Ten Marketing Books You Must Read in 2023

If you want to become a billionaire someday....read.

There is nothing better than learning the tricks of the trade from the experts, which is why you must learn marketing from business professionals. The year 2023 isn't coming slow and with the introduction of AI and several new tools, marketing has become easier and more complicated simultaneously - for both large and small businesses.

You need to concoct ideas that are made to stick, divert from the traditional way and sometimes consider the competition irrelevant. This is the digital age- a time where some ideas thrive and some ideas survive while others plummet and become a literal failure story for the marketing world.

Also Read: 10 Email Marketing Blogs Every Marketer Should Follow

Some of the best business leaders have written these marketing books that cover everything from traditional advertising to how to run a successful marketing campaign. Your marketing efforts are likely to be much more fruitful if you use a marketing guru's already-used marketing approach.

Let's dive into the best marketing books you need to read in 2023!

1. Purple Cow - by Seth Godin

This book is one of my personal favorites as it emphasizes a very important concept that most marketers and business leaders may ignore. The book talks about how even the best marketers fail when trying to sell a product that doesn't fit the market.

Business growth is achieved when the product or service sells itself to new customers and marketing only plays a role in spreading the word. Thinking of new and creative ideas for marketing isn't the key to attracting your target audience - having an extraordinary product is.

By no means is our marketing guru, Seth Godin, saying that marketing messages are irrelevant. Marketing campaigns are the butter for any business, but the bread constitutes the product. You can retain customers and make more money if your product is good.

This is definitely a worthwhile read!

2. Building a Story Brand - by Donald Miller

Viral marketing comes with storytelling. One of the best ways to attract potential customers is to make sure your marketing message is clear, easily understood, and relatable. This book is a bestseller, and rightfully so, as it touches upon important points in customer behavior.

It speaks of how the wrong words can be a disaster and how the right words can lead to recurring marketing success. It touches on universal points that act as triggers for customers, why customers make certain purchasing decisions, and how to create marketing strategies that can influence them in this process. It also touches on how to create messages for different forms of online marketing including social media marketing.

This marketing book is a must-read if you want to elevate your personal brand and want some worthy ideas on how to communicate with your target market.

3. Everybody Writes - by Anne Handley

Everybody Writes is your go-to guide on how to create excellent content - period. It gives you very actionable advice on how to attract and retain customers in a world that is now driven by content.

The book is highly rated and is something like a writing guide and manual that explores different aspects of writing and communication for businesses in this day and time. You can't go wrong with reading this book.

4. Hacking Growth - by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown

The writer of this book, Sean Ellis, pioneered the term "growth hacking" and speaks of proven techniques that help a business grow without wasting time on more traditional marketing or theoretical marketing models. It's an easy read full of practical advice for growth managers, advanced marketers, CEOs/Founders, etc.

The book gives you success stories and very applicable examples from Facebook, IBM, LinkedIn, and several other iconic brands. This book focuses on finding the right strategies for lead generation and once you finish, you might just be in a position to apply growth hacking to your own company.

5. Hooked - by Nir Eyal and Ryan Hoover

Some ideas are made to stick and in the same way, some products or services are too. Hooked talks about human behavior and uses academic research to back up claims on how a product and a marketing strategy can be designed to create a "habit" in customers. Once a habit forms, it becomes more or less unbreakable (or at least not easily so) and thus, your product and key marketing strategies must be aligned to appeal to a customer psychologically.

Every marketing professional should read this book in order to understand what causes customers to stay and what causes them to express interest in the first place. It isn't a marketing mainstream read which is what makes it one of the best marketing books to read.

6. Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction - by Derek Thompson

Your marketing message is likely to get lost in the noise. There is so much that you need to deal with when creating a digital marketing strategy. This marketing book tells you how to be a hit with your customers, though online marketing holds the attention span of a customer only for a few seconds.

It talks about how to mold your marketing strategy according to culture, it is your go-to guide to analyze ad campaigns and discuss breakthrough advertising. If you want to understand why some things are popular and some things don't work just as well, this marketing book should be on your shelf.

7. Content Machine - by Dan Norris

It's no secret that content marketing is very important when it comes to digital marketing in the contemporary world. This book is a guide to creating ridiculously good content and promoting it on mass media.

If you are wondering how to create a killer content marketing strategy, the answer lies in this book. There are several other marketing books that speak of content, but this one goes into detail and also simplifies the process, telling you exactly how to maneuver the nitty gritty.

8. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant - by Roger Wayne, W. Chan Kim, and Renee Mauborgne

So the blue ocean strategy says the zero-sum game is basically void and businesses should be aiming towards a collaborative strategy in order to attain success. Basically, that constitutes creating new demand and entering an uncontested market space rather than jumping into competition.

Basically, you need to keep diving into blue oceans and avoid red oceans which are overdeveloped markets with way too many competitors. It also speaks of how to have a brand strategy that sets you apart from others and how your marketing team can focus on differentiation.

It's a great book to help you discover where you need to point the axe and how hard you need to hit.

9. The 1-Page Marketing Plan - by Allan Dib

Many businesses focus on random marketing in order to try to get sales and boost revenue. You need to have a plan to get customers and position yourself as the only logical choice. The book has several themes but the biggest of them all is that a marketing plan does not have to be pages long. It only has to be a one-pager that gives you all the essential information you need.

This book gives you a nine-grid, one-page outline that constitutes everything you need to address in your marketing plan. If you want to keep your marketing short and effective, you need to read this.

10. Exactly What to Say - by Phil M. Jones

Isn't it amazing to know exactly what to say and when to say it? Most of business failure is about not saying the right thing at the right time. This book touches upon influencer marketing and also delves into content marketing and discusses how to craft the best messages to appeal to your audience.

It also stresses spoken communication rather than just written communication so cold callers can have a field day with this book.

That sums up our list of the best marketing books. However, if you are going to get anywhere with email marketing in particular, you need to not only warm up your brain with these books but also warm up your domain so that your emails land in the Priority Inbox. GoCustomer can do that within just a few days, making your email campaigns lucrative and successful.

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