The best marketing books

The best marketing books start with This Is Marketing by Seth Godin, the clearest all-round introduction for founders and new marketers, and How Brands Grow by Byron Sharp, for marketers who want evidence about how brands really grow. For a practical, up-to-date guide to clarifying your message, the newer Building a StoryBrand 2.0 is the pick.

How we picked

These picks were researched from public information: publisher catalogue pages, Open Library and Wikipedia records, university sources and published reviews. Nobody at Sales Loves Marketing read the books for this update. We kept the strongest titles from the original list, added classics on positioning, persuasion and brand growth, and added two well-regarded books from 2023 and 2025. For each book we checked the author, the year it first came out and the current edition.

1. This Is Marketing

This Is Marketing by Seth Godin was published by Portfolio in November 2018. It sums up Godin's view that good marketing solves other people's problems through empathy and trust rather than interruption. It covers deciding who a product is for and who it is not for, earning permission, the role of tension in buying decisions and how marketing connects to status and the stories people tell themselves.

It suits founders, small business owners and new marketers who want a way of thinking before they pick tactics. It also stands in for Godin's earlier Permission Marketing from the old version of this site, since it covers the same idea of earning permission in a wider frame.

The 2018 Portfolio edition runs 288 pages and is available in hardcover, ebook and audio.

2. How Brands Grow

How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don't Know by Byron Sharp was published by Oxford University Press in 2010. Sharp is a professor of marketing science at the University of South Australia's Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, and the book presents the institute's research on how people buy. It is best known for the ideas of mental and physical availability and for putting penetration, reaching more buyers, ahead of loyalty.

It suits brand and performance marketers, and marketing leaders who want evidence to test common beliefs about targeting and loyalty. The institute says these ideas now shape how many brands operate.

Sharp and Jenni Romaniuk followed it with How Brands Grow: Part 2 in 2015.

3. Influence

Influence by Robert Cialdini, a psychologist at Arizona State University, was first published in 1984. It sets out six principles of persuasion: reciprocation, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority and scarcity.

It suits marketers writing offers, landing pages and campaigns, and it works just as well for salespeople, because every principle applies to both.

Harper Business published Influence, New and Expanded in May 2021. It adds a seventh principle, unity, with a 73-page chapter. Arizona State's business school describes the book as a five-million-copy bestseller.

4. Positioning

Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout was published by McGraw-Hill in 1981. It grew out of articles the two wrote for Industrial Marketing in 1969 and Advertising Age in 1972. Its subject is how a product earns a clear place in the buyer's mind relative to its competitors.

It suits founders and product marketers deciding how to describe what they sell and against whom. Wikipedia notes that marketing scholars dispute that Ries and Trout invented the idea of positioning, but credits them with making it famous.

McGraw-Hill reissued the book in 2001.

5. Made to Stick

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath was published by Random House in January 2007. It explains why some ideas are remembered and others fade, using six principles that spell SUCCESs: simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional and stories.

It suits marketers, copywriters and salespeople who need a message to stick, and anyone who presents ideas for a living. It appeared on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists, and The Guardian's reviewer called it smart and lively.

Random House still sells the 2007 edition, at 336 pages, in hardcover, ebook and audio.

6. Contagious

Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger, a marketing professor at the Wharton School, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2013. It sets out six reasons people share things, known as STEPPS: social currency, triggers, emotion, public, practical value and stories. Berger argues that most word of mouth happens offline and that the message matters more than the messenger.

It suits marketers planning word-of-mouth, referral or content campaigns. It was a New York Times bestseller and is kept from the original list. For background, see our glossary entry on word-of-mouth marketing and our guide to buzz marketing.

Open Library lists Simon & Schuster editions from 2013, 2014 and 2016. Berger's newer book, Magic Words, came out in 2023.

7. Building a StoryBrand 2.0

Building a StoryBrand 2.0: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller was published by HarperCollins Leadership on 7 January 2025. The publisher calls it a fully revised and updated version of Miller's original Building a StoryBrand, which it says sold more than one million copies. It goes deeper into the seven story elements of Miller's messaging framework.

It suits founders, small business owners and marketers rewriting a website, sales deck or email sequence who need a simple messaging template. It was added because it is the current edition of a widely used framework, and our StoryBrand framework guide explains the basics.

The 2025 edition is available in hardcover, ebook and an audiobook narrated by Miller.

8. The Illusion of Choice

The Illusion of Choice: 16½ psychological biases that influence what we buy by Richard Shotton was published by Harriman House on 28 March 2023. It covers biases such as the peak-end rule and the power of precise numbers, drawing on academic research, advertising campaigns and Shotton's own field experiments.

It suits marketers and copywriters who want practical behavioral science they can test in their own campaigns. It was added as a newer, research-based guide to buyer psychology and replaces Buyology from the old list. Our article on neuromarketing covers related ground.

The paperback runs 216 pages, with ebook and audio editions. It follows Shotton's earlier book, The Choice Factory.

9. Epic Content Marketing

Epic Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi was first published by McGraw-Hill in September 2013. It sets out a step-by-step plan for using storytelling and useful content to build trust with customers and position a business as an expert in its field.

It suits content marketers and marketing leads building an audience-first program. It is kept from the original list because it now has a fully revised edition.

McGraw Hill published the second edition, co-written with Brian W. Piper, in early 2023. The publisher says it adds subscriptions and audience building, the creator economy, content entrepreneurship and data-driven decisions, along with sections on Web3 topics such as NFTs and Discord communities.

10. The 1-Page Marketing Plan

The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, and Stand Out from the Crowd by Allan Dib was first self-published in 2016. It turns a marketing plan into a single page of nine boxes across three phases: before someone is a lead (target market, message, media), while they are a lead (capture, nurture, convert) and after they become a customer (delivery, lifetime value, referrals).

It suits small business owners and solo founders who need a plan they can fill in on one sheet. It is kept from the original list as a hands-on planning book.

The book has been reprinted several times since 2016, most recently in a 2025 paperback from Authors Equity.

11. DotCom Secrets

DotCom Secrets by Russell Brunson, CEO and co-founder of the funnel software company ClickFunnels, was published by Morgan James in 2015. It argues that low traffic and weak conversion usually point to a deeper problem with the sales funnel, and it offers funnel structures, frameworks and scripts drawn from Brunson's own split tests.

It suits businesses that sell directly online, such as coaches, course creators and online stores. Keep in mind that the author also sells funnel software when weighing its advice.

Hay House published an updated edition in 2020, and a Hay House India edition followed in March 2026.

Where to go next

For the sales side of the same skills, see our list of the best books about selling and the best sales books of all time. Founders can continue with the best entrepreneurship books. To put the reading into practice, start with how to get started with growth hacking or our guide to improving your content marketing.