Despite what many of the “gurus” today might tell you, digital marketing is not easy.

There isn’t some secret formula or silver bullet, nor is there software to automate your marketing efforts while you just sit on the beach sipping tropical drinks. The reality is that success with digital marketing requires constant learning and lots of hard work.

I can’t help you with the hard work part. What I can help you with, however, is the learning part.

But even with my twenty years in the digital marketing industry, I didn’t figure everything out myself and the truth is I never will. Nor will you or anyone else. There’s just too much to ever figure it all out yourself.

That’s why we all should focus on what we’re best at, and improve our weaknesses by learning from experts in those areas.

So today, I’m going to share with you some of the books I’ve found to be particularly helpful in my digital marketing career.

These books aren’t generally step by step tactical guides—an “if X, then do Y” kind of thing, although they do offer some of that. Instead, they focus more on mindset and strategy because that’s the foundation of success.

Effective strategies tend to have a longer lifespan. Tactics, on the other hand, tend to change much more rapidly. Especially when it comes to digital marketing.

If you focus on tactics, you’ll constantly find yourself bouncing from idea to idea, many of which won’t really align with your goals, company, and industry anyway. However, if you develop an effective mindset and strategy, and then carefully select the current tactics that align with your goals, company, and industry, you’ll achieve far more, and you’ll typically do so faster while spending less.

That being said, let’s jump into the books…

Building a Story Brand

Even the most beautiful website in the world can’t effectively sell your products or services without engaging and persuasive copy. This applies to all forms of communication—social media posts, videos, podcasts, presentations, and even face to face conversations.

You need to communicate, to the right audience, in a way that makes them actually care about your message.

Unfortunately, most people don’t realize this, and the majority of those that do, suck at it.

Most will prattle on how big they are, how long they’ve been in business, or some other equally irrelevant detail about their company that clients don’t really care about. Or they’ll simply preach about how amazing they think their products or services are. Neither approach works well.

So what is the right approach?

Donald Miller has developed a formulaic approach to communication that is based on how the human brain works, and his book, Building a Story Brand, explains that approach. This leverages powerful and engaging storytelling to cut through the noise and connect with your audience.

See Building a Story Brand on Amazon »

Trust Me, I’m Lying

If you haven’t seen the darker side of the media and public relations first hand, then Trust Me, I’m Lying, will absolutely blow your mind.

The tactics Ryan Holiday shares from his past campaigns are absolutely brilliant, but some people may view them as questionable. In fact, he even states that he doesn’t advocate some of the tactics he’s used in the past because of how they can be perceived.

Personally, I believe the ethics of a particular tactic are largely dependent on the client and the industry.

For example, a hospital should always use completely transparent tactics, while a software or movie production company could get away with more questionable tactics.

It’s also important to look at what others in that industry are doing. In some industries, most marketers rely on completely transparent tactics, while marketers in other industries may play by an “anything goes” mentality. For most industries, it’s relatively safe to play in the gray areas.

It’s not about the effectiveness of the tactic itself though. It’s about how it could be perceived by the public. More specifically, your target market.

See Trust Me, I’m Lying on Amazon »

Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook

Gary Vaynerchuck is one of those people you’ll either love or hate. There is no middle ground.

I personally love his no bullshit view on things. More importantly, though, I love the fact that he is constantly focused on adding value in all engagements, whether it’s on stage, in a video on social media, or in a face to face conversation. And adding value is what this book is all about.

You’ve probably seen how most people get social media wrong by constantly pitching.

“Buy my product!”

“Buy my product!”

“Buy my product!”

Don’t get me wrong, you need to actively promote your products and services, but when that’s all you post about, you’ll turn off your followers and they won’t buy from you.

Instead, you need to add value by posting content that your audience actually cares about. That might mean a post that is one or a combination of the following: useful, humorous, insightful, or newsworthy.

This creates exposure, engagement, and brand loyalty.

Gary’s book, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, does a great job of explaining the strategy behind this, as well as the tactics to get it done.

See Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook on Amazon »

Be Obsessed or Be Average

People talk about work/life balance. I think that’s a bullshit idea. Here’s why…

If you’re doing something you’re truly passionate about, it will be all-consuming. It will occupy your thoughts at all hours, whether you’re at your desk or laying in bed.

This doesn’t mean that you have to work 24/7, nor does it mean that you should even want to. It just means that what you’re doing is so important to you that it’s always on your mind.

