6 marketing and creativity books to read this year!

If you’re similar to me, you likely have a book open next to your bed, an e-reader available, and a notebook for jotting down thoughts. The behind-the-scenes aspect of a content creator often includes books. Writing and reading are closely related; one supports the other. Books inspire our thoughts and help us keep learning. Thanks to them, you can learn from experts known worldwide. Of course, blogs exist for this, but books provide the benefit of exploring a subject in detail.

Here are some reading suggestions to boost your understanding of content marketing and inbound marketing, along with a great book to inspire your creativity. Most are in English, which does not reflect the quality of the French professional book scene; it’s simply a personal habit of mine. Feel free to share your reading ideas in the comments of this article!

Content Inc.: How entrepreneurs leverage content to build large audiences and create highly successful businesses

Joe Pulizzi is acknowledged as the originator of Content Marketing in the United States. He grew his business by first building his audience through freely available content. After his community was established, he could offer products and services that closely matched the needs of his readers.

Entrepreneurs and content marketing: 16 quotes to encourage you

Is this not the complete opposite of how most businesses start? Usually, we seek an idea or a product, then create a customer base around what we sell. However, by forming a community around our area of expertise or interests, we can then create a product that aligns perfectly with an existing need and an established customer base.

In this book, Joe Pulizzi illustrates the steps of content creation and lead generation. Crucial in the content marketing field, Content Inc. will guide you whether you are a student, a new entrepreneur, or the leader of a well-established company.

Too fast to think: How to reclaim your creativity in a hyperconnected work culture

How to find and identify influencers?

I already talked about this book a few weeks ago in a previous article. Chris Lewis fits perfectly with what I think about how we (mis)manage creativity. We are overflowing with information, we are drowning in emails, in social networks, we occupy every second of our existence and one Monday morning we decide to start a brainstorming… and we are surprised by the few results.

Too busy, overwhelmed by information that is often irrelevant or of lesser importance, we forget that creativity takes time, time to think, time to meditate, time to dream and do nothing. That’s why your best ideas will often come far from the office. This book is essential for anyone who wants to get the most out of their creative potential and that of their team.

Here is an excellent book by my friend Selma Païva, available on Amazon in Kindle format. If too many specialists rush to reproduce the old, tired recipes of traditional marketing on social networks, Selma offers you an effective, realistic and authentic approach to digital marketing and content marketing.

This book shows how to approach content marketing differently than:

– refine your personal brand,
– write content that sets you apart,
– structure sequences of blog articles and mailings that have an impact on your audience (and your turnover),
– develop a sincere, rich and lasting relationship with your customers.

Selma gives you the secret to communicating face to face with each of your customers and building a relationship with them, getting to know them and responding precisely to their needs. I highly recommend this book to all entrepreneurs, marketers, communicators, and anyone who wants valuable, human-centered marketing.

Inbound Marketing according to the Sherpa strategy

To be honest, I rarely focus on the quality of writing in a marketing book. For a change, Gabriel Szapiro has an excellent pen that he puts to the service of his expertise.

The era of advertising pressure and harassment is over, digital has come to disrupt the ways of communicating and consuming media. Inbound marketing poses a new paradigm: bringing customers to you instead of searching for them in six steps:

• Attract
• Seduce
• convert
• Allow
• Conclude
• Follow

Basically, inbound marketing, according to these sequences, supports your prospect by leading him to convince himself, on his own, voluntarily, that he has made the right choice, at his own pace, at his request, already anticipating his own development through your collaboration.

The Mercator

Even if it is not so much a book to be read in one sitting on the beach, the Mercator remains the reference work for all Marketing professionals and students. The strength of this book is to address each topic in a pleasant way, it is a commendable effort as professional books too often turn out to be bland and in bad taste.

The latest editions have opened up to digital marketing and even if there are still efforts to be made in this area, the fact remains that Mercator is THE book that cannot be missing from your personal library. It’s always helpful to be able to go back to basics every now and then.

Believe Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator

The curiosity of this selection. The author, Ryan Holiday, presents himself as a media manipulator. According to him, we live in a world where blogs control and distort information. His goal is therefore to control the blogs.

In fact, we see it on a daily basis. A rumor starts online and costs a company or a elected official’s reputation millions. Celebrities are born overnight, out of nowhere. Ryan shares his secrets and methods for hacking the media system. His campaigns have been used as case studies by Twitter, YouTube and Google and written about in AdAge, the New York Times, Gawker and Fast Company.

The content is good, we’re just sorry that it gets longer due to repetition. However, it is interesting to know his method and adapt it to your media strategies.

And you, what books do you currently have with you? Share your reading ideas in the comments! You can find other books in this article: Some reading ideas for marketing and communication.