As restrictions ease up and finances begin to stabilise, both consumers and marketers are hoping to make up for lost time, however, just because consumers are willing to spend, doesn’t mean they’ll spend it on you. For that to happen, marketers must create strategies that provide a multi-faceted and deeply moving campaign that takes skill and insight to design.
If you’re hoping to make it big this year with a campaign that resonates and converts, here are some books that will be the roadmap to your marketing success..
1. Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
When a campaign doesn’t stand out, it gets drowned out. This is especially the case among brands that only offer products or services that are minutely different. In master marketer Seth Godin’s Purple Cow, he encourages marketers to not just focus on the traditional Ps of marketing (pricing, promotion, packaging). Instead, he invites them to add another disruptive P: a Purple cow. In his book, Godin explains that purple cows are nothing exceptionally different from ordinary cows (which here represent other competitors), but the fact that they’re purple immediately makes them hard to ignore. According to Godin, purple cows drive explosive word of mouth because they’ve taken something familiar and reintroduced it in a distinct style—like Starbucks or Apple. For marketers hoping to release something remarkable, Purple Cow is perfect reading material.
2. Building A StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen
Every marketer has heard “content is king”, and in Donald Miller’s Building A StoryBrand he explains just why that is. Featuring his carefully crafted seven-part storytelling roadmap, Miller walks readers through the steps of proper audience communication. This includes everything from choosing the right words to determining the flow. At a time when content needs to be short, memorable, moving, and impactful, marketers can either sink or elevate their campaigns with how well their copy connects. A classic in the world of marketing books, let this book teach you how to make every word count.
3. Competing Against Luck: The Storey of Innovation and Customer Choice
Although most consumers may want to view themselves as rational shoppers, the truth is that emotions are a big-spending factor. In Competing Against Luck, written by Dr Clayton Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon, and David Duncan, marketers are taught how to “hack” consumer emotions. In the same vein as the “Ikea Effect” previously discussed here on Adcock Solutions, this book features “The-Jobs-To-Be-Done” theory, which also targets core behavioural aspects among consumers. The former relates to consumers’ emotional need to be invested in the experience of products. Meanwhile, the latter aims to help marketers package campaigns that fulfil a deep-seated customer need. By doing so, consumers will rely on, trust, and purchase a brand as part of their habit.
4. Faster, Smarter, Louder: Master Attention in a Noise Digital Market
Of course, we can’t have a marketing book list and not have one geared towards digital marketing. Considering that Reuters reports that 70% of Brits now prefer shopping online, marketers would do well to pay more attention to their virtual performance. Written by Aaron Aguis and Gian Clancey, this book will teach marketers how to make their market amidst the massive online traffic. By outlining the role of tools like social science, search engine optimisation(SEO), social media, and others, Faster, Smarter, Louder will help campaigns foster a genuine connection with massive potential for profit. If you want to take advantage of the surge in eCommerce, here’s the book to help you start.
Written exclusively for Adcock Solutions by Allison Childress.
