The Advent of Digital Marketing
The term digital marketing seems to have become quite a buzzword in these few days. It is one of those words which is overly used by people in their conversations. Be that as it may, defining the term and explaining the concepts that lie behind isn’t a cup of tea. However, there is a definition that explains the concept to quite an extent. And here’s why I want to introduce the Best Digital Marketing Books for you to become an awesome Digital Marketer.
In the simplest of terms, digital marketing refers to the process of delivering advertisement content to the right person via digital means or channels. Such channels may include but are not limited to, social media, websites, email, mobile applications, written content, and much more. Although this definition doesn’t exclusively cover all the aspects of digital marketing, it does a pretty good job of describing the crux of the concept.
Educating Oneself About Digital Marketing
Digital marketing has been around for quite some time. In spite of this, it is still a concept that is relatively less widely known. This is mainly due to the lack of awareness about the concept in school and colleges. Our educational institutions constantly focus on such marketing concepts which are, quite formally, extinct. As a result, procuring knowledge on educating oneself about the inner workings of digital marketing becomes a tad bit difficult.
However, in your pursuit of acquiring the knowledge, you might have, quite conveniently, left out the best way to educate oneself, i.e. books. There are a plethora of books out there which can graciously shower you with the right knowledge for transitioning into the world of digital marketing. As you further enrichen your skills, you can other methods of learning as well to increase your knowledge about digital marketing.
A Splendid Set of Books
Now, hold on. Wait for a moment.
You don’t need to scurry off to research those life-changing digital marketing books. We have already done it. Here are a few of those enlightening books which can guide you on the pathway towards digital marketing.
- BecomeABrand by Sorav Jain
- 101 Content Marketing Tips Handbook by Sorav Jain
- Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How To Tell Your Story In A Noisy Social World by Gary Vaynerchuk
- The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly by David Meerman Scott
- Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing by Harry Beckwith
- Crushing It!: How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business and Influence-and How You Can, Too by Gary Vaynerchuk
- Go Pro – 7 Steps to Becoming a Network Marketing Professional by Eric Worre
- Epic Content Marketing: How to Tell a Different Story, Break through the Clutter, and Win More Customers by Marketing Less by Joe Pulizzi
- Non-Obvious 2019 by Rohit Bhargava
- Love Is The Killer App: How To Win Business and Influence Friends by Tim Sanders
- Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content by Ann Handley
- Permission Marketing: The Marketing Classic for the Internet Age by Seth Godin
- Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization by Eric Enge, Jessie Stricchiola, and Stephan Spencer
- Guerrilla Marketing: Cutting-Edge Strategies for the 21st Century by Jay Conrad Levinson
- Youtility by Jay Baer
- Crush It! Why Now is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk
- Invisible Influence by Jonah Berger
#1. 101 Content Marketing Tips Handbook by Sorav Jain
#2. BecomeABrand by Sorav Jain
#3. Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How To Tell Your Story In A Noisy Social World by Gary Vaynerchuk
Few are the people who might not know who Gary Vaynerchuk is (or GaryVee as he is lovingly referred). A vastly acclaimed digital marketer and best-selling author, Gary introduces us to the ‘right hook’ strategy employed by marketers in their campaign strategy with his jab and right hook strategy.
According to him, the jab is the constant engagement of companies with their customers while the right hook is the final blow used by the same companies to knock their competition out of the park. A combination of these strategies allows companies to get ahead while performing conversions. And it an evidenced strategy which works most of the time. Until it encounters situations where it doesn’t.
With the help of social media, Gary explains how the jab, jab, jab, right hook strategy is changing. He explains how there are newer and better versions of the strategy which help take care of situations in which the strategy doesn’t work. With high-quality content for specific social platforms, he shows the secret for overpowering a customer’s resistance as well as the competition.
#4. The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly by David Meerman Scott
The book’s title quite a mouthful, isn’t it? Considering the knowledge that it imparts, it’s certainly apt. Within the confinements of this book, Scott explains the requirements for creating the next big thing, one of which is the attention of people. It is only by the hype generated by their products that they will be able to disrupt the marketplace.
In his book, Scott explains a step-by-step process for leveraging digital marketing to deliver the right information to people and attract them. Further, Scott, also explains the methods that Internet businesses use to communicate and interact with their customers. Moreover, with tried-and-tested rules of marketing, he facilitates social media engagement, online videos, apps, blogs, and more of such content.
Furthermore, he also explains how businesses can cut through the noise and static to be recognized widely across the Internet.
#5. Selling The Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing by Harry Beckwith
With the onslaught of digital marketing, a multitude of products-based businesses has become vastly popular service-based businesses. Moreover, this has also allowed a vast number of people to start their businesses for selling the various services which could only be done by multinational companies. However, how does one sell services, which are, essentially, invisible?
