9 Marketing Books to Read Before Q1 Ends

Simply put, marketers comprise an impressively busy population. With a perpetually incomplete to do list, an eternal quest for work-life balance, and ongoing efforts to keep up with the latest creative trends, where the heck are we supposed to find time to do something like, say, read a book?

But something that might seem recreational on the surface could actually be vital to your career development. Maybe that's why, despite the perpetual time crunch, 73% of us have still made time to read an actual book in the past year.

Even better, there's a veritable plethora of books available on marketing, specifically, and some of them can be quite influential. The question is: When you're already short on time, how do you pick out the best ones? Well, you're in luck -- here at HubSpot, we've got an entire team of marketers to make recommendations.

To answer that question, I surveyed my colleagues for their favorite marketing books, and selected the five most influential ones to read this quarter. So go ahead -- sit back, relax, and learn something.

9 Marketing Books to Read This Quarter

1) Contagious: Why Things Catch On, by Jonah Berger

Amazon | 800-CEO-READ | Barnes & Noble

Source: Jonah Berger

Chelsea Hunersen, Social Media Marketing Manager:

I tell everyone I work with to read this book. It's all about the spread of ideas, which I think applies to many areas of business. Working in social marketing, my goal is to get people to share our content, so Contagious has a large number of practical applications in helping understand social behavior."

Read This Book If You:

• Want to boost the virality of your content.
• Are curious to learn more about word-of-mouth marketing.
• Would like to see marketing examples from SMBs that have gone viral.

2) Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content, by Ann Handley

Source: Tom Writes A Book

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble | iBooks

Sophia Bernazzani, Staff Writer, HubSpot Marketing Blog:

Handley’s book provides helpful and super-actionable tips for writing great content, and she practices what she preaches. Each tip is clear, concise, and memorable."

Read This Book If You:

• Are looking for a hybrid of a "writing guide" and "handbook on the rules of good sportsmanship in content marketing."
• Are a journalist who wants to learn how to write on behalf of a brand.
• Are a marketer who wants to learn how to generally enhance your editorial skills.

3) Different : Escaping the Competitive Herd, by Youngme Moon

Amazon | Penguin Random House | Barnes & Noble | 800-CEO-READ | Books-A-Million | IndieBound

Source: Amazon

Janessa Lantz, Principal Content Marketing Strategist, ThinkGrowth.org:

Differentiation is the most important and least talked about marketing principle. Marketers obsess over how good we are compared to our competition, we obsess about how to 'keep up.' But according to YoungMe Moon, the magic is in being recognizably and remarkably different. And she has the case studies to show you how to do it."

Read This Book If You:

• Are a marketer who isn't that into business books -- this one is more conversational.
• Want to achieve continuous uniqueness -- both personally and in your work -- to sustainably stand out in a competitive market.
• Would like to learn how to leverage the criticism you've received to improve your marketing.

4) Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, by Nir Eyal

Amazon | iBooks | Online Course

Source: ABDUZEEDO

Eric Peters, Growth at HubSpot Academy:

Hooked changes the way you think about user experience, and what it means to create viral content. Eyal makes complex theories and observations easily understandable, and gives you insights that you'll want to put to work immediately."

Read This Book If You:

• Want to learn how to apply the principles of viral and word-of-mouth to your product marketing.
• Are looking to step up your UX efforts and knowledge.
• Are curious to learn more about the psychology of consumer behavior.

5) Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator, by Ryan Holiday

Amazon | iBooks | Barnes & Noble | 800-CEO-READ | IndieBound

Source: 250 words

Alain Buffing, Inbound Marketing Specialist:

I picked up Trust Me, I’m Lying, because I particularly enjoyed Ryan Holiday’s last book, The Obstacle Is the Way, which draws its inspiration from stoicism. Holiday did PR for American Apparel, Tim Ferris and Tucker Max, who have all been notoriously in the press within the last decade, so I thought this book would be an interesting read. Holiday gives us an inside view of the blogosphere system from a PR point-of-view, and uses his own experience as a media manipulator to explain exactly how the media really works. The book is an easy read and a good guide."

