Starr, is a book about revenue operations.

In the most simple business sense, marketing exists to make a business money. The money that a business makes is what keeps it alive to supply products to its customers, and to supply its employees with salaries and benefits.

If a business is not making money, it will eventually die.

If you're in charge of revenue growth, this is a must read.

21. Crushing It!

Crushing It!: How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business, by Gary Vaynerchuk, is a classic.

Gary V is coined for predicting the way brands should operate to get the most attention.

This is a great book, with lots of valuable information. But, it should be noted that Gary does promote himself quite a bit as he runs a multi-million dollar marketing agency in New York.

It can be a bit hard to know if Gary wrote this book to attract clients to his agency or if he wrote it for the genuine best interest of marketers.

Regardless, it offers a great view on what's happening now in social media marketing.

22. Invisible Influence

Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces That Shape Behavior, by Jonah Berger, is a book about how things influence peoples beliefs, behaviors, and lifestyles.

The book offers tons of different examples to help you grasp the hidden forces that shape consumer behaviors.

It does feel like this book is mainly for an American audience, so if you're outside of the US you should do your own research before deciding to read this book.

Jonah does have another popular book called Contagious: Why Things Catch On, which could be a viable option to read if you decide to take a pass on this one.

23. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

A cult classic, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert Cialdini, is national bestseller.

Influence is all about persuasion, and core fundamental to marketing and sales.

Literally everything we do involves persuasion. Asking someone on a date, interviewing for a job, selling a product — all of these require someone to say "yes" to us.

This book is an absolute must read for everyone, not just marketers or business owners.

24. Made to Stick

A New York Times bestseller, Made to Stick, by brothers Chip Heath and Dan Heath, is an insightful book on why some ideas are more "sticky" than others.

I would put this book in the same category as the other book we mentioned, Hooked.

This is a great book if you're in the early stages of product development, or you're working as the first marketer at a small startup.

If you need a blueprint to creating sticky ideas, this book is definitely one to check out.

25. The ONE Thing

The ONE Thing, by Gary Keller (with Jay Papasan), is not a marketing book per se, but rather a book on productivity.

I included it in this list because the concepts in this book have helped me a lot in figuring out what I need to prioritize on a daily basis.

It can feel like a long book that basically explains a somewhat simple topic — find the one thing you need to do to be successful.

But the details in the book make you realize that less is more. It makes you think deeper about how you spend your time and what will actually move the needle forward for your business.

After reading this book, my daily task list has decreased dramatically. I highly recommend this book if you want to run a successful business or lead a marketing team.

26. Good to Great

Good to Great, by bestselling author Jim Collins, isn’t necessarily a marketing book, but it’s a great business book. In fact, it’s a business owner’s must read.

I like to think that the best marketers are the ones that truly understand business strategy and entrepreneurship. The more you can think like an entrepreneur the better.

It’ll help you see clear business problems and make you think on the same level as leaders in business, which is always a good thing if you’re working in marketing.

The book goes over the fundamental reason why most businesses plateau. And knowing that as a marketer is key to not only navigating your way through a company, but also knowing how to think at the executive level.

Reading more will help beyond your marketing career

Reading marketing books won’t just make you a better marketer. It will make you a better thinker, a better writer, a better executor, and a faster reader.

It may even inspire you to take leaps in your career, as I know it has for me.

If you need just 1-4 books that you should read this year I recommend these (in order):

• Building a Storybrand

Starting with any of these books should be a huge help when trying to craft a successful marketing strategy in 2024. Hopefully you have some new books to add to your marketing reading list!

Keep up with marketing trends

• About LiveInnovation.org
• Prof. Dr. Francisco Tigre Moura
• Academic Research
• Live AM: Artist Monitor
• Live FM: Fan Monitor
• Books and e-Books
• Media/Events
• Consumer Behavior
• Marketing Research
• Statistics Support
• Thesis Writing

• Marketing and Behaviour

List of Marketing Research Books for Students and Professionals

My friend, are you developing a marketing research and need to find some helpful sources?

Well, this is your lucky day because you have found the right link.

I have developed here a list with suggestions of based on over ten years of developing and teaching marketing research.

Please note: This is not a definite list. These are simply publications that I personally find useful and have been relevant for me. Also, don’t mind the edition of the books. usually the most recent only have new examples and illustrations. But the description of core concepts are always the same.

I have divided the list into three main sections :

• Basic Concepts and Project Design: Books explaining the basic concepts and the essentials of marketing research (e.g. Research designs, methods, data collection process)
• Defining Measurements : Handbooks with compilation of scales for the measurements of relevant marketing constructs. 
• Statistical Analysis and Software : Books with explanation of statistical tests, reporting of results and tutorials of how to conduct the tests on different statistical software.

Got it? Alright, here we go!

Basic Concepts and Project Design

Fundamentals in marketing research.

Authors: Scott Smith and Gerald Albaum

• Why do I recommend this book? From all marketing research books, this is one of the most complete books in marketing research. Exactly for this reason, some readers are sometimes put-off by the large page number (896 pages!!!). But this is why it is such a relevant publication, for how comprehensive it is. A must have for academics and professionals. No doubt about it.
• Where to buy? Here on AMAZON.

2. Research Methods for Business Students

Authors: Mark Saunders , Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill

• Why do I recommend this book? This is a classic publication in universities and widely adopted by students. And there’s an obvious reason for it: it is highly comprehensible and clear. The “onion model”, for example, encompassing research designs, methods and more, can be found frequently in thesis submitted by bachelor students. For anyone teaching marketing research classes, for example, it is a wonderful book to adopt. Personally, it is part of my “Business and Marketing Research” course references.

3. How to Design and Report Experiments

Authors: Andy Field and Graham Hole

• Why do I recommend this book? If you have read previously statistics articles here at MusicStats.org, you would know I am a big fan of And Field. Once again, he manages in this book to convey in a simple manner how to develop experiments, manipulate variables, develop different experimental designs and even common statistical tests associated with the different experimental designs. Also, he provides truly hilarious examples and you ill certainly have great laughs. In case you are conducting experiments or product testing, I would highly recommend this book.

4. Business Research Methods

Authors: Emma Bell , Alan Bryman and Bill Harley .

• Why do I recommend this book? Again, a comprehensive and easy to follow book with great examples. Simply said: a great resource.

5. Management & Business Research

Authors: Mark Easterby-Smith , Richard Thorpe , Paul R. Jackson and Lena J. Jaspersen

• Why do I recommend this book? It provides great details and many options of research methods. I often recommend it to my students. The authors use good examples and the information is accessible and easy to understand. A good point of reference with very clear application to management.

6. The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research

Authors: Norman Denzin and Yvonna Lincoln

• Why do I recommend this book? This book a true support to qualitative research and provides very concrete tips and strategies on collecting and analyzing qualitative data in a systematic way. Students often hit problems not knowing how to either effectively collect or analyze the data and this book will really help!

Defining Measurements

Handbook of marketing scales.

Authors: William Bearden , Richard Netemeyer and Kelly Haws .

• Why do I recommend this book? To be fair, both scales handbooks listed here are pretty comprehensive. They all include a decades of work to develop highly reliable scales to measure the most relevant concepts for marketers. They include the measurements of constructs such as trust, satisfaction, risk, attitude, behavioral intention and much more. 

2. Marketing Scales Handbook

Author: Gordon Brunner

• Why do I recommend this book? This is also an extraordinary compilation of years and years of scale development . Brunner has managed to compile extremely useful scales developed by authors across the globe that can be used across academia and the industry. A “must have” for universities, marketing agencies and departments.

Statistical Analysis and Software

1. discovering statistics using… spss, sas and r.

Author: Andy Field

• Why do I recommend these books? For me, these are by a very large far the best statistics books you will find. Andy Field is extraordinary in conveying complex statistical concepts in a simple way. I have used this publication throughout my Masters, PhD and I still highly recommend it to all my students. Plus, you can find versions of the book for the following statistical software: SPSS, R and SAS. All examples have a step-by-step explanations as to how to conduct the tests on the different software. For me, this is THE MAIN publication for students learning statistics.

2. An Adventure in Statistics – The Reality Enigma

• Why do I recommend this book? This is the most recent publication from Andy Field. It represents a fun way to explore statistical concepts. It is a really creative way to learn statistics, especially for everyone that considers statistics books to be boring and dry. Certainly NOT the case here! Andy created an entire fiction story to take the reader through the interesting world of statistics and explain concepts in an interesting and creative way. 

3. How To Lie With Statistics

Author: Darrel Huff

• Why do I recommend this book?  I got to now this book through a suggestion of Bill Gates ! And it didn’t disappoint me at all. The book, first published in 1954, shows a number of ways through which stats is incorrectly used and interpreted. Especially considering the times we live in, with data results being thrown around all the time, it is a book more important than ever! You’ll certainly enjoy it!

Obviously, there are many other marketing research books that could have also been included here.

Nonetheless, I have been working and teaching with the ones listed here over the past ten years and they have been extremely helpful for me.

Thus, I hope they can be equally helpful for you! Regardless if you are a marketing student or professional developing marketing research, make sure to have them available.

Cheers and Turn it up!

RELATED ARTICLES MORE FROM AUTHOR

The Live AM: Artist Monitor 2024 Report is out! (Download for free)

Live FM Fan Monitor 2023 Edition Sheds Light on Music Fans in Germany

Call for Papers: Sustainable Consumption and Production in the Travel and Entertainment Sectors

Privacy overview.

This is an necessary category.

This is an non-necessary category.

The 24 Top Marketing Strategy Books You Need to Read This Year

Read our curated list of the top marketing strategy books from great masters such as Sean Ellis, Seth Godin, and more.

Rakefet is the CMO at Mayple. She manages all things marketing and leads our community of experts through live events, workshops, and expert interviews. MBA, 1 dog + 2 cats, and has an extensive collection of Chinese teas.

Learn about our

Mayple’s staff provide businesses with reliable insights to optimize their email marketing, paid advertising, eCommerce strategies, and more.

Updated August 25, 2024.

Creating a marketing strategy is one of the most vital steps in running a brand. As essential as it is, though, this step is often missed.

It's easy to see why so many skip this stage: more often than not, creating a winning strategy is hard . And with so many (often contradictory) sources of information online, the entire process can become downright confusing.

There's good news here too: marketing books can help you gain a comprehensive understanding and build a strategy-oriented mindset, rather than losing focus and trying out disparate tactics.

And if you're looking for the best books on advertising and books on marketing strategy, you're in the right place. Here are the top 24 ones every marketer and business owner should read in 2024.

Let’s dive in.

1. The Blue Ocean Strategy - by W. Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne

How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant

First on our list is the iconic Blue Ocean Strategy.

It’s a book that was super transformational when it came out and completely transformed the business world. Its core idea is that of a “red ocean” where companies compete against each other versus the “blue ocean” where each company has its unique value proposition and position in the market and is focused on thriving and creating.

The book discusses the mind shift a company needs to make from “competing” to “creating” and the different techniques that help companies create their own space in the market.

What does that mean? You can ignore your competition and just plow on? No, not quite. The book teaches you how to create a product-market fit and solve that problem for your customer in a unique way.

What brands used to do is to constantly look over their shoulder and either add more features to beat the competition or constantly underprice their product. Instead, this book provides examples of how companies can find differentiators through new technologies, materials, and channels. There are a ton of examples of different companies across a wide range of industries and it’s a fascinating read.

About the authors: W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne are professors at one of the world’s top business schools - INSEAD, in France. They are co-directors of the INSEAD Institute for Marketing Strategy and have consulted for some of the world’s largest branding campaigns to help them create a blue ocean strategy and make that mind shift.

Published: 2005

Authors: W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne

Get the book on Audible , Google Play Books , Audiobooks.com .

2. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing - by Al Ries & Jack Trout

This is another classic that is a must-read for any marketing manager . It’s a great book because it shows exactly what NOT to do and brings a lot of fun branding examples that failed because they went against some of these principles.

Here are some of these laws that still apply today:

• The Law of the Mind - it’s better to be first in the mind of the customer rather than first in the marketplaces .
• The Law of the Opposite - if you’re shooting for second place, then your strategy is determined by the market leader (similar to what we spoke about in the Blue Ocean book).
• The Law of Line Extension - there’s a lot of pressure to extend the brand's equity by creating more similar products, and it’s not often wise to do so.
• The Law of Perspective - sometimes it takes a long time to see the effects of your marketing campaigns in the public perception or in the marketplace. So don’t just focus on the short-term ad campaigns but also play the long game.

As you can see, these are fundamental things that can dramatically change the way brands approach marketing strategy. You can use these to help focus your strategy on the right things, on the right product and branding to really differentiate yourself from the competition and succeed.

A word of caution: the book was written before the internet, so many examples are totally outdated. A lot of the companies mentioned there either failed or don't exist anymore. But if you follow the principles carefully, you can apply them to your business. However, keep in mind that many of the present-day marketing channels and technologies didn’t exist then.

Published: 1993

Authors: Al Ries, Jack Trout

Get the book on Kindle , Audible , Audiobooks.com .

3. Epic Content Marketing - by Joe Pulizzi

How to Tell a Different Story, Break through the Clutter, and Win More Customers by Marketing Less

Content is everywhere — so much so it has become a critical part of any marketing strategy.

We’re talking about the web content (home, product pages, category pages, our story page, checkout process), social media, landing pages, and brand positioning. If you get your content right, then you can describe your brand to your users, and your branding is much more memorable to the consumer.

And, as the previously-mentioned book puts it, being top of mind for consumers is one of the immutable laws of marketing.

