For The Marketer's Book Shelf: Part 2
With The Marketer's Book Shelf, learn to think differently, comprehend your company's objective, choose how to sell to your clients, and dominate your marketing plan in 2023.
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Even the best marketers need more than natural intuition When stuck with a problem, we human beings browse the internet and all the information libraries to see if somebody before us faced the same hurdle and left a solution we could use. In the marketing world, young professionals have shining luck, given that many top leaders in the field have penned their experiences down in books. There are enough jewels to learn from and utilise to rise above challenges while gaining an edge over rivals.
For company owners, marketers, or anyone running a business or promoting a brand, we’ve selected some of the greatest marketing books ever written. With this list, learn to think differently, comprehend the objective of your company, choose how to sell to your clients, and dominate your marketing plan in 2023.
Blue Ocean Strategy
Author: Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne
Published in 2015
Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant. Authors Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne challenge everything you thought you knew about the requirements for strategic success. The book argues that cutthroat competition results in nothing but a bloody red ocean of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool. Based on a study of 150 strategic moves (spanning more than 100 years across 30 industries),
The authors present that lasting success comes not from battling competitors but from creating “blue oceans”—untapped new market spaces ripe for growth. Blue Ocean Strategy presents a systematic approach to making the competition irrelevant and outlines principles and tools organisations can use to create and capture their own blue oceans.
Contagious: Why Things Catch On
Author: Jonah Berger
Published in 2013
Contagious: Why Things Catch On explains why certain products and ideas become popular. If you think of advertising, think again. People don’t listen to advertisements, they listen to their peers. But why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? Why are some stories and rumours more infectious? And what makes online content go viral? Wharton Marketing Professor Jonah Berger has spent the last decade answering these questions.
In Contagious, Berger reveals the secret science behind word-of-mouth and social transmission. Discover how six basic principles drive all sorts of things to become contagious, from consumer products and policy initiatives to workplace rumours and YouTube videos.
Made to Stick
Author: Chip Heath & Dan Heath
Published in 2007
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die reveals the anatomy of ideas that stick and explains ways to make ideas stickier, such as applying the human scale principle, using the Velcro Theory of Memory, and creating curiosity gaps. Along the way, readers discover that sticky messages of all kinds—from the infamous ‘kidney theft ring’ hoax to a coach’s lessons on sportsmanship to a vision for a new product at Sony—draw their power from the same six traits.
Made to Stick will transform the way you communicate. It’s a fast-paced tour of success stories (and failures). Provocative, eye-opening, and often surprisingly funny, the book shows us the vital principles of winning ideas—and tells us how we can apply these rules to make our own messages stick.
The Fundamentals of Brand SERPs for Business
Author: Jason Barnard
Published in 2022
Google is key to managing the online presence of your business. Think of the Google search results for your brand name as a ‘digital business card’—the single most important online representation of your brand message. In The Fundamentals of Brand SERPs for Business, Jason Barnard uses exclusive insight from his business, Kalicube, to explain why Brand SERPs are a vital part of any digital marketing strategy
Google reflects the world’s opinion of your brand, so learning how to tailor your Brand SERP elevates brand credibility, audience engagement, and overall success. With other brands leaving their online reputation to chance, now’s the time to make your Brand SERP ‘stand-out’ and surpass the competition.
SOCIAL 3.0: How forward-thinking B2B’s can unleash the power of social media
Author: Andy Lambert
Published in 2022
Social media is undergoing one of the largest macro shifts in history. Rapid user growth resulting from a global pandemic has driven a significant change in how users utilise social media platforms. Increasingly, social media is influencing buyer behaviour in a trend known as ‘social commerce’. With more opportunities to monetise than ever before, ‘social commerce’ is powering the growth of the ‘creator economy’ which, in turn, is creating an explosion of niche communities.
The fastest-growing and most-loved businesses on the planet have all realised the transformative potential of social media, and it’s opening up a great divide between those that ‘get it’ and those that are still marketing like it’s 2012.
