Books are an invaluable resource when you want to learn more about digital marketing. Whether it is an ebook or a hard cover version, there are authors changing the lives of digital marketers through insightful ideas collected from experience and discussions with experts.
Most digital marketers are learning from blogs. However, books offer the invaluable advantage of collecting all ideas into one place with different chapters and detailed sections for marketers. It is also exciting to read while traveling or taking a break from electronic gadgets. It is an unforgettable experience.
One of the most challenging questions about books on digital marketing is the shelf-life of the ideas discussed. Considering that books would take time to publish yet digital marketing is evolving fast, how valid are the ideas shared? Well, books are unique.
They give the basic principles upon which all digital marketing is anchored. These are principles that can never be outdated. Further, as you read through these principles, you understand the basics of digital marketing in depth to give it a wider approach. It also will help you to promote such a company as Writing Jobz.
Topics covered in books go beyond digital marketing. For instance, you learn the psychology of successful digital marketing, the business side of a digital marketer, healthy living for digital marketers, and such other areas. These are ideas you would only find on platforms that are not related to digital marketing.
The ideas will turn you into a solid digital marketer.
Here are some of the best digital marketing books to read in 2021.
Digital Marketing Books to Read: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
The book was published in 1984 and is the expert work of Robert Cialdini. You may wonder what the world knew about digital marketing in 1984 considering that some of the global digital brands like Amazon made their first sale in 1995.
Well, as indicated above, the principles of digital marketing go beyond the search engines and keywords as we know them today.
The most successful digital marketers consider the psychology of Robert Cialdini as a pivotal part of their daily activity. It explains why all digital marketing experts recommend the book yet it has nothing to do with digital marketing. In fact, even conventional marketers selling ads and ad spaces consider the book as their ‘bible’.
Robert has outlined the process of decision making, helping you to understand what it will take for your target customers to buy your products. Cialdini is a great storyteller who goes a step further to give real-life experiences that make his ideas easier to understand. He discusses six principles that should guide you when developing campaigns and preparing digital marketing materials.
Marketers on traditional as well as digital platforms have tested these principles. From social media posts to email copies, these principles help you to produce memorable content and ground breaking campaigns.
Though Robert does not teach the every-day digital marketing tactics, the principles of scarcity, reciprocity, social proof, authority, liking, and consistency discussed in the book apply during your daily content creation and marketing campaigns.
You will begin to look at digital marketing campaigns, content, and target audiences in a different light. This is the secret to creating viral and memorable digital marketing campaigns.
Scientific Advertising
Claude Hopkins is best described as a man ahead of his time. As you flip through Scientific Advertising, you will be exploring ideas discussed as far back as 1923, almost a century ago. What is today regarded as A/B testing formed the core f his discussions.
Scientific Advertising takes you to the basics of influence. The author insists on looking at multiple valuables before spending money or releasing a campaign. You have to develop a clear roadmap of the project you are about to execute. Identify loopholes and find multiple paths towards the solution. With multiple paths to consider, you can now choose the best for your circumstance.
The approach is especially important in reducing hemorrhage when running a campaign. It gives you certainty over your approach and greater control of the outcomes. The manner of discussion gives you an idea why the book is regarded as a must-read for anyone going into marketing. In fact, experts recommend that you should not allow anyone to touch your marketing campaign until he or she has read the book.
Like Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion above, the book has nothing to do with the one-on-one digital marketing strategies. However, as you read through the chapters, you discover that technology is just an enabler.
The basic principles have been used for years. They remain intact regardless of the platform or the technology you are using to actualize your marketing ideas.
Scientific Advertising is a partly 120 pages but will transform your view and fortunes in digital marketing. Hardly any page comes without invaluable lessons that you will not learn from blogs or years of practicing digital marketing.
Once you read through the chapters, you will understand why a book printed almost a century ago has sold millions of copies in the recent digital marketing years.
Expert Secrets
Four years in digital marketing would amount to forty years in the ordinary world. However, Russell Brunson has a way of looking back into the past to see way ahead into the future. A lot of what you are reading and watching on the internet as ‘digital marketing tips’ is drawn from discussions by Russell in Expert Secrets. The content of the books are likely to remain mainstream for decades to come based on the expertise used to discuss the ideas.
The major selling point for Expert Secrets is that the book eliminates guesswork in your marketing campaigns. Whether you are into content marketing, copywriting, or email marketing, you can see into the future of your efforts or steps.
What more, the author provides ideas that have worked in his businesses with demonstrable success. Since the success has happened on the digital space, these ideas as believable and actionable.
