One of the most exciting as well as challenging aspects of digital marketing is that it’s analways-evolving industry which offers something new to learn every day.This means staying abreast with the latest trends and best practices in digital marketing is important. But, it’s equally important to understand that digital marketing, at its core, is marketing. Therefore, having a solid grip on the marketing basics is absolutely essential for the long term success in marketing and sales.

Why go back to basics?
According to Inc., nearly 80% of small businesses fail. Although there could be other reasons behind this, one factor is that many small business owners feel that using the latest tools and applications is their secret weapon to conquer the business landscape. Unfortunately, just relying on the latest tool scan never be enough to save your business. Digital marketing is one field where a few minor mistakes can easily throw you off your game. No wonder, a whopping 63% of marketers say their biggest challenge is to drive traffic to their websites and generate leads.

It’s interesting to note that 71% of small business owners are handling their own digital marketing and don’t prefer to hire experts. If you’re one of them, it’s critical to understand the basics of marketing.

While learning about marketing tools and how to use them is necessary, simply investing in tools will not fetch you the desired results and you’ll end up wasting your marketing budget. Unless you are able to develop a process or system that works and is scalable, it’s difficult to get consistent results from any kind of tool.
At the end of the day, there is no substitute for a thorough knowledge and understanding of marketing tactics. Books on marketing strategy are high-quality sources of information for you to build a highly effective and profitable marketing ecosystem for your brand.Books are a marketer’s best friend
Marketing and management books are a great way to draw inspiration and gain incredible insights about marketing from experts and industry leaders. Not to forget,they offer tons of evergreen knowledge that can be replicated into processes and systems. And, the best part is, most of them can be purchased online. Some of them are even available on the internet for free.

But if you don’t know which books to get started with — or are simply overwhelmed by the amount of marketing books on the internet — we have compiled a list of books every digital marketer should read. Some of these are among the best digital marketing books for beginners. So if you’re new to digital marketing, these books can give your career the right turn Jab Jab Jab Right Hook By Gary Vaynerchuk
Gary Vaynerchuk is a social media expert and New York Times bestselling author. In this book,he highlights the art of winning the heart of a customer by mastering certain social media skills. This book contains over 80 details case studies from Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. So if you like the idea of getting a detailed blueprint of social media marketing strategies that are guaranteed to yield results, give it a read.

Permission Marketing by Seth Godin
Published in 1999, Permission Marketing remains of the bestselling books of Seth Godin, the former VP of direct marketing at Yahoo, and is hailed as one of the best books for marketing management written with excellent foresight.

In this book, Seth argues that an average customer is continuously bombarded with a lot of advertisement which has resulted in shrinking his average attention span. He advocates a strategy where a company should initiate a relationship with a customer by first asking for their permission and then providing them with something free of cost. As the relationship gets established, it becomes easier for the company to market more products to them.
Read it to gain a fresh perspective on marketing and how to gain your customer’s trust in today’s era of marketing overload.

Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim, Renée Mauborgne
The name of this bestselling book is used as a metaphor by the writers, where they use the term ‘Blue Ocean’ to denote uncontested market space. The authors claim that the dominant marketing strategies followed by most firms are based on competition. However, they believe if a company really wants to succeed they should look for new territories in terms of services and products or find new customers in unchartered territories.Again, this book is a goldmine of case studies.

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout
This book by Al Rise and Jack Trout is often dubbed as one of the best digital marketing books available in the market. As the name suggests, this book contains 22 practical pieces of advice which are rooted in engaging storytelling techniques which are bound to evoke a sense of loyalty from the customers. This book is pretty concise consisting of only 143 pages and yet, manages to deliver some of the best marketing advice to any aspiring digital marketer.

Building a Story Brand by John Miller
This book speaks about how you can reframe your marketing message to give your brand a face lift and turn it into a customer magnet. This book is divided into three distinct sections. Part one deals with why most marketing strategies fail due to information overload. Part two speaks about the strategy of building a story brand. Part three deals with the implementation framework of the marketing strategy.

Purple Cow by Seth Godin
In this book, Godin explores the idea of how you can turn a boring and uninteresting idea on its head and make it brilliant with the help of a little innovation. Just like the purple cow, a wildly exciting idea would spark the imagination in our target customer and give you an edge over your competitors.
If you need more inspiration (or reasons) to think outside-the-box for your marketing strategies, pick this one for your next read.

Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy
This is one of the oldest marketing management books in the list and still manages to entice readers almost seven decades after its publication. In this book — which is now considered a classic in the advertising industry —ad legend, David Ogilvy speaks about the principals which he used to take his advertising agency to the peak of its success. This book offers excellent insight into how a company should work, how employers can maintain a high level of motivation among employees and how they can lead by example.A great read, not only for its content but also for Ogilvy’s writing, which is refreshing and supremely entertaining.

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
In this debut book of Malcolm Gladwell, he speaks about how little things end up having a great global impact and how you, as a company, can make profit from these “tipping points”. The storytelling, concepts and writing style make it an interesting read. Additionally, the book contains many great examples that are relevant in real life.

These books are ideal to add to your reading list, whether you’ve just started doing digital marketing or you’ve been doing it for years but are looking for fresh ideas. With some learning and mentoring, the knowledge you gain from reading these books can be applied to your best advantage. Marketing training delivered by a good mentor goes a long way in this regard. A comprehensive course like our Integrated Digital Marketing Certification Program (IDMCP)covers almost all the major areas of digital marketing, while helping you learn practical ways to implement the strategies through hands-on learning techniques.

Want to feel the difference that developing a marketing mindset can have on your marketing outcomes?