🌱 Curated collection
Where to start if you are new to marketing: clear, practical and easy to read.
25 books, ranked by our editors. Updated November 2026. How we rank
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Godin distills decades of thinking into a generous, human take on marketing: serve the smallest viable audience, tell stories that matter to them, and earn trust over time.
Best for: Small businesses, creators and anyone new to marketing
Miller applies classic story structure to brand messaging: your customer is the hero, you are the guide. The seven part framework makes it easy to rewrite a website or pitch.
Best for: Businesses whose website and messaging feel confusing
A Wharton professor's practical guide to working alongside AI as a coworker, tutor and creative partner, with clear rules for getting good results.
Best for: Anyone using AI tools at work
A friendly, practical guide to writing better marketing content. Short chapters on process, grammar, storytelling and publishing make it easy to use as a reference.
Best for: Every marketer who writes anything, which is every marketer
By our founder
Marketing does not have to be difficult, expensive or time consuming to work. Chris Burns gives small businesses and busy marketers a practical, no hype playbook covering strategy, social media, content, copywriting and AI, so marketing feels doable again, and maybe even fun.
Best for: Small business owners, solopreneurs and busy marketers who want marketing that works without the overwhelm
Sheridan saved his pool company by answering every customer question honestly online, including price. A simple, proven content strategy any business can follow.
Best for: Small and mid sized businesses that want leads from content
A Wharton professor explains why some products and ideas spread. His STEPPS framework gives you six concrete levers for word of mouth.
Best for: Marketers who want people to talk about and share their brand
From the founders of the Marketing AI Institute, an accessible guide to how AI works, where it fits in marketing and how to pilot it in your team.
Best for: Marketing leaders building an AI plan
Twenty two short, punchy rules about leadership, categories, focus and line extensions. Some examples have aged, but the core logic still explains why many brands win or stall.
Best for: A fast, opinionated primer on marketing strategy
Hormozi's value equation and "Grand Slam Offer" framework show how to package your product so that price stops being the main objection.
Best for: Business owners who want to sell more without lowering price
A practical guide to turning data into clear charts and compelling stories. It will change how you build every marketing report.
Best for: Anyone who presents marketing results
A clear, practical manual covering headlines, body copy, features versus benefits and writing for different media. Updated through several editions.
Best for: New copywriters and marketers who write their own copy
A short, brilliant guide to customer conversations that produce honest answers. Ask about their life and past behavior, not your idea, and people stop politely lying to you.
Best for: Founders and marketers doing customer research
A practical, jargon free guide that fits a complete marketing plan onto a single page divided into nine boxes, covering before, during and after the sale.
Best for: Small business owners who need a plan this week
Introduces 19 traction channels and the Bullseye framework for testing them to find the one or two that will drive growth.
Best for: Startups choosing which channels to try
A practical guide to Google Ads covering keywords, ad copy, bidding and landing pages, with a strong focus on profitability. Get the most recent edition.
Best for: Business owners and new PPC managers
Pulizzi lays out a model for building an audience before a product, then monetizing it. A blueprint for many creator and media businesses.
Best for: Founders building audience first businesses
A funny, honest guide to making ads that are not boring. Sullivan covers concepts, copy, presenting work and surviving agency life, updated for digital in later editions.
Best for: Creatives and copywriters starting out in advertising
A short, persuasive case that safe and average is now the riskiest strategy. If your product is not remarkable, no amount of advertising will save it.
Best for: Teams whose product blends into the background
A short, visual book that you can read in an hour. Neumeier defines a brand as a gut feeling about a product and shows how strategy and creativity work together to shape it.
Best for: Anyone who wants a crisp definition of what a brand really is
The build, measure, learn loop and the minimum viable product changed how companies launch. Essential context for any marketer working on new products.
Best for: Founders and product teams launching new offers
Give value repeatedly (jabs) before you ask for the sale (right hook). Vaynerchuk breaks down good and bad posts platform by platform.
Best for: Brands that post a lot but sell little on social
The follow up to The 1-Page Marketing Plan applies lean thinking to marketing: cut waste, focus on what works and build systems that scale without more effort.
Best for: Small business owners who want fewer, better marketing activities
Built around the Golden Circle, Sinek argues that people buy why you do something before what you do. A big influence on purpose led brand messaging.
Best for: Founders and teams defining their purpose and message
A practical guide to the stories every business needs, from founder and customer stories to value stories, with a simple structure for telling them well.
Best for: Anyone who needs to tell a business story
