Showing posts with label psychology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label psychology. Show all posts

Wednesday, 16 December 2015

#nanonthetown: 5 Other Ways Companies Use Humor In Their Favor

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With more than a few John Lewis spoof ads now doing the rounds, Christmas advertising is proof that whilst some companies opt for gut-wrenching tearjerkers, others prefer the lighter side.


Whether it is through social media, TV advertising or corporate videos, there are more ways than ever for companies to show consumers their sense of humour. While this can often backfire, it can also be an extremely effective marketing tool as a way for businesses to both show their personality and set themselves apart from the competition.
Here are five other ways businesses have managed to leverage laughter in their favour.

Crisis Management

In August 2014 the Greggs bakery chain went through a PR nightmare as an offensive spoof logo began to appear when their company name was searched in Google. After the company was alerted to the issue it took to Twitter to attempt some damage control (and reputation management).


 While the mix-up was embarrassing the company was universally applauded for its humorous reaction. These included tweets such as the one below, sent to the Twitter account for Google UK while the search engine attempted to fix the problem.


 Customer Relations
A tweet by catalogue retailer Argos suddenly went viral in March 2014 after the company responded in kind to a tweet from a dissatisfied customer. While TV adverts necessarily are required to have a wide appeal, social media gives many businesses the opportunity to interact with their customers on an individual basis.


 Addressing customer issues individually is a customer service ideal that most businesses strive for, but it can often be difficult to maintain long term. Social media helps companies quickly and spontaneously connect with their customers at a personal level and in an informal forum.
Businesses have the opportunity to answer customer questions sincerely, allowing not only the personality of the brand but the personalities of individual employees to shine through.

Attracting New Employees

Recent studies have shown that younger candidates in particular are ‘not looking to fill a slot in a faceless company’, and nothing shows potential new employees the personality of a particular organisation than their online presence.
In addition to its own social platform Twitter also has an active presence on YouTube, and produces frequent videos on charity drives and sport events, as well as explainer videos describing new features and services.
The video below formed part of a 2012 campaign to encourage applications for vacant positions at the company, while also providing a humorous look at some of the most common mistakes made in corporate recruitment videos.



A vibrant brand personality does not have to stop with public image, a light-hearted approach can be effective at all levels of business.

A Way To “Go Viral”

One of the most famous US advertising campaigns in recent history is arguably the Budweiser commercial, first aired in 1999, which popularised the phrase “wassup”.


This advert set a precedent for popular quotable and shareable content and was followed in later years by brands such as Old Spice, which came to prominence with its “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign. The cleverly imagined advert was not only memorable but subverted the uniformity of most fragrance advertising.

Establishing a Brand Identity

Irn Bru, the famously bright orange Scottish soda, has earned a reputation for producing quirky and humorous TV adverts. The tongue-in-cheek and often slightly risque adverts have become something of a cultural fixture, with one in particular becoming a highly-anticipated part of the Christmas season.

While many of its attempts at humour have been controversial, the company continues to push the envelope in both its video adverts and marketing campaigns. One recently produced advert has been banned from appearing on television before 9pm in the UK. The company produced Irn Bru bottles with “typical” Scottish names, parodying a preceding Coca-Cola campaign.
These strategies relied on word of mouth to work as an advertising tool to bolster sales and brand awareness. Companies such as Irn Bru have realised the value of a creating content with proven potential to go viral, namely humorous content that provokes discussion and controversy.
Social media platforms have changed the way that we understand word of mouth as a marketing tool. What was once microcosmic and local now has global reach, and an international audience that appreciate companies willing to show their lighter side.

Source
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Monday, 14 December 2015

How You Can Use Emotion to Increase Conversion Rates (5 Concrete Steps)

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guide to increase conversion rates in eCommerce

Think back to your last purchase. Why did you make it? We are drawn to complete a purchase when either the product, its price, or another element in the shopping experience successfully triggers an emotion suitable for that purchase.
We don’t make purchases just because we “like” something. The emotion is much stronger than simply liking something. In a study regarding the effect of emotion in eCommerce purchases, researches found that websites with a stronger emotional impact produced a greater intent to buy! Today we’ll get into how you can do the same for your eCommerce business.