It’s time for B2Bs to cross the chasm to unleash the power of social media, to build trust, and create demand at a scale that’s never before been possible.
If you work in marketing or in the leadership team of a B2B brand, this book is for you.
Social Selling
Author: Tim Hughes
Published in 2016
As the digital landscape continues to change buying habits at both B2B and B2C levels, it has become increasingly difficult to reach customers early enough in their decision-making process through traditional sales methods. Developing relationships with decision-makers through social networks has become an increasingly critical skill – enabling sales professionals to engage early on and ‘hack’ the buying process.
Social Selling: Techniques to Influence Buyers and Changemakers provides a practical, step-by-step blueprint for harnessing these specific and proven techniques, including:
- How to use networks purposefully to build social trust and create a high-quality community
- How to develop real influence and authority in your subject area and connect with change-makers
- How to scale the social selling strategy across an organisation, including maturity and investment models, risk and governance, and technology platforms
B2B Social Selling Strategy
Author: Julie Atherton
Published in 2022
B2B Social Selling Strategy: Connect with Customers, Build Relationships and Drive Sales provides a clear framework for identifying the right social channels, connecting with potential and existing customers and measuring success against objectives and KPIs. Featuring original research, case studies and interviews with industry professionals, the book shows how to create content to attract attention and gain trust, work with B2B influencers and create a social selling culture.
Also exploring how to integrate social selling with other sales and marketing channels, it is supported by online interactive tools and templates to create and execute your own social selling strategy. Written by a recognised social media expert, B2B Social Selling is an indispensable guide for B2B sales, marketing and social media professionals.
For the Culture
Author: Dr Marcus Collins
To be Published on: 2 May 2023
In For the Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, and Who We Want to Be, Marcus Collins argues that true cultural engagement is the most powerful vehicle for influencing behaviour. To effectively engage with communities, we first need to think hard about what we will contribute to them. Collins uses stories from his own life as a top marketer, from spearheading digital strategy for Beyoncé, to working with iTunes and Nike+ on their collaboration, to the successful launch of the Nets NBA team in Brooklyn, to break down the ways culture influences behaviour
He shows readers how they can do the same. With a deep perspective based on a century’s worth of data, and designed for our hyper-connected, light-speed world, For the Culture will give readers the tools to inspire collective change by encouraging us to always consider not only what culture can do for us, but what we can do for the culture.
Responsible Marketing
Author: Lola Bakare
To be Published on: 25 July 2023
Responsible Marketing: How to Create an Authentic and Inclusive Marketing Strategy takes readers through a forward-looking approach to inclusive marketing, offering a compelling blend of case studies, in-depth interviews, social impact marketing principles and inclusive leadership frameworks. Lola Bakare demystifies the relationship between today’s marketing imperatives and the dynamic global cultural shifts that current and aspiring marketing leaders need to address.
The book expands on the power of inclusivity, corporate responsibility and cultural awareness, helping marketing leaders determine how to make social impact outcomes an imperative across the entire marketing mix.
Responsible Marketing walks readers through building a responsible, inclusive marketing strategy that captivates consumers and delivers long-term growth for a company.
Email Marketing That Doesn’t Suck
Author: Bobby Klinck
Published in 2022
Conventional advice tells you always to be selling—or at least always be going for the click— but chances are, you hate writing emails, your audience hates reading them, and they aren’t making you any money. But what if email didn’t suck? What if you enjoyed writing emails that your audience would binge-read like they watch Netflix? What if email actually made you money? Harvard Law–grad-turned-online-entrepreneur Bobby Klinck
uses his lawyering skills to convince you that the old-school rules for email marketing are just plain dumb. He shows you how to do email right, teaching you the five phases of email marketing and how to infuse purpose into your message. You’ll learn how to tell a really good story that people want to read.
