Thursday, June 23, 2016

5 books every digital marketer should read

Digital marketing is a competitive field, and reading about it is a virtue. The craftiest, most successful digital marketers have this in common: They never stop researching.

To remain relevant, you must be up-to-date on the strategies and changes in our industry. For those not embarked, it’s not too late to correct your course.

How about diving into reading? We agree that sharpening the right skills in a quickly changing industry like digital marketing is difficult. That’s why it’s wise to set aside an hour or two every week to learn from the experts.

What do you read? A Google search will give you good marketing books, but in this post, I’ve chosen five essential books for digital marketers:

1. “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products “(hardcover), by Nir Eyal

A masterpiece by Nir Eyal, “Hooked” is a perfect guide to building habit-forming technology for designers, startups founders, managers and marketers.

Its aims: to create habits that stick, to furnish useful steps to build products that people love and to reveal behavioral marketing techniques used by Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and more. A nice read.

"You'll hope your competition isn't reading this. It's that good," said Stephen P. Anderson, author of “Seductive Interaction Design.”

2. "Content Inc.: How Entrepreneurs Use Content to Build Massive Audiences and Create Radically Successful Businesses (hardcover), by Joe Pulizzi

Content Inc., founded by Joe Pulizzi—an entrepreneur, podcaster and professional speaker—is a product of the Content Marketing Institute, a fast-growing media company.

Three of Pulizzi’s main ideas: Develop high-quality content, build your audience on your content, and then create a unique product for your audience.

You read right. Pulizzi says the best strategy is to get customers first and develop a product for them later. This works most successfully for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Pulizzi’s six-step process includes: (1) Sweet Spot, (2) Content Tilting, (3) Building the Base, (4) Harvesting the Audience, (5) Diversification and (6) Monetization. This has worked well for Pulizzi. There are many examples of massive profit-making in his book.

Julia Bronson, marketing specialist at EduGeeksClub, raves, “The book was a major inspiration. Highly recommend for digital marketers!”

3. “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World, by Gary Vaynerchuk

A New York Times bestselling author, Gary explains tactics to connect with customers and beat stiff competition. “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” is full of marketing strategies that work on social media.

He shows marketers that when they plan their “right hook”—the sales push that will boost profits and knock out the competition—they must set it up with jabs (i.e., create user-centric content on social media and mobile devices).

Free download: 10 Ways to Get Employees to Open and Read Your Email

He uses diverse content and customer engagement to build strong relationships. This means creating top-notch content built on case studies of the do’s and don’ts for every big social media platform: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr.

4. “Contagious: Why Things Catch On,” by Jonah Berger

Jonah Berger, a Wharton marketing professor, studied why some products get more word of mouth, the effect of social influence on the products we buy and why stories such as those appearing in the New York Times make the most-emailed list.

In “Contagious,” he reveals the secrets of viral information and word-of-mouth. He outlines the six basic principles of marketing virality.

“Contagious” combines research and powerful stories. Ever wonder why some emails get forwarded, certain stories widely shared, and some videos go viral? “Contagious” answers this question. Its detailed tips show you how to craft viral content. It’s useful for designing advertisements, messages, and information that will get shared.

Chip Heath, co-author of “Made to Stick and Decisive,” says: “If you seek a bigger impact, especially on a small budget, you need this book. ‘Contagious’ will show you how to make your product spread like crazy.”

5. “Growth Hacker Marketing: A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing, and Advertising,” by Ryan Holiday

Wonder why megabrands like Twitter, Facebook, Airbnb and Dropbox spend nothing on traditional marketing—including no billboards, TV commercials or press releases?

Answer: They rely on “growth hacking” to reach millions despite lacking hefty budgets. The book replaces old methods with trackable, testable and scalable new tools.

Ryan Holiday believes that products and businesses must modify themselves regularly.

Have you read these books, PR Daily readers? Which are your favorites—and what other useful books can you add to my list?

Karen Dikson is a marketing specialist and writer. She is an intuitive, creative thinker who connects thoughts into a single theme. She’s passionate about traveling and writing.

(Image via)



from PR Daily News Feed http://ift.tt/28Rpkli

No comments:

Post a Comment