Proven Example

The team at conversioner was able to increase the number of paying users for one of Asia’s biggest online dating sites by 340% with the use of emotional targeting. How did they achieve such optimal results?
The dating site got a new landing page that triggered a more relevant emotion: simplicity. In that specific case, a design that demonstrated the wide variety of people that could be met through the service made visitors feel wanted (see below).

using emotion to increase conversion ratesImage via Conversioner

As you’ll see in this post, the smiling faces (more than one type of person), combined with a very short catch-phrase is all that’s needed to increase conversion rates. That’s a dating site, but the same tactics work for eCommerce conversion rates too.

How to Use Emotion to Increase Conversion Rates

Emotion: a conscious mental reaction (as anger or fear) subjectively experienced as strong feeling usually directed toward a specific object and typically accompanied by physiological and behavioral changes in the body (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).

Step 1: Who’s the Customer? Define the Buyer Persona

We won’t get into the technical details of finding your customer persona in this post. Just as multitasking is not a great idea, covering two very different, although connected topics, in the same post is also not a great idea.
However, to make sure this post helps you use emotion to captivate your shoppers, we’ve got to cover the basics. The buyer persona should be comprised of four basics factors:
  • Demographics – age, gender, location, employment, education, etc.
  • Interests – what your target customer is interested in
  • Purchasing motivation – why your target customer wants to buy from you and what they hope to accomplish
  • Purchasing deterrents – things that will hold your customer back from purchasing from you
The goal is to discover exactly what type of person your ideal customer is. The more you know about who you are trying to sell to, the more efficient your business will be, and the easier it’ll be for your to trigger the right emotion. Who is your ideal customer?

Step 2: Picking an Emotion to Trigger

What do you want to trigger? Is it a sense of trust? Maybe you want to trigger necessity? For each business, the answer can and will vary. One common trait found across the board to be true for businesses: positive emotion toward a brand has a deeper influence on customer loyalty than other triggerable emotions that are based on the traits of a brand.

How Air BnB uses emotion to increase its conversion rate

Airbnb has more than one buyer persona, however there is one similarity across the board: the need for a cozy, good night’s sleep just like home, triggering trust, warmth, and belonging.
Emotions that work for every site:
  • positivity
  • belonging
  • trust
  • jealousy
  • fear
  • value
  • instant gratification
What works for your site might be fear, while for someone else trust is the key emotion. You need to use the buyer persona to understand what makes the customer hit the gas full strength.
For Titika Active, it looks like jealousy or belonging (think of 20 something females) could be the emotion that they’re trying to trigger with the help of the lady on the right and the strong typography. Why jealousy? It’s on the female in the promotion, but not on the the female customer. If she’s jealous, and feels like she is part of the brand, then a purchase is inevitable.


The Coupon Pop uses emotion to trigger a purchase

Step 3: Using the Right Text (Copy)

Were all words created equally? Maybe they were created equally, but not all words have the same power or influence – even when they may have nearly identical definitions.
When it comes to the copy that you are using – whether to describe a product or on a new site-wide promotion – less is more. Research from the Nielsen Norman Group shows that visitors read less than 28% of text on the page! The lesson is to keep the text to a minimum, make it easy to skim for speed readers, and use the best words that will be read.

The Right Adjectives

You know that not all words have the same effect and that too many words aren’t being read. The next step is to active the right words that will be read. Instead of using common adjectives that leave your customers debating your product, use adjectives that have a concrete meaning.
For example, perfect vs. great. Great can mean many thousands of different things, whereas perfect has a simplified and stronger meaning: it’s the right fit, and there is no better one.
Remove these adjectives from your vocabulary:
  • great
  • awesome
  • amazing
  • cool
  • terrific
  • unforgettable

Using Emotionally charged adjectives to increase conversion ratestrust and instant gratification

What Bed Bath & Beyond Gets Right: it’s clear that I am getting a product that can get the job done better than the rest. There’s no shortage of trust, value, or instant gratification.

Using Adjectives to trigger emotionpower and value

What Atlas Wearables Gets Right: it’s clear that this product will enable me to take my fitness to the next level. A sense of power and value are the first emotions that hit me.