The aforementioned question is essentially what Harry Beckwith tries to answer in the book. As he takes the reader on a journey, he explains the procedure of selling invisible and tangible services. Unlike products that can be touched and experienced, services need to be purchased before they can be used by the customers. As Beckwith goes to explain how this is accomplished, he provides a quite entertaining viewpoint on the characteristics of services.
A book of several insights, Selling The Invisible takes user and explains how greatness may not get business anywhere, how inefficient focus groups are, how speaking less is more, and how to recognize green opportunities even in a barren land.
#6. Crushing It!: How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business and Influence-and How You Can, Too by Gary Vaynerchuk
Crushing It! is another book from the social media expert, Gary Vaynerchuk himself. In this book, Gary brings out a treasure of lessons from the experiences of influencers and entrepreneurs who rejected the corporate ladder to building their thriving business and personal brands. And he alludes their success to the personal brand which they build for themselves.
In his 2009 bestseller Crush It!, Gary explained how personal branding could be used extensively by entrepreneurs to build their businesses. Acting as its sequel, Crushing It! continues this saga to explain the extended importance of personal branding in today’s world. As he explains about the timeless principles about personal branding, he dissects all the major social media platforms.
With the help of these platforms, he explains how everybody, be it a simple plumber or a professional skater can build a personal brand to amplify one’s presence on each of these platforms.
#7. Go Pro – 7 Steps to Becoming a Network Marketing Professional by Eric Worre.
If we retrace Eric Worre’s steps two decades back, we find him to be at a company convention, one that would completely change his life. It was at this company convention that he experienced a moment of enlightenment, a moment which he graciously termed as his ‘aha’ moment. It was this moment which completely took over his life and turned it inside out. And it was in this moment that ventured on the path to becoming a professional Network Marketing expert, an action which he termed as Go Pro.
Following this, Eric aggressively started to develop the skills required for becoming a Network Marketing expert. He did this because it was crystal clear to him that network marketing was one of the best means of marketing. Combining the experiences of thousands of people from around the world, Eric wrote his book titled Go Pro in which he shares how people can aggressively market within a particular network to find prospects, follow up with them, convert them into customers, and grow their team.
#8. Epic Content Marketing: How to Tell a Different Story, Break through the Clutter, and Win More Customers by Marketing Less by Joe Pulizzi
Now, Epic Content Marketing is one book which was written by Joe Pulizzi, famously known as the Godfather of Content Marketing. Joe Pulizzi has had a long-term run with content marketing, primarily as the founder of the Content Marketing Institute. As a result, he developed core knowledge to increase the effectivity of marketing with content. And in his book, he has performed the same.
In his book, Joe has shown how can content can be utilized to easily win the hearts of people. According to him, all that one needs to win the hearts of people is to develop good quality content. And in a majority of situations, this strategy works, primarily because it does not contain the same clutter which stems from the field of marketing.
By devising a simple step-by-step process, he has shown his straightforward strategies which he has been using to enable people to seize a competitive edge. All that one needs are simple messages and stories which reverberate within the customers and pushes them to redistribute the content over the Internet.
#9. Non-Obvious 2019 by Rohit Bhargava
Non-Obvious is a part of a series which has been continuing for the past 9 years. One of the most enriching sources of knowledge for aspiring digital marketers, the book essentially talks about tackling marketing operations which are far from the recurrent ones. Within the book, author Rohit Bhargava emphasizes the importance of innovating for their marketing campaigns which are far from the monotonous ones. And to perform this, he mentioned campaign restructuring for developing campaigns which are in complete difference to what others are doing.
To help aspiring digital marketers use their non-obvious thinking solutions, Rohit Bhargava lays out a well-defined structure within the core of the book. He mentions his solutions in the form predicted trends which are diversified across various categories, namely, Culture, Marketing, Social Media, Technology, Economics, and Entrepreneurship. Furthermore, the book also features a detailed section comprising of reviews and ratings for the trends that he previously predicted in his foregoing books, along with the longevity and ratings for each.
#10. Love Is The Killer App: How To Win Business and Influence Friends by Tim Sanders
Love is a Killer App is kind of a non-traditional book for digital marketers. This is simply because it doesn’t directly deal with traditional marketing customs. Essentially, the author Tim Sanders uses the book as a means to talk about the importance of making connections. He goes to say that people who make connections are the actual winners in life.
A lot of people out there spend their entire lives wondering how to market their app and make it the next “killer app”. These people wonder how they can add value to their app in becoming the most desired service. However, in all this, they forget to walk through the obvious that can enable them to influence people, i.e. by becoming a lovecat.
In essence, a lovecat is a nice, smart, and successful person to whom people turn for advice. He is a leader who never runs out of ideas, contacts, and friendships to solve a particular problem. In his book, Sanders teaches that all a person needs to become a lovecat is a combination of knowledge, network, and compassion.
#11. Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content by Ann Handley
Digital marketing has led us to a world which has been abundantly facilitated with numerous marketing campaigns. If there is one aspect of digital marketing which connects all other campaigns, it is content. In fact, content leads all these campaigns ensuring that they return amazing results at every step.