Brunson is the founder of ClickFunnels, a platform that allows digital marketers to develop detailed and practical strategies for their digital marketing campaigns. He remains one of the most recognizable figures in digital marketing. He has experimented with the ideas he shares, proving that they can work.
Each page reads like a digital marketing Master class. The main talking points include the ability to recognize your expertise and use it to grow your business.
As you flip through the pages, you will come across some of the best practices in the industry today for instant application.
Interestingly, the book is not all lectures by other people about digital marketing. Russell helps you to identify strategies and tricks that can work for you and not necessarily applicable to other people.
You will find innovative ways to use these tricks and refine them instead of relying on other people for ideas. You create own ideas based on the uniqueness of your environment.
Russell provides a series of lectures that will solve practical and everyday digital marketing challenges. He has something for everyone who is looking for a breakthrough in digital marketing.
The book will help you to develop digital marketing structures that can accommodate the latest tactics as they emerge without losing on the foundations of marketing. One can never say enough about Expert Secrets. The best idea is to read the book.
Hooked: How to Build Habit Forming Products
Nir Eyal has a way of presenting his content that will get you glued to the pages from the beginning to the end. ‘Hooked’ could be the best word to describe the experience once you begin reading the book. You will want to postpone everything until you are done.
The ideas by Nir Eyal focus on how to cause customers to create habits around your products. You create triggers and cause customers to take specific actions that will keep them glued to your brand. Behind the scenes, they will be investing in your brand and getting a lot in return.
Nir shares the marketing strategies used by major technology companies to grow their brand to global proportions. If you understand something about the ‘user journey’ in marketing, then this is the best testament of this experience and how to convert it to your advantage.
Hooked has a very practical approach to digital marketing. You can see the techniques shared already working for companies mentioned in the chapters.
Further, the book insists on an ethical approach to influence so that the strategies do not backfire, especially through regulatory penalties or customer awakening. The aim is to build a brand that will last centuries.
Eyal is intent on winning the confidence of customers even as you focus on profits. Towards the end, a lot of focus goes to the application of ideas shared. In every digital marketing step you make, the welfare of your customers remains a priority. A hundred years from now, history will judge you as a founder who prioritized customer needs above profit.
Content Machine
Dan Norris is the hand behind Content Machine and has done justice to digital marketing ideas. As the name suggests, the author wants you to develop strategies that work like machines. It amounts to developing a marketing infrastructure that will deliver commercial success.
Dan has already experienced success as a digital marketer. He is a partner at Hubspot and a globally recognized business and digital marketing writer. He has already made a name and profit from the ideas he shares on Content Machine.
Dan Norris tasted success using a blog- Hubspot. You can now understand his insistence on content and how it can be turned into a digital marketing machine. He teaches you the practical steps of turning content into the real king and going to the top using the easiest route.
Content Machine emphasizes the centrality of quality, SEO, and customer engagement in your digital marketing strategy. He mentions relevant and everyday tools you can use in digital marketing.
Unlike other authors whose ideas are drawn from the successes of other people, Dan is practical. He has tested these ideas and can ascertain that they work. The ideas are so practical that the book feels like a manual. You can begin implementing the ideas as you read through the chapters.
Permission Marketing
How much do you think of consent when sending emails or pushing ads? Are you facing a possibility of backrush or penalties for interfering with the lives of your target audience without their authorization? Seth Godin wants you to take a different approach that will cause your target subjects to yield permission without any tussle.
The title suggests that you have barriers to overcome before getting to your target customers. Seth explores tactics you can use to ensure that the gates open even before you get there. You will be receiving VIP treatment without having to ask for permission.
Printed in 1999, Permission Marketing is big on relationship building. The idea is to give your marketing strategy a long term view. By the time you make a sale, the customer will be asking for the product. You avoid pushing the products and instead get customers coming to you or opening their doors to your brand without hesitation.
How to you get to a point where customers open door and are ready to buy? You must deliver quality. The customer must see consistent value in your product or brand. Value transforms your current customers into ambassadors.
If you are running a blog, for example, you do not have to spend on marketing since readers share your content on your behalf. They invite friends and associates to enjoy the quality you offer. This is the power of value. It eliminates the need to ask for permission when dealing with customers because it will already have been granted. In the absence of such value, your marketing campaigns become a nuisance.
Digital Marketing Books to Read: Conclusion
Books may have a longer turn-around-time, suggesting that their ideas are outdated. However, their development process gives an in-depth analysis of digital marketing and helps you to build a solid foundation for your digital marketing activities. The books give you a new perspective to digital marketing that you will not find on blogs or such other platforms.
