10 interesting and fun books that will make you fall in love with marketing
There are books on marketing that are interesting and easy to read. Marketers will find in them inspiration and food for thought. And specialists from other professions will understand that marketing knowledge never hurts and that marketing is not boring.
This book is interesting from the start. In the introduction, the author in one sentence expressed the essence of the book: it is “the shortest way to money” .
Typically, the authors of marketing books somehow say little about money. In the “One-page marketing plan,” from the very beginning, marketing is tightly connected with money, profit, and profit.
And it is right. Everything connected with a business must directly or indirectly concern money. If you are still embarrassed, talking about marketing, talking about money, then get rid of the constraints once and for all.
Money is the zero point that a marketer focuses on. The first point is the plan.
The mistake of many is that there is no plan. Probably everyone can remember a few stories from his life when nothing happened, because there was no plan. But even more mistakes people make when they make the wrong plan for hundreds of pages.
About Pareto rule heard, probably all. But for the first time from this book I learned about rule 64/4. Take 80% of 80 and 20% of 20 and you get these same numbers.
They say the same: 64% of the results depend on 4% of active efforts.
These 4% are exactly the one-page plan. Do not need anymore.
And one more important thought: marketing is not abstract concepts, and not branding or advertising. Marketing appears when you have planned advertising, promotion, content, PR and sales.
And one of the simplest definitions of marketing:
The process consists of three stages, in each of which there are three areas of work:
Each stage in the book is detailed, so read and immediately make a one-page plan.
It may seem that this is a book for infobusinessmen. Jeff Walker tells in her how he did the multi-million launches of his products. But the main idea of the book is that it is necessary to build trusting relationships with customers.
This is best done if you talk about what you care about, create such communications that help a person understand what you are like, whether you can share your values with you or we think differently.
Some useful thoughts from the book:
Judging by the vacancies, every marketer should write well. Many companies almost do not see the difference between a copywriter and a marketer, including in the duties of the creation of advertising texts and other content.
In general, Simon Lancaster's book is more about public speaking. But there are recommendations in it that reinforce the texts. For example:
Any statement can be built on this principle, because “the troika implies completeness, completeness, perfection. Simply. Here it is. So".
The book pays a lot of attention to leadership communications and the impact that speech has on the physiological state of a person. So it is useful to read and managers.
Reading a book is interesting because there are many stories in it. And the author in each sentence demonstrates the use of the described techniques. As in this quote:
In fact, the book tells not only about creative thinking. There, for example, there is about sales: "In any sales, desire is ahead of logic."
That is, it turns out that we are trying to describe to a potential customer the characteristics of the product and its advantages in a logical and consistent way, then how to turn to emotions. The first is easier to make than the second. And we all tend to follow the path of least resistance.
We lack the main quality of outstanding people - courage:
Well, the most important thing that marketers forget:
Do you know about the "lift test"? The description of the project, product or company should be such that in a minute you can tell the most important thing and induce to action. One minute is about 150-225 words.
Harry Beckwith goes further. He believes that the company should have a “key statement” and “key evidence”. And they, too, must pass the "lift test."
These elements should be in brochures, presentations, advertising messages.
According to the author, one of the important qualities of a marketer should be the ability to observe. Be careful. Pay attention to what is happening, not what you want or expect to see.
And further. For marketing services it is important:
This is important because “services are part of our life experience. They are “experienced” ... they always bear a personal, personalized (sometimes even to a frightening degree) imprint. ”
The book is interesting because it is based on the personal experience of the author. There are parables in it. For example, this:
The main goal of the book is to tell about the features of the marketing profession and its work in large companies. The author shares his observations and reflections on how to do it and how not to do marketing.
In addition to marketers, the book is suitable for businessmen and company leaders if they want to understand what the marketer should have in order for it to be useful.
Especially funny pictures in the book. You can not read the book, just look at the pictures out of curiosity.
In my opinion, it is right to emphasize recommendations. They are usually forgotten. And they can be a powerful tool in promoting the product.
In addition, recommendation-based marketing is based on the natural desire of people to tell each other what is good and what is bad.
Probably not any business can be promoted with the help of recommendations. After all, first you need to find something in your product that people will start talking about. If you cannot find something in the product, you can create it. The main thing is not to break the promises made to customers.
In general, clients should be offered an exciting, joyful, surprising experience.
