Top 5 marketing books of all time (read them now)

Hey, my friend. Joe here. And in this article. I'm gonna share with you five of my top recommended marketing books that you need to be reading right now if you wanna master your marketing, get more customers, make more sales, and grow your business.

You see, I read a lot of books, and one of the most common questions I get is which books do I read and recommend? And which ones do I think are best?

Top 5 marketing books of all time (read them now)

In fact, I started getting this question so much that I put together a recommended reading list, complete with the author and the title and the link where you could just go and get it directly from Amazon.

But there was a problem with this list, a big problem. Because while the list started small, I just kept coming across

different books that I felt were worthy of a spot on this list. And so the list just kept growing and growing and growing. Five book recommendations turned into 10 and then to 20 and then 50 and then a 100, and then more.

Now, if you plan on just locking yourself away in a room and reading every single day, then I stand by this list as one of the best ways to quickly get up to speed on business and sales and marketing and branding.

But if you're looking for a quicker path and a way to get started today right now, then this video is for you, as I've done my best to condense my very long list into just five of my top recommended marketing books of all times, including a couple titles

I'm willing to bet you've never even heard of it before. Also, I said five books, but I might as well just admit it now, I may have added a bonus one at the end.

I just couldn't help myself. But this bonus book completely changed the wave that I think about business and marketing and life.

So make sure to stick around for that. With that said, let's dive right into book number one.

1." No BS Direct Marketing" by Dan Kennedy

Known as one of the best direct response marketers of all time and famous for his no BS approach to sales and marketing, Dan Kennedy's book, "No BS Direct Marketing" is easily one of the first places I would start when it comes to understanding the power and importance of direct marketing.

Direct marketing, also sometimes referred to as direct response marketing, just in case you're not familiar with it, is marketing that's done to get an immediate, measurable, and above all else, profitable response from your customer.

The opposite of direct marketing could be called brand awareness marketing where the goal is to get more likes and comments and shares and engagement, build your brand identity or raise awareness, all of which are important, don't get me wrong.

But the focus of direct response marketing is to get a specific desired action, usually generating a lead or sale, which makes it much easier to track the results and effectiveness of the campaign, and its ROI, or return on investment.

In other words, if you're not satisfied with your current marketing results, or you're wondering whether the marketing you're doing is effective or not, well, you could use a little direct marketing in your life.

Now in the book, Dan lays out a series of foundational direct response marketing rules. But I wanna highlight just a few of them right now using this article as an example. And the first rule that I want to cover is that you should always have an offer.

Now your offer could be to call or to click or to read or to watch or to whatever, but there should be something that you're guiding people to do that's more than just encouraging them to think about you. For example, the offer that I could make right now using this article is that I'd highly recommend and encourage you to Subscribe to my channel now.

And I'll tell you why this is a good idea in the next rule, which is that you should always give them a reason to respond now. Given the choice between doing something now or putting it off until later, well, most people inevitably choose later. And if you've ever done this yourself, you may realize that later means never.

This is why you want to use some kind of urgency showing them why time is important, or scarcity, showing them how there's some kind of limitation on the offer. For example, I could say that the reason that you may want to Subscribe to the channel now is to get access to future live streams giving you the ability to ask a question or leave a comment, as well as making sure that you never miss an important piece of business or marketing advice that could ultimately end up changing your entire company.

Okay, next rule, you will give clear instructions. Now, this rule is pretty straightforward, but it's important, And therefore, worth talking about.

When it comes to giving instructions and guiding people towards what to do next, you don't wanna treat people like they're dumb, but you also don't want to have to make them think too hard.

You really just wanna lay it all out for them and tell them exactly what to do. Essentially, trying to remove as much friction as possible from their decision-making process.

Again, using this article as an example, to subscribe I could say, well, if you're watching on your mobile device, all you need to do is look directly below this video and tap on the little word that says subscribe.

And if you happen to be on a computer, it's pretty much the same. Just look right below this video, find the word that says subscribe, and then click on it once. And you, my friend, are subscribed.

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Okay, next up is a book I'm willing to bet you probably haven't heard of before. So I'm excited to be the one get to introduce you to it. And the book I'm talking about:

2."The Brain Audit" by Sean D'souza

"The Brain Audit" is a fascinating book about customer psychology that basically goes over why customers buy, why they don't, and what you can do about it.

The analogy that the book uses to tell the story has to do with an airport conveyor belt and seven red bags, which I appreciate sounds a little bit out there, but it's a really good metaphor.