This book will teach you how to:

• Tell your brand story
• Craft a content strategy for your business
• Create content that sells, step-by-step
• Analyze your content to see how you can improve

And last time I checked, this book is actually the textbook for several college business courses in content marketing, so if you want to be a master content marketer, you should read it.

About the author: The book was written by Joe Pulizzi, a veteran content marketer who founded the Content Marketing Institute and runs the largest content marketing event in North America called Content Marketing World . He’s known as the “godfather” of content marketing and has spoken at more than 200 events worldwide.

Published: 2013

Authors: Joe Pulizzi

Get the book on Kindle , Google Play Books , Kobo , Barnes & Noble .

» Want to up your social game? Check out the top social media books to read this year.

4. Blue Ocean Shift - by W. Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne

Beyond Competing - Proven Steps to Inspire Confidence and Seize New Growth

The Blue Ocean Shift is a sequel to the Blue Ocean Strategy. It was published 15 years later and has a whole set of case studies and examples of companies using some of the principles discussed in the first book. The first volume was lacking implementation and examples that showed these principles in action, and the sequel has it all.

What’s new is the implementation of the strategy. They created a great five-step process for developing a blue ocean strategy that makes it super easy to implement these key concepts. Here’s what it looks like.

Otherwise, I’d say it’s a pretty good book for those people who read the first one and were intrigued and a bit confused about how to implement the principles in their business. But if you haven’t read the first one, I recommend to start with the second one. It’s clear, concise, and super practical.

Published: 2017

Get the book on Audible , Kindle , Barnes & Noble .

5. Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable - by Seth Godin

Seth Godin is a maverick and master writer and we have two of his marketing books on this list. Just the title of this one sounds inviting, doesn’t it? And the fact that you actually have to turn your head to read the title of this thing. Wow.

This book completely revolutionized marketing when it came out in 2003. In this book, Seth Godin highlights how some of the top brands made it big because they worked on becoming exceptional and standing out in the marketplace. He tells the branding stories of businesses like Apple, Dyson, and Starbucks and it’s really inspiring.

The only downside to this book is that it’s not going to give you a practical step-by-step process of how to become extraordinary. So if you’re looking for concrete methods this isn’t the book for you. But it will definitely inspire you and get you into the mind space to start transforming your business.

About the author: Seth Godin is an entrepreneur turned internationally acclaimed best-selling author and marketing influencer with 19 international bestsellers. His marketing books for entrepreneurs include the Icarus Deception, Tribes, Linchpin, and others. He runs a very popular marketing blog at sethgodin.com .

Published: 2003

Authors: Seth Godin

6. The Pizza Guide to Digital Marketing - by Christian Farioli

A Delicious First Byte of the Biggest Business Game Changers of Your Lifetime

Fascinating title but the guy is Italian, so I guess they enjoy reading their marketing books over a large pizza and a glass of wine.

It’s refreshing to see a marketing book written by a marketing agency owner. And this one is quirky, funny, and super practical. It offers a lot of advice, tips, examples, and a comprehensive picture of digital marketing that’s more geared for the beginner.

About the author: Christian Farioli is a lecturer at the Digital Marketing Institute and owns the digital agency called “Agency of the Future”. He has trained more than 10,000 marketing professionals and his clients include Armani, Bayer, and Huawei.

Authors: Christian Farioli

Get the book on Kobo , Kindle , Barnes & Noble .

7. Top of Mind - by John Hall

Use Content to Unleash Your Influence and Engage Those Who Matter to You

This book provides a practical combination of content marketing and influencer marketing and how to use these two disciplines in the context of marketing strategy. This means building relationships and engaging your target audience or community to really get your brand to be top of mind for your ideal customers.

• Build a content strategy
• Better manage your marketing team's knowledge 
• Create and distribute content the right way
• Create relationships with the right influencers and brand ambassadors

Another great theme in this book is how brand values and thoughts about the marketing strategy are communicated within a company, and between different teams. John has a whole chapter dedicated to that. In it, he gives a lot of helpful tips for making your marketing strategy stick and communicating it to the other teams and departments.

About the author: John Hall co-founded the scheduling tool Calendar.com . He also co-founded a digital marketing agency called Influence and Co . He is a well-known influencer and speaker and has written articles for over 50 online publications including the Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Mashable, and others.

Authors: John Hall

8. Positioning - by Al Ries & Jack Trout

How to be seen and heard in the overcrowded marketplace

You guessed it — this book is all about brand positioning and how to do it right.

What is brand positioning? It’s how you communicate your brand to the outside world, how you communicate your strengths and weaknesses, and how you differentiate yourself from your competition.

Brands often compete in an overcrowded marketplace where it’s hard to differentiate the branding or the product line. This book presents an extensive history of brand positioning, practical methods on how to extend or reposition a brand, and how you can use it to craft the perfect marketing strategy to incorporate with your business strategies

What I love about this book is that it presents several fascinating examples of brands repositioning themselves and succeeding. There are stories about Xerox, Milk Duds, Mailgram, New Jersey Bank, and even the Catholic Church!

So overall, a really fun and interesting read that will challenge you and delight you at the same time.

About the authors: Al Ries and Jack Trout (known as the father of positioning) are two of the world’s most well-known marketing strategists and have written several best-selling books in the field of marketing. The two actually worked at the same marketing strategy firm for over 26 years. Their customers have included well-known brands like AT&T, Apple, IBM, HP, Pfizer, P&G, Xerox, and Southwest Airlines.

Published: 1980 (new edition came out 2001)

Get the book on Kindle , Kobo , Google Play , Barnes & Noble .

9. Permission Marketing - by Seth Godin

Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers

This is a must-read for anyone who’s developing a marketing strategy or running marketing campaigns. This is another heavy hitter from Seth Godin where he explains the notion of permission marketing.

The idea is that brands should move away from disruptive advertising and market to the potential customer in a way that doesn’t disrupt their online experience. It’s a great mindset for any omnichannel strategy because the user experience is crucial. There are many different touchpoints along the customer journey and this book helps brands focus on putting the user first and not disrupting their experience.

Published: 1999

10. Quantum Marketing - by Raja Rajamannar

Mastering the New Marketing Mindset for Tomorrow’s Consumers

If you’re tired of outdated marketing examples and want a fresh and updated outlook on what marketing should be in this day and age then this book is for you.

Quantum Marketing is written by Raja Rajamannar, the CMO of Mastercard, and in this book, he shares the breakthroughs and challenges that firms face when they create their marketing strategy and boost their online presence.

In this book you will find:

• Practical lessons from the world’s top market
• The type of thinking that’s required to achieve breakthroughs
• The best marketing strategies and tactics that will help you grow your business
• Techniques for continued innovation into new channels and media

Overall it’s a great read and a good refresher of the marketing technologies that every brand should be using to reach their internet marketing goals.

About the author: Raja Rajamannar is the Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at Mastercard. He is also the president of the World Federation of Advertisers , and has more than 30 years of experience as a global executive. Adweek has recognized him as one of the industry's most tech-savvy CMOs and the top 5 World’s Most Influential CMOs by Forbes. He has taught at more than 40 top management schools in the world.

Published: 2021

Authors: Raja Rajamannar

11. What Customers Crave - by Nicholas J. Webb

How to Create Relevant and Memorable Experiences at Every Touchpoint

One of the most vital steps that brands miss when creating their marketing strategy is the customer research stage. You need to know what your customers love, what they hate, and what issue your product solves. Without that information, you will not find a good product-market fit and your brand will ultimately fail, no matter how good your product development is.

This book teaches offers you a guide how to get that data and structure your product around the customer experience. It’s super practical and will teach you the methods to go about it.

About the author : Nicholas J. Webb is a popular speaker and corporate strategist in the areas of customer experience design and innovation. His firm, Cravve , provides consulting and training to many of the world’s top brands.

Published: 2016

Authors: Nicholas J. Webb

12. Marketing Plan Template & Example - by Alex Genadinik

How to write a marketing plan

Once you have your marketing strategy you need to put it into a marketing plan, and that’s where some brands get stuck. That’s why we recommend this book to all our readers because it’s such a practical next step from strategy to plan to execution.

What’s so unique about this book? Alex created a really innovative and quick way to structure and come up with your marketing plan template . First, you start with a 3-sentence marketing plan, distilling your strategy into just three sentences. Then you expand that into a 1-page plan, and finally, you will create a full marketing plan.

Most people get stuck trying to write essays and don’t get to the execution piece fast enough. This book introduces a way that cuts through all the unnecessary stages and helps brands create a plan fairly quickly. It’s a fast read with tons of examples and real-world scenarios.

About the author: Alex Genadinik is one of the top teachers on Udemy with over 20+ best-selling courses (including courses on eCommerce ). He’s written several best-selling marketing books for entrepreneurs on Amazon about marketing.

Published: 2015

Authors: Alex Genadinik

Get the book on Google Books , Kindle , Barnes & Noble .

13. Digital Marketing Strategy - by Simon Kingsnorth

An Integrated Approach to Online Marketing

This book is for the digital marketer who is ready to implement an effective marketing strategy. The book goes through all the various marketing channels - SEO, social media, content marketing, user experience, paid advertising, lead generation, customer loyalty, online & offline marketing - and introduces cutting-edge techniques and strategies for each channel.

A word of caution - this book goes through the topics fairly quickly, so if you need a deep dive into any one of them I would recommend reading industry blogs or getting another book on the specific marketing channel or technique you’re interested in exploring. This book is more of a big-picture general refresher of each channel geared towards the marketing novice beginning their marketing career.

About the author: Simon Kingsnorth is an award-winning digital consultant and marketing strategy expert. He has worked for and consulted many leading brands around the world. He is a well-known speaker and corporate trainer.

Authors: Simon Kingsnorth

14. Marketing Strategy: The Thinking Involved - by Mark E. Hill

This one is more of a textbook for marketing professionals, it’s used in universities and colleges across the US. Don’t get tripped up by the vague title, this is a very comprehensive book that covers every aspect of digital marketing strategy. It deals less with practical tactics and more with the analytics thinking required to get the big picture right.

Topics include:

• How to craft the perfect marketing strategy
• The marketing mix and which channels to use
• Logistics / operations
• Price strategies
• How to create the right company culture

About the author : Mark E. Hill is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Montclair State University with more than 20 years of academic and professional experience. He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in Marketing Strategy, Marketing Research, and Consumer Behavior.

Published: 2012

Authors: Mark E. Hill

Get the book on Kobo , Kindle , Barnes & Noble , Google Play Books .

15. Hacking Growth - by Sean Ellis & Morgan Brown

How Today’s Fastest-Growing Companies Drive Breakout Success

This is one of my favorite digital marketing books of all time. Hacking Growth really represents the growth of Big Tech and how marketing went from glorified PR to a measured and precise science. Growth hacking involves cross-functional teams and rapid A/B testing based on rigorous data analysis. And above all, it focuses on the customer-centric approach.

The main premise of the book is perhaps that companies that learn the fastest grow the fastest. The top brands gather data and make their entire company culture revolve around making data-based decisions, instead of shooting in the wind. And this book gives a ton of practical examples of brands that succeeded in making growth hacking a vital component of their culture and were able to grow their revenue really fast.

About the author : Sean Ellis was the one who coined the term “growth hacking”. He is the CEO and co-founder of GrowtHackers.com and has been a startup mentor for years. Morgan Brown launched Growth Hackers with Sean and is a startup marketing veteran.

Authors: Morgan Brown, Sean Ellis

16. Traction - by Gabriel Weinberg & Justin Mares

How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth

Traction is another heavy hitter, it’s one of the most popular books on digital marketing . The main theme of the book is that growing companies is hard and the most important thing is customer acquisition. Without acquiring new customers your company won’t grow.

Traction introduces nineteen channels that a brand can use to build a customer base and tells you how to pick the right ones. There are a ton of practical examples of big companies that focused on customer acquisition and were able to grow fairly quickly like Reddit, Kayak, Hubspot, and Wikipedia.

It’s considered one of the foremost resources for startups and companies that want to grow their revenue and structure their marketing strategy correctly.

About the author : Gabriel Weinberg is the CEO and Founder of DuckDuckGo, the private search engine and Justin Mares is the founder of two startups and the former director of revenue at Exceptional.

Published: 2014

Authors: Justin Mares, Gabriel Weinberg

17. Digital Marketing for Dummies - by Russ Henneberry & Ryan Deiss

This is a great read if you want a guide to take you through basics of marketing. Be honest, how many times did you feel like picking up a guide to something for dummies? There’s a reason why these books are so popular because they explain everything in simple language and because they are comprehensive, they cover every aspect of a topic.

The same holds true for Digital Marketing for Dummies .

• Gaining a deep understanding of the customer journey
• Choosing the right marketing campaign
• Crafting a winning offer
• Content marketing & blogging
• Crafting landing pages that drive conversions
• SEO and search marketing
• Social media
• Paid advertising
• Email marketing
• Data analysis and optimization
• Top marketing tools

Authors: Russ Henneberry, Ryan Deiss

» Want to get more tips on email marketing? Check out our list of the top email marketing books to read this year.

18. They Ask You Answer - by Marcus Sheridan

A Revolutionary Approach to Inbound Sales, Content Marketing, and Today's Digital Consumer

This book was written by the famous CEO of a struggling pool company during the 2008 market crash that was about to go bankrupt. So Marcus used content marketing and blogging to really educate his customers and get on the top of search results, and he was able to turn it all around. In fact, the story was used by Hubspot in the early days to popularize content marketing and the inbound approach.

