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Market Your Business Like a Pro
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items My all-time favorite books about marketing. If you're a small business owner selling online, this is an essential reading list! Regardless of your business type or what you're selling – physical products, digital products, or services and freelance consulting – you need to understand marketing. Everyone needs this
Some links on this page may be affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you purchase through them — at no extra cost to you. I only share products I genuinely use or recommend.
Some links on this page may be affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you purchase through them — at no extra cost to you. I only share products I genuinely use or recommend.
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Popular Marketing Books
Popular Marketing Books
Skip the “hard sell” that nobody wants. Learn how to create stories--about your products, about yourself, and most importantly about how your product will make your customer feel. Tell all the stories
Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen|Hardcover
Seth Godin's writing style is very engaging. This is a must read for anyone who is just starting out with marketing. It will set the stage for understanding what marketing is and why it's important. It completely changed my thinking on what marketing is. Most people think marketing is advertising. nope! Get this book!
This Is Marketing: You Can't Be Seen Until You Learn to See
The science of persuasion. This book delves into actual studies of how people behave in various situations. The studies themselves were fascinating and anyone who is interested in psychology will be entertained even if they aren't trying to learn marketing. The author has obvious expertise in marketing and has broken down the psychology into different categories that just make sense so that you can *ethically* become a better salesperson. The author puts a strong emphasis on ethics in this book--they are not teaching manipulation or coersion. A lot of this book are things that you probably already know or “feel” is true. The value here is how the author pulls it all together, shows the research to prove it's true, and then pulls out some subtle extras facets. It was an easy read and well researched!
Influence, New and Expanded: The Psychology of Persuasion|Hardcover
An essential book for your marketing bookshelf. An interesting read. I understand it but not sure I'm good at making things go viral. Not everything has to go viral though. This book can help you understand why people in your circle of followers might like a thing
Contagious: Why Things Catch On
I haven't read this book yet but I have it on my bookshelf. This is another book like “Influence, the psychology of persuasion” that has lots of real world examples of different studies and events that demonstrates the author's thesis. I love books with real examples and not just a bunch of facts and figures. So I will be reading this soon!
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die|Hardcover
Stop Procrastiplanning! Just start. “The 1-Page Marketing Plan” will help you if you have a business idea and an existing product or service ready to go, do NOT spend the next year thinking and planning and making small ineffectual decisions about your social media and advertising stra...
The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand out From The Crowd
If you don't know "Gary Vee", you need to get to know Gary Vee. Gary Vaynerchuk has a massive social media following. He came up selling products online from the late 90s for his parent's business. Check him out wherever he is online. He has a YouTube channel, TikTok, and all the rest. He's charismatic and very insightful on how to sell and market online.
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World|Hardcover
Another book that I haven't read yet. I'm buying this one right away because it's supposed to be geared towards people who do more short-form videos like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and even Pinterest videos
Hook Point: How to Stand Out in a 3-Second World
Classic Seth Godin marketing book! All of his books are fun to read and interesting. This book won't help you with TikTok or other social media or help with your advertising issues – it's more basic than that. Seth Godin will attempt to convince you to NOT follow the crowd, to stick out. Many people selling their products or services online will look at other people in their category is go along with something similar because that seems the obvious path to achieve success. However, that could really just make you unremarkable.
Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable|Hardcover
I just started reading this book! One of the most important things you can learn about marketing your products and services and selling online is *why* people buy and why they choose one product over another. It's not always to fill a need. People buy for all kinds of reasons that are emotional and psychological. I'm hoping this book will give me more insights
Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life
This book probably isn't as flashy as some of the others in this list but it's important so don't skip over it! Copywriting is something that a lot of people struggle with. That word sounds like a weird legal-y term but it just means writing. That's all the product listing descriptions, “About Me” pages, all of the text overlays you put on your TikTok videos, or the descriptions you write that go along with those videos. Basically anything you write about your brand.
The Copywriter's Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Copy That Sells (4th Edition)|Paperback
Here's another book that seems like it would be boring. When I see a writing book I think of high school English class and being forced to write essays. But here's the thing – if you sell online and post content online, you need to know how to write. It's not all dry essays, it might just be writing a page on your website explaining to people what services you offer. I've read many other books on writing but I just got this book too because I am always trying to improve. I need all the help I can get!
Everybody Writes: Your New and Improved Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content
Another great marketing book. This one focuses more on product launches and mailing lists
Oversubscribed: How to Get People Lining Up to Do Business with You
Most of these other books talk about customers and their motivations. “Start With Why” examines the business owner's motivations. This book overlaps branding and entrepreneurship. It will walk you through figuring out why you do what you do. What do you hope to get out of it? It probably shouldn't only be money. It you think it is all about making money, you definitely should read this book.
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action|Paperback
Everyone wants to achieve the one million followers mark, right? Brendan Kane demonstrates how he did it in only 30 days!
One Million Followers, Updated Edition: How I Built a Massive Social Following in 30 Days