Sometimes it’s your main focus while other times it’s churning quietly in the back of your mind. You’re always looking for ways to get better at your craft, improve your service to clients, and improve your industry as a whole.

Because of this, you grow exponentially faster than others who just think in terms of a 9-5 workday. Your best ideas often come at odd times. Maybe an idea is sparked while you’re at a park, pumping gas, or standing in line at the grocery store.

Grant Cardone does an amazing job of explaining in Be Obsessed or Be Average exactly how this mindset has enabled him to go from being broke to becoming a billionaire real estate mogul. He’s also built a massive digital presence through social media, which has enabled him to develop another marketing channel to promote his books, training courses, and events.

See Be Obsessed or Be Average on Amazon »

Start with Why

Your “why” defines your business. It’s the reason your company exists and what separates it from your competitors. It’s also what drives you to serve a mission beyond simply generating a profit.

Don’t get me wrong—profit is a critical part of any successful business, but there needs to be something deeper, something more significant driving it. If you’re only in business for the money, both you and your team will quickly become burned out.

When you have a clear “why” you’re able to communicate your value to prospective customers more effectively. But it also helps you to make decisions more easily because literally every decision should be based on moving towards your goals. And perhaps most importantly, it helps you to inspire your team to rally behind your mission.

Simon’s book, Start with Why, explains how the most successful and influential leaders all think, act, and communicate in a certain way. More importantly, he outlines how you can model them to become more influential, leading your company to greater success.

See Start with Why on Amazon »

Be Like Amazon

While we all know that we can buy not only books, but pretty much anything else we want on Amazon, what most people don’t realize is that in just a couple of decades, Amazon has completely transformed a number of other industries as well.

They’ve done that by constantly innovating, which is something most entrepreneurs stop doing once they get comfortable. Unfortunately, comfort leads to complacency.

Bryan Eisenberg explains in Be Like Amazon exactly how Amazon has used innovation to continually increase the value they offer to customers and become a nightmare to competitors.

The key is to identify exactly what matters to your customers and find additional ways to deliver exactly that to them.

This might mean finding new ways to deliver existing products or services, developing entirely new products or services to solve customers’ problems, or dramatically improving the speed, simplicity, or cost.

Ultimately, one of the most critical elements in achieving massive success is constant innovation in all areas of business.

Sure, Amazon offers a larger selection of products than any other retail company in the world, but their innovation didn’t end there. Some of their other innovations include Prime, Amazon Video, Alexa, and dozens more. 

See Be Like Amazon on Amazon »

Can’t Hurt Me

I listened to the audio version of Can’t Hurt Me, written by Navy SEAL and all around badass, David Goggins, and within the first twenty seconds, I knew it was going to be incredibly powerful.

“Once you accept the fact that life is going to fuck you up, in one way or another, you can start preparing for it.”

So what the hell does this have to do with digital marketing?

While it’s incredibly easy to get into our industry, it can also be incredibly difficult to become successful.

That’s because there is a ton of noise, false information, and fierce competition. Things also change at an insanely rapid pace.

I’ve seen countless people jump into digital marketing thinking it was going to be easy, only to give up after just a few months. This was a very predictable outcome because they were lured by the myth of easy money. They were shocked when they realized there’s more to this than just throwing a shitty website up and waiting for the money to pour in.

You have to actually put in a tremendous amount of hard work to become successful. Often, it takes a considerable amount of consistent hard work before seeing any results.

This means you’re going to have to be tough enough to overcome tremendous adversity over an extended period of time, whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been in the industry for years.

I found this book to be an amazing tool In reframing what you can overcome. Especially for anyone who hasn’t had the opportunity to overcome significant challenges yet.

See Can’t Hurt Me on Amazon »

You probably remember your mother, or perhaps a school teacher, telling you that you can’t judge a book by it’s cover, and while their intentions were good, they were wrong. Sorry mom, you were wrong.

The idea is that we’re not supposed to judge based on appearances, however, that idea contradicts the basic biological instincts of humans. We may no longer have to know which plants are dangerous to eat or which animals will try to eat us, but for thousands of years, we did have to, and making a split second decision based on nothing more than appearance was essential to our survival. It’s hardwired in.

