Top products from r/marketing

Would love to add anyone on Goodreads if you use it too :) [Add me](https://www.goodreads.com/thedoerco
)

• Tested Advertising Method
  
• Ogilvy on Advertising
  
• How to Change Minds is a sales book, but it's got an easy to understand framework to understand how people make decisions that I have found useful for marketing
  
• The Ask Method Gives some great jumping off points on how to ask questions for marketing research, and how to organize that information to make decisions about your marketing and your product
  
• Positioning and Repositioning by the amazing marketing strategist Jack Trout of Disney and Coke, are good foundation reads if you don't know anything about marketing. If you know what a USP is, skip Positioning but I did like Repositioning. I did like Positioning as a refresher of a variety of different concepts that I have read more detailed individual books on.
  
• Integrated Marketing Communications to learn about more broadly how to make all of your marketing communications work together towards a common business goal. The book itself is about using marketing campaigns across different channels (tv, radio, print, online) in a coordinated effort, but it will help you understand how to use email, social, paid ads, and other marketing systems you develop together.
  
  Second Influence. Getting Everything You Can is good if you are basic in marketing, I would not recommend it for people who are more advanced.
  
  If you don't know what a "business goal" is, you need to read this:
  
  
• Scaling Up Every marketer should understand the processes that drive growth in businesses, because you are trying to manipulate those levers with marketing. You can also reverse engineer your prospect's business and explain the gains of your services in the terms of processes that drive their revenue when you're pitching them, too.

First Round Review: Great collection of articles that someone working in the world of SaaS could enjoy. I'd particularly pay attention to their Search Portal as well. If you're looking for info on marketing, growth, management or even pricing -- they have you covered.

​

SaaStr: It's more dedicated to the management / sales / operations side of SaaS but there's a lot of value to be found here. Jason Lemkin the founder of SaaStr is quite active on Quora as well. I would spend some time reviewing his posts there. The SaaStr podcast is also filled with value.

​

For pure marketing content - I'd recommend: Andrew Chen's blog, Hiten Shah's newsletter/blog, Ross Simmonds, Everyone hates Marketers Podcast, The Drift Blog, Sujan Patels Blog, Foundation Marketing, Reforge, The BuzzSumo blog and Forget The Funnel.

​

If you're interested in data re: pricing - Check out Tom Tunguz / the folks at Price Intelligently.

​

My personal fav for SaaS marketing books is Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers by Gabriel Weinberg & Justin Mares. It breaks down a ton of different growth channels and is quite good for someone just getting started. The book Predictable Revenue is also quite good.

Hello hackpro,

Couple things I would initially suggest. Read these 2 books:

1.) The Blue Ocean Strategy: A "red ocean" is a market where a product or service is already manifested, aka saturated or even oversaturated. A "blue ocean" is walking into that market and changing the game. This book has a TON of great tips and mindset pointers when trying to do what you do. Here is the Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Ocean-Strategy-Expanded-Uncontested/dp/1625274491/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459345146&sr=8-1&keywords=blue+ocean+strategy

2.) Growth Hacker Marketing: This book is just plain awesome. I have read it 3 times. It goes through quite a few tactics to get your product/service visable and has some great case studies (dropbox, evernote etc.) showing how they made it with little to no marketing, but rather pushing their products via exclusivity and making smart calculated moves. Here is the amazon link for that:

http://www.amazon.com/Growth-Hacker-Marketing-Primer-Advertising/dp/1591847389/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459345183&sr=8-1&keywords=Growth+hacker+marketing

Post the above 2 books - I would really try to niche market your product. If you do not have a budget for paid search or media, I would focus on finding small to medium communities, join those communities and talk about your product, get sugggestions from community members, offer free beta tests (not sure what your product is, but you mentioned dropbox so I am assuming its software related) etc. Then, move up to larger communities/bloggers etc.

Content is king. Make TONS of content about your product (articles, video, etc.) and get it in cycle in your focus niche. I would focus on a message that sets you apart. You mentioned that the competition is mediocre, so in a creative "non bashing way" just highlight your strong points.