This much is clear: using adjectives that provide a clear picture of what it will be like to use the product are the ones that lead to a noticeable improvement in your conversion rates.
Add these words to your vocabulary:
  • perfect
  • essential
  • empower
  • smooth
  • clear
  • versatile

Step 4: Images and Design

Your design needs to do the same thing as your text: bring to life an emotion that will make the customer complete the purchase. If the goal of your text is positivity, then the design should do the same. If your text is all about value, then the design should be that too.
According to web designer Paul Jarvis, in order to trigger emotion, your design needs to get four things right: visually appealing, enjoyable, memorable, and personal. You need to use those four cornerstones together to jolt the emotion to life.
The following image from Adidas is spot on. Even if the words “I’m not done” were not in the image, we would all still be able to understand that the brand stands for work ethic and competition.
Does this meet all of Jarvis’ basic points? You be the judge.
The sweat, action, and frazzled hair all resonate for their potential buyers that take pride in their work ethic. As a result, the customer is motivated and maybe a little jealous of the women in the picture.
The image is visually appealing, enjoyable (for their buyer persona), memorable (even more with the added text), and personal. The next step is completing the purchase.


Example of Adidas using emotional imagejealousy and power

Over the last few years Dove has rebranded itself to be the brand for anyone and everyone – especially within the different types of females.
The first thing you see on their site is the following image. This design is as basic as it gets, yet it is still able to generate emotion within the customer. In this specific case, Dove is able to elicit a feeling of belonging for every customer that lands on their page.

DoveVisually appealing, enjoyable, memorable, and personal: belonging and trust

Below is a Coupon Pop being used on the eCommerce site PYTHair. The design hits the nail on the head. Without paying any attention to the tax, the team uses the color blue and an image of a young lady – after using their product – to create a sense of both trust, happiness, and jealousy.

eCommerce brand uses emotion to increase conversion rate

Step 5: Emphasize Benefits and Not Features

Notice that in the above Coupon Pop the brand did not mention their products or add an image of one of their products. They sell an experience that makes their customers happy; beautiful hair.
Now go ahead and visit the most successful eCommerce website you know of – whether it’s a giant brand or a small business. You will notice the same thing. The site, the pictures, and copywriting is all presented in a way that reflects the experience of using the product.
Why? Images and text that reflect the experience of using the product is much more emotionally engaging.
Notice the below image from Asics. For me it stands out because it makes absolutely no mention of any feature. All it does is tell me what I want to know – run more!
image: http://cdn2.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Asics-Gel_Kayano.jpg.jpg
promote results and not features“More Miles” is the experience

Here JCPenney does not mention one bit of information about the technology or about some flashy feature. They sell people the experience of using the products.

Cuisinart

Both Asics and JCPenney pass on mentioning features because although they may be important, generating a strong sense of emotion is much more difficult with a feature, whereas with an experience the customer gets to know the result. Results are what matter to your business, and they are what matter to your customers. Great results means happy people. Happy people spend.

Pro Tip: Typography

The font you use may matter more than you think. Although you might be limited to the type of fonts you can use in your themes, with the Coupon Pop you can use any Google font. This graphic breaks down just a few types of fonts and their psychological meanings in regards to the emotion they encourage.

Fonts represent an emotion

Putting it All Together

image: http://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/jiffylube.png.png
An exemplary homepage that utilizes emotion

Jiffy Lube is not an exciting business, at least not as much as say Nike, Jaguar, Uber, and others. In their own words, “a chain of over 2,000 businesses in North America offering oil changes and other automotive services”.
With this homepage design however, they have become exciting to their visitors. How much text? Only six words. Not only is the quantity perfect, but so is the quality of the words used, such as “worry behind” and then “clear driving ahead”.
The image completes the text, by using what appears to be a happy couple, using an old-school car. In addition, whether you noticed or not, the mirror reflects the man’s smile, while the passenger waives her hands in the air. These actions serve as proof to the text.

Emotion Clouds the Mind

Emotion is what take the customer from step A (wanting the product) to step B (buying the product). The goal for your eCommerce business is to improve your conversion rates. At the end of the day, that goal is one factor (high vs. low conversion rates) that plays a major role in whether you turn into a relevant, growing brand or not. The means to achieving this goal is by triggering the right emotion.
Once you are able to trigger the right emotion, all the rest of the pieces fall into place.