This book provides some really great resources on how to create a content strategy, how to perfect the marketing funnel and the types of content you should use for your business. It will help you structure your marketing strategy in such a way that your customers turn into brand ambassadors and your brand grows long-term.

About the author : Marcus Sheridan was an owner of the pool company River Pools and since then became a content marketing guru. He lectures and speaks around the world and consults large brands on their content marketing strategy.

Authors: Marcus Sheridan

20. #GetSocialSmart - by Katie Lance

How to Hone Your Social Media Strategy

 Social media marketing is a huge part of your marketing strategy and one of the hardest things to do for a brand is to create a consistent voice and tell the brand story that gets their target market interested — and invested in their branding.

This book is unique in that it not only deals with the practical strategies of all the main social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram) but it also teaches brands how to tell their brand story and how to best interact with their online audience.

It’s a really great read and a must for any brand that wants to scale.

About the author: Katie Lance is the CEO of Lance Consulting, a large social media consulting firm and she has worked with clients like DocuSign, Realtor.com, SmartZip, and Re/Max. She is a nationally-known keynote speaker, runs her own social media academy called the GetSocialSmart Academy , and continues consulting brands around the world.

Authors: Katie Lance

21. Hooked - by Nir Eyal

How to Build Habit-Forming Products

There's a reason people like some products better than others — and Nir Eyal has cracked the code behind customer behavior and what it takes to build products that get users hooked.

In Hooked, Eyal dives into his concept of habit-forming products and provides you with a guide on how companies and marketing experts can create powerful triggers that encourage customers to keep using their products. He reveals the 4 steps of the Hook Model:

• Variable Reward

Topics approached in this book include how to offer solutions that act as painkillers vs. vitamins, leveraging the power of external vs. internal triggers, what it takes to create products that drive customers into the "Habit Zone", and more.

About the author: Nir Eyal is an entrepreneur, investor, and lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He's also the founder of two tech companies and has been featured in Fast Company, Psychology Today, and The Harvard Business Review, amongst many others.

Authors: Nir Eyal

Get the book on Audible , Kobo , Barnes & Noble 

22. Breakthrough Advertising - by Eugene Schwarz

Masters of Marketing Secrets: What Makes Marketing Work - For Real

Breakthrough Advertising is a must-read book for those looking to get serious about their marketing efforts. This book explores the various strategies that top companies have used to create successful campaigns, from concept formation to testing and tracking. Although more connected to traditional advertising, this book remains extremely relevant more than six decades after its publishing.

Authored by Eugene Schwarz, Breakthrough Advertising covers topics such as research and strategy development, connecting to customers, creative planning, and copywriting techniques.

About the author : Eugene Schwarz is largely considered one of the most influential copywriters of all time. He was known for his direct email copywriting methods and was also the founder of one of the most successful copywriting agencies.

Published : 1966

Authors : Eugene Schwarz

Get the book on Amazon , Kobo , Barnes & Nobels 

23. Scientific Advertising - by Claude Hopkins

Claude Hopkins' Scientific Advertising is a classic marketing book — a must-read for anyone looking to gain valuable insight into how advertising works. It explains how the scientific approach can be applied to crafting effective marketing messages and campaigns.

The book is a comprehensive guide on advertising, and it covers topics such as market research, testing techniques, copywriting principles, budgeting guidelines, and more. With this knowledge, you'll be able to create campaigns that drive results and increase ROI.

About the author : Claude C Hopkins was a pioneer of modern advertising, often referred to as one of the advertising greats. Aside from Scientific Advertising, he wrote several books on the subject, focusing mainly on direct response and copywriting.

Published : 1923

Authors : Claude C. Hopkins

24. Everybody Writes - by Ann Handley

Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content

Ann Handley is the queen of content marketing and her book, Everybody Writes, is a must-read for anyone looking to create amazing content.

In this book, Handley helps you understand how to write great content that resonates with your audience, how to use content for branding, what her writing process is, and how to save time and create content efficiently.

About the author : Ann Handley is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, keynote speaker, and the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs. She's been featured in Entrepreneur, NPR, The Financial Times, and more.

Published : 2014

Get the book on Audible , Kobo , Barnes & Noble .

Mastering Marketing Strategy through Essential Reads

Marketing books are some of the best resources to develop your strategy and learn new tactics. The best part about this list is that all of these books have practical examples and real-world case studies. To get a really good foundation we recommend you check out some of the more general strategy books and then read the more practical books that talk about specific marketing channels and tactics. And as always, if you need any help don’t hesitate to reach out .

Related Articles

Ben Kazinik

What is Behavioral Targeting? How it Works + Key Strategies

Andrew Royal

What Is the ROI of Email Marketing? 9 Tips to Boost It for 2024

Build Winning Ecommerce Email Marketing Campaigns (10+ Examples)

Octavia Drexler

What is Facebook Ads Cost and How to Spend Less in 2024

21 Best Email Marketing Tools to use in 2024 [Free & Paid]

How to: Research Consumer Markets: Books

• Getting Started
• Demographics
• New Products
• Market / Industry
• Other resources

Cornell subscribes to tens of thousands of journals. Use Online Journals to locate journals by title or subject available electronically to Cornell students. Examples of some trade magazines and academic journals:

• Advertising Age
• Journal of Brand Management
• JMR Journal of Marketing Research
• Marketing Science

Books: Introduction and methods to market research

And many more books via the catalog .

Books: Media and Markets

Books: Consumer behavior and lifestyle

Many more books available via the catalog .

• << Previous: Other resources
• Next: Articles >>
• Last Updated: Apr 23, 2024 12:58 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.cornell.edu/cmr

The 88 Books Every Marketer Should Read, According to 159 Marketing Pros

Table of contents

To see what Databox can do for you, including how it helps you track and visualize your performance data in real-time, check out our home page. Click here .

Experienced marketers know that marketing (and digital marketing in particular) is constantly evolving.

It isn’t a field you spend 4 years studying in college and you’re set for an entire career—it’s a practice that requires constant learning.

So how do marketers continuously learn more about their field? We posed that question to 159 experienced marketers, and nearly 30% said they take advantage of books on the topic.

Books are a particularly good way to learn about marketing because marketers need to understand the origins and underlying theory as well as keeping up with new trends and channels. Books on marketing offer the opportunity to learn about both of those things.

In light of that, we wanted to learn about the specific books—both the old stand-bys and newer releases—that our friends recommend to marketers experienced and beginner. Here, we’re sharing the 88 books they told us all marketers should read.

That’s a lot of books, so we also broke it down to the top 10 books recommended for beginners and the top 10 for more experienced marketing managers.

The Top 10 Best Marketing Books for Beginners

For beginner marketers who haven’t built up years or even decades of experience, our respondents recommended these top 10 books:

• This is Marketing – Seth Godin
• The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing – Al Ries, Jack Trout
• Purple Cow – Seth Godin
• Digital Marketing for Dummies – Russ Henneberry and Ryan Deiss
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion – Robert Cialdini
• Start With Why – Simon Sinek
• Jab, Jab, Jab Right Hook – Gary Vaynerchuk
• The New Rules of Marketing and PR – David Meerman Scott
• Marketing 4.0 – Philip Kotler
• Good to Great – Jim Collins

The Top 10 Best Marketing Books for Marketing Managers

For the more experienced crowd, respondents to our survey recommended the following 10 books as must-reads:

• This is Marketing – Seth Godin
• Leaders Eat Last – Simon Sinek
• Crossing the Chasm – Geoffrey Moore
• Building a Storybrand – Donald Miller
• How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie
• Leading Through the Turn – Elise Mitchell
• Drive – Daniel Pink
• Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products – Nir Eyal

The 88 Books Every Marketer Should Read

Without further ado, here it is—the big list of 88 must-read marketing books, recommended for marketers young and old, experienced and green.

1. This is Marketing by Seth Godin

“Even though it’s a bit of a cliché—most marketers have probably read it by now—it demonstrates some important strategies and philosophies that can improve your marketing in a big way,” Bram Vergouwen of Vergouwen Media said. “It’s also more strategic than tactical which is something that I really like. It’s also something that’s often forgotten since everything is so fast-paced these days.”

“Seth breaks marketing down into its most philosophical and psychological elements and then communicates it in a way that’s easy to read and understand,” said Corey Haines of Hey Marketers .

“Our CEO actually included this book in the surprise welcome package for me and other new employees. It is essential reading for new and seasoned marketers alike, business owners, and many other professions who need to know how to reach the right people with their messages, products, and services,” Jen Bergren of Chief Martech Officer told us.

Tamas Torok of Growth Advisor said “It’s a great summary of all the marketing wisdom he’s published in the last 20 years. This book goes into the fundamentals of marketing—a mindset refresher that will help you reframe your marketing strategy.”

2. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

This classic came recommended by Ryan Klein of Market My Market . Klein said, “ I don’t think it’s necessarily a marketing book, but since marketing is so psychological, it gives insight into how people react to very nuanced differences in how you present information: ad copy, succinct messaging in marketing materials and website taglines, imagery, and user experience.”

“The book is consistently thought-provoking and without a doubt will assist in your assessment on how your process works for presenting your marketing to consumers,” Klein added.

“Understanding how the mind works is essential for understanding how marketing works. Marketing methods may change, but in the end, you’re always marketing to a human person with a human mind,” said Luke Nicholson of Exposure Ninja .

PRO TIP: How to track these 10 popular Google Analytics 4 metrics

Sure, there are dozens (and dozens?) more Google Analytics 4 metrics you could track. But, starting with these 10 commonly tracked metrics will give you a pretty high-level view of how your marketing is working…

• Sessions : The number of sessions can tell you how many times people are returning to your website. Obviously, the higher the better.
• Sessions by organic keyword : Which organic keywords bring in the most traffic to your website? This may help you determine whether your SEO investments are paying off.
• Bounce rate : Do visitors leave shortly after landing on your website? Or do they stick around?
• Average session duration : How much time are people spending on your website? Users with a high average session duration are most likely relevant to your company.
• Goal completions : How many users responded to your call to action?

If you want to track these in Google Analytics, you might find the visualizations limiting. It’s also a bit time-consuming to combine all the metrics you need in one view.

To better understand how your website performs in terms of traffic growth and conversions, we’ve made this plug-and-play dashboard that contains all the essential metrics for understanding how successful you are at optimizing different aspects of your website.

You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.

To set up the dashboard, follow these 3 simple steps:

Step 1: Get the template 

Step 2: Connect your Google Analytics account with Databox. 

Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.

3. The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

Paul Farmer of Riverwood Cabins recommended a book that isn’t as marketing-centric as most of the others on our list—but vital nonetheless.

“There comes a point in every marketer’s life when you’re completely out of ideas and it’s your lack of creativity holding you back,” Farmer explained.

“This book is a magic pill that’ll get all sorts of self-doubt and artistic blocks out of your head—so you’ll be spilling out marketing copy and campaign ideas by the bucket-load. It’s structured as a several month-long course and is full of exercises that’ll get your creative juices flowing.”

4. The Business of Being You by Joe Plumeri

Fleur Brown of Launch Group recommended The Business of Being You, saying, “Marketers understand the rise in personal brand better than most—most marketing is now digital and digital is driven by social and personal brand. But do they apply the principles to their own career?”

“This book goes well beyond the ‘influencer’ phenomenon to take a look at how all professionals now need to develop and grow their personal profile to survive the workplace shifts,” Brown added.

5. The Art of Client Service by Robert Solomon

Melanie Musson of ExpertInsuranceReviews.com recommended a book that returns marketing to the name of the game: serving clients and customers.

“This book gets to the heart of marketing: client service. With technology ever-changing, the main point remains the same,” Musson pointed out.

6. The 1-Page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib

“I recommend this book because it is the clearest, easiest read for marketers and teams on any level,” said Chris Biscuiti of Minuteman Press International. “Allan lays out a clear marketing plan and emphasizes the importance of each chapter in an easily digestible way. He summarizes each chapter and then creates an action item for each. He also discusses the value and importance of tracking ROI in a way that everyone should read and pay attention to.”

“The marketing plan will break down your marketing goals into a 9 step action plan that allows you to focus and target your marketing efforts,” Tino Jaimes of Sunrise House Buyers TX added. “The marketing plan takes you through the 3 marketing phases, 1. Before (Prospecting) 2. During (Lead) and 3. After (Customer) and provides valuable insights to stand out from your competition at each step of the way.”

“It’s packed with practical, useful, easy to implement strategies,” Jacob Landis-Eigsti said. 

“It covers finding the right customer, reaching and connecting with that customer, and how to generate referrals and repeat business. I recommend downloading the 1-Page plan and filling it out. I have my plan on my wall and I update it yearly. It’s a must-read for business owners and marketing professionals.”

Editor’s note: Looking for a better way to keep track of your marketing goals and the progress you’ve made? Download this free HubSpot Marketing template to view traffic, conversions, and return on investment KPIs all in one dashboard.

7. Permission Marketing by Seth Godin

“Seth Godin books are exceptional in their ability to survive the tests of time,” said Maddy Osman of The Blogsmith . That explains why so many of Godin’s books ended up on our list here. In this case, Permission Marketing.

“His marketing advice isn’t based on passing whims or trends—it’s more about good, old fashioned strategy,” Osman added. “My favorite Seth Godin book is Permission Marketing. It’s an especially timely topic in light of new data protection laws being introduced across the world.”

8. Purple Cow by Seth Godin

Another Godin masterpiece our marketers recommended was Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable .

Bradley Thompson of Living the Canadian Dream said, “If you’re looking to stand out from the crowd you need to think differently. In this book, Seth Godin will show you how you can be effective when marketing your business or brand by being different. Don’t go with the status quo, be memorable.”

