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5 Classic Marketing Books to Read This Fall

September 11, 2015

By Aaron Riddle

The summer season is slowly winding down and the time we know as pumpkin-flavored everything, leaves changing and pigskin flying is coming upon us. While you begin to think about halloween ideas and everything in between, this is a great time to dust off some of your favorite marketing books (or pick them up for the first time)!

Here’s 5 classic marketing books to get cozy with this fall:

1. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

Nir Eyal & Ryan Hoover | Amazon

Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products is a go-to for tech startups. With loads of tacticals and case studies, Hooked dives into converting “external triggers and internal triggers” of the product engagement process. By understanding your customers who engage with your product, you can begin to bring them back again and again. Seems straightforward right? The concept is simple, but the execution is not. This book has it all to get you started.

2. Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends into Customers

Seth Godin | Amazon

Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends into Customers walks through the concept of marketing to customers who choose to want more on your products or services. With the world we live in and our attention spans already at a minimal, by targeting those customers who request, follow, or like our products and services, the more engagement and attention you will receive from them. It hits on points 16 years ago (when the book was released) that are still relevant and more apparent in today’s marketing environment.

3. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk!

Al Ries & Jack Trout | Amazon

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk! is small in size, but packs a powerful punch. The book has age (over 20 years old), but the laws are still applicable to today’s marketing landscape. Laws displayed by Ries and Trout include The Law of Leadership, The Law of Sacrifice, The Law of Category, The Law of Sacrifice and many more. This is a quick read that you could finish in one or two sittings, but has the potential to be a book that has applied principles you can stretch throughout your career.

4. The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

Clayton Christensen | Amazon

The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail is another great book for technology companies looking to expand their reach and keep the ideas flowing. Walking through the process of putting too much on customer needs, we as companies can fail to adopt new technologies and adapt to future customer needs. Thus innovation is wasted when new ideas are formulated due to the current needs of your customer base. An excellent book if you are wanting to look at your marketing as not “What do they need now, but what will they need?”

5. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Malcolm Gladwell | Amazon

One of Malcolm Gladwell’s first books, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, walks through the three rules of epidemics (The Law of the Few, The Stickiness Factor and The Power of Context) and helps describe sociological changes in our everyday lives. By understanding these principles, you can have a greater understanding of your customers behavior patterns and better accommodate their needs to your products and services.

While these five books are not the only books I would recommend, these will give a great start to your fall reading schedule.

What books have you read over the years that you would recommend to your fellow marketers?
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Topics: Inbound Marketing
Aaron Riddle

About the author

Aaron Riddle was formerly a Digital Project Manager at SmartBug Media. He has more than 9 years of marketing and project management experience helping organizations succeed in their digital marketing goals and objectives ranging from not for profits to large technology-based groups and businesses. Read more articles by Aaron Riddle.

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