There is a reason why digital marketing is one of the fastest-growing fields today. According to Statista, there are 4.5 billion internet users in the world! And time and again the internet has proven to be one of the best mediums for marketing.
The world of digital marketing keeps evolving, new marketing and analytics tools keep coming, and the audience keep getting smarter. And when it comes to digital marketing, you need a little more than natural intuition to be successful in it.
While it may never fully be possible to master the power of marketing on the internet, there are plenty of books that give insights into how we can effectively harness it. Here are our favourites:
1. Jab, Jab, Jab Right hook by Gary vaynerchuk
Just like the title, the book will keep you hooked right from the first page. This book exclusively focuses on social media marketing and provides a blueprint and tactics on how to develop an engaging community. From learning how to create content to build an engaging audience, this books covers it all. The author rightly demonstrates how it is by adding and providing value to our audience we earn the right to ask something in return, like buying your service or product.
Even though it was published in 2013, this is one of the best books written on social media marketing thus far. There are so many actionable insights and nuggets in this book that is relevant even today. If you are looking to take your social media marketing game to next level, look no further, make this book your mantra. This book is also available in the audiobook format narrated by Gary Vee himself.
2. Youtility by Jay Baer
Customers are the most important players and relationship in any business. Youtility is a super useful book that teaches how to create long-term trust and kinship between your company and your loyal customers. In this book, Baer draws his lessons from his experience of helping more than 700 brands in improving their marketing strategy. The book depicts the struggles and journeys of these brands. At a time when most brands are focused on creating hype marketing, Baer’s approach to cutting through the clutter is to ask the question “How can we help?” to the consumers.
The main lesson in this book is that the only way to stand out and build a lasting relationship with your consumers is to use marketing that will be genuinely useful and valuable. The author also provides a solid, actionable plan to leverage the power of information and usefulness to transform the relationship between a company and its customers.
3. Permission Marketing by Seth Godin
Seth Godin, author of 18 best-selling books, is a popular name in the digital marketing industry. He also has several YouTube videos explaining and advising on best marketing practices to follow. This book best encapsulates everything he has to offer regarding digital marketing. In this book, Seth Godin introduces us to a new practice and concept called ‘Permission Marketing.’
“Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them” – Seth Godin
As consumers gain more control to chose the information they consume, they may ignore your marketing efforts. This book helps the reader with ideas and strategies that will ensure your consumers’ attention. This book has been translated into 35 languages and many market leaders and novices alike have described this book as a one-stop shop to learn and educate about digital marketing
4. The Art of SEO by Eric Enge, Stephen spencer, Jessie Strcchiola
This is one of the best books written on SEO. Period. The authors have spent years studying and researching the nature of search engines. Aptly named as ‘The Art of SEO’, this book is a 1000+ page guide with insights, guidelines and techniques to execute a successful SEO strategy. You can find everything from basic to advanced concepts of SEO in this book.
All three authors are independent business owners whose lessons from real-time experience is also reflected in the book. They are known as the leaders of Digital Marketing, specifically for their expertise in SEO Marketing. Currently in its third edition, this book has been revised multiple times to inform to provide information versatile to the changing times. Want to be the best SEO strategist and beat your competition? Buy this book, read it and implement it.
6. Hooked: How to build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal
Believe us when we say, you will be hooked while reading this book. In this book, the author explains the psychology of building addictive products or habits. You will learn how to get your customers to take action repeatedly, how to optimise your audience’s user journey, how to subtly encourage positive customer behaviour and more.
Apart from providing techniques on how to create habits and triggers, this book is packed with relevant examples. The author also teaches how to apply these practices ethically. This book is specifically written for marketers, product managers, designers, start-up founders and anyone who wants to understand how products influence actions and behaviours.
7. Content Machine by Dan Norris
Dan Norris is a successful entrepreneur, award-winning content marketer, author and acclaimed international speaker. This book is a must-read for anyone looking to develop and implement a winning content marketing strategy that drives commercial success. In this book, he provides the readers with clear cut documentation of how to create a 7-figure content strategy and scale it via automation, delegation and a content team.
Norris’ strategy and lessons remain relevant even in the present dynamic digital marketing landscape. This book enables you to understand the content marketing is more than just creating SEO optimized blog posts and other such forms of content. You’ll learn what it takes to win in this overly cluttered content marketing game.
8. Building a Storybrand by donald miller
This is for the modern-day marketer. It is a holistic and current take on how to position your brand and make consumers care about your brand as much as they care about themselves. The author lays out his 7 step framework that has helped thousands of businesses. For any digital marketer conveying your brand’s message rightly and precisely is the hardest part.
Miller educates how to use content effectively to make your consumers the hero of the story and how to make your products a guide or problem solver for your consumer’s woes. This book is not just an informative read, it gives your ideas to create effective digital marketing assets and gives you actionable insights that you can implement for your clients/brands. This is an absolute must-read for any digital marketer.
9. Hacking Growth by Sean ellis and morgan brown
‘Growth Hacking’ is a popular term in the digital marketing landscape, the term was coined by Sean Ellis in 2010. Years later he authored this book along with Morgan Brown, a renowned marketer. This book walks the readers through the growth of some of the biggest brands in the world today–Uber, Airbnb, Facebook, Pinterest etc.
Growth Hacking focuses on finding the optimal way to finding success and achieving targets. This concept is used by some of the biggest companies in the world. This book is full of practical insights, information to increase the customer base and help reshape the marketing plan. It is an important and must-read for marketers and entrepreneurs.
10.The Age of Influence by neal Schaffer
As the title says, this is an age of Influencer Marketing. Social Media has definitely become an integral part of an effective online business model. This comprehensive book of actionable knowledge comes from an internationally renowned social media marketing expert. Schaffer talks about how influence has become democratized and how the number of channels via which the customers consume information has increased.
In this book, you learn how to establish important relationships, turning users into influencers and leveraging authentic user experience as a brand’s credibility. For anyone who is looking for guidance to harness the power of social media, this is the book to read!
Bonus Recommendation:
- SEE YOU ON THE INTERNET BY AVERY SWARTZ
- HIT MAKERS: THE SCIENCE OF POPULARITY IN AN AGE OF DIGITAL DISTRACTION BY DEREK THOMPSON
- EPIC CONTENT MARKETING BY JOE PULIZZI