Read This Book If You:

• Want to improve your general PR knowledge and skills.
• Made a somewhat public mistake, and want to know how to fix it -- but can't afford professional help.
• Need to learn how to navigate the online media landscape (versus the traditional one).

6) Learn SEO: An On-Page SEO Tutorial, by Patrick Coombe

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | IndieBound

Source: Books Pics

Jeffrey Vocell, Principal Product Marketing Manager:

For any marketer, consultant, or agency that is looking to learn SEO for the first-time, or just get an update on all the factors that are important to SEO today, this book is a great read. It's broken up into bite-sized chunks that allow you to easily read through a chapter, and then go practice what you learned. I would recommend it for any marketer in 2017, especially as differentiating yourself and content becomes the key to attracting organic traffic."

Read This Book If You:

• Have limited knowledge of SEO, but aren't sure how to start learning.
• Don't have time to learn a lot at once, and need to master SEO in phases.
• Are looking for efficient ways to keep up with algorithms and other frequent SEO updates.

7) Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike, by Phil Knight

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | IndieBound

Source: Amazon

Isaac Moche, Education Partner Program Professor:

Shoe Dog is a must-read for any aspiring entrepreneur or business leader. Phil Knight isn't selling anything -- his weaknesses and mistakes are given equal weight to his victories. That's a rare thing in any autobiography, and rarer still in a business book. For example, Nike famously called their executive retreats 'buttface sessions.' How's that for intellectual humility in the face of success? Ultimately, it's a story of staying true to what you feel is important, told through Knight's rotating lens as an athlete, husband, parent, boss, and entrepreneur."

Read This Book If You:

• Love marketing and sports -- and have always been curious where the two intersect.
• Learn better from stories, rather than how-to or academic guides.
• Want to know how to leverage cultural phenomena to build and complement your brand.

8) Creativity, Inc., by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace

Penguin Random House |Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | IndieBound

Source: Pixar Times

Jonathan Chesney, Product Manager, HubSpot Mobile Team:

Creativity, Inc. is one of those books that makes you want to do, or be, something brilliant. Throughout his career, Ed Catmull had the confidence to empower his teammates to create the best environment, so they could produce great work together. It challenged me to always be looking for creative ways to make better products."

Read This Book If You:

• Absolutely love the Toy Story movies, and are curious to know what the heck they have to do with marketing.
• Are struggling to convince your colleagues or boss to promote a culture of creativity.
• Want to find new ways to for your team to produce unique, original work -- and how that starts with the people who comprise it.

9) No One Understands You And What To Do About It, by Heidi Grant Halvorson

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | IndieBound

Source: Amazon

Lock Whitney, Team Lead, HubSpot Customer Success Team:

This book really emphasized the high bar we must clear in order to communicate with others, and make our intentions truly known to them. Because there are so many ways for our ideas to become lost in translation, good communication requires a consistent effort to express things clearly, explicitly, and regularly. A good read for both work and personal relationships, for situations where you're simply trying to get your point across."

Read This Book If You:

• Manage or are part of a team with low morale -- better communication can fix it, with the three pillars identified by the author (trust, power, and ego).
• Are concerned that project execution and quality are suffering because of flawed communication.
• Have trouble tactfully expressing what you really think or how you really feel.

Hit the Books

Of course, depending on the voracity of your reading habits, we wouldn't expect you to get through all seven of these books in one quarter. But even picking up one, it seems, can shift your outlook on marketing, business, and perhaps even life. So go ahead -- turn the page, and let us know what you learn.

What are your must-read marketing books? Let us know in the comments.

 

http://bit.ly/2kFwTQT

How to Use Facebook Ads to Boost Your Best Content

Do you use Facebook ads? Have you considered creating Facebook ads from your top-performing organic posts? To explore how to identify and boost your best Facebook content, I interview Larry Kim. More About This Show The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It’s designed to help busy [...]

