10 MUST Read Books for Product Marketeers
March 7, 2022 Edwin Kooistra
The more innovative and ever-evolving the industry, the more vital it is that those within keep learning all the time and the more challenging recommending books become. Whether you’re a complete newbie or a seasoned tech product marketer trying to keep up with changing trends, product marketing books have a lot to offer, and nothing really beats a brilliant book.
Why Read Product Marketing Books?
“Marketer” maybe just a single job title, but it can encompass wearing so many hats! With new marketing trends being introduced every month, marketers often forget to revisit relevant lessons from classic marketing books. The philosophical notions and practical advice in there can benefit even the seasoned marketer for success in today’s complex advertising world.
What Can You Expect to Learn from The Best Books for Product Marketing?
Product marketing is a complex blend of art and science, and there’s a lot to master, from being an expert on your product, your market, your target audience, your marketing channel, and your sales force. Not to forget the project management skills you need to make your project come to life. Product marketing books present different disciplines, industries, and areas of focus shared by thought-leaders and experts to help you hone your craft, elevate you and keep you grounded.
If you’re on the hunt for a great read that will stimulate you from start to finish, here’s a list of the ten best books on product marketing that you might need right now, these include product marketing books for beginners as well as advanced product marketing books
Your Product Marketing Books – Reading List for 2022
- Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal & Ryan Hoover
- Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger
- Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind by Al Ries & Jack Trout
- The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Startups That Win by Steve Blank
- Crossing The Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to
- To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others by Daniel H. Pink
- Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Health & Dan Health
- Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love by Marty Cagan
- Product Marketing Debunked: The Essential Go-to-market Guide by Yasmeen Turayhi, & Cali Schmidt
- Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning, so Customers Get it, Buy It, Love It by April Dunford
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal & Ryan Hoover
Why do some tech products hook us while others fall flat? What makes us engage with certain products, and is there a certain underlying pattern?
Nir Eyal answers these questions and explains the Hook Model—a four-step process successful tech companies have embedded in their products. Written for product marketers, managers, designers, and founders, Hooked presents practical insights and actionable steps to create user habits that stick and products that people love.
Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger
Some ideas go viral and get more word of mouth than others which is more influential than advertising and far more effective. Contagious is the second must-have on your product marketing reading list and one of the best books for product marketing, filled with fascinating insights and learnings on generating word of mouth and the take actions that can help your product or idea become viral. Praised by Dan Ariely and Dan Gilbert, this book must be on the reading list of anyone who wants their projects and ideas to succeed.
Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind by Al Ries & Jack Trout
Positioning describes a revolutionary approach to bring about an unprecedented procedure to communicate to a skeptical audience.
Using leading ad agency techniques, learn to capture the biggest market share, become a household name, build your strategy around your competition’s weaknesses and reposition a strong competitor to create a weak spot.
The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Startups That Win by Steve Blank
The Four Steps to the Epiphany brings a step-by-step practical and proven strategy on successfully organizing sales, marketing, and business development. Packed with valuable insight into what makes some startups successful and leaves others selling off their furniture and concrete examples of what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.
Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning, so Customers Get it, Buy It, Love It by April Dunford
Before you send a dollar on sales and marketing, make sure to read April Dunford’s book on positioning. Product positioning is an unbeatable advantage and the most important area of a marketer’s job. Everything from audience strategy to creative strategy to media strategy stems from positioning. While a book on the positioning isn’t new, a lot tends to lack an actionable framework with a step-by-step process.
Obviously Awesome shows you how to find the “secret sauce” of your product and then sell that sauce to those who crave it. If you’re a founder, marketer, or salesperson having trouble with prospects not being able to figure out what you’re selling, or converting them to paid customers, or in marketing communication and resonating with your audience — you might want to take a look at April’s book.
Crossing The Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to
Crossing the Chasm has become the definitive book for bringing cutting-edge tech products to progressively larger markets and laying out a blueprint for closing the chasm between innovators, early adopters, early majority customers, and late majority customers. The new game plan Moore presents for marketing in high-tech industries helps segment customers into groups, identify the highly specific target segment within a mainstream marketplace, and then understand their compelling reasons to buy to build around the notion of a “whole product.”
To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others by Daniel H. Pink
To Sell Is Human is another must-have on your product marketing reading list, it offers a fresh look at the art and science of selling, revealing the new ABCs of moving others. Daniel explains why extraverts don’t make the best salespeople and shows how offering an exit ramp for prospects can matter more than changing their minds. He presents the major successors to the elevator pitch, how to understand the other party’s perspective to form a clearer, more persuasive message, and how to uncover challenges your customers may not even know about and address them.
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Health & Dan Health
When marketing anything, Made to Stick presents six core concepts to keep in mind if you want your message to stick. Provocative and eye-opeing, this book reveals the vital principles of winning ideas and guides readers on applying these rules. It has become popular with managers, marketers, ministers, entrepreneurs, and others who want to explore the idea of curiosity gaps and transform the way they create and communicate stories.
Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love by Marty Cagan
It is an excellent read for anyone looking for inspiration and guidance on how to turn up the dial of their product efforts, creating technology products customers love. With personal stories and examples of today’s most successful product companies, including Adobe, Apple, BBC, Google, Microsoft, and Netflix, Inspired explains how to structure a successful product organization and deliver technology products that leave your customers in awe.
Product Marketing Debunked: The Essential Go-to-market Guide by Yasmeen Turayhi, & Cali Schmidt
Many tech companies struggle to take their idea forward and deliver their product in the marketplace. Product Marketing Debunked shares a list of dos and don’ts marketing strategies along with a go-to-market checklist and framework for creating a proper strategy to commercialize a product.
Instead of wasting resources, benefit from the knowledge of incredible marketers like Turayhi and Schmidt and make use of the key ingredients they provide that make up the perfect recipe for a successful launch.
Edwin Kooistra - Product Marketer & Founder
Technology can be a huge differentiator but leveraging emerging technologies can be challenging. After my degree in Business Information Technology I decided to work on the provider side of Technology, because I believe Technology providers play an important role in guiding enterprises on their digital journey. Besides helping tech businesses to optimize their growth and go-to-market strategies, I also like to write about the topic. I hope you find it useful!
