Love it or hate it but you can’t ignore it. Internet marketing has become an essential part of marketing for small businesses.
I have a separate category for Social Media Books even if there is some mention here.
How The Internet Is Vital To Business Owners
The entire relationship between buyer and seller has swung in favour of the buyer since the Internet was popularised.
Sellers and specifically their salespeople used to be the source of product information beyond catalogues and other marketing promotions. Customers had to make contact early in the buying process.
Now so much information is available on the Internet from the sellers themselves and, often more importantly from other buyers via review websites and social media.
Businesses have four specific issues:
1) Being found when potential buyers are looking. This means getting a good enough place in the search engines from pay per click campaigns and search engine optimisation and then earning the click.
2) Winning preference when people land on your website by appearing different from competitors when Google shows you and many of your closest competitors just a couple of clicks away.
3) Maintaining contact and building a relationship with email and social media.
4) Reputation management through review websites and social media.
Beware Of Expensive Courses
I’ve spent a lot of money over the years with the “internet gurus”, some of it wisely, too much of it not. They have mastered marketing and there is a lot of pressure to buy.
At the time, I never considered how much I could learn from a £10 or £20 book because of the sense that things were so new and changing fast.
The Internet isn’t new and although things can change quickly, it’s been a while since the earth moved and we have only seen modifications and tweaks.
The Best Books On Internet Marketing
You will only see the books I’ve rated at Four Stars (meaning good and well worth reading) and Five Stars (excellent and very highly recommended). Reviews of lower rated books appear on Amazon.co.uk but I haven’t brought the reviews across to my own website.
If you read my reviews, you’ll see I try to explain why I like them but also to identify any weaknesses. My job as a reviewer is to help you to find the most appropriate books rather than to help sell more books.
On that note, if you do decide to buy, I’d appreciate it if you could click through to Amazon on my links as (hopefully) I’ll earn a small referral commission.
Some of these books can be very expensive so, if you’re happy with a hard back or paperback book, take a look at the second hand options on Amazon. Personally I only buy if the condition is described as “As New” or “Very Good” unless I’m really keen and forced to drop down to “Good”.
One word of warning when you get to Amazon. Look at the year a book was published. This can be a fast moving area, for example when Google introduced the Panda and Penguin algorithm changes which, as far as they were concerned, penalised web spam and which as far as I was concerned, penalised people for using search engine optimisation.
This ageing process is one reason why there are a lot of bad Internet marketing books. The other is the vast number of people interested enough to self-publish Kindle books without any kind of quality control or editing process.
The Amazon reviews are an important guide but all it takes is for a few friends of the author to write five star reviews and you could be looking at a misleading picture. You can sometimes tell if this has happened when the reviews are barbell shaped – heavy at both ends but with little in the middle.
Five Star Books On Internet Marketing
Invisible Selling Machine by Ryan Deiss
This book explains how to build an email marketing campaign. You’ve seen it done to you, this is written by someone who excels at doing it.
Four Star Books On Internet Marketing
Books On Copywriting & Persuasion for Websites
How to Write Magnetic Headlines by Copyblogger Media
The Persuasion Slide by Roger Dooley
How to Write Seductive Web Copy by Henneke Duistermaat
Mindcontrolmarketing.Com by Mark Joyner
Launch by Jeff Walker
Books On Email Marketing
Break Through Business Growth Barriers by Darran Hughes
Ask by Ryan Levesque
Book On Social Media (there is also a specialist social media page)
Social Media Marketing Workbook by Jason McDonald
Books On Pay per Click Search Engine Marketing
How to Get Selling on AdWords Fast! by Claire Jarrett
Google AdWords by Ray L. Perry and Phil Singleton
Google AdWords for Beginners by Corey Rabazinski
Books On Search Engine Optimisation ( SEO )
Frugal Business Owner’s Guide to DIY Local SEO by Keith O’Brien
SEO 2017 & Beyond by Andy Williams
Other Internet Marketing Books
Niche Marketing Expert by Gary Booth
Hidden Profits by Richard Legg
Changing the Channel by Michael Masterson and MaryEllen Tribby
Upsells Unleashed by Veena Prashanth
Other Categories Of Business Books Which May Interest You
Business Planning – Business Start-Up –Coaching – Copywriting – Getting Unstuck – Inner Game – Internet Marketing – KPI & Performance Measurement – Marketing – Marketing Psychology – Persuasion – Pricing – Profit Improvement – Social Media – Systems – Understanding Buyers
Paul Simister is a business coach who helps business owners who are stuck, get unstuck. If your business is based in the UK, you can have a free Business SOS consultation with me to help you get unstuck.