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How to Attract Talent With a Company Hashtag: 10 Inspiring Examples

It's getting harder and harder for companies to attract and retain the right people. According to the Talent Shortage Survey, 40% of global employers are unable to find the right talent for jobs that need to be done.

For this reason, many employers are looking internally to their existing team for support. According to Jobvite, employee referrals have the highest applicant to hire conversion rate: while only 7% of applicants are via employees, this accounts for 40% of all new successful hires.

Intrigued? Let's take a look at how 10 different companies are using hashtags and social media curation to attract talent.

Using Social Media to Attract Talent

According to Weber Shandwick's research, 50% of employees post messages, pictures, or videos in social media about their employer often or from time-to-time, whether they are encouraged to do so or not. What's more, 39% of employees have shared praise or positive comments online about their employer.

Source: Weber Shandwick

So whether you are there to listen to what your employees are saying or not, your company is being discussed on the web at this very minute.

Is there a way to turn those discussions into beneficial social media context, something that would help your company grow and attract best talent to your brand?

Yes. And moreover, many companies are already doing that. Instead of trying to prevent their employees from discussing them on social media, employers are turning their team voices into company social media advocates by encouraging them to freely share their workspace experience.

And what's a better way to make sense of social media noise than a well-branded hashtag? We live in the hashtag-driven society. Hashtags have the power to fuel marketing campaigns, address healthcare issues, and report breaking news. 

Creating and promoting a company's brand hashtag can help you achieve many marketing goals. Apart from talent branding, a company-wide hashtag:

• Promotes your brand
• Builds employee loyalty
• Nurtures employee advocacy
• Builds more content

So let's take a look at a few companies that are taking advantage of hashtags as a way to attract top talent, keep existing employees happy and engaged, and show off their culture. 

10 Examples of Brands Successfully Using Company Hashtags

1) Cisco

Cisco is very vocal about its talent branding efforts blogging about its goals and results. The #WeAreCisco hashtag is popular on Twitter but where it's really shining is Snapchat. Cisco claims to have had nearly 3 million minutes viewed and a 600% follower increase in the four months since they started the channel.

Cisco Talent Brand Social Team manages the account controlling the shared calendar where the employees can sign up for whatever day/topic they would like. There's not much control over the team because Snapchat is where doing it "your own way" is preferred.

Apart from the main #WeAreCisco hashtag, the company introduced the hashtag #CiscoLife to encourage employees to tweet about their workplace experience. Not to mention the campaign it spun up around the hashtag #IChoseCisco where team members were encouraged to post photos and stories about why they chose Cisco.

The results were astounding. Cisco grew its Twitter followers by 400% in six months. 

2) Target

Target launched the #TargetVolunteers hashtag on Instagram to share photos of its team's volunteering efforts.

After it launched, Target employees began to use it to highlight company values:

The photos shared using the hashtag do a great job of telling a brand story that focuses on teamwork and the company's commitment to impacting the community. 

3) Zappos

Zappos employee advocacy program is one of the oldest, going all the way back to 2008. In fact, the folks at Zappos used to hold a bi-weekly tweet chat discussing company values using the #InsideZappos hashtag. This effort allowed the company to curate discussions around Zappos careers and highlight team members through interviews.

While the tweet chat is no longer active, the #InsideZappos hashtag is still alive being used to broadcast company events:

The company is also encouraging the use of another branded hashtag -- #ZapposCulture --which employees are actively using on Instagram to share photos of company trips and workplace experiences.

4) LinkedIn

LinkedIn encourages its employees to openly share their job experience on Twitter using the #LinkedInLife hashtag. The hashtag is also very popular on Instagram.

And #LinkedInLife is obviously working well: Employees even use it to leave excited reviews on Glassdoor. There's even an entire post sharing how employees' personal testimonials curated through the #LinkedInLife hashtag made LinkedIn Leila Uslander's #1 employer of choice. 

"Your employees voices are influencing your future talent. Amplifying their voices about what life is like inside your doors will set you apart," Uslander explained in the post. 

5) TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor uses Twitter and Instagram to encourage employees to share their company values and grow the global team using the hashtag #GoTripAdvisor.

#GoTripAdvisor is also used for employee meetups, as well as on the official blog where employees are invited to share their personal stories.

6) Starbucks

When the massive earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, the American Starbucks team launched another hashtag -- #SupportJapanPartners -- to show support for Starbucks team members in Japan.

#SupportJapanPartners soon evolved into a global tradition to connect to teams overseas and spread support, greetings, and encouragement. As a result, the #ToBeAPartner hashtag was born, connecting Starbucks employees all around the world -- and #ToBeAPartner social channels have become a mirror of employees' lives in cities around the world

The ongoing social effort includes storytelling, photos, and short video vignettes of partners talking about their shared experiences and what it means to be a partner at Starbucks. The hashtag currently boasts an impressive 672,339 posts on Instagram:

7) Microsoft

Microsoft uses the #MicrosoftLife hashtag to curate Microsoft employees' content, as well as local company meetups to keep an eye on.

It's also used to promote "Microsofties'" stories published on the official blog:

8) Adobe

The #AdobeLife hashtag provides an inside look into, well ... Adobe life. Adobe employees seem to be highly engaged, especially on Instagram where they share all kinds of content on a daily basis.

The #AdobeLife hashtag can even be found on the company blog homepage, where it features a peak into the Adobe Twitterverse. 

9) NPR

At NPR, employees share photos and notes highlighting what it's like to work there using the hashtag #NPRLife. 

NPR also uses a separate Twitter account -- @nprlife -- to retweet employees' tweets and keep them all under one roof.

10) Dell

Dell encourages employees to share their working experience using the #IWorkForDell hashtag.

Dell employees share everything from their day-to-day working routine, fun facts, and job appreciation on Twitter and Instagram.

Over to You

Do you feel inspired? If you're considering launching your own talent branding hashtag to spread your company values, build brand loyalty and attract new talent, the following tools may be a huge help in getting you started.

Slack

Slack is a great tool for encouraging internal dialogue and video/photo sharing. By starting a channel dedicated to social sharing, it'll be easy for employees generate more visibility around their posts containing the hashtag:

DrumUp

DrumUp is an employee advocacy platform that allows team members to share and re-share each other's photos on multiple social media channels. Simply add your employees under one umbrella account and let them access company and team members' shares. With DrumUp Leaderboard it's easy to setup monthly contests awarding the most active or creative employees tweeting the company hashtag:

You can also import your blog feed there to encourage your employees to share and schedule your company updates.

Yotpo

Yotpo is a social media curation platform that helps you publicize social media updates to your blog. It's particularly useful for Instagram.

Search your company hashtag inside Yotpo dashboard, pick updates you want to feature on your blog, and publish them to the installed Yotpo widget with one click:

Cyfe

Use Cyfe to archive hashtag results. Just install a new Twitter search widget and set it up to archive your company hashtag. Over time you'll be able to access the archive or export it to find more active employees or find a quote to feature as an employee testimonial.

Do you have any more great examples of how companies use hashtags to attract talent? Please share them in the comments.

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7 Core Services Your Agency Needs to Offer in 2017 [Free Guide]

Inbound marketing and sales continue to have a massive impact on the way busineses market themselves and sell their products. More companies than ever before are opting for agencies that offer a full-funnel range of inbound services.

So what specific services does your agency need to offer in 2017 to stay on top of shifting client demands?

Get prepared for a profitable year with our free guide: The 7 Core Services of Inbound Marketing and Sales. To help your agency win new deals and deepen relationships with exisiting clients, we outline the services you need to succeed. 

When you build out your firm's capabilities to reflect the core services of inbound marketing and sales, your agency will be poised to capitalize on the emerging needs of businesses who have moved their marketing dollars online.

The ROI businesses get from inbound marketing and sales is extremely compelling for clients. So too are the opportunities for marketing agencies who develop services packages to deliver inbound work. 