Your Homework

What is the buyer persona of your site → What emotions will make completing the purchase an urgent process? → How can you bring that emotion to life in as few words as possible? → How will you describe the experience your product offers? → How will you bring the emotion to life with images and overall design (including fonts)? → Constantly run A/B testing until you have found the winning emotion.
Good luck! If you’ve got any questions or comments, we’d love for you to say something in the comment section below.

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Friday, 20 November 2015

Why Psychology is the Future of Social Marketing

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marketing psychology quote



What do marketing and science have in common?
How can we combine the two to better build our brand reputations?
The answer to these questions are: they have the human brain in common. And when we combine the two together, we have a recipe for success.
You’re about to go where no marketer has gone before.
Are you ready?
Our brains have learned how to react to spamminess. When it’s exposed to too much commercialism and “selly sell selling,” it shuts down. The brain stops all communication with that message trying to get your attention.
So how do you take advantage of psychology in your marketing? You have to be a smart marketer, not a boring one.

The boring marketer

The boring marketer doesn’t understand the dire need to capitalize on their marketing in ways that are new, fresh, and different to their target audience.
Instead, they come back again with the same marketing strategies from a decade ago. When it doesn’t work, they just push the message harder and try to wear down the few remaining people that are listening to them.

The smart marketer

You’re a smart person. I have no doubt in my mind that you are. You’ve chosen to participate in one of the most stressful jobs that you can have, are constantly changing and adapting, measuring and comparing analytics, etc. And you’re doing this all because you want more results, better results!
That’s what smart marketers do, right?
In fact, the smartest marketer will understand that there is a psychological trigger involved in creating that sale or adding that subscriber to their list and they take the necessary actions to get their audience to do so.

The smart marketer realizes that what may have worked yesterday, may not work today. People are always changing. Their likes and dislikes evolve, and as a great marketer, you understand that you have to roll with the changes.
So why not involve more science and psychology in your marketing? Learn more about the brain and human behavior. Understanding the actual triggers that get a brain to make a decision will make it all the more easier to get customers to convert.
I want to explain some action triggers that smart marketers are successfully success. This is where you can start using psychological marketing to your advantage.

Repetitive marketing

Have you ever watched a television commercial that had a phone number on the screen?

Sure you have.
But what you may not have realized is that when the announcer speaks over the commercial, they usually give you the number not once, but three times.
That’s significant. It’s not twice, it’s not four times. And it’s three for a reason.
The repetition from the commercial is now ingrained in your memory. It’s like having a song so stuck in your head that you start singing it without realizing.
Use repetition with your marketing messages to help your audience remember them.

How to do it

Repetitive marketing can work really well on social media.
The main thing to remember is to stay consistent with everything. Your message, your content, your brand, and your engagement. You’re indirectly “selling” every time you help someone, or write a great article solving someone’s problem.
Something else to concentrate on is sticking to whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish. Set a blogging schedule and stick to it. Visit your most successful social channels every day, and stick to that strategy.
Do that over and again, and you’ll start to see the psychological effects of repetition. Your followers will see you as someone that’s helpful, with knowledge and stability. Because when your ideas are consistently there, people become attached to that idea.

The comprehension factor

There are all types of psychological ways to improve the clarity of your message, so your audience better understands it.
You can do so either logically or emotionally.
Under the umbrella of these two comprehension factors lies a whole community of triggers and responses that are lying around in the human brain.
Let me explain the logical side first. These are the ways you can reach people using this frame of mind.

Left-brained marketing

Let’s brush up. The left side of the brain is known for controlling the right side of the body, and the more academic sides of the brain.
Left-brained marketing describes products and services from a practical standpoint. It talks about what you get, why you need it, and why no one else does it like they do.
In the article above, they explain how facts, testimonials, and other truths and hard evidence that make us realize that this is the right product for us to purchase.
Appeal to this side of the brain by stating facts to the reader. If they do this one thing, this other thing will happen. Cut and dry, no sugar coating. That’s the way it is.
It’s a pretty straightforward approach that most marketers use today. And while that used to work a lot back in the day, today’s consumer’s attention span makes that a lot harder.
Can the logical approach be used alone to grab sales? Sure.
When you can make your case in the few seconds the audience is paying attention, it will work.
However, it works better when coupled with creating emotion. That’s going to put you on the road to faster conversions and more customers.