While most of us don’t have to worry much about our survival on a day to day basis, that powerful instinct still plays a role in our lives. As it relates to digital marketing, we instinctively judge companies based on:

• Logo, web design, and other digital marketing materials
• Social media profiles and activity (or lack thereof)
• Reviews on websites like Google My Business, Facebook, and Yelp
• Positive coverage in the media (or lack thereof)

In other words, if your website looks like your nephew designed it, potential clients will perceive you to be less qualified, which will reduce the prices you can charge and hurt your ability to close sales. The same applies when you have little or no activity on social media because they’ll assume you’re not committed to your business. And if they can’t find any mention of you or your company anywhere outside of your own website, they won’t trust you. The bottom line if that if you don’t make a good first impression digitally, you will lose business—and that’s not just my opinion, it’s backed up by research from Stanford University.

Now, I need to point out that these are subconscious decisions. Most people are not looking at your website and saying “Hmmm…these guys just bought a $50 WordPress theme instead of paying a professional web designer, so I don’t think they’re very serious about their business.” It’s more of an adaptation of our natural survival instincts, so instead of seeing a wolf and instinctively going into flight or fight mode, today we see a company that makes a poor first impression and we instinctively distrust them because they appear more likely to be incompetent or fraudulent. Once that impression is made, it’s hard to overcome.

So knowing that prospective customers will make a split second, instinctive decision about your company based on their first impression, how can you stack the deck in your favor?

The first step is to ensure that your logo and website is professionally designed, clearly conveys what you do, why customers should choose you, and is updated regularly with useful and original articles. Next, make sure your social media profiles are branded consistently and active. And finally, take steps to earn positive reviews from customers and media coverage.

Customers will make an instant, but usually lasting, decision about your company based on their first impression, but they’ll also make an instant decision about your competitors, so this is a great opportunity to earn an advantage over competitors.

We all want to produce content that’s so amazing that our audience—our target market, can’t help but share it, giving us tons of free exposure, but creating that content often seems easier said than done.

I think it’s safe to say we’ve all produced content that seemed like it was destined to go viral—right up until you hit the publish button, at which point, it fizzled out like cheap fireworks you bought at a roadside stand. The few paltry shares you received certainly didn’t  feel worth the effort.

Sound familiar? Don’t feel bad. It’s happened to the best of us.

I have personally invested countless hours away from my family writing massive blog posts that went nowhere. I conducted meticulous research, compiled valuable data that was unavailable elsewhere, cited useful and relevant resources, and then painstakingly edited my posts. I even took the time to craft creative and unique images to use within the posts.

But when I clicked “publish” I was met with, well…nothing.

I thought “There must be something wrong!” as I repeatedly refreshed the page waiting for the share counts to increase. I would often even head over to Facebook and Twitter to see if I could find anyone talking about the article, only to be met with more disappointment.

Contrary to what some people think, producing amazing content—the kind that people will eagerly share, is not guess work, and it’s certainly not luck. It’s a combination of great storytelling, self interest (theirs, not yours), and consistency.

Tell a story worth hearing

Producing effective content depends on connecting with people emotionally, and to be blunt, most people suck at it. Don’t get me wrong—they’re great at connecting face to face or over the phone, but when they write a blog post their personality suddenly disappears and they come off as cold, impersonal, and technical. That may be fine when you’re writing an instruction manual for a toaster, but it’s devastating when you’re writing a blog post.

Don’t just tell your audience what they need to know, but instead, paint a mental picture in their heads that is so vivid that they can see, hear, feel, smell, and even taste the experience! Make them feel like they are experiencing it along with you. Be creative, be descriptive, and above all, be interesting.

Instead of simply presenting the facts, share you story of how you came to a specific conclusion, what you or someone else had to overcome to achieve a goal, or what you learned from a particular experience. According to  Annie Murphy Paul, author of Brilliant: The New Science of Smart, when you engage with your audience through storytelling, you’ll activate the neurons in their brains as if they were performing the activities in your story themselves.

Make it about the audience

A lot of people struggle with this concept because they want to produce content that’s all about them. I have an ongoing battle over this topic with a great client who we’ve worked with for about a decade now. The former owner is still involved in the business, and he’s an older guy, so I have to remind him often that digital marketing doesn’t work the way he thinks it should.

Every so often, he would insist that we need to write a bunch of blog posts telling everyone how they are the best, first, biggest, etc., and I would have to remind him that simply does not attract anyone’s attention.

People are busily going about their day feeling short on time already, so they will tune out any self centered marketing with zero hesitation. You can certainly work details about the benefits of working with you subtly into your content, but the overall topic absolutely must be useful to your audience.