In fact, 73% of HubSpot’s Agency Partners reported seeing an increase of 2X or more in revenue after expanding their offerings to include both marketing and sales services.

Is your agency ready to take on 2017 with the right tools and services to help your clients succed?

Access the 7 Core Services of Inbound Marketing and Sales guide here, and start producing (and proving) better ROI for your clients.

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How to Write Effective Job Ads for Your Hiring Funnel

What's so hard about writing an online job ad?

On the surface, it seems simple enough. Just describe the job's responsibilities, label it with the role you're hiring for, and post the ad. While that strategy might get you a few results, there are some best practices that can maximize your ad's views and clicks. In turn, that can help attract the best candidates.

But how do you do that? 

We've outlined five tips to help you write the most effective job ads. Starting with a look at how candidates search for jobs, we've uncovered how something like the title -- which might seem simple in theory -- can actually have a profound impact on your hiring funnel.

How Do Candidates Search for Jobs?

With job boards like Indeed, Glassdoor, Snagajob, and Proven, candidates typically begin the application process with a search for terms relevant to their desired positions. When results appear, they're reviewed quickly. In fact, you have about eight seconds to hold someone's attention, which we estimate is about how long it takes for a candidate to decide if the description is good fit. 

The image below outlines the basic flow and decisions made during a candidate’s search process. Each decision point, shown in green, is a potential lost opportunity with a strong candidate.

With that in mind, there are actionable strategies you can start using today to reduce this kind of drop-off from your ads.

5 Tips for Effective Job Ads

1) Put the role in the title.

It might seem obvious, but you'd be surprised how many job ad titles are missing the key ingredient -- the role you're hiring for. Including it in the title is not only valuable in search, but it also helps the job seeker understand the relevance of your ad.

Many job search engines use exact matching between the search query and the job post. If the query doesn't appear in your ad title, bad news -- it probably won't show up for the candidate. You want to make the decision to click simple for the job seeker, and having an exact match between the query and your ad title is the most straightforward way to do so.

2) Use the most common terms to describe the role.

Many companies have internal language used to describe different roles -- for example, you might refer to your customer service representatives as “customer ninjas.” But think about that. Is your ideal job candidate likely to be entering a query for "ninja"?

The general population of job seekers probably isn't using terms like that to search for relevant positions. This is one place, therefore, where you can use a common set of terms -- with too much specialized language, you run the risk of hiding your job from most candidates. Keep it simple -- that'll help make your job ad as visible as possible.

3) Keep your title between 50-60 characters.

When it comes to job ad titles, go for the "Goldilocks effect" -- not too short, and not too long, but just right. 

Longer titles are likely to be cut off within search results, or trail onto a second line. But too short, and the ad title might not be detailed enough. Aim for fifty to 60 characters, or four to five words -- Ads with that quantity tend to outperform others by 30-40%.

4) Make the title stand out.

When you're deciding which words to include in your ad title, choose wisely -- while you want to match candidate queries, you also want to stand apart from the competition. That can be a challenge for hiring managers, as many job search results are almost identical.

Just look at the list of results below:

You want to do something a little different to attract the job seeker’s attention and prioritize your job ad over others. One way to do that is to include a bit of information about the role itself, your company, or the benefits. Whatever you do, though, avoid using all capital letters.

Here are some examples of an enhanced Administrative Assistant title:

• Administrative Assistant Needed -- Design Background a Major Plus
• Administrative Assistant -- Full Benefits and Gym Membership
• Administrative Assistant -- Exciting, Recently-Funded Start-Up

5) Focus on one position per job ad.

Multitasking -- sometimes, it's great. That's why it can be tempting to advertise more than one position within a single job ad. After all, you might be paying for each of these online listings, so you might as well save by consolidating, right?

Wrong -- there are some pretty negative consequences to consolidating multiple positions within one ad. First, you already only have 50-60 characters to both match with potential queries and to stand out. Imagine how much more difficult that becomes if you're trying to promote multiple positions. Chances are, you don’t have space in the title to do that effectively.

It's also just plain confusing to the candidate. The more variables involved -- in this case, the more job positions -- the less compelling your story is about the opportunity. With a rambling, unorganized description, the job seeker is likely to ask, "What the heck am I applying for?" and move on.

But the biggest drawback of all actually goes back to the search itself. If you're hiring for more than one position within a single ad, sites like Indeed won't list it in organic results. On the other hand, if you post a sponsored listing on Indeed, it will deliver free organic traffic to your ad. Depending on your budget, you might want to consider investing in features like this one -- It might help to further prevent your ad from turning into a cattle call.

Time to Maximize Your Hiring Funnel

Each decision point in a candidate's job search is a potential falling off point for your ads. Become aware of them, then optimize your ads and their titles to get the best visibility -- and, therefore, the best candidates.

When it comes to writing job ads and titles, what's worked for you? Let us know in the comments.

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The State of Video Marketing 2017 [New Data]

It seems like every year is labeled 'the year of video' by one expert or another -- but 2017 could well have the best claim yet. Of course, it's no secret that video content has become staggeringly popular. And, as with most marketing trends, the more consumers have watched, the more marketers have spent.

Brand new research released by Wyzowl suggests that video is more effective, more widely used, and more popular among consumers than ever before. The survey spanned across 311 unique respondents -- both marketing professionals and online consumers.

Some of the highlights include ...

The State of Video Marketing 2017

1) Video is helping businesses achieve key business goals.

Firstly, there was a modest year-over-year increase in usage -- 63% of businesses are now using video, compared to 61% this time last year.

But what really stood out was how these marketers felt their video had helped them achieve key business goals:

• An almost unanimous 97% said that video had helped them increase user understanding of their product or service.
• 81% linked it to a direct increase in sales.
• 76% felt that video had increased traffic to their website.
• Over half (53%) said video had helped them decreased support call volume.

83% felt that, overall, video gave them a good ROI -- which, again, compares favourably to 76% a year ago.

It looks like video will continue to become more widespread. Unsurprisingly, 99% of businesses currently using video reported that they plan to continue into 2017. And, what's more, 34% of those currently not invested in video plan to start during the coming year.

2) Video remains popular with consumers.

So, what of consumers? Well, it's little surprise that video remains incredibly popular. In fact, 79% say they'd rather watch a video to learn about a product than read text on a page -- up from 69% twelve months ago.

Indeed, video remains a potent way for consumers to find out about new products, too. 91% have watched an explainer video -- a short, elevator pitch-style introduction to a product or service. And an enormous 84% said that they'd been convinced to make a purchase after watching a brand's video.

3) New video opportunities continue to emerge.

While video adoption continues to ramp up, there are still huge opportunities for marketers who want to use video in new, interesting ways. Trends such as Facebook Live (used by 19% of marketers), Snapchat (8%), Instagram video (26%), 360 video (12%), and virtual reality (7%) are all available and within reach to marketers, but have all been slow to be adopted.

This opportunity is underlined by the fact that, in all these cases, the majority of marketers reported enjoying success with these techniques.

4) Conversational voiceover tracks are becoming more popular.

Voiceover tracks are almost omnipresent in brand videos – but we're seeing a move away from the formal 'radio voice' that's always been so widespread. A huge 83% of consumers reported finding an informal (chatty, laid back, conversational) voiceover track that communicated like a friend or family member, more relatable and persuasive than a traditional, formal voiceover.

Wrapping It Up

All the data suggests that 2017 could (at last) be the year of video. Marketers are spending more. Consumers are watching more. And the only question is: When are you getting started on your next video campaign?

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5 Ways to Analyze Your Social Media Marketing Performance

Do you want to analyze your social media marketing efforts? Wondering which metrics to focus on? Auditing key social media metrics can reveal which aspects of your social media marketing are working and provide insight into which areas you can improve upon. In this article, you’ll discover five ways to analyze the effectiveness of your [...]

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