Question

Topic: Other

Favorite Recent Marketing Books

Posted by BOWAKK on 1/30/2019 at 6:30 PM ET 250 Points
What NEW/VERY RECENT marketing books should be on my must read list in 2019?

(In case it affects your recommendations, we're a 30 year old, high-end B2C company, that gets about 80% of our business from referrals and returning customers.)
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  • Posted by Shelley Ryan on 2/7/2019 at 10:47 AM Moderator
    No responses yet? Does anyone have suggestions for Kathy?
  • Posted by Ann H. on 2/7/2019 at 2:11 PM Accepted
    Hiya Kathy! Based on your business's referrals/word of mouth, I'd suggest:

    "Talk Triggers" by Jay Baer and Daniel Lemin
    A comprehensive, go-to guide on word of mouth. Kerry Gorgone did a podcast with Daniel and Jay here: www.marketingprofs.com/podcasts/2018/39912/give-them-something-to-talk-abou...

    Or:

    "Marketing Rebellion" by Mark Schaeffer
    www.amazon.com/Marketing-Rebellion-Most-Human-Company/dp/0578419866

    Hope this helps!
  • Posted by BOWAKK on 2/7/2019 at 4:31 PM Author
    Thanks so much, Ann. Both of those look great!
  • Posted by steven.alker on 3/3/2019 at 10:10 AM Member
    Dear Kathy

    In your business, are you an online brand or store based? The reason for the question is that the best reading is predicated by your positioning - Highstreet or Information Highway!

    Either way, are you interested in the more numerical end of marketing. Again, for both bricks and mortar and online, the use of certain marketing techniques (And the rather heavy books about them) depend on your numbers. Numbers of transactions, product returns, items sold and to whom.

    I have read several interesting books lately and they include the use of A! in retail, Statistical Analysis and use of your in-house CRM system to retain your existing customer base and expand from it.

    If referrals are your main area of growth, then looking at a book on how to get your existing customer base onto a social media platform and let them do some of your marketing for you. Again there are books on that.

    I wouldn't like to make any recommendations until I know your answers to the above questions. I would be potentially wasting your time.

    Sincerely

    Steve
  • Posted by BOWAKK on 3/3/2019 at 9:40 PM Author
    Thanks, Steve.

    We're a remodeling firm and only do about 60 projects per year, so not a volume play by any means. We certainly do a lot of number crunching and have any years of stats to base our projections on, however, just a few jobs falling this way or that, can certainly change things in any given year.

    Would love to hear your thoughts on referral books.

    I appreciate your time and response.

    Regards, Kathy
  • Posted by steven.alker on 3/4/2019 at 4:30 AM Accepted
    Hi Kathy: That certainly changes things! Just a point of clarification though. I understand that you remodel B2C outlets - is that consumer outlets like fashion and luxury goods or what? Do you remodel the selling space or web presence or is it the underlying structure that you remodel?

    Again, my probing questions are aimed to help you! If you are, like me, involved in the underlying maths and metrics of a company and then you improve it, the marketing books you need to read are utterly different to those which advice on changing shop front appearance and in-store or on-web presence.

    With numbers like 60 clients a year, you are unlikely to be able to use AI. But could you apply it to your customers? If they are in retail, then the answer is yes and the learning curve is steep. What am I saying? If you advise retail outlets, you are probably already studying the use of AI, large number metrics, stats and so on!!

    But for yourselves, the choice is harder, if you are such an advisor/consultancy. Your target market might be large (Good) the competition low in numbers (Strangely, not so good) and your solutions clear and successful, leading to referrals.

    So, please clarify who your clients are (By sector) and how large or small you consider your market to be.

    The problem as I see it is that there are few marketing books (I have a library of them!) which offer advice to a niche player who is also a player in a large but sparsely populated market.

    For my discipline, Linear Programming for Optimisation of Profit attached to optimization of sales and marketing, there are no specific marketing books. Only management science books with a few applied examples of what we do.

    If I can successfully identify some reading matter for you, I think that I ought to post another question and ask you to advise me on marketing books for my sector, because I have failed to find one which nails it!!

    Sincerely


    Steve Alker
    CEO iSimutron Ltd.
  • Posted by Shelley Ryan on 3/12/2019 at 11:48 AM Moderator
    Hi Everyone,

    I am closing this question since there hasn't been much recent activity.

    Thanks for participating!

    Shelley
    MarketingProfs
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