How to do it

Tell it like it is. Show your audience why they need your product, how they could use it, and what it can do for them.

The right-brained marketer

The right side of your brain is where creativity is stored. Right-brained marketing doesn’t necessarily sell the product, but the dream.
Your product is only a bridge to take the customer where they want to go.
When appealing to this, focus on building a robust and personality-rich social marketing plan that spreads brand awareness and gets people talking about the product. They use a massive amount of visuals. They’re focused less on the product, and more on the person using the it. That drives a connection.

How to do it

Visuals are your friend when it comes to getting people to connect with your product or service.
If you were trying to sell a timeshare in Florida, you wouldn’t show an image of the condo, but rather of a family having fun and making memories on the beach, with the condo in the background.
You are painting an image in the reader’s head of the result you want them to be thinking about after they do whatever it is you’re wanting them to do.
It’s connecting them on an emotional level.

Final thoughts

You need to use all of the tools that you have at your disposal.
A carpenter wouldn’t go to work with just a hammer and nail, without a tape measure, pencil, and saw. Even though he’s known for the hammer and nail, these other tools help him get the whole job done.
If you aren’t using science and psychology in your marketing today, then you aren’t using all of the tools at your disposal.
When creating your campaigns, ask yourself these questions:
  • How does this factually make the case for your product?
  • Does this move me on any level, does it make me feel something?
Having conversations will level the playing field and help you to understand what you need to say and do to help your customers. From there, it’s a fine-tuning process.
This is all one small step for science, one giant leap for the marketing industry.

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Wednesday, 2 September 2015

The 30 Best Business Books for Business, Marketing, and Social Media

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Most everything I’ve learned (and continue to learn) about marketing and the web has come via the inspiration and example of others—reading amazing blogs, learning from great content, and diving deep into favorite books.
I’d love to share, in particular, the books that have been most influential to me and other digital marketers.
I’ve put together a list of 30+ that include some of my personal favorites, some favorites from my Buffer teammates, and some favorites from a handful of the best marketers online. Hoping to make it easy to browse and find your next book to read, I’ve split it into clickable categories as well—plus a SlideShare for easy flipping and finding.
Does your favorite business book make the list here? I’d love to know which ones have been meaningful to you as well.
Best marketing books
Best marketing books of all time

The 30 Best Business Books for Marketers

Categories

—

12 of the Best Business Books for Psychology and Neuromarketing

Virality isn’t born, it’s made.
Best psychology neuromarketing books

1. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

The book that has informed the bulk of our culture and values here at Buffer, How to Win Friends delves into the specific ways with which you can communicate and empathize with everyone. We’ve gained such great value from this in the ways we seek to grow and improve as people and as marketers.
From the book:
Talk to someone about themselves and they’ll listen for hours.

2. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

Perhaps the most well-known and influential book on persuasion, Influence is referenced all the time by marketers who desire to be thoughtful and smart in their approach to creating campaigns and copy that appeal to others.
From the book:
A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor we will be more successful if we provide a reason. People simply like to have reasons for what they do.

3. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal

We’ve gained such great value from the ideas in this book, in particular the Hooked model of Trigger > Action > Reward > Investment. There’s tons of great insight here into how people get hooked into products and how to replicate this model for your brand and business.
From the book:
Many innovations fail because consumers irrationally overvalue the old while companies irrationally overvalue the new.
Psychology Neuromarketing books

4. Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

Written by behavioral economist Dan Ariely, the book touches on the irrational decisions that we often make, sometimes subconsciously.
From the book:
Trust, once eroded, is very hard to restore.

5. Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky

A great read for finding motivation and drive to complete creative projects, Make Ideas Happen touches on the aspects of productivity that are critical to creative jobs (which seems to fit well for those with a marketing mindset).
From the book:
An idea can only become a reality once it is broken down into organized, actionable elements.

6. Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger

What makes things go viral? Why are do some products take off and others don’t? Jonah Berger answers these questions by going deep into the science of word-of-mouth and social persuasion—all of which is incredibly applicable to the high-level thinking in social media strategies.
From the book:
Virality isn’t born, it’s made.
Books - neuroscience and marketing

7. Made to Stick by Chip & Dan Heath

Made to Stick digs into the reasons behind the longevity and stickiness of ideas, and it’s easy to draw the line to content and social media marketing as well. Chip and Dan Heath cover six key principles as to why some things stick and others don’t: simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions and stories.
From the book:
The most basic way to get someone’s attention is this: Break a pattern.

8. Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Daniel Kahneman, who holds a Nobel Prize in economics, shares about the science of our minds and how we often take one of two paths: fast and intuitive thinking, or slow and deliberate thinking.
From the book:
Nothing in life is as important as you think it is, while you are thinking about it.

9. The Culting of Brands: Turn Your Customers into True Believers by Douglas Atkin

Atkin’s research into brands with devoted followings reveals a lot of interesting details on how to cultivate and grow a community. Some of the ideas mentioned here aim to build relationships with an audience by helping people feel unique, important, and belonging to a group—values that may resonate with many marketers.

Books

10. Smartcuts: How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons Accelerate Success by Shane Snow

This book fits in really well with our Buffer value of working smarter, not harder. Shane Snow, co-founder of Contently, takes a look at a host of different success stories—everyone from Jimmy Fallon to Alexander the Great—and identifies the ways in which these people have found to achieve great things in a short amount of time.
From the book:
There are a lot of great inventors and improvers in the world. But those who hack world-class success tend to be the ones who can focus relentlessly on a tiny number of things. In other words, to soar, we need to simplify.

11. Buy-ology by Martin Lindstrom

A great guide to how our minds respond to advertising, Buy-ology looks at our reactions to marketing messages and the elements that resonate with us most.
From the book:
When we brand things, our brains perceive them as more special and valuable than they actually are.

12. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay

Perhaps the original book on marketing psychology, Extraordinary Popular Delusions was first published in 1841 and contains truly timeless insights about the way that our brains process and respond to media and messaging.
From the book:
I never lost money by turning a profit.
—

The 9 Best Books to Learn Marketing, Growth, and Social Media

Make it fun to read
Marketing books

13. Tribes by Seth Godin

All of Seth Godin’s books are wonderful resources for feeling inspired to achieve great things with your marketing. Tribes, in particular, seems to have a lean toward the social media side of things as it covers the topic of audiences and communities (and how to become a leader).
From the book:
The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow.

14. Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah

The go-to source for an introduction to inbound marketing, the book from Hubspot’s co-founders touches on all the elements of inbound marketing and the amazing value that comes from this approach. (Inbound marketing is very much aligned with what we aim to do here at Buffer.)
From the book:
You’ve got to unlearn what you have learned.

15. Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk

The title of this one hints at the message: Be strategic with the way you sell on social media. Gary Vaynerchuk is one of the most influential names in online marketing, and the ideas he shares in this book have been key to his growth.
From the book:
Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.
Books

16. Traction by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares

We gained so much from reading this book together as a marketing team here at Buffer. The book covers 19 different traction channels that might be worth exploring for your business, as well as the specific exercises needed to find the channels that will work for you.
From the book:
This is what we call the 50% rule: spend 50% of your time on product and 50% on traction.

17. To Sell is Human by Daniel Pink

Offering a fresh perspective on marketing, To Sell Is Human discusses the idea that we’re all salespeople, not just those of us who hold marketing titles. It’s a very clarifying conversation for anyone who sells (or shares) online.
From the book:
Anytime you’re tempted to upsell someone else, stop what you’re doing and upserve instead.

18. Everything I Know by Paul Jarvis

Author, designer, and creator Paul Jarvis shares all his best tips in this book—lots of specific, actionable ways to take control of new projects and build and launch things.
From the book:
If we don’t let our weirdness rise to the surface, we don’t let our work stand out.
Marketing books for business

19. The New Rules of Marketing & PR  by David Meerman Scott

A hugely comprehensive resource, The New Rules features case studies and examples of great marketing campaigns, as well as providing insight and ideas about what might work for your brand and business as marketing evolves.
From the book:
Barack Obama is the most successful new marketer in history. Study his campaign so that you can adapt the ideas for your business.

20. Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is about Help Not Hype by Jay Baer

Youtility suggest an approach to marketing that focuses on being useful and providing value to your audience. I really enjoy this line from the book: “The difference between helping and selling is just two letters.”
From the book:
Redefine the market into something much smaller and more manageable.

21. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout

Offering a simplified view of many successful marketing ideas, this classic book comes form a neat perspective of high-level marketing strategies that were working when the book was published (over 20 years ago) and continue to work today.
From the book:
The only reality you can be sure about is in your own perceptions. If the universe exists, it exists inside your own mind and the minds of others.
—

9 Amazing Books About Writing

If yougive freely,there willalways bemore.
Writing Books

22. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

My all-time favorite writing book, Bird by Bird takes such an empathic perspective to what it’s like to be a writer—whether you’re writing fiction or blog posts, the advice rings true. Anne Lamott shares a great bit of vulnerability in the book, which helps make the advice feel all the more real and useful.
From the book:
If you give freely, there will always be more.

23. Everybody Writes by Ann Handley

A fantastic introduction to content writing, Ann Handley’s book covers all the basic steps of how to write online—and how to write well.
From the book:
In an online world, our online words are our emissaries; they tell the world who we are.

24. On Writing by Stephen King

Full of great wisdom on writing books and stories, On Writing also contains great bits of advice on writing in general, with tips on how to best form sentences and organize ideas, all of which can come in handy with blog posts, emails, and updates, too.
From the book:
The scariest moment is always just before you start.
Content books

25. Epic Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi

There’s lots of great stuff in this content marketing guide from Joe Pulizzi, both in terms of the writing itself and also in approaching content marketing from the right perspective.
From the book:
I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody.
– Herbert B. Swope, American journalist

26. Nicely Said by Nicole Fenton and Kate Kiefer Lee

Covering the best ways to write for the web, Nicely Said also comes at the topic from a neat perspective: That of voice and tone and engaging directly with your reader.
From the book:
Helping people and making them happy is the best kind of marketing you can do.

27. The Robert Collier Letter Book by Robert Collier

This classic collection of sales letters shows the thought and care that goes into choosing the right words and angles with which to create your copy. Collier’s explanations of why things work (and why they don’t) is hugely applicable for online writing as well.
From the book:
You have to compete in the same way for your reader’s attention. He is not looking for your letter. He has a thousand and one other things more important to him to occupy his mind. Why should he divert his attention from them to plow through pages of type about you or your projects?
Writing books for marketers

28. Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy

Ogilvy, who is regarded as the “Father of Advertising,” mentions that this book contains all his best advice and strategies for copywriting. It’s all timeless and priceless pearls of wisdom that continue to hold up 50 years after Ogilvy first used them successfully.
From the book:
In my experience, committees can criticize, but they cannot create. ‘Search the parks in all your cities You’ll find no statues of committees.

29. On Writing Well by William Zinsser

A great resource for new writers, Zinsser’s book touches on several key topics that can help tighten up one’s writing and make for a smooth and polished finished product. Some of the advice gears toward journalism and authors, while still being quite applicable to the day-to-day copy tasks of online writers as well.
From the book:
Decide what you want to do. Then decide to do it. Then do it.

30. Style: The Art of Writing Well by F.L. Lucas

Style was a wonderfully surprising and useful resource for me and one that quickly became an all-time favorite writing book. I’ve found more useful anecdotes and examples in Style—useful for the work I’m doing today, online—than I’ve found in most any writing book in the past several years.
From the book:
How is clarity to be acquired? Mainly by taking trouble; and by writing to serve people rather than to impress them.

Plus even more …

Business, product, and entrepreneurship
The Way We Work
Inspiration
Productivity

What are you currently reading?

It’d be so great to hear what’s currently on your reading list or wish list.
Right now I’m reading or am about to start:
It’s be wonderful to hear from you—either what books have been your favorite business and marketing reads so far or which ones you’re excited to pick up and explore soon.
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