5 Books To Help Take The Beginner Marketer Form Zero To Superhero

There are hundreds—if not thousands—of books on marketing, business development, personal development, and success. It’s likely you’ve heard of many of them, whether you read about them here on this blog or somewhere else. But what are the best marketing books for beginners?

Various bloggers, and other gurus recommend a plethora of books from the classic How To Win Friends and Influence People (which really is a book on personal branding), and Tom Peters Pursuit of Wow, to more contemporary books like Jonah Berger’s Contagious. All of which I think are excellent reads.  However if you’re trying to decide which book is best for you to read first you find yourself in quite a quandary as they are all great books.

So then what’s a beginning marketer to do?  Answer…let a more seasoned marketer do some of the heavy lifting of decision making for you.  That’s the purpose of this post.  I’ll be updating it from time to time with new suggestions so be sure to bookmark so you can come back later.

4 Topics Beginners and All Marketers Need To Study

1. General business understanding
2. Basic marketing
3. Building your business
4. Branding (both product and personal branding)

Look at these topics as your fundamental building blocks – your “101” level type stuff in your marketing self education.  Between reading marketing and business books, networking and connecting with experienced marketer, and the mistakes you’re bound to make you’ll learn a ton.

But remember experience is the best teacher.  So don’t just read books.  Apply what you read (show your work).  Even if you take one principle from an entire book and spend an entire year implementing it.  Just do something everyday to build your business, build your brand, and move yourself forward.  A journey of one-thousand steps starts with the first one.

Why Even Bother Investing In or Reading Marketing Books In This Day and Age

I know what you’re thinking.  I can learn everything I need to know on Youtube for free so why buy a book.  I can only tell you why I do.

Although I use Youtube, and blogs often I find that there as some things I prefer books for.  Especially if I want to make notes around a particular section of a book I’m reading.

I also find books faster to reference for information I want to bookmark.

Rodney’s Favorite Reads

General Business and Wealth Building Understanding

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

There’s are lots of reasons that so many people recommend Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad.  But the number one reason is that Oprah Winfrey recommends it and that in in of itself says a lot

In the book Robert teaches us from his own experience growing up as a child in Hawaii how the rich separate themselves from the poor.  He shares stories from his life and experience with two men whom heavily influenced him.  His actual father whom he refers to as his poor dad, and his best friends father whom he calls his rich dad.

3 Things You’ll Learn:

1. The rich don’t work for money, they make money work for them
2. How to differentiate assets and liabilities
3. How to direct your focus to acquiring assets

General Marketing Advice

This Is Marketing by Seth Godin

The first question my marketing professor asked in the capstone class was “What Is Marketing”.  We spent the entire period trying to answer the question.  As I recall nobody got the right answer…at least I didn’t.  This Is Marketing answers that question.

Seth Godin is probably the leading marketing expert in the world right now.  Not only do I read everything he wrights, I read many books he references, and recommends.

In a world where we’re information comes at you so fast that it can feel like you’re drinking it through a fire hose Seth is someone I’ve chosen to let in.  To influence my thinking.  In fact this very blog is a direct result of his advice to me.

3 Things You’ll Lear:

1. What marketing is
2. How to see and understand the people you seek to influence
3. How to bring work you care about to people eager to engage with it

Purple Cow by Seth Godin

In a connected economy where you’re competing with every other person on the planet to be seen learning to get seen is a must.  That’s what Purple Cow is about…how to get seen.

3 Things You’ll Lear:

1. What it means to be remarkable
2. How to challenge yourself to seek the edges not the masses
3. Why you should avoid the safe bet

Building Your Business

The 4-Hour Work-week by Tim Ferriss

So what’s there to learn about marketing after reading all the other recommendations? How to setup and build your business.  More specifically how to systematize it so it runs without you having to be the cog in every wheel.

Tim teaches us in in The 4-Hour Work-week how he went from $40,000 per year and 80 hours per week to $40,000 per MONTH and 4 hours per week.

3 Things You’ll Lear:

1. How to create a lifestyle business
2. How to outsource to virtual assistants
3. How to eliminate 50% of your work

Branding Yourself

Rise of the Youpreneur by Chris Ducker

Today more than ever it’s possible for you to make a very comfortable living working from a room in your home.  I’ve done it for two decades, and just last week my buddy’s twenty something year old made $40,000 in two days selling an online journal she developed.

In Rise of The Youpreneur Chris teaches you some of the practicle things you need to put in place to begin building your personal brand.  Until I release my book on the subject Chris is my goto guy for expert advice on personal brand building.

3 Things You’ll Lear:

1. Why you need to do things different than your competitors
2. Ideas for promoting your personal products
3. Ideas for using social video to grow your social media following