98 of the Best Marketing Books in 15 Categories

As a marketer, your skills may become obsolete faster than you think. 

Everyone knows that things are changing rapidly, but do you know just how quickly?

More importantly, do you understand what this means for you professionally? 

Give me a moment to splash cold water on your face.

One survey suggested that professionals in marketing, sales, and software engineering feel the need to update their skills every 12–18 months. 

Frankly, given the rapid advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI), I would argue this timeframe has significantly shortened since the survey was conducted.

That’s not all.

To make matters worse, numerous surveys indicate that employee tenure is decreasing, and the life expectancy of companies on the S&P 500 is barely 15 years. 

So, what does this mean for you in practical terms? 

It means you need to be proactive about your personal development.

Otherwise, you might find yourself falling behind your peers and competitors in no time at all.

This isn't intended to be bad news. 

Instead, this is a wake-up call to encourage you to embrace lifelong learning. 

Before diving into any course, certificate, or program, consider this essential first step: reading a wide variety of the best marketing books. 

Why? 

Because reading books is one of the most effective, affordable, and flexible ways to enhance your professional skills and grow professionally. 

While reading books may not appear on your resume or LinkedIn profile, the benefits you gain from them undoubtedly will.

There are numerous science-backed reasons for the advantages of reading books. 

Reading books can help you learn new skills, improve decision-making abilities, and even provide more professional opportunities, according to one study. 

Reading books can also prevent costly mistakes and reduce your learning curve. 

Struggling to relate better to your prospects? 

Numerous books can help you grasp human psychology and become more likable. 

Want to create more engaging campaigns? 

There's no shortage of books on that topic either. 

Looking to secure a promotion within your organization or elsewhere? 

A selection of books can guide you through marketing strategy, team-building, and everything else you need to make that leap.

Ready to start reading more marketing books but you’re not sure where to start?

No sweat, I’ve got you covered.

Below is a HUGE list of suggested books. 

There are more to consider, but these are books I’ve read, and I’m only comfortable recommending books I’ve dug into. 

With that being said, here are the best marketing books broken down into 15 categories: 

1. Business strategy
2. Entrepreneurship and startups
3. Logic and critical thinking
4. Marketing strategy books
5. Branding
6. Advertising
7. Storytelling
8. Software development and product marketing
9. Management and coaching books
10. Content marketing 
11. UX design 
12. Behavioral psychology
13. Growth hacking 
14. Presentations
15. Sales books

Happy reading!

1. Best books on business strategy

A business strategy is the strategic plan a company pursues to achieve its goal.

Digging into business strategy is a must for marketers. 

Getting to know a company’s overall growth strategy will set you up to succeed. This way, you’ll focus less on only how marketing influences a company’s growth. But you’ll position yourself to think more strategically about what drives results for a company toward growth. 

• Good Strategy, Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters by Richard Rumelt
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't by Jim Collins
• Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
• Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't (Mastering the Rockefeller Habits 2.0) by Verne Harnish
• Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne
• Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works by A. G. Lafley, Roger L. Martin

2. Best books on entrepreneurship and startups

Thinking like an entrepreneur and startup–even in an established business–will inspire you to think more scrappy, how to move faster in your work, and get to results quicker. 

From rapid changes in technology to shifting changes in consumer behavior, as a marketer, you have to learn how to adapt, and thinking like an entrepreneur (or intrapreneur) is ideal to position you well to do so.

• The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
• The Cold Start Problem: How to Start and Scale Network Effects by Andrew Chen
• The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries
• Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel with Blake Masters
• Rework by Jason Fried and David Hansson

3. Best books on logic & critical thinking

Marketing is less about what you do and more about why you should do what you do. 

There are countless tactics you can consider, and thinking through the business strategy, data, marketing strategy, timing, budget, and more requires critical thinking. 

These books will give you the tools you need to sharpen your critical thinking and logical skills. 

• A Beautiful Constraint: How to Transform Your Limitations Into Advantages, and Why It's Everyone's Business by Adam Morgan and Mark Barden
• The Great Mental Models Volume 1: General Thinking Concepts by Shane Parrish and Rhiannon Beaubien
• The Decision Book: Fifty Models for Strategic Thinking by Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschäppeler
• Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio
• A Rulebook for Arguments by Anthony Weston
• Smart Choices: A Practical Guide to Making Better Decisions by John S. Hammond, Ralph L. Keeney, and Howard Raiffa

4. Best marketing strategy books

Wondering which marketing tactics to use to sell your product or service? 

That's where marketing strategy comes in. 

Check out the books below to help you figure out the best marketing tactics to pursue and when to use them.

• The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand Out From The Crowd by Allan Dib
• The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk! by Al Ries and Jack Trout
• Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares
• This Won't Scale: The 41 (Hard) Lessons We Learned Building Drift by Drift Team
• The Next CMO: A Guide to Operational Marketing Excellence by Peter Mahoney, Scott Todaro, and Dan Faulkner
• The Ultimate Marketing Plan: Target Your Audience! Get Out Your Message! Build Your Brand! by Dan S. Kennedy
• Inbound Marketing: Attract, Engage, and Delight Customers Online by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah
• Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is about Help Not Hype by Jay Baer

5. Best books on branding

Let's be real—branding involves a great deal of nuance. 

