If you are a small business owner, then you know that when it comes to marketing, it can be quite hard —and as there is a lot of competition within your niche, you know too that it can be hard to stand out. Fortunately, many of the world’s best marketers have shared the lessons and their experiences that have helped a number of small business owners to keep their businesses on their game.
And you may be asking, “what are those?”. So, we have asked nearly 300 business experts and professionals to share what small business marketing books they read to get a leg up on the competition.
Types of Business and Marketing Booksooks
There are different kinds of business and marketing books for you to pick from based on your goals and hobbies.
- Entrepreneurship: Books focused on starting and growing a business, managing finances, and building a strong team.
- Marketing: Books that cover different aspects of marketing such as branding, advertising, market research, and digital marketing.
- Leadership and Management: Books that offer insights and strategies for effective leadership and management of teams and organizations.
- Personal Development: Books that aim to improve personal skills such as time management, communication, and problem-solving. These books can also help with building confidence and motivation.
- Industry-specific: Books that target specific industries or niches, providing specialized knowledge on topics such as retail, hospitality, or technology.
Essential Small Business Marketing Books
Your guide to gaining knowledge and smart decisions in marketing.
1. Marketing Made Simple
This book is written straightforwardly, and, as an entrepreneur, it teaches me how to increase traffic and sales in a small business while tackling the mountain of marketing with at least some practical tools. It’s also useful if you’re a solo entrepreneur who wants to learn how to market your services online while also keeping in touch with potential customers regularly until a transaction occurs.
Steve Anderson, Chief Executive Officer of Junk-Yard-Near-Me
2. Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
It’s no secret that as customers, we are continually bombarded with marketing messages. Al Ries examines the issues of selling to a skeptical, oversaturated audience in this tale ideal for marketers of all disciplines. The book looks into a novel strategy for occupying a place in a consumer’s mind that reflects both the brand’s strengths and flaws, as well as those of its competitors.
Benjamin Stenson, CEO of Norsemen Home Remodeling
3. Blue Ocean Strategy
The best small business marketing book I know is Blue Ocean Strategy, one of the marketing books ever written, that redefines strategy. It tells us that the corporate universe is divided into two distinct sorts of space, red and blue oceans.
The red oceans indicate the recognized market space. Industry boundaries are respected, as are the game’s regulations. Businesses aim to surpass competitors to increase demand. Blue oceans, on the other side, are the undeveloped, uncompetitive market sector. Blue waters produce rather than fight for demand. There is ample room for quick and lucrative growth.
Blue Ocean Strategy shows effective strategies in the public and private sectors. The authors studied 150 strategic moves spanning over a century and thirty businesses.
Nick Hodge, Founder of Daily Profit Cycle
4. Contagious: Why Things Catch On
All marketers should read this book by Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger. Exploring how things spread, Berger explains the six key factors that cause anything to spread quickly among a group of people, and how you can use this principle to spread your marketing message.
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Shane Liuw, SEO Expert at First Page Strategy
5. Everybody Writes
Everybody Writes serves as a tremendously helpful guide to creating relevant and attractive written content that leads to sales in a world where consumers are continuously oversaturated with it. In this fantastic book, the author, marketing expert Ann Handley, provides professional guidance and insight into the strategy and process of content creation, production, and publishing, with actionable tips that are aimed to help you get actual results for your business.
Bram Jansen, Chief Editor of vpnAlert
6. Guerilla Marketing
Guerilla Marketing is one of the best small business marketing books which discusses a new way of learning about strategies on the Internet, recommended tips in targeting prospect audiences, gaining customer loyalty, and best practices in doing business. It helps you realize that marketing is not just about advertising but it starts with focusing on your customers’ needs.
Jeneva Aaron, Founder of TheHouseWire
7. The Lead Machine
The book barres out the concept of digital marketing. Before reading the book, I thought that digital marketing was complex and tenuous. Not anymore. The bare-bones approach to digital marketing used by the author definitely helps, especially if you have no experience with digital marketing.