Our world has transcended into an era where customers have an elevated sense of expression. They do not like to encounter traditional messages which felt robotic and completely business-centered. Instead, they want to be greeted with a language format which feels akin to everyday language which is more customer-oriented.
And this is what author Ann Handley talks about in her book. Here, she explains how everyone can write clear and accessible content to suit all marketing assets. Moreover, with such compelling content, people can move the audience and create opportunities for businesses to converse directly with their customers with empathy and humanity.
#12. Permission Marketing: The Marketing Classic for the Internet Age by Seth Godin
Marketing campaigns are effective owing to the presence of a single aspect: attention. When marketing campaigns receive the desired attention, the execute the processes to perform conversions and turn potential customers into clients. Earlier marketing campaigns, however, practiced a quite different form of marketing. This form of marketing is referred to as Interruption Marketing by Seth Godin.
Interruption marketing was agitating. Be it with an agitating television commercial during our favorite program or a telemarketing phone call during our meal, interruption marketing performs their task by barging in on our activities. Owing to the irritation caused, customers often refrained from engaging themselves with companies who actively practiced interruption marketing. And this completely defeated the entire marketing process.
With the coming of digital marketing, however, these orthodox means of marketing are being eradicated. As companies discover the annoyance faced by customers, they have been discovering the act of politely asking a customer for advertising, known as Permission Marketing. By reaching out to only those people who need certain products and services, companies can develop a better form of trust, build brand awareness, and develop long-term relationships with customers.
#13. The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization by Eric Enge, Jessie Stricchiola, and Stephan Spencer
SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. In simple terms, it refers to the act of generating organic traffic on websites, via the means of simple search results which are triggers by your audience. SEO forms a big part of digital marketing, particularly when you focus on the fact that it elevates your website and makes it visible amongst the users allowing you to receive traffic for performing conversions. And it does all this via simple requirements, such as content, keywords, search engine marketing, and such.
Considering the vast importance of SEO brought together three of the most proficient SEO experts to enlighten the masses about the act of utilizing the technology for their purposes. With the help of innovative techniques, these experts or authors show how anybody can develop an effective SEO strategy to boost their audience. Moreover, with an array of effective tactics, ranging from basic to advanced, the authors guide the readers through a vast bank of knowledge that forms to be a prominent aspect of digital marketing.
#14. Guerrilla Marketing: Cutting-Edge Strategies for the 21st Century by Jay Conrad Levinson
You might have often experiences situations wherein you are unsure of your plans. During such times, you feel afraid to try out your newer strategies. In fact, this fear might even refrain you from performing the desired action and reiterate the same mediocre strategies that everyone else might be engaging in. Guerilla Marketing is one book that goes against this. It is a book that permits you to try out new ideas and out-of-the-box strategies.
Even though it was published way back in 1983, Guerilla Marketing remains a classic till date. In this book, Jay implements the ‘take-no-prisoners’ approach while finding new clients. He offers a treasure trove of ideas that are filled to the brim with cutting-edge strategies that are suited for marketing on the Internet. He shows the importance of taking risks to apply new strategies and show how businesses can be more effective in their dealings. The knowledge present in the book has not only disrupted the field of marketing, but it has also revolutionized the entire field of marketing itself.
#15. Youtility by Jay Baer
When a majority of companies devise their marketing campaigns, they often embed the incorrect question within these campaigns. Companies, in an attempt to secure the attention of their customers, often go head-to-head with the competition’s products and go on boasting how their product is better than their competition. And it is in doing this that such campaigns often go haywire, often converting a meager rate of the clients than they should.
To rectify this, Jay Baer introduced upside down marketing in his book Youtility. Instead of proving the superiority of their products or services, companies should instead display how they can help in making the lives of their customers easier. By constantly asking the question, “How can we help?”, companies can vastly affect their conversion rates and form long-term relationships with their customers.
#16. Invisible Influence by Jonah Berger
Perceptions play a large role when it comes to digital marketing. Most individuals think that their perceptions, their choices, and their tastes depend on their tastes and opinions. And such individuals also think that their choice to pick up that famous brand of the jacket was their individual choice. But they don’t know the effect that ‘social influence’ had on them.
According to psychologists, social influence is the act by which we get highly influenced by other people’s behavior even without realizing it. Everything from the food that we want to have to the clothes that are bent upon wearing arises out social influences. However, this can be a good thing. By understanding how social influences work, companies can get in touch influencers of their respective fields and use it to make better-informed decisions for their campaigns.
#17. Crush It! Why Now is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk
The final book on this list is again one from the famous Gary Vaynerchuk. Although this book is almost a decade old, it still harbors principles which are relevant to this day. In this book, Gary shows the ropes as to how one can convert their hobbies and passions into a source for living. With the power of the Internet, he shows how people can “cash in on their passion”. With the help of a step-by-step process, Gary reveals his secrets for building a personal brand that the readers will be able to use for harnessing their entrepreneurial dreams.