9. Lost and Founder by Rand Fishkin

One of the newer books we heard about, Alex Hamilton of Morley Canvas recommends Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World by the founder and former CEO of Moz.

“While not being specifically about marketing, the book walks you through Rand’s life in the startup world and holds nothing back,” Hamilton said.

“As many people are in the freelance marketing world, this book opens up your mind to the possibilities brought on by hard work, risk-taking and dedication. Moz is one of the leading online marketing tools in the world, so it’s a book about someone many people in the online marketing industry can get around.”

10. All Marketers are Liars by Seth Godin

“It’s a great intro to the power and value of good storytelling.” – Michael Korch, Full Circle Insights.

The next Seth Godin book we heard about was All Marketers are Liars , and it was one of the most common responses we got.

Tony Rindsberg of Thankful AI said, “It’s a great read for those in creative marketing roles, BUT it is also critical for non-creative marketers to read to truly understand that every brand is telling a story or making a promise to customers—and it’s critical to keep that promise.”

“Even though it’s not the newest book in the space, the message is impactful and helps marketers take a step back to look at the big picture—something marketers rarely do,” Pope added.

“I read this one right after I started my own online business, and it completely shifted the way I thought about marketing,” said Connie Heintz of DIYoffer . “In reading it, I realized that instead of thinking about marketing as a way to ‘lure’ customers in, I should be using it to find the people I can help.”

“As a skeptic, this short book really changed my mind,” Craig Anderson of Appliance Analysts told us. “It’s a must-read for understanding our role as marketers, the impact of the stories we tell through our work, and how to use this to enhance our products (and results).”

11. Digital Marketing for Dummies by Russ Henneberry and Ryan Deiss

Simon Nowak of 3 Credit Scores recommended one of the more unique books we heard from respondents about: Digital Marketing for Dummies . Explaining, Nowak said, “Digital Marketing is vital these days and this 2019 release provides the most current techniques in the dynamic world of digital marketing.”

12. Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout

“It’s an absolute classic, and the Bible when it comes to positioning books.” – Andrew Bernstein, Sparxoo.

“If you haven’t read ‘Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind’ yet, I would place it at the top of your 2020 reading list,” said Drew Beechler of High Alpha.

“Positioning and messaging are some of the foundational marketing elements of any business, yet most marketers and businesses spend the least amount of time thinking about and working on those aspects of their marketing strategy.”

“Lots of great advice on making your business stand out against the competition in a market where you’re not the dominant player and carving out your own niches that you can dominate,” added Anne-Marie Hays of Best Company.

13. Break the Wheel by Jay Acunzo

“A rallying call to marketers to think outside the box and look for ways to do things differently, with some really interesting and inspiring case studies.” – Fleur Tucker, citrusHR

“The author does a great job of cutting through all of the marketing jargon and getting down to a core issue all marketers face: how do you create compelling attention for your audience that has a real impact?” said Andrew Clark of Duckpin.

“Additionally, Jay’s critique of the cult of best practice is filled with wit and illuminates how we often use best practices as an out for not really thinking critically about our work. If you want a book that’ll push you to grow in your professional role, ‘Break the Wheel’ is for you.”

14. Disciplined Entrepreneurship by Bill Aulet

“One marketing book I recommend is actually an entrepreneurship book,” said Ellen Crnko Shout it Out Design .

“Oftentimes, marketers become extremely pigeonholed in their role in business and forget that they are just a piece of the puzzle. By having a strong understanding of all facets of the business and how decisions are made, I find it is much easier to converse with leadership and other departments.”

15. The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone

Nikola Baldikov of Brosix loves biographies. Korch told us, “There’s a lot you can learn from successful people’s stories—the visions they created, the challenges they faced. and how they overcame them.”

“As Amazon continues to grow, there’s no more relevant business person at the moment than Jeff Bezos, and 2020 is a great time to learn from his story.”

16. Talk Like TED by Carmine Gallo

“In marketing, you need to tell stories,” said Raul Tiru of Global Owls . That’s why Shahwan recommended Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds .

“‘Talk Like TED’ explains how great stories need to be told,” Tiru explained. “Stop marketing product features and tell stories.”

17. Dotcom Secrets by Russell Brunson

A cult classic, Dotcom Secrets was one of the most cited books in our survey.

Jonathan Aufray of Growth Hackers said, “‘Dotcom Secrets’ is an awesome book for experienced marketers. It gives you very detailed tactics, tools, templates, and processes to build high-converting sales funnels. You don’t just want to drive traffic to your site, what you want is to generate leads and increase your revenue while automating your processes. This book shows you exactly how to do so with detailed step-by-step guides.”

John Donnachie of Clyde Bank Media said the book “offers an excellent perspective on direct response marketing. There is a tremendous wealth of direct marketing value included within the pages. Brunson expands on these concepts in ‘Expert Secrets.’”

“Russell takes you through the creation of numerous customer sales funnels so you maximize each and every visit to your site,” Alistair Dodds of Ever Increasing Circles said. “It provides some excellent insights and ideas for all levels of experience. And with the forward being written by one of the marketing industry’s true gurus, Dan Kennedy, you know you’re in good hands.”

“One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned in affiliate marketing and online marketing as a whole was from this book,” Khris Steven Khrisdigital said. “It taught me how to create an attractive character as a marketer and use that as leverage in building loyal fans/customers. Then selling my products to them is easy.”

18. Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller

“This book is great to learn about storytelling and understand the structure of a good story.” – Anand Iyer .

“In this book,” Thomas R. Harris of The Exceptional Skills explained, “Miller discusses how to market clearly and simply to your customers by making them the hero, and you the guide, to their story. Too often we complicate, are unclear, and confuse our customers. This book is great because it teaches us how to simplify and to tell a story that will resonate with our customers.”

Heather Wilson-Hooker of Marketing Maven said, “It is hands down the book that verifies everything Corporate Filming stands for which is storytelling for marketing! Learning to speak in storytelling allows marketing to do that hard part which is allowing emotion to connect to your prospective customers. The level of trust and connection means customers are ready to buy your brand.”

“If I could only recommend one marketing book to marketers looking to build their reading list for 2020, I would recommend ‘Building a StoryBrand’ by Donald Miller,” said Morgan Lathaen of Thumbprint .

“This book teaches marketers seven universal elements of stories to teach readers how to improve their connection with their customers and how to grow their business. With that, this book teaches marketers how to simplify their message so everybody can understand. This read can transform the way you market your business.”

Glenn Allen told us, “Many of the clients I work with make the mistake of making themselves the hero of their branding story instead of their customer. This book helps you craft a brand story and apply it across your marketing in a practical way that lets customers know who you are and how you can help them in a way that positions you as the trusted guide on their hero’s journey.”

19. SEO (No BS) Strategy by Casey Leigh Henry

Alex Cascio of Vibrant Media Production s also recommended the 2019 SEO (No Bullsh*t) Strategy by Casey Leigh Henry. “It’s a solid and to the point read that is excellent for people who are new to SEO and launching their site for their business. It’s very organized and helps you develop your approach.”

Editor’s note: Need a reporting solution to track performance for your new search engine optimization efforts? Download this free Google Search Console Basics dashboard to see search visibility, which pages are driving organic traffic, and more.

20. Growth Hacker Marketing by Ryan Holiday

“It’s a phenomenal read for anyone new or old to marketing,” said Aditya Sheth of Venngage , “because it walks you through how companies like Mint, Dropbox, Spotify, etc achieved breakout success through a growth mindset and rapid experimentation. I’ve read it a few times already and it’s one of the few books to be always beside my bedside.”

Laura Gonzalez of Audi Las Vegas agreed, saying, “It’s a great way to introduce yourself to the word of growth hacking marketing.”

“Six years in, and it’s still relevant. Like many other books by Holiday, it provides insight, a good read, and a to-do list. A must for expanding your marketing arsenal,” said Ron Zed of Seeking Alpha .

21. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Another top recommendation from the marketers we heard from was Dale Carnegia’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. PaigeArnof-Fenn Mavens & Moguls said, “It is a classic with timeless advice on manners and people/human nature. You cannot go wrong with this one.”

“The one book I would recommend to marketers in 2020 is the same book I would have recommended to marketers in 1937 and the same I will recommend in 3020,” said Richard Garvey of Acer Marketing . “Marketing is about understanding human behavior and speaking to your audience in a way that will resonate with them across various platforms. There is no better book to teach you how to influence people than this one.”

Janice Wald of Mostly Blogging said, “Carnegie’s book enables marketers to shift their perspectives from an I-centered approach to what’s best for the customer. This perspective makes the marketer helpful for the consumer and successful.”

According to her, Carnegie’s classic is evergreen. “With insights on manners and people/human nature, you cannot go wrong with this one. He gives great advice no matter what area you are in these nuggets have withstood the test of time and will make you more successful.”

22. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini

“Truly an oldie by goodie,” said Karol Nowacki of ResumeLab . “The explanation of the principles we’re all prewired to abide by goes beyond marketing but even more so into the core of human psychology and what makes us tick and say yes.”

“This is canon and an indispensable part of any marketer worth his/her salt.”

Frank Corso said, “Out of all the marketing books I have read, ‘Influence’ is the one that has helped me the most to improve my marketing campaigns both in quality and number of conversions.”

“Once you understand what makes people tick (both online, and offline), you can start to craft your marketing message and funnel, and move your ideal clients into repeat customers,” said Callum Mundine of One Egg . “When designing marketing funnels for our clients, we always refer back to Cialdini’s core principles of persuasion and ask ourselves, ‘Is this going to move the user closer to a client?’”

According to Wes Marsh of BCA Technologies , “Marketers must understand the hidden factors that drive decisions in our audiences. The better we can understand the reasons why certain tactics work well while others don’t, the more likely we are to be able to repeat and scale our successes.”

23. Epic Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi

“Pulizzi lays out the goals, principles, and basic strategies of the content marketing field in a way that is simple to apply while being inspiring, and entertaining.” – Dario Sipos

“This book lays out the ways to find the best topics and literally grab a reader’s attention,” said Alexandra Zamolo of Beekeeper . “Plus, content marketing is one of the least expensive ways to get new leads AND give your customers a reason to return to your website.”

Danish Maniyar added, “It shows you how to position yourself as a market leader within your chosen niche and develop content that delivers results.”

24. High Output Management by Andrew Grove

According to Daniel Cooper of Lolly , “The one book often overlooked by marketers is ‘High Output Management’ by Andrew Grove.”

“Seen as a bible my many hugely successful entrepreneurs, Andrews take on dual reporting is directly applicable to the measurement of all marketing campaigns. Measuring incoming traffic alone from a marketing campaign won’t give you the lessons you need unless you dual report this against conversions.”

E ditor’s note:  Need marketing reporting software to track performance for your marketing campaigns? Databox allows you to build stories around data with live reports, automates your processes, and levels up your marketing teams.

25. Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

“In the internet age, getting in front of people is easy. The challenge is sticking around in their minds after they continue on your way. This is why I think ‘Made To Stick’ is such a critical read for modern marketers,” explained Jacob McMillen .

“It focuses on what makes ideas stick, and the applications are present within every branch of marketing. Whether you’re just entering the field or have 20 years behind your belt, creating sticky marketing remains an equally essential and elusive goal, and this is the type of book you’ll refer back to again and again and again.”

Danny Starr of Cyan Solutions agreed, saying, “‘Made to Stick’ by Chip and Dan Heath is an essential book for any marketer to read. In the end, we’re all trying to create and communicate messages that ‘stick’ and this book uses powerful success stories to illustrate it’s main points and provides marketers with actionable advice they can start using right away.”

26. Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug

Nikola Baldikov of Brosix said, ‘Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited’ by Steve Krug is focused on website design and usability, but the principles that are broken down can really apply to any aspect of marketing.”

Baldikov added, “I love this book because it focuses on the basics of human behavior and how to effectively market to people by focusing on their needs, versus how marketers tend to approach things.”

27. Unlocking the Customer Value Chain by Thales S. Teixeira

“‘Unlocking the Customer Value Chain’ by Thales S. Teixeira has hit on as grand a theory as any book I’ve read over the last many years,” said Norhanie Pangulima of SIA Enterprises .

“The book presents a new strategy for the digital division. One rooted not in a study of technology or business strategy regularly, but in the methods of marketing and customer reaction.”

28. Unbranding: 100 Branding Lessons for the Age of Disruption by Scott & Alison Stratten

“For many of us who majored in marketing or branding in college, there are these tried-and-true lessons that were ingrained in us on what counts as good marketing. The digital age totally flipped all of that on its head and changed the rules of the game,” Lauren Pope of G2 explained.

“Unbranding is a modern look at how to get over your own ego and market for the customer. It’s a no-nonsense, tough as nails look at how you’re doing things wrong and what you can do to fix it. Scott and Alison don’t hold any punches and basically, give you the keys to the kingdom if you’re willing to learn.”

29. Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords by Perry Marshall

“Written by a well-known and highly respected expert on Google Adwords, this book should be your Google Ads bible,” said Alice Bedward of Flyparks .

“All digital marketers should take to heart the lessons about the value of testing, testing, and then testing some more. For those new to Google Ads, the book serves as a good primer, giving you enough to get started and optimize your campaigns.”

30. Turning Customers into Advocates by Amanda Stevens

According to Casey Bryan of Grand Cru Digital “‘Turning Customers into Advocates’ by Amanda Stevens is a fantastic read for all marketers.”

