Christmas gift ideas: 10 books for international marketers
With the holiday season nearly upon us, it’s time to think about gift giving for friends, family and colleagues. But what to buy the marketer in your life? For gift inspiration, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best marketing books to buy this Christmas.
#1: Going Global
Published by Oban International, Going Global is a practical guide to expanding your business internationally using digital marketing techniques. Written in an accessible style and pitched at businesses at an early stage of international expansion, the book covers:
- How to research, select and enter new markets
- The key elements of international SEO, paid media and social media success
- Why you need to localise, not translate your content
- CRO and UX techniques you can use across markets
- Payment methods around the world
- Plus – the costly marketing mistakes you need to avoid
#2: Building a Storybrand
Considered a marketing classic, Building a Storybrand guides marketers to choose the right words to communicate their brand to their audience and potential customers. The book explores:
- The seven universal story points that humans respond to
- How to simplify brand messages so people understand them
- How to ensure the most effective messages for websites, social media and brochures
Buy Building a Storybrand on Amazon.
#3: Crawl, Walk, Run
Despite the massive marketing budgets driving global ad campaigns, many marketers struggle to answer the age-old question: Is my campaign working? Crawl, Walk, Run is a practical guide for navigating each stage of analytics maturity, taking you step-by-step through an analytics maturity framework to achieve greater efficiency and increased confidence in your marketing decisions.
The book explores six key areas for digital transformation before introducing you to the key component for success: choosing the right platform. You’ll learn why Google Marketing Platform dominates the industry, which changes you can expect with Google Analytics 4 and Ads Data Hub, and how to implement data governance with new privacy guidelines introduced around the world.
Buy Crawl, Walk, Run on Amazon.
#4: Boring2Brave
This book is sub-titled ‘The bravery-as-a-strategy mindset that’s transforming B2B marketing’. It argues that much of B2B marketing looks identical to its competitors and outlines a step-by-step plan for how B2B brands can stand out from the crowd to deliver better results. Written by a former Marketing Week editor, the book encourages B2B brands to break away from conventional, stale storytelling and instead inject audacity into their marketing.
#5: Hooked: How to build habit forming products
This book focuses on the question, why do some products receive attention whilst others flop? It explores how technologies can hook us by explaining what it calls the Hook Model – which is a four step process embedded in the products of many successful companies to encourage customer behaviour in subtle ways. Examples featured in the book include the iPhone, Twitter and Pinterest, with insights into how to create user habits which stick. As well as marketers, this would be an interesting read for product managers, designers and start-up founders.
#6: The Data Escalator
The sub-title of this book explains its premise very well: “Make more money for your business with the data you already have”. Big businesses such as Facebook or Airbnb make more money from data than any other business asset. Yet most businesses, especially SMEs, are missing out – because they often lack the skills and knowledge to exploit the full value of their data. This book outlines an eight-step ‘Digital Escalator’ designed to help businesses grow through using their own data.
Buy The Data Escalator on Amazon.
#7: Rebel Ideas: The power of thinking differently
Rebel Ideas examines the power of cognitive diversity – the ability to think differently about the world around us. It explains how to harness our unique perspectives, pool our collective intelligence and tackle the greatest challenges of our age – from climate change to terrorism. The book aims to strengthen teams or organisations by teaching people how to become more creative, how to collaborate and how to break free of echo chambers.
#8: Red Team: How to succeed by thinking like the enemy
Red teams are teams of sceptics and those who assume the role of saboteurs who seek to understand the interests, intentions and capabilities of institutions or potential competitors. They are used widely in both the private and public sectors. Red teaming typically involves simulations, vulnerability probes and alternative analyses to help organisations challenge assumptions, identify weaknesses and anticipate potential threats. However, some red teams cause more damage than they prevent.
This book outlines how to create and empower red teams, and also what to do with the information they produce. The underlying premise is to help organisations succeed by thinking like the enemy.
#9: Make Time: How to focus on what matters every day
Everyone wishes for more hours in the day, and everyone struggles at times to make time for what matters. This book sets out a four-stage productivity framework that anyone can use to help them design their day around what matters. Themes include:
- How to be the boss of your own phone
- How to avoid social media infinity pools
- How to slow down your inbox
- How to choose a daily highlight
- How to spend time with your tribe
#10: The 12 Powers of a Marketing Leader
What makes an effective and successful marketing leader? That’s the question this book aims to answer. Based on a worldwide study involving 68,000 marketing leaders, the book sets out the 12 essential traits that can make or break your marketing success. Themes include mobilising your boss, mobilising your team, mobilising your colleagues and mobilising yourself. This is about marketing leadership, rather than marketing itself.
Buy The 12 Powers of a Marketing Leader on Amazon
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Planning an international marketing campaign in 2022? Oban can help. To find out how, please get in touch.
Oban International is the digital marketing agency specialising in international expansion. Our LIME (Local In-Market Expert) Network provides up to date cultural input and insights from over 80 markets around the world, helping clients realise the best marketing opportunities and avoid the costliest mistakes.