This is Marketing
Author: Seth Godin
Published in 2018
This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn To See shows you how to do work you’re proud of, whether you’re a tech startup founder, a small business owner, or part of a large corporation. No matter what your product or service is, this book will help you reframe how it’s presented to the world, in order to meaningfully connect with people who want it. Seth employs his signature blend of insight, observation, and memorable examples to teach you:
- How to build trust and permission with your target market.
- The art of positioning–deciding not only who it’s for, but who it’s not for.
- Why the best way to achieve your goals is to help others become who they want to be.
- Why the old approaches to advertising and branding no longer work.
- The surprising role of tension in any decision to buy (or not).
- How marketing is at its core about the stories we tell ourselves about our social status.
Customer Insight Strategies
Author: Dr Christine Bailey
Published in 2020
Customer Insight Strategies: How to Understand Your Audience and Create Remarkable Marketing outlines the critical role of customer insight and provides techniques and strategies that will help marketers identify trends, nurture leads and understand consumers – ultimately, empowering them to grow profits. The strategies are explained in a straightforward, jargon-free manner, and can be applied to a huge range of marketing challenges, regardless of time, budget or organisational size.
The book discusses many of the core methods through which customer insight can be gleaned, providing easy-to-follow guidelines for applying them to everyday marketing practice. Covering topics such as customer segments, marketing personas and lead generation, it contains global case studies from organisations, including Cisco, NTT, Refinitiv and The Co-op as well as interviews with leading business professionals sharing their thoughts on using customer insights to grow profits. Written by a highly respected thought-leader and industry influencer, this book will help any professional create truly powerful marketing.
The Martech Handbook
Author: Darrell Alfonso
Published in 2022
The Martech Handbook: Build a Technology Stack to Attract and Retain Customers provides a clear and step-by-step framework for understanding and selecting various forms of marketing technology to drive business value in all areas of marketing, from CX, automation and lead management, to reporting and analysis as well as designing and orchestrating a tech stack that brings them all together.
This book also explores getting buy-in, scaling martech within organisations depending on their needs, size and budget as well as measurement, monitoring and governance. Written by an award-winning martech leader, it features case studies and examples from companies including Spotify and Amazon alongside frameworks, question checklists, and interviews with leading industry practitioners. This is an essential resource for augmenting your marketing and achieving key objectives through leveraging technology.
Built to Win
Author: Annette Franz
Published in 2022
How do you gain an edge over your competition and keep your customers coming back? Built to Win: Designing a Customer-Centric Culture That Drives Value for Your Business implores leaders to transform their existing company culture and rebuild it in every way around the needs of their customers. Too often, companies believe they know what’s best for the customer and design an experience based on inside-out thinking, only to end up creating frustration and dissatisfaction.
Why? Because they haven’t really put the customer into the experience (design) at all. But what does it take to ensure that the entire company adopts this mindset and this culture? In Built to Win, learn about the ten critical principles that form the foundation for building such a culture. Build the business with these principles in mind, and you will build to win. Win for the customer, win for the business.
Decide and Conquer
Author: David Siegel
Published in 2022
Decide and Conquer: 44 Decisions that will Make or Break All Leaders helps all leaders navigate the big decisions that will impact their future and make their organisations successful. Siegel outlines the 44 challenges leaders face when starting a new position and shows the decision framework he applied to overcome challenges in his own role. He takes you on an epic journey of corporate and personal survival that includes industry titans like Adam Neumann, Barry Diller, Jack Welch, Bill Ackman, and others.
In Decide and Conquer, you will learn to:
- Apply principles like open communication, transparency, and kindness to inform great decision making.
- Set yourself up to succeed, even before you start, by removing potential roadblocks before they become a problem.
- Be a bold and decisive leader and not succumb to fear.
By applying the principles learned in previous leadership positions, Siegel was able to make the many critical decisions that would mean life or death for Meetup when WeWork decided to sell the company.
From deciding to accept the position and negotiating terms to managing a seemingly endless series of crises during the sale and global pandemic, Decide and Conquer walks readers through the key decisions they will face with invaluable advice for each one.
