Good books on marketing?

Hmm I couldn't connect to that link you posted.

Thanks for the input guys.

two and a half bookshelves full of marketing books i've read in the past couple years...i agree it can be addicting...or bore you to tears

my favorites...maybe already mentioned
outrageous advertising- glazer
cashvertising-whitman
uncommon marketing techniques-dobkin

also a big dan kennedy fan

To be honest, you probably *don't* need all these books on marketing. Yes, some of them are good... but there's two things you'll find if you go for them:

1) newsletters you subscribe to will totally constantly (usually) pitch you on yet another book/newsletter/report/article/video (you get my point) on what ELSE you need... (making you constantly spend more money thinking you "need" it for that piece of success)

2) you'll totally overwhelm yourself, with what most call "TMI" (Too Much Information) or what I call "ICDT" syndrome (I can't do this!).

You'll often confuse yourself because several of these authors have varied approaches, some work for some - others don't.

I totally agree you should try to read what you can - but the fact is, (and I think Andrew said it), is that you probably DO have the knowledge, perhaps you just don't know either "where" to begin or how to proceed.

The blunt fact is, you need to take action. Read free stuff - but don't buy much otherwise you'll run the risk of being frozen from action.

Also, the WF has a few golden nugget threads that can provide you with a ton of information on how to proceed.

One thing you didn't mention here, was what are you offering? What is your business?

Are you not getting sales, or you don't know how to promote online or offline? Or do you need to just get started?

When I came online back in 1997, I bought One book (and only one) - it was one of the first ones out and (LOL) it talked a lot about spamming people until it was frowned upon.

However, from there, I basically subscribed to a few newsletters, but mostly just researched a lot of stuff I was interested in... i.e., "building a newsletter"... "writing sales letters"... "how/where to post ads"...

Most of the info I got was either free or from trial and error.

You must tell yourself to take action.

If you need advice on something specific, feel free to ask. There are many of us who would answer and guide you to assist you without trying to sell you anything . And if you prefer to keep it private, simply PM - I'd be glad to help.

Amber

Mark Joyner's The Irresistable Offer really helped me focus on how important the actual offer is.

I also found a lot of value in The Secrets of Online Persuasion by John Paul and Deborah Micek. There's a great explanation of how we're building and influencing tribes with our marketing.

Love Is The Killer App is a great book by Tim Sanders. It's written for the corporate world, but it works for us, too. It encourages you to share great ideas and resources with others.

I'm a big Jay Abraham fan, I've learned a lot from him.

I would recommend one of his seminars on audio tape. Different experience than a book, IMO. With books, its easy to pick and choose a method or technique you like. You may even do well with it. But it isn't the full impact of the mindset he teaches.

I'd recommend one of his mastermind seminars in the 90's. I like his april 1994 one. Sometimes you see these on ebay or craigslist. Also his course "how to get from where you are to where you want to be" is excellent. It's a step by step approach to building a business.

Also, Claude Hopkins my life in advertising/scientific advertising. I bet you no one has read both of those books more than 5 or 6 times. He worked for 35 years (70 years really, he worked twice as long as anyone else). A lot of concepts other people talk about originated there. I bet those two books are the source of 30-50% of all advertising material written after that.

The biggest problem in marketing (and internet marketing) isn't a lack of good information. It's a lack of taking action.

There are so many books and those mentioned here already are exceptionally valuable.

I'm going to make a far more specific suggestion.

First you should understand that most people have a whole lot more valuable information than they use.

In fact most people have already been exposed to more than enough information to become very wealthy.

The problem is they don't take action on that information.

So I'll suggest just 2 books:

# 1: Getting everything you can out of all you've got by Jay Abraham.

This book is the bargain of the century. I have many multi thousand dollar products by Jay and this book has exactly the same information that appears in those products.


# 2: How To Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carnegie.

Probably the most important book you'll read. Ultimately marketing is about persuading people to take action so understanding how to influence people is the key underlying fundamental of all effective marketing.


But when you read these books don't just read them...really study them and apply what you learn.

My suggestion would be to read both books then go back and work on just ONE chapter for an entire week applying the principles in that chapter deliberately for that entire week.

Take notes on what you're going to do, what you did, the results you got and what you learned.

(If you take really good notes you could probably turn that into some kind of product).

More important if you work through a book that way you will own the information and get real results using it instead of it just being some interesting information that you've read.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh