10 Marketing Books to Add to Your Holiday Gift List
4. Return On Influence: The Revolutionary Power of Klout, Social Scoring, and Influence Marketing
Return on Influence explores how brands are identifying and leveraging social media marketers to build product awareness, brand buzz and new sales. In this revolutionary book, marketing consultant Mark W. Schaefer explains how to use social networking and influence marketing to achieve the following goals:
- In-depth explanations of the sources of online influence and how they can work for or against you
- Interviews with more than 50 experts, including tech blogger Robert Scoble, Influence author Robert Cialdini and industry thought leaders such as Mitch Joel, Jay Baer and Christopher S. Penn
- Practical, actionable tips to increase your own personal power and online influence
- More than a dozen original social influence marketing case studies
5. Riches in Niches: How to Get Rich in Your Niche
Finding a tight market niche where you and your business stand out is the most challenging aspect of marketing for most people. You may not have heard of Riches in Niches, but it’s the go-to book that marketing experts give their clients when the subject turns to how to find a profitable market niche. Susan Friedman focuses on 7 strategies for success in her book to help you position yourself as an expert, which she terms “nichepreneur”. The niche marketing strategies include:
- Create a name
- Build media muscle
- Move movers, shake shakers
- Catch writing fever
- Produce products
- Share wisdom
- Offer services
6. Defending Your Brand: How Smart Companies Use Defensive Strategy to Deal with Competitive Attacks
Defending business is critical for companies of all sizes. If you fail at continual growth, you will miss your objectives. If you fail defending your business, you can lose everything. In this book, Tim Calkins reviews why the defensive strategy is so important and explains how a company can meet a competitive threat with a strong and effective defense plan. He shows businesses how to understand and get competitive intelligence; how to determine if companies are at risk; and how to blunt competitors’ efforts. This book also provides insight into what the established players are likely to do when you launch your new venture. Before introducing a new product, it is important to think about how the existing companies will respond and then adjust your launch plan accordingly.
