Staying on top of your game isn’t easy when you’re a busy marketer. Time shifts, information becomes outdated, and new strategies emerge. You can be sure you’re remaining competitive by staying educated, but with a busy schedule on your hands, how do you wheedle out the good from the bad without wasting your precious time?
We’ve taken the guess-work out of where to look by compiling this list of the five best content marketing books to read in 2019.
Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade by Robert Cialdini
Robert Cialdini, author of Influence, unravels the secret of effective marketing persuasion in his bestseller, Pre-Suasion. Before you drive someone toward your sales page, you need to persuade that person to believe in your product. By looking at case studies and stories, he’s able to outline techniques to divert your audience’s attention before you send your message so that they’re more receptive to it.
He digs into the deeper subtleties of persuasion, digging into sociological and psychological reasonings behind how people are pre-suaded to make purchases through gifts, compliments, and through commonalities by altering their beliefs and attitude.
Digital Marketing for Dummies by Ryan Deiss and Russ Henneberry
Digital Marketing for Dummies is an excellent reference taking you through the customer journey, marketing planning, landing pages, blogging, SEO, SEM, social display, email, and data analytics. One of the most comprehensive works out there, this book goes deep into content marketing from a wide variety of angles and offers insights on writing emails and focused landing pages, and even offers a comprehensive list of blog category ideas.
The authors created an entire chapter dedicated to the Ten Most Common Digital Marketing Mistakes and how to avoid falling into those traps.
Content Inc.: How Entrepreneurs Use Content to Build Massive Audiences and Create Radically Successful Businesses by Joe Pulizzi
If you’re a fairly new arrival on the content marketing or online publishing scene, this book is a must-have edition for your bookcase. Starting with ‘A’ and ending with ‘Z’, Content Inc. walks a beginner through everything they need to know on content marketing. Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), takes you through a six step process to building your business.
Content – The Atomic Particle of Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Content Marketing Strategy by Rebecca Lieb and Jaimy Szymanski
Well-researched, Content – The Atomic Particle of Marketing takes a look at how you can produce engaging social media content. Learn all about how content functions, and the value of content and marketing initiatives like advertising, offline channels, and social media. Know how to develop the right type of high-quality content. You’ll have everything you need to get your content up and running.
Non-Obvious 2018: How to Predict Trends and Win the Future by Rohit Bhargava
This bestseller shows you how to keep your eyes open to marketing trends that may not be so obvious, but can help to grow your marketing efforts. In Non-Obvious, Bhargava details how to shift your mind to create strategies that can make your business stand out from the rest of the crowd. Learn how to really see the landscape around you and spot trends you can tap into to take advantage of.
This book is published every year since trends are changing and evolving at a fast pace, so it’s a good grab, no matter what year it is.
But the best content marketing books of 2019 won’t do you any good if they just sit on your shelves and collect dust. Becoming a better marketer means keeping your head in the game. You don’t have to read every book, but you should probably read the right ones.