Ask HN: Marketing Books for Developers?

bhousel · on Jan 27, 2010

Steve Blank's 4 Steps to the Epiphany is a must read for all developers and entrepreneurs. Lots of great info about creating a marketing plan that fits your product and your customers. http://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Steven-Blank/dp/09...

icey · on Jan 27, 2010

4 Steps is a GREAT book, but you may want to take a Xanax before reading it if poor editing causes you to nerdrage.

archon · on Jan 27, 2010

$40 for a ~300 page book seems like a bit much. Why is this book worth 3 or 4 others combined? (no sarcasm, serious question.)

olalonde · on Jan 27, 2010

I'm currently reading it and I love it so far.

il · on Jan 27, 2010

Read some of the old direct response stuff from the last century. You'll surprised at how many similarities there are between direct mail and online. -Claude Hopkins -Robert Collier -David Ogilvy -Gene Schwartz and others.

aristus · on Jan 27, 2010

I used to work in DM, and this is very true. Not just in the analysis part, but in how to send the right signals with copywriting and design.

solost · on Jan 27, 2010

I recommend Crossing the Chasm. It is older but still relevan especially if you still find marketing a technology start up challenging.

http://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-Marketing-High-Tech-Mai...

sgdesign · on Jan 27, 2010

I didn't like that book. At least I don't think its theories apply to most projects and companies discussed here.

limist · on Jan 27, 2010

One of the best high-level but still applied and applicable books on marketing I've found is "Zag: The Number One Strategy of High-Performance Brands" by Marty Neumeier.

The author writes well, gives usable structure and advice, and walks you through his 17 step process to develop your marketing strategy, from the high level (Who are you?) to the mid-level (What do they call you? your brand name) to the details (What do they experience?). Amazingly, I found that his approach works for both large businesses (his examples), and fledgling web startups (my experience). His experience and enthusiasm also shine through.

It's a quick read, but I find I go back to it often to check if my thinking and perspective are where they need to be - that is, taking the end-user's viewpoint.

JangoSteve · on Jan 27, 2010

Not a marketing book per se, but probably the book that has had the most profound effect on my marketing efforts (and the way I communicate in general) is Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath.

Another good book I'd recommend is Hot Button Marketing by Barry Feig.

I've read quite a few others, but none that really jump out that would be a great read for someone who's not a marketing person.

endlessvoid94 · on Jan 27, 2010

"Positioning" by Ries and Trout: http://www.amazon.com/Positioning-Battle-Your-Al-Ries/dp/007...

It was THE marketing book of the 80s, and it's still extremely relevant today. It's quick read, too.

MrMatt · on Jan 27, 2010

Not sure about books, but read Creating Passionate Users by Kathy Sierra and Dan Russell: http://headrush.typepad.com/

javery · on Jan 27, 2010

I would start with the Purple Cow and Free Prize Inside by Godin, they are high level but they talk about that fact that you need to make your product exceptional instead of pouring money into marketing.

I would also check out Inbound Marketing by Halligan and Shah, I just got it and started it but so far it looks good.

tyohn · on Jan 27, 2010

I recommend: "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices" by Peter Drucker, "Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind", by Al Ries, Jack Trout and "Re-imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age" by Tom Peters. They aren't all strictly marketing books but they are awesome as well as informative.

systemtrigger · on Jan 27, 2010

I dug Made to Stick. http://madetostick.com

parka · on Jan 28, 2010

I love this book.

Not really a marketing book but the principles are really practical to lots of situations in life.

dbreunig · on Jan 27, 2010

Would anyone be interested in organizing a meetup with a panel of tech marketers to answer questions or share case-studies with hackers? Could be a fun event. Let me know and I'll dredge up some talent from my home here in the ad industry...

lanceweatherby · on Jan 27, 2010

The Green Banana Papers, Marketing Secrets For Technology Entrepreneurs is a good quick read that offers practical advice on what to do. http://bit.ly/GreenBananaPapers

redsymbol · on Jan 27, 2010

In early 2009, I got sick and tired of my incompetence with sales and marketing, and decided to learn. So I set out to learn, even if it meant sacrificing coding for a while.

Marketing (and its cousin, sales) has many facets, perhaps surprisingly many, with significant differences among them. Just like compiler implementation requires skills and knowledge different from 3D graphics coding, or secure web development, for example. At the "high end" of the marketing food chain, there are things like public relations. I personally don't know much about that yet.

Instead, I chose to focus on copywriting. Basically, the art and science of creating powerfully effective ads using only the written word. Often this means writing sales letters, i.e. several-page-long texts that sell something.

This focus has proven to be a good choice. It gives a very strong foundation that applies to other kinds of marketing and sales. For example, Adwords ads can be viewed as extremely short sales letters.

You asked specifically about books. Over the course of 2009, I worked through (not just read!) about half a dozen marketing tomes that people had recommended to me. In descending priority, my favorite three:

  * Hypnotic Writing by Joe Vitale
  * The Adweek Copywriting Handbook by Joseph Sugerman
  * Cashvertising by Drew Whitman

If you can read only three books, I'd suggest these, in the order listed. But if you can only read one, Cashvertising might actually be the best for you.

CAVEAT: Make sure you work through all the exercises the book has - and if it doesn't, invent them! Sugarman's book, for example, has few explicit reader exercises. So after each section or chapter, close the book and write an ad for your product, and/or some other product (real or imaginary), applying and exercising the principles you just learned. Use pen and paper, or better yet, a dedicated notebook. You'll miss out on at least 80% of the value of these books if you fail to do this!!

Another very good thing to do is to HAND COPY a good sales letter. Do it in long hand, on sheets of paper, with a pen or pencil. Why in the world, you ask? Because it's a powerful, powerful way to drill some of the more subtle advertising patterns into your subconscious.

Several important marketers - Dan Kennedy is one - famously recommend doing this with 100 long sales letters if you really want to manifest great skill in marketing. I've done about six of them myself, so far. Doing just the first one produced a difference in my skill that was too great to ignore.

Almost no one will do this, because it's so much work. A good solid sales letter may be ten pages, which takes me about three hours to hand copy. Let me just suggest that it's worth it, and you may want to try it out once to evaluate for yourself. Just make sure you use a GOOD (meaning, highly financially successful) sales letter - you want to make sure you ingrain good habits, not bad ones!

P.S. Cialdini and Collier are often recommended. Personally, I found less value in them. Cialdini's is good, but very, very mental and intellectual. That can be great for a typical advertising person. But most people reading this (programmers) need to be LESS mental, to grok marketing, not more. Reading even a few pages of Cialdini makes me feel "stuck in my head".

For Collier, I'm personally glad I took the time to read it, but for most people in your shoes it is probably not the first priority, and IMO not even a "must-read" at all.

EDIT: fixed formatting and a typo