“I read the book in just a couple of days and loved it,” Bryan said. “It focuses on the power of Customer Centricity and gives you actionable tips on how you can start turning your customers into walking advertisements for your business.”

31. Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth by Gabriel Wienberg and Justin Mares

Norhanie Pangulima of SIA Enterprises recommended Mares and Wienberg’s Traction, saying, “‘Traction’ examines every channel a company can use to grow. The book also analyzes the incentives and drivers in each channel.

“I recommend this book to all business people, especially marketers. I reread this book every time I am trying to grow a new venture. It’s a great springboard for creating a wildly successful marketing strategy. All omnichannel marketers should read this book because it will help them fill in their blind spots.”

32. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

“I think this book is crucial for all marketers as it really helps you understand the philosophy behind marketing,” said Brian Shahwan of CORE .

“How one, seemingly small, thing can influence an entire campaign or re-brand of a company. I think most consumers don’t realize all of the subliminal Easter Eggs products put in their campaigns to get them to think a certain way or be influenced and this book is a great resource with many examples.”

33. The OneTEAM Method by Peter Strohkorb

Peter Strohkorb says Strohkorb’s The OneTEAM Method “addresses the elephant in the room of why marketing is under-appreciated by salespeople and their leaders.” According to Allen, Strohkorb’s book can help marketers and salespeople work better together—and produce better results for both teams.

34. Before You Know It by John Bargh, Ph.D.

“The one marketing book I’d recommend for marketers to read in 2020 is ‘Before You Know It: The Unconscious Reasons We Do What We Do,’” said Tony Mastri of MARION Marketing Agency.

“This book is filled with data and insights from psychological and sociological studies that can have a profound impact on the way you create brand messaging, sales copy, content, etc. It brings up several high-impact ideas that you may not have considered using in your marketing, and will bring clarity to your existing ideas and processes.”

35. The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino

Of The Greatest Salesman in the World, Lisamarie Monaco said, “It is an inspiring book that motivates you to implement every marketing idea plan of action to be a success in life and in business.”

“This book helps you form good strong habits and focus on any business venture,” Monaco added. “It will help you overcome your fears. It should be mandatory in grade school to read this book!”

36. The Jackass Whisperer by Scott & Alison Stratten

“This book is hot off the presses and a must-read.” – Ben Packard of Thrifty Points

According to Packard, The Jackass Whisperer by Scott and Alison Stratten “provides a smart, funny, and insightful look at dealing with the people in your life who cause aggravation. It’s a great look at the power of letting things go, rather than letting them build up.”

37. Asimov’s Chronology of the World by Isaac Asimov

Mi chael Alexis told us, “The books I recommend to everyone, including marketers, is ‘Asimov’s Chronology of the World’ and its companion ‘Asimov’s Chronology of Science and Discovery.’”

As Alexis explained, “These books are nonfiction and are essentially encyclopedias of the major events that happened between the dawn of time straight through to the 1980s.”

“While the content is not directly related to marketing,” Alexis said, “I’ve found that it inspires better marketing in many ways. For example, the breadth of knowledge will improve your content, and the birds-eye view of human history gives you insights into behavior like the nature of cycles. These insights can be much more effective and lucrative than anyone marketing tactic.”

38. Magnetic Marketing by Dan Kennedy

“The book I would recommend above all else is ‘Magnetic Marketing’ by Dan Kennedy,” said James Pollard The Advisor Coach . “I recommend this book because it is an excellent refresher on the principles of direct-response marketing.”

“In today’s world,” Pollard said, “some people have gotten so caught up in social media and ‘branding’ that they’ve forgotten that marketing is about acquiring and serving a customer. Old-school direct response principles still work. In fact, I would argue that they work better than ever before because they allow you to break through all the noise.”

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

This book featured on both of our top 10 lists—for marketing beginners and managers—and for good reason, according to the marketers who recommended it.

Andrew Connelly of Aberdeen said, “Whether new to marketing or a veteran, the voice of a brand and it’s positioning can make or break its success. This book uses very clear examples of real brands that create new categories and attributes, and the success they see as a result.”

“The book also showcases the value of being first in a new category and how difficult it is to overcome the leader when you are second. First to market may not have a better product, but will win simply for being first. Coke before Pepsi, McDonald’s before Burger King, etc.”

Sam White of New Dimension Marketing & Research added, “As we all look at new technologies like AR and machine learning, it’s easy to forget the core principles that connect customers to the brand, product, or service. ‘The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing’ breaks down the rules of marketing down into digestible chunks of wisdom.”

As Stefan Cordova FriendWithA explained, “It’s easy to buy into the hype of the latest marketing fad to get on to a specific platform, tool, etc. But this book looks at what’s tried, tested, and true and how to incorporate those concepts into your business for long-lasting success.”

40. Start With Why by Simon Sinek

“‘Start with Why’ by Simon Sinek details out the foundations of a truly inspirational business that accumulates loyal customers and fans—starting with WHY as opposed to WHAT,” said Christina Hunt of Haus von Albe .” This is an easy concept to bring into marketing as well. Marketing is constantly changing, and books and publishing can’t keep up. But if you have a solid conceptual foundation, you can apply it to all facets of marketing.”

“Whatever your marketing approach,” Matt Erickson of National Positions added, “this book will only make it better and help you achieve more powerful results.”

41. Smash the Funnel by Eric Keiles and Mike Lieberman

“The buyer journey has been transformed by the web,” said Mike Lieberman of Square 2 . “This book shows readers how to rethink marketing strategy, tactics, analytics and technology around the new Cyclonic Buyer Journey.”

42. Small Data by Martin Lindstrom

According to Nathan Binford of Inbound Marketing Best Practices , “Since modern marketers spend so much time in data, this book helps balance a ‘big data mindset’ by opening our minds to the many insights we can discover from small sample sets and individual behaviors. It’s important to remember that our data comes from human customers.”

43. She Means Business by Carrie Green

Hayley Robertson of My Client Strategy said She Means Business by Carrie Green is “a terrific read for anyone wanting to start an online business.”

“Carrie has built an incredibly successful online business community for female entrepreneurs around the world and shares her advice on how to understand your ideal clients, building communities that put clients first, and having the right mindset to visualize, build and grow your business”

44. Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins

“This book may have been originally published in 1923, but it is still (in my opinion) the advertising bible for marketers,” said Josh Barney of Einstein Marketer.

“Hopkins walks marketers through tons of advertising tactics that most modern advertisers don’t even discover until late in their careers. The book may have been written long before the digital age, but it made a massive difference in my understanding of advertising and how to make a positive ad return in the digital age.”

45. Raise the Bar by Jon Taffer

As Ben Arndt of DUNK Basketball told us, “Primarily written for the food and beverage industry, there are actionable takeaways in ‘Raise the Bar’ that can be used by anyone from a wide range of fields.”

“The best learning is that you want to give your client the best purchasing experience possible—this comes not just from providing an excellent product, but the manner in which it was delivered to a client that shows you’ve taken their business seriously and have ‘gone the extra yard’ to cater to their satisfaction,” Somal added.

46. Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility by Patty McCord

“This book helped me refocus on what matters when assembling a marketing team and building a company,” said Jennifer Lux of LyntonWeb .

Lux said Powerful “offered a contrarian perspective on managing a business and creating a remarkable culture. It challenged traditional approaches for marketing teams, like establishing processes and focusing on accountability for growth, and instead put emphasis on innovation and testing new ideas.”

47. Persuasive Copywriting by Andy Maslen

“This book is a tour de force in proven copywriting tactics,” said Adam Thompson of ReliaSite .

“Most marketing rises or falls based (at least in part) on copywriting. Grabbing attention, stoking desire, building interest, and calling users to action are all functions of copywriting. With good persuasive copywriting, your ad campaigns, websites, blog posts, and emails will all be more effective.”

48. Everybody Writes by Ann Handley

“If you’re only going to read one book this year, make it this one.” – Alexander Porter of Search It Local.

Though not officially a marketing-forward book, Ann Handley’s Everybody Writes was an oft-cited go-to among the marketers we spoke with.

“Today every marketer needs to understand how to communicate to their audience,” said Fara Rosenzweig of ManyChat . “‘Everybody Writes’ by Ann Hadley helps marketers understand how to write, feel comfortable, and get you to think differently when it comes to pen to paper.

BrittanyBerger said, “I’ve read it multiple times and still skim through it or my notes from it at least once a year. I think it’s as close to a manual for marketing writing as we can get, and writing is an amplifier. It’s one of those skills that, when you improve, it touches every area of your work. By improving your writing, you improve your landing pages, emails, ads, blog posts, web copy… pretty much any element of your marketing.”

According to Catherine Way of Prime Plus Mortgages , Everybody Writes “helps break the white page cycle and gets you proactive and productive with your writing.”

“Ann’s book melds both the craft and business of writing into applicable takeaways that any marketer needs to know and can use,” said Elisa Doucette of Craft Your Content .

As Porter added, “Marketing books are a dime a dozen, but the skills you learn reading this book will underpin almost EVERYTHING you do as a marketer.”

49. Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss

“You need to understand how people think if you want to sell things to them,” said Patrick Antinozzi of RapidWebLaunch .

“Chris Voss shares the knowledge and experience he’s acquired after working for decades as one of the FBI’s top negotiators, and there are way more common denominators than you think. Because, really, negotiating the release of hostages being held at gunpoint in an armored fortress is not that different from selling SaaS that helps retailers sell more smartphone data plans.”

50. Never Lose a Customer by Joey Coleman

“For marketing, we are focused on selling, selling, selling. However, we lose sight of the fact that a customer signing a contract is really only the first of many steps in that relationship,” said Nathan Maxwell of CCI .

Recommending Coleman’s Never Lose a Customer , Maxwell added, “A huge blind spot in many business operations is what happens as the ink dries. How smooth is the process of welcoming that customer to the family? How this is handled will greatly influence the longevity of that business relationship.”

51. Marketing Warfare by Al Ries and Jack Trout

“Marketing Warfare by Ries and Trout nails down principles that have stood the test of time for B2C Brands,” said Jim Knapp of JK Strategies LLC .

“Generals on the battlefield don’t try to attack on all fronts. They choose to narrow their attack where the enemy (competitor) is weak or complacent and surprise. This is my favorite framework today as it helps me advise clients on marketing tactics to use depending on their stage and, really important, their level of ambition and size of addressable market.”

52. The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey

“To be able to convince people and make them trust you is very essential for every marketer,” said Sameer Somal of Blue Ocean Global Tech . “As outlined in the book, ‘Trust will enable you to move the fulcrum over and create incredible leverage so that you get things done with greater speed and lower cost.’”

53. Making Websites Win by Karl Blanks and Ben Jesson

“This book is not super recent,” Larissa Murillo of Marketgoo admitted, “but it does contain timeless lessons. It’s not only about A/B testing but covers good copywriting, a structured approach to CRO, and generally becoming more data-driven about the work you do as a marketer.”

54. Conversational Marketing by David Cancel and Dave Gerhardt

“Conversational Marketing has been the secret behind many companies out there like Marketo, Ellie Mae, RapidMiner, and many more to increase their sales pipelines. Using the power of bots, these companies have fought the biggest hurdle in business today: how to generate more qualified leads for your company and actually convert them to clients,” explained Marcos Ortiz of Grupo Intercorp.

“David and Dave gave a quick take on how to take advantage of bots to actually beat your sales expectations.”

55. Legacy in the Making by Mark Miller and Lucas Conley

“The book provides insights about what it takes to create, nurture, and sustain a brand that lasts in today’s short-term economy,” Illia Termeno of Extrabrains Marketing Agency told us.

“It’s based on real-world examples of successful brands that value legacy over immediacy. The authors explain how innovative marketing strategies can help in creating a lasting legacy for an organization. The book helps us realize that we don’t have to be geniuses to succeed in building a brand—we just need to be passionate about our goals, committed to what we do, and are not afraid to take risks.”

56. Influencer: Building Your Personal Brand in the Age of Social Media by Brittany Hennessy

“All of the data points to influencers going nowhere in 2020,” Amber Faust of Faust Island Family Blog pointed out. “But many studies point to brands increasing their influencer budgets.”

Sound like an oxymoron? Faust says Hennessy’s book helps make sense of the seemingly conflicting data on a poorly understood segment of marketing. “This book will help you understand how the influencer industry works.”

57. Trust Me, I’m Lying by Ryan Holiday

“In terms of understanding the broad strategic concepts behind marketing, there is no better book than ‘Trust Me, I’m Lying’ by Ryan Holiday,” said Jonathan Chan of Insane Growth. “This is the book that I would credit with kick-starting my current career and I regularly refer back to it to this day.”

“Holiday goes in-depth about what it means to connect with audiences on a truly emotional level, the role of PR in the modern marketing world, as well as an incredibly honest insight into what it means to be a modern marketer.”

58. The Non-Designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams

“In marketing,” Rick Ramos of Health Joy pointed out, “you need to work with visual design frequently, either by creating your own materials or working with a designer.”

“This book will help you present data as information in your own work. It will also quickly improve the feedback you give to graphic designers. Work only gets better with explicit feedback and this will teach you how to do it. It’s a pretty quick read, so you’ll look at the visual world differently, the very next day,” Ramos added.

59. The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes

“If I could have my team read-only one marketing book,” Kathe Kline of MedicareQuick told us, “it would be an old one from Chet Holmes—’The Ultimate Sales Machine.’”

“The reason I like this book,” Kline explained, is that even though it’s targeted at sales and not marketing, the concept is the same. Basically it teaches you to think in terms of systems that can be set up and managed.”