So let me explain. Essentially, if you've ever flown somewhere, walked off the plane, and made your way to the baggage claim area to pick up your luggage, then you've seen the long line of bags come down the conveyor belt and start circling the luggage carousel.

• Well, when do you decide to leave the airport?

• When do you first see bags start to come down?

• When did you pick up your first bag?

• When you see a few people start to circle?

No, you wait until you have all of your bags collected before leaving. And this is how customers make buying decisions as well. They wait until all seven of their bags or priorities and needs have been taken care of.

Miss one, and you risk losing the sale. Now some of these bags or needs include the obvious things like having a target customer profile and making sure that you're accurately identifying the problem you're solving. 

But there are also a few really interesting points on objections and risk reversal, and my personal favorite chapter, on uniqueness and differentiating yourself from the competition.

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Important points that are grounded in marketing principles and will work no matter what business, market, or industry you're in, which is a good segue to the author and the next book I think you should read.

3. "This is Marketing" by Seth Godin

Of all of the books and authors on this list, none of them have changed my marketing and my business, and ultimately, my life, as much as this author has, Seth Godin.

The first book I read of Seth's was "Purple Cow". And I must have read it at least a few dozen times by now. He also has several other incredible books, including "Linchpin", that show you how to become indispensable. The dip that shows you when to quit and when to keep going, is a topic that not a lot of people talk about.

Not to mention "Permission Marketing", All Marketers are Liars" "Tribes", and this giant beast of a book, "Go Make Your Ruckus, "that I use both as a motivational and inspirational business book, as well as a weapon to ward off attackers by beating them with a heavy blunt object.

So while I'd love to say go out and read all of these books, well, that advice is what led to my reading list getting so darn big in the first place. So if I had to pick just one book from Seth Gordon to read, "This is Marketing" would be it.

"This is Marketing" talks about building trust by helping others become who they want to be, differentiating yourself and the art of positioning, changes in advertising and branding, how much of the old school way of thinking no longer works, and how marketing at its core is really just about the stories people tell themselves about their social status.

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This is why I consider this one mandatory marketing material, a real must-read. Next up, is a book that's relatively new on the scene but has done an amazing job of simplifying an otherwise pretty complicated topic. And that book is :

4. "100 Million Dollar Offers" by Alex Hormozi 

I first met Alex Hormozi back in 2018 when he came on the podcast and we talked about all things business and marketing, and I quickly became an instant supporter of his as we aligned and had similar thoughts on much the same topics and much the same views of doing marketing business in general. 

Fast forward a few years later, and he came out with this book, "100 Million Dollar Offers" which quickly became a bestseller in several different categories, and garnered thousands of well-deserved five-star reviews.

Essentially, the book lays out step by step how to come up with an irresistible offer that's just so good that your customers would feel dumb saying no to it.

And the secret is in understanding that there are really four different parts that you need to take into consideration when crafting a truly irresistible offer. First, the dream outcome, which is just how good is this thing that you're promising to your customers and how badly they want it.

Next is the perceived likelihood of achievement, which is how realistic or achievable is this thing that you're promising.

This is where a lot of offers fall short as they make claims that are just way too hyped up and way too unbelievable for anybody to take them seriously.

Then you must take into account the time delay, or how soon you can assist someone in achieving this. And typically shorter is better. And then effort and sacrifice. The effort is how much they need to do, and sacrifice is how much they need to give up.

And ideally, you wanna minimize both of these. Now, I love this formula and it perfectly articulates what we've always been doing inside of our businesses.

And I've tweaked it a little bit for my needs by adding relevance to the front, essentially making sure that the offer we're making is incredibly specific and geared towards

the target market we're going after. And then also factoring an even more elevated version of uniqueness to the tail end. 

Essentially making sure that what we're doing is different and unique and incomparable to other offers on the market.

Coming up with and crafting irresistible offers is one of the most important parts of business and of marketing, which really makes this book a must-read.

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But if you wanna get just a little bit geekier and a whole lot nerdier and way more technical, then this next book is for you, as it dives into the more technical parts of creating an irresistible offer and backs it all up with what the studies have shown the results can truly be. And it's pretty powerful stuff. So let me share that with you now. All right, this next book is called.

5. "How to Create Irresistible Offers" by Robert Bly

And while it's powerful, it also comes with a big disclaimer. And that disclaimer is that this is not really a beginner-friendly book.

