Mostly, everything I’ve learned (and continue to learn) about marketing, business and the web has come via the inspiration and example of others—reading amazing blogs, learning from great content, and most importantly diving deep into favorite books.
I’d love to share, in particular, the books that have been most influential to me and other digital marketers.
Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers
Seth Godin, one of the world’s foremost online promoters, offers his best advice for advertising in Permission Marketing. Godin argues that businesses can no longer rely solely on traditional forms of “interruption advertising” in magazines, mailings, or radio and television commercials. He writes that today consumers are bombarded by marketing messages almost everywhere they go. If you want to grab someone’s attention, you first need to get his or her permission with some kind of bait–a free sample, a big discount, a contest, an 800 number, or even just an opinion survey.
The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter, Updated and Expanded
Named one of 100 Leadership & Success Books to Read in a Lifetime by Amazon Editors
The world’s most trusted guide for leaders in transition
Transitions are a critical time for leaders. In fact, most agree that moving into a new role is the biggest challenge a manager will face. While transitions offer a chance to start fresh and make needed changes in an organization, they also place leaders in a position of acute vulnerability. Missteps made during the crucial first three months in a new role can jeopardize or even derail your success.
HBRs 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books) (HBRs 10 Must Reads)
You want the most important ideas on management all in one place. Now you can have them—in a set of HBR’s 10 Must Reads. Hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles on strategy, change leadership, managing people, and managing yourself and selected the most important ones to help you maximize your performance.
This six-title collection includes only the most critical articles from the world’s top management experts, curated from Harvard Business Review’s rich archives. These books are packed with enduring advice from the best minds in business such as: Michael Porter, Clayton Christensen, Peter Drucker, John Kotter, Daniel Goleman, Jim Collins, Ted Levitt, Gary Hamel, W. Chan Kim, Renée Mauborgne and much more.
Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller – Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century
– Og Mandino, The Greatest Salesman in the World
Guerilla Marketing: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business
Thirty years ago, Jay Conrad Levinson took marketing out of the world of Mad Men and huge corporations into the hands of entrepreneurs and small businesses. The book explains why it’s no longer necessary to spend a great deal of money to gain visibility, as long as you’re willing to get creative. Amazingly, the book got it “spot on” way before anybody was talking about “going viral.”
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
How do successful companies create products people can’t put down?
Why do some products capture widespread attention while others flop? What makes us engage with certain products out of sheer habit? Is there a pattern underlying how technologies hook us?
Nir Eyal answers these questions (and many more) by explaining the Hook Model—a four-step process embedded into the products of many successful companies to subtly encourage customer behavior. Through consecutive “hook cycles,” these products reach their ultimate goal of bringing users back again and again without depending on costly advertising or aggressive messaging.