Just my initial $0.2 cents. If you have any deeper questions feel free to let me know.

-Rob

Hello My Name is Awesome is a great and relatively cheap book to start with firm naming. Too much to summarize, but the author does a pretty good job with some free materials at her website below.

http://eatmywords.com/tips/

Alexandria is great and helped me with my own rebranding. Not cheap to get her on the phone, but definitely check out her stuff!

Here are a few of my favorites (btw these are not affiliate links, I just thought it would be useful to share the direct links):

On content writing: 
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1118905555/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

On data driven marketing: 
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470504544/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (a little dry but SUPER useful info)

and 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1119257239/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Good luck!

You can find a lot of free information on the internet. At free, it's overpriced.

>What do you guys think? Do you have to spend money when you are just starting out?

A lot of people don't think so, from the freemium to open source to the unpaid internship the consensus would seem to be free is the way to go.

So I'll say the only time this is false is when when you use free to make up for ignorance about marketing. Because it takes exponentially more savvy to monetize free -- the epic fail of most small business.

The people using free seem to think free killed marketing. It didn't. Free made marketing smarts critical for survival.

I think if you can sell it, then you can give it away. If you couldn't sell it, don't give it away. A bitch slap of truth right there.

Because when you understand what I just said, you don't have to stop at Free.

Getting Real is marketing material 37signals sells to potential customers. The cost to buy 37signals latest marketing materials is $13.85.

Having potential customers pay for content marketing is better than free. That is the principle content marketers can't comprehend. If you couldn't sell it, don't give it away.

Seth Godin understands this. Another way to see this: The money you're paying for marketing and advertising and for SEO is a tax on mediocrity. Want to spend zero, or less? Don't come to market with an unremarkable product.

37signals can give stuff away free. So can Seth Godin. Others ... not so much. They are overcharging.

Epic content marketing might help you look at content from your blog to provide you with alternate methods of presenting it (infographics, videos, slide share presentations).

I liked the ideas found in Blue Ocean Strategy towards the beginning, but for whatever reason was never able to go past chapter 5.

Books and the blog of Seth Godin or alternatively Basecamp (formerly known as 37 signals) are usually fun, quick reads.

Blogs by KISSMetrics, Zendesk, Hubspot, and following Growth Hackers threads are all good options too.

What does your SaaS do?

Lastly, something that can provide guidance is taking an hour or two to draw your message map. Essentially, it's a list on one side of your target audience at each stage of purchase, what you want them to takeaway from your message and what are the main barriers to them understanding that message.

Best of luck!

Edits: Was on phone; added links for the lazy.

Not letting me look at the page :/ However, if there is a piece of advice I can give, I would consider changing the name. When branding names that are spelled wrong, "like using a K instead of a c, and missing an e" is an seo an SERP nightmare. You said this is just an example, but just giving you a heads up if you did decide to go with that name. Imagine customers trying to find you with such odd spelling? Not to mention, you are doing that because "creative marketing solutions" is already taken. That's not a good way to stand out. For anyone interested Hello My Name is Awesome is a great guide book that is light and really helps out a lot. I know this may have nothing to do with your situation, and your URL may be a placeholder, but this will hopefully be a word to the wise for anyone who comes across it. When you fix your website let me know and I will look it over for you.

• Jack

This isn't exactly what you're going for, but gives great insight to advertising. We read in it my account planning class. Loved it and it reads like a book. Very interesting. You can "take a peek inside" or buy here

Hey Whipple Squeeze This is a really phenomenal overview of creating ads. It is a very engaging and informative read and is perfect for those looking to break into the industry.

Ogilvy on Advertising delves a bit more into the overall experience of working at an agency like what the account team does vs. media teams and so on in addition to actually making ads. It's a bit dated but I think it holds up pretty well. Sure a few of his predictions about the industry didn't come to fruition and the book primarily focuses on TV spots and longform magazine ads (you can't write about banner ads or Facebook ads in 1985) but I'd say a lot of the concepts Ogilvy touches on are pretty timeless.

