10 Books Every Marketer Should Read in 2022

If you are in digital marketing, you know that no matter how many classes you took in college or how intensely you listened to your professor, the core tools needed to succeed in digital marketing often exist outside of a formal learning setting.

Digital marketing is constantly evolving with new algorithms, techniques, and tools emerging every day. The way to stay on top is to be ready to learn and make sure you are on top of the latest trends. Sometimes a quick Google search is all you need, but thousands of marketing books are published every year to help you gain that extra mile of knowledge in the digital marketing space. That’s why we’ve compiled this list of our top 10 books every marketer should read in 2022 so that you can get insight from the brightest minds in the industry.

1. Integrated Marketing Communications: Putting It Together & Making It Work by Don Schultz

The father of Integrated Marketing himself, Don Schultz, stresses that everything about a company can be copied (price, place, etc.) except for how we communicate as a company. In an ever-changing marketing world, Schultz’s concepts in Integrated Marketing Communications: Putting It Together and Making It Work are still shaping the marketing and advertising landscape.

Have you ever thought about whether social media was similar to biological life? Authors Luckett and Casey explain how social media networks mimic the rules and functions of biological life in their book, The Social Organism. This book dives into the human condition and how we, as marketers, can plan more effective campaigns and help guide us in the world of social media marketing and in understanding human life today.

3. Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller

Businesses are constantly trying to fight and tear through the noise. Truly reaching and engaging with your audience is even more difficult each day. Donald Miller has a solution. In Building a StoryBrand, Miller, in one sentence, is all about making your customer the hero of the story. Through this book, you learn how to engage and influence your audience genuinely.

4. The Unexpected: Breakthrough Strategies to Supercharge Your Business and Earn Loyal Customers for Life by Howard Brodsky

The Unexpected has created a shift in how we go about customer loyalty. It takes customer service up a notch through four concepts: memorable, distinguishable, viral, and profitable. Brodsky’s thoughts throughout the book will change how you look at customer service, both how you give and receive.

5. How Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Cultural Branding by Douglas Holt

Coca-Cola. ESPN. Harley-Davidson. Mountain Dew. Nike. Budweiser. These brands are just some of the icons that former Harvard Business School professor, Douglas Holt uses to provide tips on establishing a meaningful connection with your audience. How do these brands become icons, and how can you do it too? Learn all about that and more in How Brands Become Icons.

6. Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight

A memoir may not be what you were expecting to see on a list of must-read marketing books, but this is one that you should include. Phil Knight created a brand that ultimately became a culture. In his memoir, Knight portrays his lessons and insights of creating a successful brand from the ground up as he created Nike. Bill Gates even named Shoe Dog one of his five favorite books of 2016 and called it “an amazing tale, a refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success looks like. It’s a messy, perilous, and chaotic journey, riddled with mistakes, endless struggles, and sacrifice.”

7. Top of Mind: Use Content to Unleash Your Influence and Engage Those Who Matter To You by John Hall

Every brand wants to stay at the top of their customers’ minds. What business wouldn’t? But how can you do it? Influence and Co. founder John Hall shares step-by-step strategies in his book Top of Mind to keep your brand front and center and how to maintain that spot,

8. Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger

Word of mouth is one of the most prominent ways brands get popular. People don’t listen to advertisements; they listen to their friends and family. But how do things go viral? That’s the exact question that Jonah Berger answers in Contagious. He reveals how six principles affect how some things go viral. Contagious gives tangible steps you can implement to help your product or business catch on.

9. Marketing Made Simple: A Step-by-Step StoryBrand Guide for Any Business by Donald Miller

Oh, look! Another Donald Miller book. Maybe that’s because his books are must-haves for marketing professionals. Take your business to the next level with Marketing Made Simple. Marketing Made Simple is a robust checklist for making sure you are hitting all of the customer touchpoints as you develop, strengthen, and communicate your brand’s story to the marketplace.

10. Get Sh*t Done: The Ultimate Guide to Productivity, Procrastination, and Profitability by Jeffrey Gitomer

Everyone wants to be more productive, get more done, accomplish more. Anyone in the marketing world is constantly being bombarded with new tasks, new things to learn, reviews, revisions, you name it, and it can be easy just to say, “I’ll do it later.” With Get Sh*t Done, you can learn how to achieve maximum productivity and never want to say “I’ll do it later” again. Get the tools and strategies to overcome procrastination in Jeffrey Gitomer’s Get Sh*t Done.

Done devouring these essential books for marketers? The good news for this little book club is that things are changing and evolving daily in the marketing world. Expert insight is always coming down the pipeline; just stay tuned.