I heard once that reading lists make for great lead magnets.
Is that true? I don’t know.
But it got me to put together a recommended reading list of my own.
I started with a goal of 10 books — but though I’ve read many more than 10, I couldn’t honestly recommend 10. That’s a good thing for you — less reading to do.
So here are my top 7 marketing books, for you to enjoy, learn, and profit from:
1. The Robert Collier Letter Book, by Robert Collier
This book has it all — wagons of coal, silk stockings, genies in the lamp, free pens, rattlesnakes, dinosaurs. If you only ever read one book about direct marketing, this is my number-one recommendation.
2. Positioning, by Al Ries and Jack Trout
Tons of other good marketing advice beyond, “Get yourself into a niche of one.”
3. My Life In Advertising, by Claude C. Hopkins
All the wisdom in Hopkins’s vaunted Scientific Advertising, but presented with stories and detail that make it go down more easy.
4. The Adweek Copywriting Book, by Joe Sugarman
Very accessible, usable, and current, even if you never write a full-page magazine ad selling a calculator or UV-blocking sunglasses.
5. Influence, by Robert Cialdini
I wish I had written this book. What more can I say?
6. Start With No, by Jim Camp
You may have seen this negotiation book recommended before by online marketers. It happens a lot. What is it about Camp’s negotiation strategies that could be useful to sales and marketing online?
7. Made To Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath
I read this book only once but it’s stuck. That’s because the authors know what they’re talking about, and because they apply it to their own writing.
Like I said, I’ve heard that reading lists make for great lead magnets.
Do they also make for effective email copy? I don’t know.
But I’m willing to test it out.
If you haven’t already clicked away to Amazon to get one of the books above, maybe you will click below to the sales page for my Daily Email Habit service. It sometimes forces even me to write emails I would never write otherwise. Here’s the link if you’d like to find out more about it: