Digital Marketing Books for Marketers – 9 Best Picks

The internet is a great place to find materials and resources to learn new skills for digital marketing. It gives you a vast pool of content about digital marketing to really sink your teeth into and learn as much as you can. 

The problem is that the internet is also a place where disinformation and misinformation are easily spreadable. Since publishing content on the internet is extremely easy, it’s hard to identify or call out content that is wrong and inaccurate. You never know if what you’re reading is based on years of research and experience or based on a few hours of reading articles online.

That’s why it’s still a good idea to grab one of the best digital marketing books to learn more about the subject.

These digital marketing books are written by experts who have been in the field for a long time and have gone through editors to ensure high-quality content.

In this article

1. List of Digital Marketing Books
   • Digital Marketing for Dummies By Ryan Deiss and Russ Henneberry
   • Marketing Made Simple: A Step-by-Step StoryBrand Guide for Any Business By Donald Miller
   • Building a Story Brand By Donald Miller
   • Digital Marketing Strategy By Simon Kingsnorth
   • What Customers Crave: How to Create Relevant and Memorable Experiences at Every Touchpoint By Nicholas J. Webb
   • Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Digital Distraction By Derek Thompson
   • Becoming a Digital Marketer By Gil and Anya Gildner
   • Dynamic Digital Marketing By Dawn McGruer
   • See You On the Internet: Building Your Small Business with Digital Marketing By Avery Swartz
2. Frequently Asked Questions
3. Sit Down With a Good Book

List of Digital Marketing Books

The internet has revolutionized marketing and advertising forever. It has made it possible to get your message out there even if your target audience is halfway across the world. It has also made the playing field more leveled since small businesses can do just as well as big businesses in digital marketing.

To equip yourself with the right skills and knowledge to be competitive in this field, here are 9 digital marketing books that you need to read!

1. Digital Marketing for Dummies By Ryan Deiss and Russ Henneberry

The For Dummies series has been around for ages, now. The company aims to create books that help break down complex concepts and make them easier to understand. This is done through expert editorial, engaging experiences, and a writing style that is easily approachable.

Thankfully, they have a digital marketing book that is dedicated to beginners!

This is an easy-to-understand guide that shows you how to use digital marketing strategies that are proven to be effective. It will teach you how to build brand awareness, increase engagement, and convert leads to paying customers. 

The topics that will be discussed in this book are key best practices:

• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Search engine marketing (SEM)
• Content marketing
• Influencer marketing, etc.

The author also talks about what media works best for your business and how to identify the digital markets that will be beneficial to you. Topics like managing online leads, converting visitors, and the value of internet traffic are also discussed.

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

Donald Miller is a New York Times bestselling author. His book, Marketing Made Simple, is a must-have for any small business owner who wants to grow their business, or for the marketing professional. This book will help you learn how to create and implement a sales funnel that will drive traffic to your business and increase exposure and adoption.

This book will also help you find your voice and teach you how to effectively get your message out there. This is based on proven principles from Building a StoryBrand and it has a 5-part checklist that helps you effectively develop, strengthen, and communicate your brand’s story.

Here are some of the topics that are discussed in the book:

• The 3 stages of customer relationships.
• How to create and implement effective marketing plans.
• How to develop an effective sales funnel.
• The power of email and how to create effective campaigns that help you build brand awareness.
• What you need for an attractive website that generates conversions.

3. Building a Story Brand By Donald Miller

This is another book by the New York bestselling author, Donald Miller. He talks about 7 proven elements of powerful stories that will help you improve how you connect with your customers. Naturally, this will help you significantly grow your business.

Donald Miller’s StoryBrand process is a revolutionary method dedicated to connecting with your customers. In this book, he reveals the secret to helping customers understand the benefits of using your products, ideas, and/or services. This helps you truly engage and influence your customers into understanding your brand.

4. Digital Marketing Strategy By Simon Kingsnorth

Simon Kingsnorth is a bestselling author and a marketing consultant. He has worked with numerous companies of all sizes across the globe to help them build highly effective marketing strategies.