Not only is it written at a relatively high level using all kinds of fancy pants words, and concepts, but the ideas behind the book itself are also tough to fully understand and appreciate. And most importantly, apply until and unless you have a decent level of experience under your belt.

That said, there is a concept in here that's so important that I had to include this one on the list because understanding this can completely change your entire business. So here's the simplified Adam-friendly version of the concept. And if you want to dive in deeper, then I'll leave a link to the book in the descriptions below, alongside all the other books I've mentioned so far.

One of the best ways to reduce your cost of acquiring a new customer, and thereby, immediately increase your campaigns and your business's profitability, is to adjust your brand-to-offer ratio away from the brand and more towards offer, which sounds kind of confusing.

So let me break it down. If you remember back to earlier in this video when I was talking about Dan Kennedy and how direct response marketing was marketing that's done to get an immediate, measurable, and above all else, the profitable response from your customer.

Ah, those were good times. Well, the keyword here is profitable, as this chart from how to create irresistible offers shows.

The more the focus of your message is on the offer and less on the branded content, well, the better and more profitable it's going to be.

Robert Bly goes on in the book to talk about a study from the current organization that found that when a message is centered around making an offer rather than just on building brand awareness,

the results are 10 times more sales and revenue for the business. Long story short, focus on making good, strong, clear, and compelling offers, and your business will grow.

But there are other things you can do as well which will make everything we've just talked about that much more effective. And that leads me perfectly to my next favorite book.

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the bonus book, a book that I alluded to earlier that contains a principle that has gone on to positively impact pretty much every single area of my business marketing, and life. And that book is drum roll, please.

6. "8020 Sales and Marketing" by Perry Marshall

If you're not already familiar with the 80/20 principle, then prepare to have your mind blown. And even if you are, this should still act as a good refresher about just how powerful and universal this concept is.

Basically a long time ago, this guy, Phil Alfredo Pareto discovered that approximately 80% of Italy's land was owned by 20% of the population.

He then carried out surveys on a variety of other countries and found much to his surprise, that a similar distribution applied there as well.

Fast forward until today, and this same distribution applies to almost all things in all places, including how 20% of the roads get 80% of the traffic, how 20% of the drivers cause 80% of the accidents, how 20% of criminals commit 80% of crimes. And for a business example, how 20% of your company's products or services likely represent 80% of your sales.

The key then is to find the 20% of things that you, your marketing, and your business are doing that are leading to that 80% of results, so you can do more of the and get even better results, and do less of the things that just don't matter that much so you can save yourself a ton of time and money and energy.

When I first met Perry Marshall years ago, we hit it off immediately over our mutual love of marketing and business and optimization.

And he shared with me a few tips and insights from 80/20 sales and marketing that I wanna pass along to you now.

The first was a friendly but firm reminder that I really did need to start applying 80/20 to all of my business and marketing and life. From evaluating what marketing channels I was pursuing to the kinds of campaigns I was running, the structure of the campaigns, the content, and everything in between.

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Next had to do with the structures and the offers and the pricing with which I was using to sell my services, as well as that of my clients and any products that I was promoting.

And I think you're gonna find this part incredibly beneficial. Here's the deal. The 80/20 rule says that 20% of the people will spend four times the money. This means that no matter what kind of business or market or industry or company or structure or service or product you have, there is a segment of the market that wants more from you.

They want some kind of upgraded or VIP or premium service or offer for whatever it is that you're selling, and they're willing to pay for it. But you can also take this one step further by 80/20ing at you've just 80/20 ed. Essentially leading you to the conclusion that 4% of people will spend 16 times the amount of money. Again, this should be an upgraded or enhanced premium version of whatever it is you're selling.

Now, this is an incredibly important point. So let me walk you through an example now using my course, The Digital Marketing Academy.

Right now if the digital marketing academy is selling for $300, link in the descriptions below, then if I apply the 80/20 principle to it, it means that I could offer an upgraded version of the digital marketing academy by adding more modules or more access or more behind the scenes information.

And 20% of the people would be willing to enroll for a cost of $1,200. I could then apply the same 80/20 principle to the 80/20 that I've just applied, which would lead me to the conclusion that 4% of the people would be willing to buy an even more enhanced and more premium version for $4,800,

which this next part should hopefully come as no surprise. But this number is shockingly close to what I was charging back when I was accepting private consulting clients.

So the math works out, but if you really want to take your business and your marketing to the next level, then you're gonna need some practical and actionable marketing strategies that you can go out and apply right now.

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