Camila Henderson, Co-founder of FastPaydayLoans
8. Content INC
Content Inc. is a worthwhile read in my opinion. This book is beneficial for new entrepreneurs with limited resources who wish to develop a sizable online audience to support their business.
It teaches small business owners how to create a model that generates an audience of prospective buyers and how to formulate effective plans that aid in SEO. Thus, it is a must-read for any entrepreneur interested in establishing a presence in the industry via the online route.
The book will also benefit marketers in larger organizations who wish to act as change agents. Moreover, if marketers wish to develop a valuable audience base for a particular type of content, they can employ the techniques discussed in this book.
Jeremy Luebke, Founder & Real Estate Expert at WeLoveLand
9. Ultimate Small Business Marketing Book
This is my favorite book, and I feel it is one of the finest small business marketing books since the Ultimate Small Business Marketing Book is intended for you if you want to get a handle on your marketing but need some assistance.
It’s jam-packed with useful advice, tried-and-true techniques, and numerous real-life examples and case studies. If you’re seeking practical marketing advice that you can put into action right away, you’ll find it on every page.
You’ll learn how to plan and assess your marketing efforts, develop great copy that generates sales, write sales letters that sell, successfully troubleshoot when your marketing isn’t delivering, and make your website a magnet for visitors, among other things.
Adam Garcia, Owner of The Stock Dork
10. Building A Story Brand
While this book may be an excellent read for all marketers, it’s especially appropriate for content marketing. This book allows marketers to connect with consumers through narrative, and it underlines 7 must-have components that all brands must-have for successful communication. By employing Miller’s strategy, I was able to drastically improve my connections with the customers.
Kevin Mercier, Founder of Travel Blog Kevmrc.com
11. They Ask You Answer
This book focuses on content marketing, which can help small business owners strengthen their brand name and build authority in the market. This book is ideal for beginners as it covers all of the basics: why one should use content marketing, how to start a successful marketing campaign, and what to write.
I also appreciate that this book is very informative and educational, without any unwanted idle talk.
Alex Savy, CEO and Founder of SleepingOcean
12. SEO For Growth
SEO is something that is absolutely vital for small businesses to understand and master in order to succeed and beat out their competitors, and this book in particular excellently explains how small businesses should approach it.
It simplifies the topic, while also teaching you how to create a prosperous, well-rounded SEO strategy uniquely suited for your business.
Nick Mueller, Director of Operations of HawaiianIslands.com
13. Top Of Mind
One of the best small business marketing books I recommend is Top of Mind by John Hall. The author covers his content and brand image approach in this book. Additionally, the author discusses engaging a community and establishing genuine customer relationships that result in brand loyalty.
By reading Top of Mind, you may discover how to establish a more personal connection with your customers.
Vincent Vandegans of eRowz
14. Duct Marketing
As a CEO of an innovative company since 2013, I think one of the best small business marketing books that I’ve come across is Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch. The book covers positioning, message selection, advertising tools, WOM, and where to take the time to do it all.
Vasiliy Kiselev, CEO & Founder at Top 3D Shop Inc.
15. Obviously Awesome
I found the book Obviously Awesome by April Dunford really useful. It’s about how to position your product in 10 steps. Often positioning is something people do quickly and then put it in a drawer without ever looking at it again.
The reason for that is that the process easily becomes vague without any clear ideas of how to do it and why. Therefore, the positioning often becomes unusable. Obviously awesome is an actionable book that makes sure the positioning provides value to the company and makes sure you re-visit it.
It really helped me understand the value of actively positioning yourself in the market.
Rasmus Vinge, CEO of CyberPilot
Takeaways
If you want to grow your business, reach more customers and increase revenues, be sure to prioritize your marketing efforts. With the small business marketing books mentioned above, we hope you get some picks that will lead you the way to effective marketing.