We're talking about tactical aspects like your logo, color palette, and messaging, as well as incorporating emotional language into your brand and setting yourself apart in the market. 

There's so much that goes into creating your company's identity.

And exposing yourself to different brand theories and practical advice is how you’ll know what to do: 

• The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment's Notice by Todd Henry
• Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life by Rory Sutherland
• Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets by Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead, and Kevin Maney
• Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits by Debbie Millman
• Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull with Amy Wallace
• Obsessed: Building a Brand People Love from Day One by Emily Heyward
• The Brand Gap: How to Bridge the Distance Between Business Strategy and Design by Marty Neumeier
• Zag: The Number One Strategy of High-Performance Brands by Marty Neumeier
• The Brand Flip: Why Customers Now Run Companies and How to Profit from It by Marty Neumeier
• How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don't Know by Byron Sharp
• The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al Ries and Laura Ries
• Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd by Youngme Moon
• Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team by Alina Wheeler
• The Long and the Short of It: Balancing Short and Long-Term Marketing Strategies by Les Binet and Peter Field
• Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don't by Jeffrey Pfeffer
• Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin

6. Best books on advertising

This book section dives right into the world of crafting ads and offers a glimpse into the life of one of the most influential ad men. 

For one quick tip copywriting tip, check out PAS Copywriting: The Best Framework for Writing Persuasive Copy.

• The Advertising Concept Book: Think Now, Design Later by Pete Barry
• Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy 
• Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy
• Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: The Classic Guide to Creating Great Ads by Luke Sullivan
• The Copy Book: How Some of the Best Advertising Writers in the World Write Their Advertising by D&AD

7. Best books on storytelling

Storytelling isn't just a business fad. 

It's all about sharing your company's message in a way that connects with your target audience, invites them to participate in your brand, spark curiosity about your business, and ultimately nudges them to buy your product or service. 

That's the power of a good story in business.

• Winning the Story Wars: Why Those Who Tell (and Live) the Best Stories Will Rule the Future by Jonah Sachs
• Lead with a Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives That Captivate, Convince, and Inspire by Paul Smith
• The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
• Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting by Syd Field
• Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller
• All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World by Seth Godin

8. Best books about software development and product marketing

Growing a business takes more than just marketing—it really starts with an amazing product or service. Without that, no marketing magic can save you. In fact, good marketing might just speed up the failure of a subpar product or service. 

That's why, in marketing, it's crucial to get to know your offering inside and out. Figure out how to position it best in the market and identify any tweaks needed to reach more folks and keep them happy.

• Product Marketing Debunked by Yasmeen Turayhi, Aaron Huang
• The Product Marketing Manager by Josh Anon, Linda Zhang
• Obviously Awesome by April Dunford
• Purple Cow by Seth Godin
• Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days by Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, Braden Kowitz
• Hooked by Nir Eyal
• User Story Mapping by Jeff Patton, Peter Economy

9. Best management and coaching books

If you're all about creating and don't see yourself managing people, that's totally fine! 

It's important to know who you are and where you want to be. 

In that case, feel free to skip this section.

But if you're keen on working with people in marketing—maybe as a marketing manager, director, VP, Head of Marketing, or even CMO—then buckle up. You'll need to dive deep into learning how to work with creative folks, both organizationally and one-on-one.

• High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove
• Giving Effective Feedback by Harvard Business Review
• Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs by John Doerr
• Herding Tigers: Be the Leader That Creative People Need by Todd Henry
• Creative Direction: Mastering the Transition from Talent to Leader by Jason Sperling
• The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier
• Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman and Greg Mckeown
• Teams That Work: The Seven Drivers of Team Effectiveness by Scott Tannenbaum and Eduardo Salas
• The Coaching Effect: What Great Leaders Do to Increase Sales, Enhance Performance, and Sustain Growth by Bill Eckstrom and Sarah Wirth
• The 360-Degree Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization by John C. Maxwell
• First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
• The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership by Bill Walsh, Steve Jamison, and Craig Walsh

10. Best content marketing books

Your target market devours loads of content, especially when it comes to making buying decisions (think blog posts, case studies, social media). That's where content marketing steps in. By learning what content to create, you can connect with your audience, nurture them, and ultimately guide them towards doing business with you.

• Epic Content Marketing: How to Tell a Different Story, Break through the Clutter, and Win More Customers by Marketing Less by Joe Pulizzi
• Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach
• Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content by Colleen Jones
• Content Inc.: How Entrepreneurs Use Content to Build Massive Audiences and Create Radically Successful Businesses by Joe Pulizzi
• Managing Content Marketing: The Real-World Guide for Creating Passionate Subscribers to Your Brand by Robert Rose and Joe Pulizzi
• Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman
• The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly by David Meerman Scott

11. Best UX design books

What you create and launch in marketing doesn't exist in a vacuum.