But this wasn’t just my opinion. Since we track and analyze all of their website traffic, I knew exactly which posts performed well, and which ones were ignored, and that data enabled me to prove my position.

So how do you produce the kind of content your audience will care about? Let’s look at a hypothetical home builder in Tampa, Florida to see how to implement this tactic in the real world. Some potential topics that would resonate with their audience—home buyers, might include:

• How to prepare your home for a hurricane
• 5 tips to save money on your electric bill this summer
• Which home remodeling projects have the biggest impact on home value
• How to host the perfect backyard cook out
• 7 home improvement projects you can do without a contractor

Be consistently prolific

Think about your own Facebook feed for a moment—do you always see the exact content you want from your friends, family, and favorite pages, or is your feed filled with a bunch of seemingly random and chaotic noise?

It’s not just you. Everyone today is buried in noise from family, friends, and marketers alike, and if you want to rise above it all to get their attention, you need to consistently produce original and useful content. This enables you to create brand awareness while increasing the likelihood of being in front of potential customers when they’re ready to make a buying decision.

The first step here is to consistently produce amazing content, both on your own website and on other, authoritative publications. This serves two purposes:

1. It gives your audience valuable insight into your knowledge, experience, and personality.
2. It gives you valuable content to share on social media to help build brand awareness and authority.

This doesn’t mean that you need to produce a certain amount of content each month—what it means is that you need to set a consistent schedule to produce new content, and then stick with it. People will get used to seeing it and will begin to expect it. For example, I typically post once per month on my own blog, Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal and a couple more relevant, authoritative websites. That’s amounts to at least five articles every single month.

Your situation and industry may be completely different, and one article each month might be plenty, or five articles each month might be the bare minimum. You’ll need to evaluate what the leaders in your industry are doing, and then determine the best plan. It’s critical to never let quality take a backseat to volume though, because no one will share average content.

 

 

Before we get into all the juicy details that I’m going to share in this article, I’m going to first share some backstory that will provide important context here. A few years ago, I had some crazy health issues that had me in the emergency room a minimum of once a week for about a year, and nearly killed my business. Now, given the fact that I’m a Marine Corps veteran, I did what Marines are known for doing—I embraced the suck and pushed through it.

Today, a little over three years later, I’m still working to resolve the health issues, but my business is back in hyper growth mode. Unfortunately, the stagnation meant I was starting over almost from scratch. Because during that time, I was recovering at home while doing everything I could to support my existing clients, I wasn’t pursuing new clients or media exposure. As a result, we suffered significant downsizing during that three year period.

We have a saying in the Marine Corps:

Adapt, improvise, and overcome.

In our world, that means no excuses. You find a way to achieve your objective no matter what. So long before a more rational person probably would have, I forced myself back into the world to rebuild my company. This meant guest posting all over the place, seeking every PR opportunity I could find, being interviewed on numerous podcasts, networking, conducting sales calls, and everyone’s favorite—public speaking.

It was my most recent public speaking engagement where I was painfully reminded just how rusty I had become. No surprise though—having nearly zero human interaction for three years will do that to you. The group I spoke to was 2-3 times larger than other groups I had recently spoken to, and admittedly, I was probably a bit under prepared. I felt nervous and I’m certain that was evident. Here’s the thing—none of that mattered.

It started off badly, but every so often, I would find myself falling back into my flow. The audience became engaged, asking questions and frantically scribbling notes. I would fall out of my flow, then back in again, over and over.

I was the expert and this was all brand new information for them, so they were focused on that, not my ums and ahs. This point was reinforced the following morning while cringing at the recollection of my presentation, when I realized that I remembered some of the information that the other presenters shared, but I couldn’t recall anything about their delivery. None of that mattered.

What mattered in the short term is that I showed up and presented valuable information that the audience could implement tomorrow as a powerful weapon against their competition. What matters in the long term is that I continue showing up, presenting valuable information, and consistently  improving.

Digital marketing works the same way. You’re going to suck at first. Do it anyway because you’re probably better than you give yourself credit for, and each time you do it, you’ll get a little bit better.

Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly–until you can learn to do it well.

—Zig Ziglar

Every piece of content you produce, whether it’s a blog post, podcast, or video, will help build your expertise, authority, and trust in the eyes of your prospects, as well as develop brand recognition through repetition. It also helps you to build an arsenal of useful content to drive social shares and organic search traffic.

Do you know the best way to eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Likewise, the best way to market your company online is one piece of content at a time. Over time, it all adds up.