Do you find it hard to stay up-to-date on marketing? Check out our list of classic and current books every marketer should read.

Bill Bernbach’s Book

Bob Levenson

This book comes with the extraordinary subtitle: A History of the Advertising That Changed the History of Advertising. It is a remarkable and beautiful book that shares the legacy of advertising guru Bill Bernbach by documenting some of his most famous ad campaigns. For those who are inspired by images, the book has 200 beautiful photographs.

The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist, Period!

Stoney deGeyter

Building an effective website isn’t easy. There are hundreds of factors that must be addressed to get the back-end designed right, content written correctly, user experience mapped out, SEO optimized and more.

This comprehensive guide presents a lot of detailed information, but makes it easy to understand and use by consolidating it into 36 lists covering more than 600 critical action points. It also includes valuable content on how to leverage digital advertising and social media to drive traffic to your site. A must-read for anyone building a new site or renovating an existing one. 

The Book of Gossage

Howard Luck Gossage

This out-of-print book can be a little difficult to find, but getting your hands on a copy is definitely worth it. Many people consider this the best book ever written about advertising. 

Gossage is the man who was brave enough to say to the advertising industry: “Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them, and sometimes it’s an ad.” In the 1960s, he suggested that it would be a good idea for marketers to get into conversations with consumers in order to sell to them. He was a believer in keeping advertising costs low by developing interesting messages.

This book shares the ideas of a revolutionary thinker who saw the future of advertising, social media and content marketing before almost anyone else. A must read.

Brands and Branding

Rita Clifton

This book was written by 19 brand experts, and explains the importance of branding along with insights on how to build and sustain a successful one.

It examines what makes certain brands great and reveals how you can apply those factors to your own. It also provides insights on global branding, an issue more and more firms deal with today.

If you’re branding a new Fintech startup or thinking about rebranding an existing financial or professional services firm, reading this book will give you a solid knowledge base.

Content Inc.: How Entrepreneurs Use Content to Build Massive Audiences and Create Radically Successful Businesses

Joseph Pulizzi

This book was written by the highly respected founder of The Content Marketing Institute. In it, he outlines a novel approach to marketing: start by finding an audience for what you have to say, engage them with your content, then develop product and service solutions that meet their needs. This is a big change from traditional “push” marketing techniques.

The book is targeted to entrepreneurs, so it’s perfect for Fintech, technology and media start-ups. The principles in it can also be applied to traditional financial and professional services companies that want to shake things up and take a fresh approach to marketing and product development.

Crossing the Chasm

Geoffrey A. Moore

This book is a classic that has stayed relevant for a new generation. It explains the ins-and-outs of bringing cutting-edge products to broad markets, an important lesson for today’s Fintech, information and technology marketers.

The book takes a deep-dive look at the Technology Adoption Life Cycle. Adoption of technology begins with innovators, moves to early adopters, early majority, late majority, and eventually laggards. The book reveals that there’s a big divide between the early adopters and the early majority. Early adopters are open to making sacrifices for the advantage of being first. However, the early majority waits until they know that the innovative product or service will actually make their lives better.

The challenge for marketers of truly novel products and services, including financial ones, is to bridge this divide and speed adoption. Crossing the Chasm explains how to do that.

If you’re attempting to market a genuinely innovative product or service, there are valuable lessons to be learned from this book.

Tip: Looking for a new way to engage employees and co-workers? Why not start a marketing book club in your workplace? It’s a fun and interactive way to introduce new ideas and concepts.

Driving Demand: Transforming B2B Marketing to Meet the Needs of the Modern Buyer

Carlos Hidalgo

B2B marketing is different, with its own rules and techniques. However, in recent years it has moved closer to consumer marketing and become more customer- or end-user-centric. This book explains how B2B companies that want to succeed in this user-driven digital age must become more focused on their target end-users.

The author shows how even the most traditional firms must alter their marketing and sales functions to provide prospects with information, service and relationship-centered guidance to help them make smart purchasing decisions.

The key thing that makes this book different from other B2B marketing guides is that it explains how to transform an organization so all employees are on-board with delivering a stellar customer-focused experience.

Marketing Financial Services

Hooman Estlami

Books focused on marketing for the financial services industry are rare. Those on how to do so in the modern digital age are even more so. That’s why this authoritative guide is so unique and valuable.

This book takes a scientific approach to explain the best practices of how to market all types of financial products, from simple ones to the most complex. In addition, it provides information on how to work effectively through complex regulatory issues.

If you’re looking for the book to read that will make you the smartest financial marketer in the room, this is it.

The Professional’s Guide to Financial Services Marketing: Bite-Sized Insights For Creating Effective Approaches

Jay Nagdeman

If you’re new to financial services marketing — or are interested in seeing that world through fresh eyes — this is the book for you.

It delivers digestible insights about how to market financial products in creative and engaging ways. It uses real-world examples to deliver practical information that will help marketers in the industry do their jobs better.

Selling the Invisible

Harry Beckwith

If you’re selling an intangible service, which most financial and professional services marketers are, this book will inspire you with ideas on how to do it right.

It’s a tightly-written, fun-to-read look at what makes marketing services unique. It explains how to engage prospective clients to get them to purchase. The book shows how any firm, from a home-based business to a global financial company, can convert and keep more clients.

This is one of the most thorough books ever written about marketing services.

Tip: Not sure about buying one of our recommended books? Most major retailers like Amazon will let you check out a chapter or two before you buy.

Permission Marketing

Seth Godin

This is the book that turned brand marketing up-side-down.

It explains how you can get customers to accept your advertising and marketing campaigns voluntarily rather than badgering and interrupting them while browsing online, watching television or listening to the radio.

This is a pioneering book of the Internet age that has held-up well over time. It explains how you can move from interruptive to permission marketing, by offering consumers incentives to accept advertising because they want to instead of forcing them to look at it. The book proves that marketers that only reach out to prospects who have shown an interest in learning more about a product or service will be more likely to develop long-term relationships with customers, create trust, build brand awareness — and greatly improve the chances of making a sale.

This is a perfect book for anyone who wants to understand the fundamentals of marketing in the digital age.

Share This: The Social Media Handbook for PR Professionals

Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Social Media Panel

Social media and the requirements of SEO have dramatically changed how public relations is done today. Marketers will find this book helpful because it clearly explains what’s new in PR and provides insights on how to use it to improve digital marketing results.

The book was written by 26 respected public relations professionals from the United Kingdom. It is truly an authoritative, easy-to-understand guide to modern PR.

Are you finding that books aren’t enough to stay up-to-date on contemporary marketing trends for financial and professional services and Fintech companies? Then contact an agency that has stayed current and relevant for more than thirty years. We’ll help you build modern branding, social media, digital marketing, advertising and public relations strategies that will generate results for your firm.