In other words, whatever you're working on should reach whomever you're targeting, which means a real, breathing human being will interact with it.

They'll:

• Read your content
• Browse your website
• Sign up for a demo or free trial
• Scroll through your landing pages
• And more...

So, this means that whatever you create and design should have an end user in mind. 

Now, I'm not saying you need to become a product designer.

But I am suggesting you should at least have a basic understanding of User Experience (UX). In short, UX refers to how someone interacts with your company—including your website and product.

To that end, here are three books I'd recommend:

• Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug
• The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman
• The Big Red Fez: How To Make Any Web Site Better by Seth Godin

12. Best books on behavioral psychology

Why do people behave the way they do, especially in the context of marketing?

This is where behavioral psychology comes in.

In essence, behavioral psychology seeks to understand why individuals act as they do, how their decisions are shaped by their thoughts and emotions, and how their environment impacts these decisions. For example, in marketing, how does pricing, positioning, and even your company’s color palette influence a person's choice?

This isn't merely pop psychology, either.

Studying behavioral psychology will help you to better understand your target audience, which means you’ll be able to better personalize your work, build trust, and lead people to take action.

Naturally, there's more to this than what I've outlined above.

That's why I recommend these books on the subject as it relates to marketing:

• Contagious: How to Build Word of Mouth in the Digital Age by Jonah Berger
• Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini
• Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy by Martin Lindstrom

13. Best growth hacking books

Need to be scrappy, learn new ideas, or understand growth loops?

Then you need to dig into growth hacker marketing.

At its core, growth hacking is about leveraging limited resources to reach and retain new customers. Rather than relying on traditional and often costly marketing avenues, growth hackers seek high-impact alternatives that can provide results at a fraction of the cost. 

• Hacking Growth: How Today's Fastest-Growing Companies Drive Breakout Success by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown
• Growth Hacker Marketing: A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing, and Advertising by Ryan Holiday

14. Best books on presentations

There's one often overlooked skill essential in marketing: delivering presentations. This is true in two distinct contexts:

1. Internally
2. Externally

Within your organization, you'll likely find that over time, you'll need to give regular internal presentations. This might involve sharing the progress of a marketing campaign, introducing a new idea, or leading meetings. Essentially, you'll frequently find yourself internally presenting on various topics.

Externally, it's not always mandatory, but being adept at delivering public presentations—whether through webinars, videocasts, or speaking engagements—can be beneficial. In some sectors, a handful of organizations particularly value this capability when considering candidates for senior leadership positions, such as a CMO or VP of Marketing. However, it's worth noting that mastering this isn't a prerequisite to excel as a marketer or to seek higher roles.

And one more point:

Acquiring this skill is particularly useful for contributing to sales and customer success presentations. This includes activities like sales demos and Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs). Understanding the elements of a compelling presentation can be immensely advantageous in this scenario.

With that said, here are some books to consider:

• Speak to Win: How to Present with Power in Any Situation by Brian Tracy
• Inspire Any Audience: Proven Secrets of the Pros for Powerful Presentations by Tony Jeary
• The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo
• Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences by Nancy Duarte
• slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations by Nancy Duarte
  Best sales books

15. Best sales books

In B2B SaaS, marketing and sales should work together like a hand in a glove. One cannot work without the other.

From receiving input from your sales counterpart to supporting your sales team through lead and demand generation and sales enablement, your working relationship is mutual.

This is a major reason why you should understand sales and learn to work closely with your sales team. Because your work as a marketer isn’t done in a vacuum. It should be directed toward influencing or directly driving sales and revenue. 

Here are some of the best sales books to get you started:

• The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million by Mark Roberge
• Fanatical Prospecting: The Ultimate Guide to Opening Sales Conversations and Filling the Pipeline by Leveraging Social Selling, Telephone, Email, Text, and Cold Calling by Jeb Blount
• Outbound Sales, No Fluff: Written by Two Millennials Who Have Actually Sold Something This Decade by Ryan Reisert and Rex Biberston
• Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions: A Tactical Playbook for Managers and Executives by Keith Rosen
• Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness by Jeffrey Gitomer
• The Science of Selling: Proven Strategies to Make Your Pitch, Influence Decisions, and Close the Deal by David Hoffeld

Now what?

That's a lot of books.

And honestly, there are more categories and books that could be added to this list.

So, now what?

Well, it depends.

If you want to focus on one topic, then I'd suggest reading 3-5 books or more on that topic. This is like creating your own curriculum. This is the approach I prefer when I'm doing a deep dive into a specific area.

Now, if you simply want a broad exposure to marketing, then I'd suggest picking one book from different categories and starting to read. From there, follow whatever path you think is best for you and your marketing career.

In whatever you read, remember this:

Books cannot take action for you.

They will expose you to new ideas and ways of thinking.

But they cannot implement the wisdom contained within them.

This is where you come into play.

Read.

Skim read or speed read.

Take notes.

Reflect.

And put into action what you're learning.

This is the best way to grow from what you're reading and learning