Top 27 Best Digital Marketing Books Updated 04 /2024

"What is the best book on digital marketing?" is a question I get asked a lot.

It's not easy to answer, because most digital marketing books don't last very long on the book shelf. As algorithms change, marketing tactics don't work, and the rules of the platform keep changing, the best practices need to stay up to date.

There are a lot of books about digital marketing that are updated and reused all the time, but there are some that have been around for a long time. If you want to learn more about behavioral psychology, growth mindset, and a few other things, you should read these books. They will help you stay ahead of the game.

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

First published in 1984, this book has been around for a long time. You won't be able to find a list of the best marketing books without this book on there.

"Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" is widely regarded as a marketer's bible. It gives a simple and effective way to understand why we make decisions. Cialdini tells stories and gives real-world examples to make it easy for people to learn about six principles of persuasion, which a B2B marketer has used to write email copy, design social media ads, and come up with almost every memorable marketing campaign in recent history.

While this digital marketing book doesn't teach you how to use specific channels, the use of reciprocity, consistency, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity will make sure your digital marketing strategy is focused on getting people to convert.

Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins

His ideas were way ahead of his time. Even though A/B testing and statistical significance are used all the time in today's digital marketing world, Hopkins was teaching how to use these things back in 1923 in "Scientific Advertising."

I often go back to this book when I want to get back to the basics of ad creative and how to get people to buy your products. 120 pages isn't too long, so you can almost read it in one sitting. You won't find a single page that doesn't have a quick tip that can help you with effective digital marketing today.

Expert Secrets by Russell Brunson

Iterated lessons from "Expert Secrets" can be found in a lot of online social media and digital marketing courses. Yes, it was written 4 years ago, which is like 40 years in digital marketing. But its valuable content is likely to stay around for a long time.

"Expert Secrets" is a good book because it gives you a practical way to do things like email marketing, content marketing, and copywriting. It helps you see where you have a lot of knowledge and how that can help you start a successful business and reach a lot of people. Founder Brunson is one of the most well-known people in digital marketing. This book is a compilation of all the best practices he has learned through the constant tweaking and tweaking of his own digital marketing strategy.

Everyone who reads this digital marketing book will take away something different. I keep going back to his advice at the end about how to run a perfect webinar. He talks about the structure, the best times to break up sections, and timeless advice for keeping your target audience interested. This is a must-read!

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

When I was on a plane from Sydney to Los Angeles, I read this book from start to finish. It's fair to say that it had me hooked.

"Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products" is a great product and marketing book for learning how to make people do things they don't want to do. When you take this class, you'll learn how to make customers take action, reward them for it, and encourage them to invest, just like many of the world's best technology companies do. There aren't many digital marketing books that will give you more information about how to improve the user experience of your audience from start to finish. This book is one of them.

I found it refreshing that the author, Nir Eyal, ended the book with some wise words about how to use these techniques ethically and keep your customer's well-being in mind.

Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk

The best book on social media marketing strategy that I have read so far is this one. In "Jab Jab Right Hook," I learned about Gary Vee's teachings for the first time. People who have read about his common sense approach should not be surprised by his fame.

The book says that social media marketing is important in today's world, and it gives you a plan for building a community that will pay off in the long run. The way we earn the right to ask for something in return is by making people happy first.

He reads it himself, and he often deviates from the script to add yet another piece of social media gold. If you want to learn how to make content for a social media site or how to start an Instagram account from scratch, you'll find something here that you can use.

Content Machine by Dan Norris

"Content Machine" is a must-read for anyone who wants to build an epic content marketing strategy that drives business success.

How did Norris build a 7-figure business that was fueled by an amazing blog? That's what the book talks about. A lot more goes into content marketing than just writing a lot of blog posts. Norris' search engine optimization techniques and tools are still very relevant in the digital marketing world today.

Lean Analytics by Benjamin Yoskovitz and Alistair Croll

People at the start-up event who were there gave this book to me, and at first, I didn't like the title very much. Even so, I gave it a try after a coworker said to. I couldn't put it down.

Lean Analytics is the best book I've found for people who want to work with digital marketing in a tech start-up. There are two things you'll learn: how to measure, and what to measure based on the stage and focus of the company.

AARRR, CAC, CTR, and Virality are some of the terms used in digital marketing. If you're afraid of them, this should be your first step. It's as close to a digital marketing textbook as I've found, and it will help both B2B and B2C marketers get better at their jobs, as well.

Permission Marketing by Seth Godin

Any book by Seth Godin is worth reading, but "Permission Marketing" has had the biggest impact on how I think about marketing.

Seth's 1999 guide talks about how important it is to build a relationship with your customers over time. Other digital marketing books start with how to do things right away. After our target audience gives us permission to market to them, we can be more effective when we keep giving them value. To get there, we need to keep giving value from the start.

A real highlight for me was how many different case studies Godin used to show how marketing has changed over time. Make sure to take home a lot of new things to try.

StoryBrand by Donald Miller

It doesn't work that way, says Donald Miller. WORDS SELL CLOTHES

You can find a lot of great books on copywriting, like Gary Halbert's "The Boron Letters" and David Ogilvy's "Confessions of an Advertising Man." If you want a more modern and holistic way to make your customers happy with your digital marketing, I think you should start with "StoryBrand." This is what I would do.

Too often, businesses and their owners try to be the main character in the story, which is not always the best way to tell it. What customers really need is a person who can help them solve their problems in a way that works for them. By using content marketing, Miller can help you make your customers the heroes of your story and how to make your digital marketing tools fit that story.

Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got by Jay Abrahams

In this book, we learn how easy it is to make a big difference in the success of a business.

If you're always looking for ways to grow your business inside and outside of your company, the ideas in this book will help you change your mindset. A lot of different ideas will come to mind when you think about email marketing, search engine marketing, social media promotion, and how to improve conversion rates.

Abrahams helps us figure out what our loyal customers are worth, what we can do to make that value even better, and how to find more of our ideal customers. So easy to do, but so very good!

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