The book has many practical recommendations and tools that you can use. When you read, there are a lot of ideas about how and what to do to implement the recommendations. So keep a notebook handy.
This is the most fun of all the books of this collection. The second one simply does not exist, but there is a benefit from the book. The basics of marketing are laid out in such a way that everything becomes immediately clear.
Proverbs are difficult to describe, so here are a few quotes and meanings from the book:
An important book for marketers. It has a clear distinction between the manipulation with the help of discounts and advertising and the natural needs of people, forcing them to give preference to what is close to their principles.
To promote any product, first determine why this product exists, why the company exists, what it wants to change in the world.
All conclusions of the author are based on the psychological characteristics of people. We do not buy in order for the company to benefit. We do everything for ourselves and most often act not because we have thought for a long time, but because we have dreamed, hoped and felt the need for this purchase.
One of the clearest examples of this approach is demonstrated by Apple. It clearly follows its idea, so iPhones and everything else that the company will do will always be in demand. Over the years of its existence, the company gained trust not because it pursued a profit, but because it proved its commitment to something more.
Trust cannot be created by convincing the buyer with facts and figures. In the first place we have feelings that we cannot express in words, because the part of the brain that controls our feelings is not responsible for speech. At the level of sensations, we sometimes understand that "some things are suitable for us, and some are not."
And one more interesting thought. It is necessary to separate repeat business and dedication. Customers can buy again and again, but it is not at all profitable for the company if there is no loyalty. Because dedication causes them to refuse the best product or price to continue to work with you.
Making customers loyal and loyal is not easy, but getting a repeat deal is easier. To do this, you need more manipulations: discounts and bonuses. But more often win those who have loyal customers who share the principles and views of the company.
In general, this book is about how bad it is to start a business with a huge pile of money. When this resource is abundant, it is easier to squander it and end up with nothing.
Marketers this is also useful to remember. Because the budget constraint makes the brain look for original ways to move. And when you just sit and hope that everything can be solved with the help of money, nothing happens.
I will give one of the key quotes of the book:
The author of the book, by the way, is an interesting person. He created his business from scratch, which he talks about. Also in the book there are interesting stories about how other people promoted their ideas, what they did right and what was wrong (from the point of view of the author) and how they should have been done.
Instead of conclusions, I will cite one more quotation from this book, because what it says it must be remembered by every marketer and everyone who is somehow connected with the business.
Allan Dib "One-page marketing plan"
This book is interesting from the start. In the introduction, the author in one sentence expressed the essence of the book: it is “the shortest way to money” .
Typically, the authors of marketing books somehow say little about money. In the “One-page marketing plan,” from the very beginning, marketing is tightly connected with money, profit, and profit.
And it is right. Everything connected with a business must directly or indirectly concern money. If you are still embarrassed, talking about marketing, talking about money, then get rid of the constraints once and for all.
Money is the zero point that a marketer focuses on. The first point is the plan.
The mistake of many is that there is no plan. Probably everyone can remember a few stories from his life when nothing happened, because there was no plan. But even more mistakes people make when they make the wrong plan for hundreds of pages.
About Pareto rule heard, probably all. But for the first time from this book I learned about rule 64/4. Take 80% of 80 and 20% of 20 and you get these same numbers.
They say the same: 64% of the results depend on 4% of active efforts.
These 4% are exactly the one-page plan. Do not need anymore.
And one more important thought: marketing is not abstract concepts, and not branding or advertising. Marketing appears when you have planned advertising, promotion, content, PR and sales.
And one of the simplest definitions of marketing:
Marketing is the process through which our target market must go.
The process consists of three stages, in each of which there are three areas of work:
- The first stage is BEFORE (working with potential clients): choosing a target market, a message for the target market, channels of communication with the target market.
- The second stage is DURING (contacts): a system for obtaining contacts, a system of nurturing contacts / clients, a strategy for converting contacts into sales.
- The third stage - AFTER (customers): how to ensure first-class quality, how to increase customer lifetime value, how to stimulate recommendations.
Each stage in the book is detailed, so read and immediately make a one-page plan.
Jeff Walker "Running. A quick start for your business. ”
It may seem that this is a book for infobusinessmen. Jeff Walker tells in her how he did the multi-million launches of his products. But the main idea of the book is that it is necessary to build trusting relationships with customers.
