“What’s your favorite marketing book?”
Asking this question is a technique I’ve learned through my limited experience interviewing young individuals who want a job in the marketing field.
In most interviews, interviewees will tell you what you want to hear: how dedicated they are, their achievements, and what they can do.
Nobody really tells the truth. Why would they, of course?
Here’s what asking the candidate (or agency) you’re about to hire what their favorite book is will reveal:
- Their marketing stance. Where do they stand on marketing? Who influences them? Do they subscribe to pushy, hustle-type marketing tactics? Or do they subscribe to permission marketing? This will affect the kind of work they do.
- Are they really into marketing? Marketing is tough work. It’s not something you learn by making a few posts for social media or running a few Facebook ads. It’s something you learn through experience, failing and doing it again and again. The best marketers I know are also learners. And one of their biggest sources of learning is books.
- Are they hungry learners? Marketing changes rapidly. New strategies, new platforms, and new behaviors crop up every day. An effective marketer is constantly figuring out what’s working. And that means they have to be learners.
5 best recent reads on marketing
And since we’re on the topic of reading, here are 5 marketing books that have made an impact to the way I approach marketing:
- The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing – Revisit this anytime you get stuck with marketing
- 1-Page marketing plan – Allan Dib borrows ideas from a few greats and makes marketing simple.
- All Marketers are Liars – This one is a book I still keep around to flip about.
- The Ultimate Sales Machine – A classic, which you’ll find ideas borrowed by nearly every modern marketer.
- Alchemy – A surprising book that tells you throwing money at a problem isn’t always the answer. Creativity and strategic thinking is.