60. Neuromarketing: Understanding the Buy Buttons in Your Customer’s Brain by Patrick Renvoise

According to Tommy Landry of Return On Now , Neuromarketing “remains one of the most important books for understanding the physiological and psychological triggers that drive customer action.”

“This book is outstanding. It covers everything from tapping into the reactive ‘lizard’ brain that drives gut decisions to how you can effectively message customers in a way that drives conversion and sales. A must-read for anyone who wants to up their marketing game in short order,” Landry concluded.

61. Expert Secrets by Russell Brunson

Another work from Russell Brunson made our list— Expert Secrets . Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation recommended it, saying the book is “a tactical deep dive into sales and marketing and how to present your offer in a compelling and psychologically attractive way.”

Loper added, “The ideas and strategies here can apply to a wide range of different businesses, both online and offline.”

62. Content – The Atomic Particle of Marketing by Jaimy Szymanski and Rebecca Lieb

Sergio Guillén of Accelingo recommended Content – The Atomic Particle of Marketing by authors Jaimy Szymanski and Rebecca Lieb. According to Daly, “It’s an incredibly useful book for content marketers, as it clearly shows you how to build and implement a successful campaign.”

“If you’re wondering how you can develop and execute a content strategy while getting the rest of your organization on board, this is your book. And those looking for ways to measure success effectively will find truly actionable tips as well.”

63. Play Big, Brand Bold by Suzanne Chadwick

“I would recommend Suzanne Chadwick’s ‘Play Big, Brand Bold,’” said Julia Ferrracane of Saint Copy PR. “This book is a game-changer for women in business who want to build a standout brand, design the work-life they have always dreamed of and take their business from basic to next-level standard.”

64. Company of One by Paul Jarvis

Alex Panagis of ScaleMath recommended a book that calls into question much of the growth-at-all-costs mindset plaguing marketing and entrepreneurship today.

“I truly think this is a great book for anyone running their own business or working for themselves as a consultant (or even a freelancer),” Panagis said. “Above all, the way Paul puts the traditional concept of scaling and growing at all costs (even at the detriment of clients) into question is a hard truth I think every marketer needs to read and come to terms with.”

65. Hacking Marketing by Scott Brinker

“The book introduces and links the practice of Agile to how marketing teams can collaborate, plan, launch, measure and adjust all their marketing deliverables,” explained Todd Laire of Laire Group . “‘Hacking Marketing’ provides excellent resources for facilitating the Agile methodology in your marketing team and corresponding activities.”

66. The ONE Thing by Gary W. Keller and Jay Papasan

“I would actually recommend ‘The ONE Thing,’” said Dan Rice.

“The biggest problem people have in trying to get into marketing is that they try to be all things to all people. This is a great model for focusing more on the right activity to push your business forward.”

67. Distribution Channels by Julian Dent

“I whole-heartedly recommend ‘Distribution Channels: Understanding and Managing Sales and Marketing Channels To Market’ by Julian Dent,” said Jean-Marc Saint Laurent of Saint313 Limited .

“This is a classic book about understanding the heart of marketing—distribution in order to guide a product or service to market,” Laurent explained. “While other marketing books tend to focus on the shiny whats : software, hacks, etc., this book brings you back to the critical why .”

68. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

The second Gladwell work on our list, Outliers came recommended by Carla Williams Johnson of Carli Communications —who also threw praise at The Tipping Point . 

Speaking about both of Gladwell’s works, Johnson said, “They were so informative and really gave a unique perspective on how things can really move from the ordinary to the extraordinary when all the right components are in place. In my opinion, both books speak of knowing what to look for and what needs to be in place to increase your odds for success.”

69. Sidetracked: Why Our Decisions Get Derailed and How We Can Stick to the Plan by Francesca Gino

“I think every marketer would benefit greatly from studying behavioral economics, and my favorite author from that field is Francesca Gino, a researcher and professor from Harvard Business School,” said Yaniv Masjedi of Nextiva .

“I recommend her book ‘Sidetracked’ because it gives a thorough overview of why and how people make decisions. It’s a great foundation for those of us seeking to help people purchase our products. It has also been a great resource for me for making improvements in my own life,” Masjedi added.

70. Fraud Prevention in Online Digital Advertising by Xingquan Zhu

Brittney Ihrig of Interceptd recommended a book that might seem a bit removed from marketing—but it rings true of this particular era of digital marketing.

“I think all marketers that work for companies and brands that use digital marketing as part of their advertising matrix should read ‘Fraud Prevention in Online Digital Advertising,’” Ihrig said.

“Often marketers are surprised by the extent, breadth, and commonality of ad fraud. In the first half of 2019, the drum estimates that advertisers had already lost $2.3 billion to ad fraud. If you want to stay ahead of your competitors, considering ad fraud consumes roughly 30% of mobile ad traffic, a good tactic would be to get a handle on your fraudulent traffic.”

71. The Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne

“The blue ocean strategy is a paradigm shift that isn’t based on what competition is doing but based on how to increase the market size by making noncustomers your customers. A must-read book for every marketer.” – Shabbir Bhimani, Web Turtles

Speaking about Kim and Mauborgne’s The Blue Ocean Strategy , Kristie Holden of Marketcircle said “It’s an oldie but a goodie. It’s ideal for making sure all the activities and initiatives you’re doing are in line with an overall strategy that’s setting you up for success long-term.”

“It has changed my view about how I look at a business opportunity now,” said Holden. “The book makes marketers aware of the competition to offer customers something unique. Moreover, it also focuses on how to use the feedback from non-customers to create a completely new playing field for the business.”

72. The Marketing Agency Blueprint by Paul Roetzer

Andy Hoek of Invalshoek recommended The Marketing Agency Blueprint by Paul Roetzer.

“It’s not about marketing by itself, but how to build a successful marketing agency,” Hoek explained. “It covers subjects like marketing and selling your services, hiring a great team, finance, working with customers and running operations. This book will give your agency a system for becoming successful.”

“I also think it’s interesting for in-house marketers that want to know how the agency they work with work, or how to select an agency to work with for their brand,” Hoek added.

73. Work Clean, or Everything In Its’ Place by Dan Charnas

“I can’t say enough good things about the book ‘Work Clean,’” Juli Durante of Impulse Creative told us.

“The author, Dan Charnas, took a bit of an anthropological approach to the art of getting things done and shadowed professional chefs, line cooks, and culinary students to discover how the culinary principle of mise en place translates to productivity both personally and professionally.”

“It’s not a marketing book at all,” Durante admitted, “but has radically changed the way I approach getting things done: organizing my time, planning my day, moving from task to task, eliminating the wasted time of ‘What’s next?’”

74. Spark: How to Lead Yourself and Others to Greater Success by Angie Morgan, Courtney Lynch, and Sean Lynch

“I would suggest adding ‘Spark: How to Lead Yourself and Others to Greater Success’ to your reading list,” said Nikola Baldikov of Brosix.

“While it’s not directly related to marketing, it’s a great book full of insight on becoming a spark within your company. And really, that’s what marketing comes down to—being a spark inside and outside of your company.”

75. How to Write an Inspired Creative Brief by Howard Ibach

“This book will teach you the ins and outs of how to write a creative brief that is simple yet sophisticated,” explained Doug Stewart of Appleton Creative. “It explains how to say a lot by writing a little and arms you with skills you can utilize to educate your creative team, enabling them to create more impactful content.

76. Extreme Revenue Growth by Victor Cheng

Jeremy Cross of Corporate Events NYC recommended Extreme Revenue Growth by Victor Cheng.

“The book deals not just with marketing, but also cross-functional disciplines like sales and operations. I’ve found that marketers with this extended knowledge are able to better leverage the resources available to them and also make sure their most effective work impacts the bottom line,” Cross said.

“For example, there is no point in generating more leads if your sales team is not able to handle them and convert the leads into deals.”

77. Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler

“Everyone should read ‘Crucial Conversations’ by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler,” Beth Carter of Clariant Creative Agency said.

“This book is a people book, not a marketing book. If you’re a marketer, you’re probably working closely with other people in some capacity, and when you’re working with other people, issues can arise. ‘Crucial Conversations’ offers a thoughtful process for navigating the people issues in a way that helps everyone win.”

“It’s been a game-changer for me,” Silvermand added. “And frankly, when we relate with other people better, we become better marketers, too.

78. Email Marketing Demystified by Matthew Paulson

Andrea Loubier of Mailbird  recommended this pick, saying, “As the founder of Mailbird, I believe that email can be the answer to just about anything, including marketing.”

“This book explains how simple email marketing strategies can be and how to best implement them,” Louber explained.

79. Elements of a Successful Website by Matthew Edgar

In Elements of a Successful Website , “Edgar discusses how making your website a success isn’t as difficult as you may at first think,” said Gabriella Sannino of Level343, LLC .

“Edgar explains that by making simple changes—one step at a time—you can create a website that attracts visitors, fosters engagement, and drives results. By reading this book I was given an accessible and actionable approach to improving my website through five simple yet effective themes that even a small business like mine could apply easily.”

80. Cracking the Curiosity Code by Dr. Diane Hamilton

“Dr. Diane Hamilton’s book, ‘Cracking the Curiosity Code,’ is an excellent book for marketers and managers,” said Osiris Parikh of Summit Mindfulness . “Dr. Hamilton draws on research and her personal experience to understand the power of curiosity, and the need to cultivate it in the workforce.”

81. Digital Luxury by Wided Batat

“In this book, marketing expert Wided Batat offers an insightful and comprehensive analysis of how successful luxury companies have integrated digital technologies into their marketing strategies,” explained Justin Hawes of K&N Sales.

“The author emphasizes the importance of focusing on the customer experience when building the digital ecosystem because luxury consumers want to, not just buy products or services, but live luxury experiences. The book features compelling case studies from international luxury sectors.”

“I recommend this book,” Hawes said, “because it provides a holistic perspective on marketing and offers useful, practical advice for marketing professionals and CEOs.”

82. Demand: Creating What People Love Before They Know They Want It by Adrian Slywotsky

“This is both a marketing and innovation book and it forces you to think about ‘demand’ in a different way,” David Peterson of HealthMarkets said.

“The author discusses how one can imagine a product or service that people don’t even know they want—and then seeing through the creation of that by thinking through concepts and seeing issues through the eyes of your customers.”

83. Content Chemistry by Andy Crestodina

“‘Content Chemistry’ by Andy Crestodina covers the ins and outs of content marketing,” said Ana Cvetkovic of BLOOM Digital Marketing . “It’s useful both as an introduction to content marketing if you’re a novice, and as a reference guide if you’re an SEO pro who just needs a refresher on certain topics.”

84. Contagious by Jonah Berger

“A really easy to understand book that breaks down the core components of why some marketing is successful.” – Alice Corner, Venngage

Chris Hutty of Jellyfish Training is just one of the marketers we spoke with who recommended Jonah Berger’s Contagious . “‘Contagious’ is an essential read for anybody interested in marketing, but particularly if you’re involved in social media or content marketing.”

“‘Contagious’ is the result of years of research by Berger, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, into why certain ideas, campaigns, or social phenomenon catch on and ‘go viral,’” Hutty explained.

“It helped me understand the common characteristics that can help trigger engagement with an audience, and even helped me to understand my own behavior online.”

“As marketers,” said Jonatahn Chan of Insane Growth , “when we understand the people we seek to influence, we can more effectively spread the word and do more effective, meaningful work.”

Kyle Smith of Brand Extractk said of Berger’s work, “It’s a fascinating insight into human psychology and it outlines specific strategies for more effectively sharing ideas and making a product or service popular.”

85. Buy-ology by Martin Lindstrom

“We have discussed human behavior and how it can be tapped into buying and doing a variety of things on your website,” said Gabriella Sannino of Level343, LLC. “Martin Lindstorm analyzes what behaviors or factors can be employed to identify and affect buyers decisions.”

86. The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

Recommending The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz, Illia Termeno of Extrabrains Marketing Agency said, “This book is a must-read for every marketer who is interested in building, growing and leading a great company.”

“It is an amazingly valuable resource as well as a funny and insightful read.”

87. Hooked by Nir Eyal

“This is one of the best books if you want to learn how to increase user engagement for your product or service,” said Hyfa Ahmad of Times World “It has a scientific explanation as to what keeps the user coming back to a particular app or a website.”

“The book also clearly explains how companies like Facebook exploit human psychology to keep users hooked to their platform. It is a must-read if you are an aspiring entrepreneur looking forward to building your own products where user engagement is crucial for success.”

88. Testing Business Ideas by David J. Bland and Alex Osterwalder

This book recommendation comes courtesy of John Thomas Lang of G2 . Lang explained the importance of understanding how to properly test, saying, “As marketers, we can all improve our experimentation methodology. ‘Testing Business Ideas’ is the latest in Strategyzer’s series of books that I highly recommend.”

“The book provides tangible experimentation examples that your company can implement, learn and iterate on quickly. It truly is a field guide for business experimentation and a must-read for 2020.”

Fill Up Your 2020 Reading List

As we head into the holidays and the upcoming new year, it’s a perfect time to start building and combing through your 2020 reading list. And you can’t go wrong choosing from the comprehensive list our marketer friends helped us pull together.

• Databox Benchmarks
• Future Value Calculator
• ROI Calculator
• Return On Ads Calculator
• Percentage Growth Rate Calculator
• Report Automation
• Client Reporting
• What is a KPI?
• Google Sheets KPIs
• Sales Analysis Report
• Shopify Reports
• Data Analysis Report
• Google Sheets Dashboard
• Best Dashboard Examples
• Analysing Data
• Marketing Agency KPIs
• Automate Agency Google Ads Report
• Marketing Research Report
• Social Media Dashboard Examples
• Ecom Dashboard Examples

Does Your Performance Stack Up?