This is best done if you talk about what you care about, create such communications that help a person understand what you are like, whether you can share your values with you or we think differently.
Some useful thoughts from the book:
- It is not necessary to create a site. Sometimes it is better to start by collecting the subscriber base for distribution.
- Three mental triggers that help attract the target audience: rarity, authority and community.
- Product promotion begins even before its release, to captivate the target market product.
- People like to take part in a dialogue more than listen to monologues.
- What is important is not the size of the subscriber base, but their responsiveness, so the priority is building relationships with them.
- Stories about products and services should explain why they are important to potential customers.
- Today, cooperation is in most cases more important than rivalry.
Simon Lancaster "Speak, inspire. How to win the trust of listeners and captivate them with your ideas "
Judging by the vacancies, every marketer should write well. Many companies almost do not see the difference between a copywriter and a marketer, including in the duties of the creation of advertising texts and other content.
In general, Simon Lancaster's book is more about public speaking. But there are recommendations in it that reinforce the texts. For example:
Aristotle argued that for perfect communication, three components are needed: ethos, pathos and logos (as you will soon discover, all great things come in triads). And if these terms are not very clear to you, I will explain: ethos means trust, pathos - emotions, logos - this is logic, or the appearance of logic.
Any statement can be built on this principle, because “the troika implies completeness, completeness, perfection. Simply. Here it is. So".
The book pays a lot of attention to leadership communications and the impact that speech has on the physiological state of a person. So it is useful to read and managers.
Reading a book is interesting because there are many stories in it. And the author in each sentence demonstrates the use of the described techniques. As in this quote:
I was told that speech should be similar to a women's skirt: long enough to hide an object, and short enough to generate interest.
Dave Trott “One plus one equals three. Master class on creative thinking "
In fact, the book tells not only about creative thinking. There, for example, there is about sales: "In any sales, desire is ahead of logic."
That is, it turns out that we are trying to describe to a potential customer the characteristics of the product and its advantages in a logical and consistent way, then how to turn to emotions. The first is easier to make than the second. And we all tend to follow the path of least resistance.
We lack the main quality of outstanding people - courage:
If you do not have the courage to stand out and be extraordinary, you will be part of the crowd. And for reliability you will begin to look for ideas in the same places as others. True, then your work will be the same as everyone else.
Well, the most important thing that marketers forget:
We believe that everyone thinks the same way as we do. As a result, we just talk to ourselves.
Harry Beckwith "Four Keys to Marketing Services"
Do you know about the "lift test"? The description of the project, product or company should be such that in a minute you can tell the most important thing and induce to action. One minute is about 150-225 words.
Harry Beckwith goes further. He believes that the company should have a “key statement” and “key evidence”. And they, too, must pass the "lift test."
These elements should be in brochures, presentations, advertising messages.
According to the author, one of the important qualities of a marketer should be the ability to observe. Be careful. Pay attention to what is happening, not what you want or expect to see.
And further. For marketing services it is important:
- radiate passion;
- be friendly;
- speak fast and clear;
- be consistent in everything.
This is important because “services are part of our life experience. They are “experienced” ... they always bear a personal, personalized (sometimes even to a frightening degree) imprint. ”
Lyudmila Afanasyev "The whole truth about marketers"
The book is interesting because it is based on the personal experience of the author. There are parables in it. For example, this:
A frog sits on the shore of the lake, lowers her paws in the water and chatters with them.
A hippo comes up and says:
- Frog, is the water warm?
She is silent ...
- Frog, the water is warm?
She is silent ...
- Well, frog, the water is warm?
“I’m not here as a thermometer, but purely as a woman ...
The main thing is not to be a frog, so that people don’t think that you are a thermometer and you can do everything for everyone and decide.
The main goal of the book is to tell about the features of the marketing profession and its work in large companies. The author shares his observations and reflections on how to do it and how not to do marketing.
In addition to marketers, the book is suitable for businessmen and company leaders if they want to understand what the marketer should have in order for it to be useful.
Especially funny pictures in the book. You can not read the book, just look at the pictures out of curiosity.
John Jantsch "By recommendation"
In my opinion, it is right to emphasize recommendations. They are usually forgotten. And they can be a powerful tool in promoting the product.
In addition, recommendation-based marketing is based on the natural desire of people to tell each other what is good and what is bad.