I think I've read like 1 book on "marketing" so I'm not your best help, but I love the 37 signals guys so "ReWork" was a quick enjoyable read. Made me feel like I wasn't crazy.

I guess upon further investigation, it might be more about running a business. Which for me is the hope to run an ad agency so it all sort of went together.

http://www.amazon.com/Rework-Jason-Fried/dp/0307463745/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394691738&sr=8-1&keywords=rework

Made to Stick by Dan and Chip Heath has informed my work as a content marketer more times than I care to count. There other work is also great, but this one is my manifesto.

Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction by Derek Thompson is newer and might not be on many folk's radar. In the vein of Tipping Point and Made to Stick, Thompson writes a fascinating story of how culture happens and why things become popular.

I'm not sure you have a good definition of marketing. Marketing is a very broad term that refers to selling products or services. There are many aspects to marketing. You can be an ethical salesperson and / or a marketer and be an honest person if you believe in your products and your message.

The trick is to find or create products you believe in. Business and capitalism is all about adding value to things Why is this bad? No doubt you have ancestors who would take some seeds, plant and water them, toil for a year, harvest the grain, and sell what's left over. In order to sell what's left over they would have to take it into town, find a buyer, negotiate a price, etc. This is marketing. They just sold seeds for 10x what they paid for them. Did they sleep at night?

What you are probably talking about is tactics such as infomercials where the seller twists the truth or sometimes outright lies to your face. I personally don't have a stomach for that stuff either. On the other hand, there's nothing wrong with extolling the virtues of a product. In a lot of cases, much of the value of a product or service lies in the perception that the buyer has of the product and of themselves as a purchaser of said product.

Here's an interesting read. https://www.amazon.com/All-Marketers-are-Liars-Works/dp/1591845335

Here are three books that I've read within the past year that I loved:

​

Rand Fishkin's Lost and Founder

April Dunford's Obviously Awesome

Verne Harnish's Scaling Up

​

Of the three, only Dunford's book is marketing specific but they all offer such excellent insights that you need to think about marketing as an element of a company, not a stand-alone function. Fishkin is the founder of SEO firm Moz, and his book is a page-turner.

​

Good luck!

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries:
https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous-Innovation/dp/0307887898
This book offers great insight into agile product development, which is something a lot of companies try to master- but never figure out how to. The author has a lot of experience in product development and gives a ton of insightful, real life experience of working with successful companies like GE and more. I found the book extremely beneficial and it gave me a new perspective on product development.

Good question. Tbh marketing is fairly easy to understand at a conceptual level. Most people I have met in the industry that are good at marketing are able to understand customers and find insights within data, but most of those things are learned.

I would recommend (in order of affordability):
Hey Whipple Squeeze This
Ogilvy on Advertising
Advertising Concept and Copy

Each is more complex than the last so Whipple would be a cheap and easy start to understand marketing concepts. Hope this helps.

I found the The Brand Gap to be very elementary. If you've been in marketing for a while you should already have a solid foundation on branding that that book covers. It's definitely an easy read and a great source for an introduction to branding.

With that said, I'd recommend:

• Designing Brand Identity
  
• Positioning
  
• Youtility
  
  

For social media you should check out different company blogs. Those are really helpful. I like the Buffer and Hootsuite blogs a lot.

But books are way better than online websites

For marketing you should read Traction by Gabriel Weinberg

Ryan Holiday's Growth Hacker Marketing and Trust Me, I'm Lying are insanely informative and fun to read.

If you're looking for a book, I really like Epic Content Marketing.

For general guides to Digital Marketing, I highly recommend Neil Patel's Quicksprout. Just read everything he has there, especially his Guides in the right sidebar. Extremely thorough, very well-researched, and lots of references to other sources.

Good luck!

Definitely not.