Are you maximizing your business potential? Stop guessing and start comparing with companies like yours.

A Message From Our CEO

At Databox, we’re obsessed with helping companies more easily monitor, analyze, and report their results. Whether it’s the resources we put into building and maintaining integrations with 100+ popular marketing tools, enabling customizability of charts, dashboards, and reports, or building functionality to make analysis, benchmarking, and forecasting easier, we’re constantly trying to find ways to help our customers save time and deliver better results.

Do you want an All-in-One Analytics Platform?

Hey, we’re Databox. Our mission is to help businesses save time and grow faster. Click here to see our platform in action. 

Kiera's a content writer who works with B2B SaaS companies. Catch up with her on Twitter @Kieraabbamonte or KieraAbbamonte.com

Get practical strategies that drive consistent growth

What Are the Best Inbound and Outbound B2B Growth Strategies in 2024?

21 Essential Digital Marketing Tools for Growth in 2024 (Across 7 Categories)

BTB: Driving Business Growth with Strategic YouTube Content (w/ Jamar Diggs & Germeen Guillaume)

Build your first dashboard in 5 minutes or less.

Latest from our blog

• 14 Best KPI Dashboard Software Tools to Use in 2024 August 29, 2024
• What Are the Best Inbound and Outbound B2B Growth Strategies in 2024? August 29, 2024
• Metrics & KPIs
• vs. Tableau
• vs. Looker Studio
• vs. Klipfolio
• vs. Power BI
• vs. Whatagraph
• vs. AgencyAnalytics
• Product & Engineering
• Inside Databox
• Terms of Service
• Privacy Policy
• Talent Resources
• We're Hiring!
• Help Center
• API Documentation

• Share on Twitter
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Facebook
• Share on Pinterest
• Share through Email

The 19 Best Marketing Management Books Of 2024

Stephanie Hood is an experienced marketing professional and Editor of The CMO. With nearly a decade spent as Marketing Manager at Discover Holidays and Executive Editor at VIVA Lifestyle & Travel, she built her career leading editorial and marketing teams and strategies that turn six-figure budgets into seven-figure profits. She now enjoys connecting with the world's top executives to learn their secrets to business success, and shares those insights right here with her community of like-minded professionals. Curious what she’s uncovered? Be sure to sign up for The CMO newsletter.

Diving into the world of marketing management can feel overwhelming, especially when there’s a sea of literature out there. But guess what? You’re in the right spot. I’ve devoured countless marketing management books, analyzed numerous case studies, and poured over detailed marketing research. Why? Because not only do I love the topic, I also practice […]

Diving into the world of marketing management can feel overwhelming, especially when there's a sea of literature out there. But guess what? You're in the right spot. I've devoured countless marketing management books, analyzed numerous case studies, and poured over detailed marketing research. Why? Because not only do I love the topic, I also practice it day in and day out.

So whether you're looking for a win in your next marketing plan, aiming for your campaign to be a hit, or are seeking management tips straight from executives themselves, I've got you covered. As we navigate the landscape of customer experience enhancements, delve into ecommerce strategies, or even work through helpful checklists, I assure you—I understand exactly what you need.

For anyone aspiring to be a top marketing executive, checking out the books read by CMOs is a great place to start.

19 Best Marketing Management Books Shortlist

I have chosen these marketing management books to address professional challenges effectively.

• Marketing Management by Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller
• Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout
• Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger
• Epic Content Marketing, Second Edition: Break through the Clutter with a Different Story, Get the Most Out of Your Content, and Build a Community in Web3 by Joe Pulizzi and Brian Piper
• Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and more) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business by Ann Handley and C. C. Chapman
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini
• Reverse Psychology Marketing: The Death of Traditional Marketing and the Rise of the New “Pull” Game by I. Sinha and T. Foscht
• Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
• Social Media Marketing Workbook: How to Use Social Media for Business (2023 Marketing - Social Media, SEO, & Online Ads Books) by Jason McDonald, Ph.D.
• Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers by Seth Godin
• Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing by Harry Beckwith
• Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, Being by Michael Solomon
• Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal
• Principles of Marketing (17th Ed) by Prafulla Agnihotri Philip T. Kotler, and Gary Armstrong
• The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk by Al Ries and Jack Trout
• Product Marketing Misunderstood: How to Establish Your Role, Authority, and Strategic Value by Richard King and Bryony Pearce
• Digital Marketing Strategy: An Integrated Approach to Online Marketing by Simon Kingsnorth
• Understanding Consumer Decision Making: The Means-end Approach To Marketing and Advertising Strategy by Thomas J. Reynolds and Jerry C. Olson
• Your Next Five Moves: Master the Art of Business Strategy by Patrick Bet-David

Overviews of the 19 Best Marketing Management Books

1. marketing management by philip kotler and kevin lane keller.

"Marketing Management" is a comprehensive guide that deepens into marketing strategies and methodologies. As a cornerstone in this marketing management book offers readers a blend of theoretical concepts and practical marketing management tools to understand and navigate the intricate world of marketing in the modern age.

What You'll Learn:

From understanding consumer behavior to mastering the art of creating value-driven marketing strategies, this book provides a holistic view of marketing management. It covers a broad spectrum of topics, including branding, segmentation, pricing, and digital marketing, ensuring readers have the necessary knowledge to tackle real-world marketing management challenges.

Why You Should Read It:

With their vast experience and insights, Kotler and Keller present a book that's theoretically sound and immensely practical. Whether you're a student, a budding marketer, or a seasoned professional, "Marketing Management" is an essential read to stay updated and ahead in the ever-evolving marketing field.

Quote From The Book:

"Marketing is about identifying and meeting human and social needs."

About The Author:

Philip Kotler, regarded as the "Father of Modern Marketing," has authored numerous books and papers on marketing. Kevin Lane Keller is a distinguished academic in the field of marketing. Connect with Philip Kotler on LinkedIn , Twitter , and his Personal Website .

2. Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout

"Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind" is a groundbreaking work that introduces and elaborates on the concept of positioning in marketing. The book emphasizes the importance of creating a distinct image for a brand or product in the consumer's mind, distinguishing it from competitors.

Readers will be taken on a journey to understand the concept of positioning and its paramount importance in marketing. The book sheds light on the strategies to carve out a unique space in the crowded marketplace, ensuring that your brand or product stands out and remains top-of-mind for consumers.

In today's saturated market, standing out is more challenging than ever. Ries and Trout's guide offers timeless advice, strategies, and examples that are as relevant today as they were when the book was first published.

"The basic approach of positioning is not to create something new and different, but to manipulate what's already up there in the mind, to retie the connections that already exist."

Al Ries is a marketing and branding expert who has co-authored several books with Jack Trout. Jack Trout is a renowned marketing strategist focusing on positioning and differentiation. Connect with Al Ries on LinkedIn and his Personal Website .

3. Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger

"Contagious: Why Things Catch On" is an insightful book that delves into the mechanisms that make things go viral. Berger meticulously analyzes and explains the science behind why people talk about and share specific ideas more than others.

Readers will be immersed in the six fundamental principles that drive things to become contagious, from products and ideas to behaviors. Berger’s engaging narrative explores these principles, offering a roadmap for creating attractive, shareable, and influential content.

This book is crucial for marketers and entrepreneurs looking to effectively promote their products or ideas in today's digital age. Its contents are not only based on rigorous research but also presented in a way that is accessible, making it a must-read for individuals at all levels in a corporation.

“Word of mouth is the primary factor behind 20 to 50 percent of all purchasing decisions.”

Jonah Berger is a marketing professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a world-renowned expert on word of mouth, social influence, and viral marketing. Connect with him on LinkedIn , Twitter , and his Personal Website .

Stay Up-to-date On All Things Marketing & Leadership.

• Your email *
• By submitting this form, you agree to receive our newsletter, and occasional emails related to The CMO. You can unsubscribe at any time. For more details, please review our Privacy Policy . We're protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
• Email This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

4. Epic Content Marketing, Second Edition: Break through the Clutter with a Different Story, Get the Most Out of Your Content, and Build a Community in Web3 by Joe Pulizzi and Brian Piper

In the second edition of "Epic Content Marketing,” Pulizzi and Piper equip readers with the tools to cut through the noise of the crowded content space. They advocate for telling unique stories that captivate and engage audiences, ultimately building a loyal community in the Web3 era.

The book provides a strategic framework for developing and managing content meaningfully speaking to the audience. With practical tips and examples, it guides readers through crafting narratives that stand out and foster a sense of community among consumers in the digital realm.

Suppose you're navigating the challenges of modern content marketing. In that case, this book is an invaluable resource, offering deep insights into developing content strategies that support inbound marketing programs, drive resonance and build connections with audiences in the increasingly decentralized Web3 environment.

“Your customers don’t care about you, your products, or your services. They care about themselves.”

Joe Pulizzi is a leading author, speaker, and strategist for content marketing. Brian Piper is an experienced content strategist and university lecturer. Connect with Joe Pulizzi on LinkedIn , Twitter , and his Personal Website . Connect with Brian Piper on LinkedIn and his Personal Website .

5. Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and more) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business by Ann Handley and C. C. Chapman

"Content Rules" is a comprehensive guide to crafting content that effectively engages customers and grows your business. The authors bring practical advice and inspiration, allowing your content to stand out and resonate with your target audience.

Discover the art of producing compelling content that hooks your audience across various platforms. This book offers guidelines on style, production processes, and promotion strategies, providing a roadmap for creating content that ignites customer interaction and fosters business growth.

With many real-world examples, this book is an essential tool for anyone looking to elevate their content creation game. It demystifies the content production process, making it a must-read for entrepreneurs, marketers, and content creators.

“Embrace being a publisher and think like one by developing an editorial calendar.”

Ann Handley is a renowned author and the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs. C.C. Chapman is a recognized media creator and marketer. Connect with Ann Handley on LinkedIn , Twitter , and her Personal Website . Connect with C.C. Chapman on LinkedIn , Twitter , and his Personal Website .

6. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini

"Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" is a pivotal read that examines the psychology behind why people say “yes”— and how to apply these understandings practically. Dr. Cialdini explores the six universal principles of influence, providing invaluable insights for marketers and consumers alike.

Delve into the intricacies of persuasion as the book unravels the fundamental principles that drive people to agree to requests. Understand the subtle cues that lead individuals to comply willingly, and learn how to leverage these principles ethically in marketing and everyday life.

This book is a treasure trove of insights for anyone aiming to be more persuasive professionally and personally. Its exploration of the psychology behind persuasion makes it a timeless reference for marketers, salespeople, and anyone looking to influence others effectively.

“People's tendency to use the actions of others as a basis for their own is a practice that works well almost all of the time.”

Robert B. Cialdini is a New York Times Bestselling author and the Regent’s Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University. Connect with him on LinkedIn , Twitter , and his Personal Website .

7. Reverse Psychology Marketing: The Death of Traditional Marketing and the Rise of the New “Pull” Game by I. Sinha and T. Foscht

This book critically examines traditional marketing paradigms and introduces the innovative "Reverse Psychology Marketing" (RPM) concept. Sinha and Foscht explore how shifting from pushing products to pulling customers can revitalize your marketing strategy and deliver value.

Readers will learn about the flaws and limitations inherent in traditional marketing methods, acquiring new insights into customer psychology and behavior. The book offers actionable strategies for implementing RPM, enabling marketers to create compelling brand narratives that attract and retain customers.

If you’re a marketing professional seeking fresh perspectives and approaches, this book inspires you. It provides the theoretical knowledge and practical tools to navigate and succeed in today’s dynamic, customer-centric marketplace.

"Engage customers by pulling them into your brand story rather than pushing products onto them."

I. Sinha is a marketing scholar and practitioner with extensive experience in consumer behavior and brand management. T. Foscht is an academic and author with deep insights into marketing psychology.

8. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

"Made to Stick" unravels why some ideas thrive while others fade. The Heath brothers dissect the anatomy of ideas that stick, providing readers with a guide to crafting memorable, compelling, and transformative messages.

This book profoundly understands the six key qualities that make ideas “sticky.” It provides practical and insightful guidance on ensuring your ideas leave a lasting impression, influencing your audience effectively while navigating the cacophony of information they encounter daily.

"Made to Stick" is a seminal read for communicators in any field made to Stick" is a seminal read. Its principles are crucial for marketers, teachers, entrepreneurs, and anyone needing their ideas to cut through the noise, captivate audiences, and instigate change.

“But in the real world, sticky ideas of all kinds—ideas ranging from fables to corporate strategy to advertising slogans—share something deeper in common.”

Chip Heath is a Stanford Graduate School of Business professor teaching courses on business strategy and organizations. Dan Heath co-founded Thinkwell, a textbook publishing company. Connect with Chip Heath on LinkedIn and Dan Heath on LinkedIn . For more on their work, visit their Personal Website .

9. Social Media Marketing Workbook: How to Use Social Media for Business (2023 Marketing - Social Media, SEO, & Online Ads Books) by Jason McDonald, Ph.D.

The "Social Media Marketing Workbook" is an updated and comprehensive guide for successfully utilizing social media for business marketing. Jason McDonald meticulously explains strategies and techniques to leverage various social media platforms for effective business promotion in 2023.

You’ll be able to learn practical knowledge on developing a robust social media marketing strategy aligned with your business goals. The marketing approach guides you through selecting the right platforms, creating engaging content, and measuring the success of your marketing campaigns.