To give recommendations is to establish contacts with people, while experiencing a feeling of deep satisfaction.
Probably not any business can be promoted with the help of recommendations. After all, first you need to find something in your product that people will start talking about. If you cannot find something in the product, you can create it. The main thing is not to break the promises made to customers.
In general, clients should be offered an exciting, joyful, surprising experience.
The book has many practical recommendations and tools that you can use. When you read, there are a lot of ideas about how and what to do to implement the recommendations. So keep a notebook handy.
Sergey Kuzhavsky "Pritchetrapiya, or the book of meanings about marketing"
This is the most fun of all the books of this collection. The second one simply does not exist, but there is a benefit from the book. The basics of marketing are laid out in such a way that everything becomes immediately clear.
Proverbs are difficult to describe, so here are a few quotes and meanings from the book:
- Brevity - the sister is not only aware of what, but also advertising, albeit a half sister. And the niece of success. And distant, but beloved relative of profit.
- But the meaning of this parable is such that do not promise too much, if you can give the same as everyone else. Disappointed consumer can after all and cut down.
- And the meaning of this parable is that no matter how you call a ship, it will float only due to its dissecting abilities. And there is nothing to suffer. You will suffer when you sink.
- And the meaning of this parable is that the people (not to mention kings and feudal lords) are not always ready for a new product. Homeland and the market is not always chosen, but the product can be repositioned. And there - you see - you can reap financial benefits (in the sense of tubers) for flowers.
- Do what is in demand, and leave personal conflicts with self-determination to psychoanalytic charlatans. Financial success is not a sin. Even where it does not match your ambitions. Take from life all that is given, and do not complain that something is not taken from you.
- And the meaning of this parable is that there are no non-existent problems. And if you need to raise your competitiveness only in your own eyes - it means you need to raise. Even the most idiotic and expensive ways. Because it helps.
Simon Sinek “Start with the question“ Why? ”
An important book for marketers. It has a clear distinction between the manipulation with the help of discounts and advertising and the natural needs of people, forcing them to give preference to what is close to their principles.
To promote any product, first determine why this product exists, why the company exists, what it wants to change in the world.
All conclusions of the author are based on the psychological characteristics of people. We do not buy in order for the company to benefit. We do everything for ourselves and most often act not because we have thought for a long time, but because we have dreamed, hoped and felt the need for this purchase.
One of the clearest examples of this approach is demonstrated by Apple. It clearly follows its idea, so iPhones and everything else that the company will do will always be in demand. Over the years of its existence, the company gained trust not because it pursued a profit, but because it proved its commitment to something more.
Trust cannot be created by convincing the buyer with facts and figures. In the first place we have feelings that we cannot express in words, because the part of the brain that controls our feelings is not responsible for speech. At the level of sensations, we sometimes understand that "some things are suitable for us, and some are not."
And one more interesting thought. It is necessary to separate repeat business and dedication. Customers can buy again and again, but it is not at all profitable for the company if there is no loyalty. Because dedication causes them to refuse the best product or price to continue to work with you.
Making customers loyal and loyal is not easy, but getting a repeat deal is easier. To do this, you need more manipulations: discounts and bonuses. But more often win those who have loyal customers who share the principles and views of the company.
Diamond John “Hungry and Poor. As a complete brute, a meager budget and a thirst for success can be your main competitive advantage. ”
In general, this book is about how bad it is to start a business with a huge pile of money. When this resource is abundant, it is easier to squander it and end up with nothing.
Marketers this is also useful to remember. Because the budget constraint makes the brain look for original ways to move. And when you just sit and hope that everything can be solved with the help of money, nothing happens.
I will give one of the key quotes of the book:
Even if you have money, they do not guarantee success. What is important is not the means that you had, but those that you will have. The main thing is the money you need, not the money that you have now.
The author of the book, by the way, is an interesting person. He created his business from scratch, which he talks about. Also in the book there are interesting stories about how other people promoted their ideas, what they did right and what was wrong (from the point of view of the author) and how they should have been done.
Instead of conclusions, I will cite one more quotation from this book, because what it says it must be remembered by every marketer and everyone who is somehow connected with the business.
Strive to be sincere and authentic in everything you do. In the end, the more cordiality and care for people you bring to the world, the stronger the response from those who decide to help you.