Have you heard of a minimum viable product (MVP)? The idea is that you be as brutal as you can to put off every feature that isn't absolutely 100% necessary. You don't work on any non-necessary feature until after launch. This achieves two things:

1. You start collecting users as soon as possible.
   
2. You will find that the features you thought were important are different from what the users want.
   
   If you haven't read The Lean Startup, I highly recommend it. The person who wrote it created the chat program IMVU. He spent months coding the ability to log on from other chat programs because he thought users would demand it. It turned out that users were perfectly happy to log on to a new chat program and he wasted months coding an unnecessary feature.

I'd say it heavily depends on your industry. If your industry is cool with content marketing, I recommend these two books:

UnMarketing

Everybody Writes

Best,

Matt

Cashvertising

Great book on marketing, the psychology behind it, and how to put it all together. Very information-rich, not much fluff. Definitely a book to always have around.

Scientific Advertising

Often credited as the book that started the scientific, data-driven approach to advertising and marketing.

Tested Advertising Methods

Another classic that all marketers/advertising professionals should read.

I am halfway through Ca$hvertising and loving it. Entertaining and not super long read; dense with ideas.

Other than the advice in my post, if you want a good intro into where marketing is headed, check out Growth Hacker Marketing.

Ryan Holiday came from a traditional marketing career (Director of Marketing at American Apparel) when he realized he had a lot to learn. A book ensued.

Marketing in a startup? Traction is the clear choice here. It's full of actionable advice that you can apply in a clear and rational manner.

Everybody Writes by Ann Handley. Because writing is essential to any marketing strategy. Best book I've read in a while.

Cashvertising - Looks cheasy as hell, but it's by far the best book I've read on the subject. Lots on what makes someone buy, how to present it, etc.

I have a few, not all specifically about marketing but related to business, growth, customer experience, etc.

• The Lean Startup
  
• Don't Make Me Think
  
• Good to Great

Brainfluence by Roger Dooley gives you some practical insights into what is a very interesting and exciting aspect of marketing.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1118113365?pc_redir=1407908411&robot_redir=1

All Marketers are Liars by Seth Godin http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1591845335?pc_redir=1408028870&robot_redir=1

Also, subscribe to Hubspot's newsletter for almost everything you need to know about digital marketing.

Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout is as important today as it ever has been. It's a great book and IMHO a must read for every marketer and business owner.

• Good one and any others from the author https://www.amazon.com/Marketers-Are-Mars-Consumers-Jersey/dp/1508977119
  
• Book https://www.amazon.com/Growth-Hacker-Marketing-Primer-Advertising/dp/1591847389, also he has some courses in marketing field

http://www.amazon.com/Growth-Hacker-Marketing-Primer-Advertising/dp/1591847389 - this book is a quick and easy summary of some of the practices/tactics

I liked the book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion:
http://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Business-Essentials/dp/006124189X

You read the first chapter of this, you'll have an idea of differentiation based on price.

But in the end I agree with /u/Asks-Qs

https://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Robert-Cialdini/dp/006124189X

Reminds me of Trust Me, I'm Lying

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

This is more branding than advertising, but it works on the same principles.

http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/1400064287

http://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Revised-Edition/dp/006124189X
http://www.impactlearning.com/the-science-of-persuasion/

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

Welp I guess we're downvoted for mentioning a book:
https://www.amazon.ca/Hey-Whipple-Squeeze-This-Creating/dp/1118101332

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

https://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Robert-Cialdini/dp/006124189X

Might also check out his new book, Pre-suasion

https://www.amazon.com/Pre-Suasion-Revolutionary-Way-Influence-Persuade/dp/1501109804/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=pre-suasion&qid=1570821458&s=books&sr=1-1

Read both of David Olgilvy's books. Then read them again.

Confessions of an Advertising Man

Ogilvy on Advertising

http://www.amazon.com/Truth-Lies-Advertising-Account-Planning/dp/0471189626

a classic overview of account planning by one of the greats
---
http://herd.typepad.com/files/bentleyearlsadmap.pdf

a paper that takes a slightly different approach from 'tipping point'

Do read a book named Traction by Gabriel Weinberg & Justin Mares
https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Startup-Achieve-Explosive-Customer/dp/1591848369

Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator

I am reading it currently. It's so beautiful and eye-opening.