For entrepreneurs, marketing professionals, and business owners who want to harness the power of social media effectively, this workbook is an indispensable resource. It combines theoretical frameworks with actionable steps to improve social media presence and engagement.

“Social media marketing isn’t about you and your product; it’s about them – your customers!”

Dr. Jason McDonald is an expert in online marketing with a particular focus on SEO and social media. He is also a recognized corporate trainer and speaker. Connect with him on LinkedIn and visit his Personal Website for more insights on social media and online marketing.

10. Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers by Seth Godin

In "Permission Marketing," Seth Godin introduces a revolutionary approach to marketing where the focus is first on gaining the customer's permission. This paradigm shift moves away from interrupting marketing, creating a more respectful and effective communication channel between marketers and consumers.

Godin explains the principles and practices of permission marketing, highlighting the importance of trust and relevance in communication. Learn how to develop marketing management strategies that engage customers willingly, turning strangers into friends and loyal customers.

For any marketing professional or business owner seeking to build lasting relationships with customers, “Permission Marketing” is a must-read. It provides valuable insights and strategies to make your marketing more consensual, personalized, and effective in the long term.

“Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal, and relevant messages to people who want to get them.”

Seth Godin is an acclaimed author, entrepreneur, and marketer with numerous best-selling books on marketing and leadership. Connect with him on LinkedIn , Twitter , and his Personal Website .

11. Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing by Harry Beckwith

"Selling the Invisible" provides invaluable insights into the unique challenges and opportunities of service marketing. Beckwith illuminates the principles of effectively marketing services, emphasizing the importance of focusing on the client’s perspective and expectations.

Beckwith outlines practical and compelling strategies for selling tangible products and invisible services. He sheds light on understanding the customer psyche, building solid relationships, crafting effective communication, and differentiating your services in the marketplace.

This book is a must-have resource if you're engaged in service marketing. It offers a deep understanding of the subtle dynamics of selling services, providing you with tools and strategies to stand out and succeed in a competitive environment.

“The more you engage with customers, the clearer things become and the easier to determine what you should be doing.”

Harry Beckwith is a highly respected marketing expert and speaker known for his profound insights into service marketing.

12. Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, Being by Michael Solomon

"Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, Being" delves deep into the psychology behind consumers’ buying habits. Michael Solomon comprehensively explores how and why individuals make purchasing decisions and how marketers can leverage this knowledge to craft effective strategies.

This book offers a thorough understanding of consumer behavior from a psychological perspective. You’ll learn about the factors influencing consumers’ purchasing choices, the intricacies of consumer psychology, and how to apply this knowledge to develop impactful marketing campaigns.

For marketing students and professionals alike, understanding consumer behavior is crucial. Solomon’s book is a rich resource that combines theory and practical applications to help readers effectively reach and engage their target audience.

“Consumer behavior is the study of the processes involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, use, or dispose of products, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy needs and desires.”

Michael Solomon is a renowned author, speaker, and professor of marketing. He is known for his consumer behavior, fashion psychology, and lifestyle marketing expertise. Connect with Michael Solomon on LinkedIn and his Personal Website .

13. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal

"Hooked" is a guide for startups, product managers, and designers aiming to create products that people can't stop using. Nir Eyal outlines the Hook Model, a four-step process embedded into the effects of many successful companies to encourage customer behavior subtly.

Understand the principles behind habit-forming products through the Hook Model: Trigger, Action, Variable Reward, and Investment. This blueprint will guide you in building digital products that attract, retain, and engage users over time.

Understanding how to create user habits is invaluable for anyone involved in developing and marketing products. "Hooked" offers a roadmap to making your product addictive, ensuring user retention and long-term success.

“Habits are defined as behaviors done with little or no conscious thought.”

Nir Eyal is an author, speaker, and thought leader in behavioral design and habit formation. Connect with him on LinkedIn , Twitter , and his Personal Website .

14. Principles of Marketing (17th Ed) by Prafulla Agnihotri, Philip T. Kotler, and Gary Armstrong

The 17th edition of "Principles of Marketing" is a comprehensive textbook encompassing fundamental marketing concepts and strategies. It offers a balanced combination of theory and practice, providing readers with the necessary tools to navigate the complex marketing world.

Readers will gain in-depth knowledge of core marketing principles, including market segmentation, consumer behavior, product positioning, and more. The book offers practical insights and examples that effectively illustrate how to apply these principles in real-world scenarios.

Whether you're a student or a seasoned marketer, this book is a valuable resource for understanding and implementing effective marketing strategies. Its blend of theory and practical application makes it an indispensable guide for anyone looking to master marketing fundamentals.

“Marketing is the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit.”

Prafulla Agnihotri is a professor of marketing and founder of IIM Trichy. Philip T. Kotler, often called the "Marketing Guru," is an author and marketing consultant. Gary Armstrong is a distinguished professor of marketing. Connect with Philip T. Kotler on LinkedIn , Twitter , and his Personal Website .

15. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk by Al Ries and Jack Trout

According to the authors, this book offers a set of rules or "laws" that are crucial for successful marketing. Ries and Trout explore 22 principles that they argue are time-tested and unbreakable, providing valuable insights for marketers at all levels.

According to the seasoned authors, readers will gain insights into the 22 fundamental laws that govern marketing. Each rule represents a principle intended to guide marketers to succeed in a competitive environment.

This book is a crucial guide for those looking to strengthen their understanding and application of marketing principles. It provides straightforward insights into the complexities of marketing, making it a must-read for both novice and experienced marketers alike.

“The Law of Focus: The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect’s mind.”

Al Ries is a renowned marketing strategist and author known for his work on branding and positioning. Jack Trout was his longtime business partner and co-author, known for developing the concept of "positioning.” Connect with Al Ries on LinkedIn , Twitter , and his Personal Website .

16. Product Marketing Misunderstood: How to Establish Your Role, Authority, and Strategic Value by Richard King and Bryony Pearce

"Product Marketing Misunderstood" is a comprehensive guide for product marketers looking to establish their authority and value within their organizations. The book offers strategies and insights to navigate the challenges and opportunities of the product marketing role.

The book provides readers with a deeper understanding of the product marketing role, offering guidance on establishing authority, defining strategic value, and effectively communicating with both customers and internal stakeholders.

If you're a product marketer struggling to discover your niche and establish your worth in the organization, this book is an invaluable resource. It addresses common misconceptions and challenges, providing practical advice to succeed in discovering product marketing.

“Product marketing is the art and science of conveying the value of a product to the market.”

Richard King and Bryony Pearce are seasoned product marketing professionals, bringing readers years of experience and insight to readers.

17. Digital Marketing Strategy: An Integrated Approach to Online Marketing by Simon Kingsnorth

In "Digital Marketing Strategy,” Kingsnorth provides a cohesive and comprehensive view of the complex digital marketing landscape. The book outlines an integrated strategy for successful online marketing, combining elements like SEO, content marketing, social media, and more.

Readers will acquire a holistic understanding of creating a robust digital marketing strategy. The book covers various aspects of digital marketing, from social media and content creation to SEO and data analytics, offering an integrated approach to navigating the digital space effectively.

Whether you are a seasoned digital marketer or a novice entering the space, this book offers insights and strategies critical to developing a sound digital marketing approach tailored to your organization’s needs and goals.

“A digital marketing strategy is a plan for finding customers at the right time, in the right place, with the right message.”

Simon Kingsnorth is a seasoned digital marketing professional with a deep understanding of online marketing strategy. Connect with Simon Kingsnorth on LinkedIn , Twitter and Personal Website .

18. Understanding Consumer Decision Making: The Means-end Approach To Marketing and Advertising Strategy by Thomas J. Reynolds and Jerry C. Olson

Reynolds and Olson explore the means-end approach in this book, offering deep insights into consumer decision-making processes. They guide marketers in understanding consumers' inner thoughts and feelings, which drive their purchase decisions, providing a foundation for effective marketing and advertising strategies.

This book provides comprehensive insights into the means-end theory, enlightening marketers on consumer decision-making processes. It offers practical tools and approaches for uncovering consumers' deeper motivations, preferences, and values, forming the basis for effective marketing and advertising strategies.

If unraveling the complexities of consumer decision-making is your goal, this book is a valuable asset. It offers a blend of theoretical concepts and practical tools that empower marketers to craft messages that resonate with their target audience, driving engagement and conversion.

“Understanding consumer decision-making processes is pivotal for developing successful marketing and advertising strategies.”

Thomas J. Reynolds and Jerry C. Olson are acknowledged consumer behavior and marketing experts with years of research and teaching experience in these domains.

19. Your Next Five Moves: Master the Art of Business Strategy by Patrick Bet-David

Patrick Bet-David’s "Your Next Five Moves" is a masterclass in strategic thinking in business environments. The author outlines a well-crafted game plan that entrepreneurs, executives, and small business owners can utilize to navigate through the complex world of business and ultimately come out on top.

Diving deep into the art of strategy and execution, this book will walk you through the intricacies of decision-making processes essential for business success. Bet-David lays out a methodical approach to identifying and making your next five moves to anticipate and respond effectively to any business challenge or opportunity systematically.

This book is a gold mine of valuable insights for individuals who aspire to think, make decisions, and approach their work strategically. It is not just a read but a reference guide that will continually aid in refining your business strategies, making it an indispensable tool for entrepreneurs and business leaders alike.

“Your next five moves not only have to be bold, they also have to be accurate, to point you in the direction of where you want to go.”

Patrick Bet-David is a successful entrepreneur, CEO, author, and creator of the YouTube channel Valuetainment, which provides educational content for entrepreneurs. Connect with him on LinkedIn Twitter , and visit his Personal Website for more insightful business and entrepreneurship content.

Which Marketing Management Books Do You Recommend?

In our journey through the best marketing management books, we've explored myriad strategies and technologies—from understanding intricate case studies to creating impactful marketing plans. Platforms like Goodreads offer even more recommendations, but nothing beats a community's collective wisdom.

If you've come across a gem not on our list or have suggestions rooted in your unique experience—please share. Your insights will benefit fellow readers and continue to enrich our ever-evolving field of marketing management.

11 Marketing Campaign Types To Try (+ Examples And Tips)

19 Best SEO Newsletters To Stay Up To Date In 2024

16 Best CMO Communities (Free & Paid) to Join in 2024

17 must-subscribe b2b newsletters for 2024.

• Regis University Library
• Research Guides

Marketing Research Guide

• Directories
• AMA This link opens in a new window
• APA This link opens in a new window
• MLA This link opens in a new window
• Demographic Information resources

Marketing Scales Handbook

See all editions in collection

Lumen Classic, the Library Catalog

Use Lumen, the Regis Library catalog, to find books, electronic books, DVDs, and more.

Prospector Catalog

Use Prospector to search for and request items from Regis University or other regional libraries. When you identify an item you want in Prospector, click on the "Request this Item" link to have it sent to a Regis Colorado campus. You will need your Regis ID number to complete the request process.

RKMA market research handbook series

Marketing Reference Books

The Advertising Red Books

REF HF 5805 .S72

This comprehensive annual directory of ad agencies, house agencies, public relations firms, media buying services, and sales promotions firms shows agency location, size, specializations, major accounts, billings, and names of executives and art directors.

Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns

REF HF 5837 .E53 

This 2-volume print source traces prominent past advertising and marketing campaigns, identifying target audience, strategy, and asking whether the campaign succeeded or failed. Vol. 2 is also in the Gale Virtual Reference Library database .

Other Catalogs

• WorldCat This link opens in a new window WorldCat, or World Catalog, lists all types of library materials from libraries worldwide. The libraries that own each item are also listed. No full-text is available online for items listed in WorldCat.

Electronic book collections

• Books 24x7 This link opens in a new window Please log out when finished with this valuable collection of full-text electronic books. Thousands of current titles, especially in IT, business, nonprofit management and leadership are here. Search by keyword in title or even in full-text. Build your own list of favorites and bookmark. more... less... Each title is also cataloged in Lumen with a hot link.
• Credo Reference This link opens in a new window Credo contains 410 reference dictionaries and handbooks in all subject areas. You’ll find entries for words, concepts, phenomena, quotes, figures, formulae, or historical or cultural events. Subjects range broadly over the arts, humanities, sciences, social sciences, and foreign languages.
• Gale Virtual Reference Library This link opens in a new window This is a great place to begin for research in humanities, social sciences, health, education, religion, business, biography, art, or law. GVRL has the multi-volume Dictionary of American History, Business Plans Handbook, and complete encyclopedias of Education, Sociology, Mental Health, Philosophy, Religion, Judaism and Catholicism. more... less... Additional search help is available at: https://solutions.cengage.com/gale-training/materials/tip-sheets/
• Oxford Handbooks Online This link opens in a new window In-depth essays by the world's leading scholars defining the current state of seven disciplines: business & management, criminology & criminal justice, philosophy, political science, religion, psychology, and economics & finance.
• << Previous: Articles
• Next: Directories >>
• Last Updated: Jul 19, 2024 11:01 AM
• URL: https://libguides.regis.edu/marketing

Service Desks Circulation & Reserves: 303.458.4030 Archives & Digital Collections: 303.458.4265 Interlibrary Loan: 303.458.4263 Research Help Desk: 303.458.4031

Contact Us Dayton Memorial Library Regis University 3333 Regis Blvd., D-20 Denver, CO 80221 303-458-4030 1.800.388.2366 x4030

Follow Us @regisuniversitylibrary Dayton Memorial Library @ Regis University @RegisLibrary --> Digital productions Digital productions --> Research tutorials

Regis.edu WorldClass Library staff login Report a problem