
Ask YC: What books on marketing do you recomend? - damir
I'm into buying books now and would like to know, which ones to buy for better (web) marketing understanding?
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unfoldedorigami
Of all the books and research we've read, these are the ones we've found the
most useful information from and influenced a large part of our redesign at
Wufoo :

Call to Action <http://www.calltoactionbook.com/> (how to think about landing
pages and navigation)

Landing Page Optimization <http://landingpageoptimizationbook.com/> (best
technical book on how to measure landing pages, do not buy SEO books, they're
all terrible and rehash what you see on most blogs)

Word of Mouth Marketing <http://wordofmouthbook.com/> (sometimes great
marketing has nothing to do with what you do on the web)

Made to Stick <http://www.madetostick.com/> (just a great read on how you
should shape your copy and ideas so they have maximum sticking power)

~~~
maxklein
Whoah! You realise you are referring to yourself as 'we'? You realise that you
are losing your voice as an individual, and taking on a more neutral tone that
represents a company? You realise what is happening, right? Your company is no
longer a collection of startup founders, it's just a polite 'we'.

Lose that, it's the new world. Companies are made up of vocal intelligent
people, not neutral hollow 'we's.

~~~
skmurphy
If you look at his profile he gives his real name and his company and he
clearly stands behind and owns his comments. You seem to be pushing
"Cluetrain" as some form of political correctness. At some point a company
becomes more than a collection of startup founders, which it must to succeed,
and makes commitments as a firm based on a working consensus. I don't find it
hard to believe that the founders talked over what books had been most useful:
for me the "we" sounds natural now hollow.

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tom_rath
A start would be any second-year business degree marketing course textbook
which discusses MASH analysis, among other foundational aspects of marketing.

This one (link is for a used copy):
<http://www.antiqbook.com/boox/3rs/004826.shtml> has been absolute gold for
me.

You wouldn't learn the basics of programming from a 'design patterns' book,
right? I'd suggest learning the basics of marketing from a text which focuses
on the basics of marketing (not advertising -- that's different). The other
trendy "how to synergize your paradigms to leverage the new economy's
zeitgeist" stuff can be picked up later.

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dshah
I'd highly recommend "The New Rules of PR and Marketing" by David Meerman
Scott.

[http://www.amazon.com/New-Rules-Marketing-PR-
Podcasting/dp/0...](http://www.amazon.com/New-Rules-Marketing-PR-
Podcasting/dp/0470113456)

Good read and very practical.

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SwellJoe
Ogilvy on Advertising is one of my absolute favorites, and I go back to it
regularly. It's also a beautiful book with lots of large photos of campaigns.
It's not specifically "marketing" of course, but it covers that area, as well.

The funny thing is that a lot of folks in the business writing books today
like to present themselves as being innovators and mavericks going against the
"old school" of advertising and marketing...but Ogilvy covers a lot of the
"new" techniques that folks like Godin and Ries and many others in the web era
are pushing. Stuff like directly talking to your customer; the power of
personal messages, for example, is covered in great detail in Ogilvy's book.
Sure, the technology wasn't there yet to tweet and blog, but the ideas
translate quite clearly and easily if you just think about it for a minute.

Another "old timer" (who also considered himself a maverick fighting the
Ogilvy ways) is George Lois. His book "What's the Big Idea?" is full of great
stories of reaching a market on the cheap.

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smanek
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=193123>

That recommends several books and blogs. The blogs seem good, but I haven't
read the books yet.

Although, I do generally have pretty good luck with slate.

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tptacek
Ries & Trout "Positioning" is a classic, and a short read.

~~~
SwellJoe
Ries and Trout are excellent. I've read several of their books, and they all
basically amount to the same ideas presented in Positioning, but they include
a lot of great anecdotes that make things concrete--sometimes it's hard to see
the right positioning for your products, so it can help to hear stories of how
they found the right positioning for various products.

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petercooper
If any book results in me becoming a multi-millionaire, I'm thinking it'll be
Ready, Fire Aim by Michael Masterson. Written by someone with waist-deep
experience in multi million dollar revenue businesses and full of crazy
amounts of advice. The focus of the book is marketing, although it most
certainly crosses over into entrepreneurship a long way.

[http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Fire-Aim-Million-
Agora/dp/047018...](http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Fire-Aim-Million-
Agora/dp/0470182024)

The reviews on that Amazon page should show how well it's regarded.

The thing about many "clever" marketing books, such as Seth Godin's (which ARE
good), is that they don't help you clarify if what you're building is actually
WORTH marketing. Ready, Fire, Aim looks at that side a lot more. You need to
work out WHAT your product quite is before marketing it.

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Flemlord
Crossing the Chasm - Geoffrey Moore

[http://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-Geoffrey-
Moore/dp/00605...](http://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-Geoffrey-
Moore/dp/0060517123/)

~~~
tptacek
Another good book where I'm not sure I know of too many people actually
accomplishing something practical as a result of reading it.

~~~
nostrademons
Crossing the Chasm is mostly useful as a reality check for startup founders,
i.e. just because you're on TechCrunch doesn't mean you're successful.

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bigtoga
Here's a corresponding YC link from today titled, "The best Web sites and
books about advertising": <http://www.slate.com/id/2191446/>. It's from
slate.com so I doubt there's anything useful though :)

I'm saving this as I'd like to see what others recommend as well.

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davidw
Many of the ones that have been summarized here are pretty good:

<http://www.squeezedbooks.com> (currently undergoing a server upgrade, sorry
for random bits of downtime).

Some favorites include "20 years of high tech marketing disasters", "crossing
the chasm", "innovator's dilemma".

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Jesin
Just pick the one that's most popular :)

~~~
marcus
I use the same strategy when I look for an SEO expert, I just google SEO
expert or some other relevant keyword and go to the #1 link.

~~~
Jesin
I didn't actually come up with this, he did: <http://xkcd.com/125/>

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danielrhodes
Tipping Point

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tptacek
I enjoyed reading this book, but:

(1) some of its arguments have been regularly refuted; for instance, "the
power of context" and "broken windows".

(2) I've never heard a story about any real business using the "lessons" of
this book to accomplish a marketing objective.

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edw519
Differentiate or Die

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got

The Irresistable Offer

~~~
donw
Some observations:

Isn't the first title just the first volume of the Calculus textbook used in
'Saw'?

Does the second title have errata?

Does the third book describe the current political climate in the States?

Is the fourth book written by the Mafia?

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swhnorton
Purple Cow and Trading Up

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berecruited
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing... a must have on any desk.

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bigbee
Everything from Seth Godin. Permission Marketing, All Marketers are Liers and
Purple Cow are my personal favorites.

~~~
bbgm
Second the Seth Godin recommendation. Best books there are on marketing. I
also really like "The Big Dip"

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hschenker
"Influence," by Robert Cialdini - although it's not necessarily packaged as a
marketing book.

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jakewolf
Any book by Harry Beckwith. The Ultimate Sales Letter - Dan Kennedy.

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hschenker
"The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR," by Al and Laura Ries.

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colortone
The Only Sustainable Edge

This is pretty much the only book that matters ;-)

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toivoe
If possible ... Dont buy books, try marketing techniques in your own small
enetrprise. In this way you will discover what works and what doesnt work.

~~~
bigtoga
Wait - so instead of spending $11.99 on a book that tells you what to do, you
advocate spending tons of money and losing tons of sales while you reinvent
the wheel? Come on, man...

