It seems like every year, one book becomes the summer’s “beach book,” the thing it seems like everyone is reading as they relax on the sand.
A few years ago, it was Gone Girl. Then The Girl on the Train. This year, we’re hearing a lot of buzz about a novel called The Girls. (There seems to be a pattern when it comes to naming literary thrillers.)
But sometimes, summer reading means work-related reading. So let’s take a trip back in time to your school days, where your English teachers would assign you books to read during your break. Here’s your inbound marketing summer reading list:
The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott
According to its subtitle, the fifth edition of Scott’s bestseller is designed to teach its readers “How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly.”
Scott bases his arguments on real life examples, discusses inbound marketing and offers updated information on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and other social media platforms.
Publisher’s Weekly calls it an “excellent look at the basics of new-millennial marketing” that “should find use in the hands of any serious PR professional making the transition.”
Smart Marketing for Engineers: An Inbound Guide to Reaching Technical Audiences by Rebecca Geier
Geier, CEO and co-founder of the Austin-based TREW Marketing, has been named one of America’s 10 most innovative entrepreneurs by the Wall Street Journal.
In this book, she details ways to use inbound marketing to create awareness and demand in technical business-to-business markets.
The book offers data that shows engineers how to read browsing behavior and preferences and includes examples from a number of industries, including automotive, IT, manufacturing, aerospace and energy.
Inbound Marketing and SEO: Insights from the Moz Blog by Rand Fishkin and Thomas Høgenhaven
Moz CEO Fiskin and Better Collective chief strategy officer Høgenhaven collaborate on this work, an anthology from the inbound marketing blog Moz that looks at current SEO and inbound trends.
The book covers topics such as content marketing, social media, conversion rate optimization and search engine optimization, and focuses on ways to leverage existing platforms such as social media accounts for inbound success.
The Sales Acceleration Formula by Mark Roberge
Roberge’s book is aimed at – per its subtitle – “Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million.”
His aim is to teach readers to apply data, technology and inbound to every aspect of sales acceleration, from hiring and training to managing and generating demand.
“In today’s digital world, in which every action is logged and masses of data sit at our fingertips, building a sales team no longer needs to be an art form,” the book’s description reads. “A formula does exist.”
Purple Cow by Seth Godin
The title of this book might sound like a fluffy children’s story, but Godin’s thesis is important for anyone who wants their business to stand out.
The idea is that customers see a lot of products and services that are the same – brown cows, if you will. The purple cow is a company that does something remarkable.
In this book, Godin argues companies need to create something noticeable with everything they do. This book was first published in 2003, turning Seth Godin into the marketing guru he is today. The concepts have stood the test of time.
And when you’re done these…
We wouldn’t be doing our jobs if we didn’t mention one of our own longer reads. Be sure to check out our latest white paper, Critical Questions When Selecting a Digital Inbound Marketing Agency.
You’ll learn what to look for when it comes time to find an agency to market your business. We can’t promise it’s as addictive as Gone Girl, but you’ll have a better idea of how to navigate the marketing world. And once you’ve finished, you can get back to this summer’s beach read.