Want To Enhance Your Marketing Skills? Here Are 20 Books Every Marketer Should Read

Marketing is not something that a person can learn overnight. It takes hard work and determination to be a good marketer. Around 30% of the marketers to enhance and improve their skills take advantage of books on the topic. In this article, we have shortlisted 20 books that a marketer should read in 2020.

Books are a good way to learn the basics of marketing because marketers need to understand the origin and underlying theory of it as well as know about the new trends and channels. Books on the topic offer the opportunity to the marketer to learn about both. We have shortlisted some must-read marketing books, recommended for marketers young and old, experienced as well as a beginner.

20 Books That Every Marketer Should Read

1. Killing Marketing

Two of the world’s top marketing experts- Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose reveal the next level of breakthrough success which is transforming the marketing strategy into a standalone profit center. Playing off the perception that marketing is cost centered, the authors through this book suggests sending this discipline out to pasture and restructuring it.

2. Integrated Marketing Communications

This landmark book by Don E. Schultz, Stanley I. Tannenbaum,‎ and Robert F. Lauterborn reveals that strategies long used to deliver selling messages to the mass culture through a single medium are now obsolete - and shows marketers how to get back on track. It stresses the fact that how a company communicates is the key to its success.

3. The Practice of Management

A classic since its publication in 1954, The Practice of Management, by Peter.F. Drucker was the first book to look at management as a whole and being a manager as a separate responsibility. This book is readable, fundamental, and basic, and remains a must-read for students, aspiring managers, and seasoned professionals.

4. The End of Competitive Advantage

Chances are the strategies that worked well for you a few years ago, now no longer delivers the results you need. This book by Rita Gunther McGrath serves as a new guide for a new strategy, based on updated assumptions about how the world works with examples of how some of the world’s most successful companies use this method to compete and win today.

Also Read: Best Sales and Marketing Books

5. The Social Organism

In The Social Organism, Oliver Luckett and Michael J.Casey offer a revolutionary theory: social networks-to an astonishing degree-mimic the rules and functions of biological life  "A must-read for business leaders and anyone who wants to understand all the implications of a social world."-Bob Iger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney

6. Permission Marketing

Seth Godin is an author, entrepreneur, marketer, and public speaker. This book explains how businesses can market to a subscriber who gives their permission to market to or “opt-in” to receive offers and announcements from a brand. enables companies to build long term relationships with customers, create trust, and build brand awareness.

7. Breakthrough Advertising

Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz is not a book just for marketing professionals and business owners, it’s a book for everyone in the business world. Breakthrough Advertising addresses universal business problems that people are still trying to solve today. It deals with questions like How to write a great headline, how to cut through the noise, and how to open up a whole new market.

Also read: Best Marketing and Sales Tools

8. Virtual Freedom

Chris Ducker through his Virtual Freedom helps you to explore the options when it comes to hiring digital staff and outsourcing work.

9. Epic Content Marketing

Epic Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi helps businesses and marketers develop strategies and use stories to leverage the widespread distribution of social networks, Google, and the mainstream press.

10. Content Inc

Content Inc by Joe Pulizzi explores a 6 step process that many business and entrepreneurs use to dominate the market without selling anything in the first instance

11. Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter's book is for all marketers to learn how to handle their money to keep them coming. This book talks in detail about financial literacy, management, and investment.

12. The One Minute Manager

This book is co-written by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson that speaks on the importance of goals, praises, and reprimands. It gives a glimpse of the office environment and imparts some valuable tips to improve productivity and ensure personal growth, etc.

13. Made To Stick

This book by Chip Heath and Dan Heath dissects some of the ideas which have rocked the world and attempt to decipher the reason for success.

Also Read: A Complete B2B Marketing Strategy - B2B Lead Generation

14. Steve Jobs: The Unauthorised Autobiography

Steve Jobs has been an inspiration and a role model for many marketers. This book talks about his journey, the struggles, and his quest for triumph. It begins with his childhood to the days of Mac.

15. Brand Identity Breakthrough

With a decade of experience studying businesses across the world, Gregory.V. Diehl has talked about the key to creating innovative brand identities and distinct business stories. In Brand Identity Breakthrough, one will learn how to develop a strong brand identity by combining your personality and values with the functionality of your products, becoming an irreplaceable brand and company.

16. The 22 immutable laws of marketing

This book by Al Ries and Jack Trout breaks down the rules of marketing down into digestible chunks of wisdom.

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17. Thinking, Fast and Slow

This book by Daniel Kahneman talks about our minds-tripped up by error and prejudice (even when we are being logical) and gives you practical techniques for slower, smarter thinking.

18. The Artist’s Way

This book by Julia Cameron links creativity to spirituality by showing how to connect with the creative energies of the universe. The Artist's Way guides you through the process of recovering your creative self.

19. The Art of Client Service

This book by Robert Solomon is a powerful source of counsel for those new to the business, for industry veterans who want to refresh or confirm what they already know, and for anyone in the middle of the journey to improve at what they do

20. The 1-Page Marketing Plan

This book by Allan Dib is the easiest and fastest way to create a marketing plan that will propel your business growth. With it, you will be able to map out your own sophisticated marketing plan and go from zero to marketing hero whether you're starting new or are an experienced entrepreneur.

Conclusion

“If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs”- Dhirubhai Ambani.

Marketing is an industry that is constantly growing and evolving. It has a broad spectrum of discipline and to be a good marketer one needs to be constantly educated about the new trends prevailing in the society. To gain knowledge on a regular basis, books are the best way. I hope you find this article with 20 must-read books for a marketer useful and informative.