There are countless marketing books out there, and so many of their messages almost seem to blend together. It can be difficult to sift through the clutter and find what’s impactful. However, there are some standouts.
Whether you’re trying to find a marketing book with an impactful message, or want to refresh your skills, look no further. We’ve compiled a list of the top 6 books that every marketer should have in their library.
All Marketers Are Liars
by Seth Godin
All Marketers Are Liars: The Underground Classic That Explains How Marketing Really Works--and Why Authenticity Is the Best Marketing of All by Seth Godin
Seth Godin’s work encourages marketers to focus on
storytelling, because influencing perception is often a far more successful strategy than solely presenting factual information about a product. All marketers need to be convincing and authentic storytellers, and this book is filled with advice on how to integrate storytelling into marketing.
From the book:
“We believe what we want to believe, and once we believe something, it becomes a self-fulfilling truth.”


Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content
by Ann Handley
Everybody Writes by Ann Handley
Photo: Amazon.com
This book goes beyond the ordinary writing guide, and includes everything from advice on how to excel at content marketing tasks, to information on how to give your stories a compelling voice. Handley calls upon content marketers to make a conscious effort to avoid mediocrity. Everybody writes. You want your content to be clear and engaging.
From the book:
“Good writing serves the reader, not the writer. It isn’t self-indulgent. Good writing anticipates the questions that readers might have as they’re reading a piece, and it answers them.”

Thinking Fast and Slow
by Daniel Kahneman
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Photo: Amazon.com
Kahneman, who has a Noble Prize in economics, explains the science behind the systems of the mind that drive decisions. In this text, he encourages the reader to consider the differences between intuitive, emotional thinking and deliberate, logical thinking in order to understand the effects of cognitive biases; and use techniques to overcome these biases.
From the book:
“The confidence that individuals have in their beliefs depends mostly on the quality of the story they can tell about what they see, even if they see little.”

Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is about Help Not Hype
by Jay Baer
Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is about Help Not Hype by Jay Baer
Photo: Amazon.com


In Youtility, Baer challenges companies to cut through the clutter of competition by striving to be useful. This book explores the interplay between service and marketing in order to create content that customers will be thankful to have.
From the book:
“If you sell something, you make a customer today. But if you help someone, you create a customer for life”
Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing
by Harry Beckwith
Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing by Harry Beckwith
Photo: Amazon.com
In Selling the Invisible, Beckwith calls attention to the fact that intangible services are often marketed like products. This book explains how to appeal to consumers with service marketing that is based upon relationships and interactions, rather than features.
From the book:
“The new marketing is more than a way of doing; it is a way of thinking. It begins with an understanding of the distinctive characteristics of services–their invisibility and intangibility–and of the unique nature of service prospects and users–their fear, their limited time, their sometimes illogical ways of making decisions, and their most important drives and needs.”

Contagious: Why Things Catch On

by Jonah Berger
Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger
Photo: Amazon.com
What makes things go viral? In Contagious, Berger explains the science behind word-of-mouth, as well as the 6 principles that make things contagious. This book provides practical techniques for creating contagious content, and helping that information spread.