In his book Digital Marketing Strategy, he gives you a step-by-step framework that allows you to plan, integrate, and measure each digital strategy.

Here are the following topics that will be covered in the book:

• Social media
• Search engine optimization
• Content marketing
• User experience
• Automation and personalization
• Updates on automation and AI 

5. What Customers Crave: How to Create Relevant and Memorable Experiences at Every Touchpoint By Nicholas J. Webb

Author and accomplished business strategist, Nicholas Webb, simplifies the process of getting to know your customers in his book, What Customers Crave. Since the internet can be full of information, it may be hard to identify which information is helpful for your business and which ones are just distractions.

Nicholas Webb makes the process simpler by asking 2 very straightforward questions:

• What do your customers love?
• What do your customers hate?

In this book, you’ll learn how to foster unique and relevant customer experiences at every point of contact.  The author dives deep into understanding how to find ways to make your customer experience a very memorable and good one. 

6. Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Digital Distraction By Derek Thompson 

Derek Thompson is a senior editor in The Atlantic, a book and periodic publishing house. In this book, he explores the hidden psychology of why we like what we like. He also has explored the economics of cultural markets that subtly and invisibly shape our lives. 

This is an interesting book because it scrutinizes how a “good idea” isn’t always enough for you to succeed. The author demystifies myths of what makes pop culture and business what they are. He also dissects how the most popular products in history would have failed if they had had that one bad break. 

For Derek, there are enduring truths to what audiences and consumers want, no matter how much time has passed by, and therefore a certain element of familiarity with products that are new and innovative will always be necessary for mass adoption. 

7. Becoming a Digital Marketer By Gil and Anya Gildner

The authors of this book are the co-founders of Discosloth. This is a search marketing company that has worked with large brands like Volvo, Doctors Without Borders, AirTreks, etc. They have also been featured in reputable publications like Inc Magazine, the New York Times, Arkansas Business, the Washington Post, and many more.

According to these authors, the world of marketing changed when the internet came. It is no longer enough to just be a specialist in the industry today. You need to be able to do the following if you want to be relevant:

• Build websites
• Gather and understand analytics
• Run pay-per-click campaigns
• Utilize social media effectively
• Understand SEO strategy
• Be adept with email marketing

And in this book, that’s exactly what the authors will share with you. They will give you the hard skills needed to excel in these fields. 

Overall, it’s a great book to have if you want to understand digital marketing as a whole. According to one of the reviews of the book, “The authors will tell you what you need to know without telling you a bunch of stuff that you don’t need to know.” 

8. Dynamic Digital Marketing By Dawn McGruer

Dawn McGruer is an award-winning digital marketing author, speaker, strategist, and trainer. She is an expert at making businesses and brands shine. 

In this book, Dawn discusses her multi-award-winning digital marketing framework called “Dynamic Digital Marketing Model”. This model offers a step-by-step guide on how to use it effectively to market your business online. At the same time, it also helps transform you into a proficient digital marketer.

This book will help you:

• Gain invaluable insight into effective strategies based on the author’s 20 years of digital marketing experience.
• Understand successful strategies used by key influencers.
• Understand and effectively use SEO, social media, and content marketing to your advantage.
• Incorporate strategic web design, email marketing, customer analytics, and influencer marketing in your digital marketing strategy.

9. See You On the Internet: Building Your Small Business with Digital Marketing By Avery Swartz

Avery Swartz is the founder and CEO of Camp Tech. It is a tech workshop company for non-technical people. Avery was ranked number 5 on the Search Engine Journal’s Top 50 Women in the Marketing list.

See You On the Internet provides practical examples of different aspects of the digital world. This will help you easily and better understand the topics being discussed. It is also filled with real anecdotes about entrepreneurs who apply multiple strategies to create and maintain their digital presence. 

This is one of the digital marketing books that are perfect If you’re a professional who is just starting with digital marketing or you’re a small business that wants to work on it on your own.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Sit Down With a Good Book

Digital marketing is essential if you want to thrive in today’s market. You need to be able to establish and nurture an online presence because that’s where everybody is. Finding the right one among all these digital marketing books to help you learn this skill is a great way to get started.