Product Marketing is an important aspect of building a technology business. Yet it is surprising that how low is the number of books that have been written on this topic.
At Verloop, we are a small team of technology nerds working hard to automate customer support and engagement. Marketing is an exploration we are doing while simultaneously building the product. In this post, I am jotting down the list of books which heavily influence the way we are shaping our product marketing.
Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
Released in 1980 by advertising gurus Ries and Trout, this book is a classic that has stood the test of time. Book shares many case studies and penetration analysis of legendary brands and their successes and failures in advertising history.
In Search of Stupidity: Over Twenty Years of High Tech Marketing Disasters
Marketing Wizard Rick Chapman in his richly illustrated book examines the spectacular failures of the technology industry in last 20+ years. Book takes you through some of the most influential marketing philosophies that didn’t work and examines that went wrong with them. This is an excellent resource to learn from the failures and make sure that you are not repeating the same mistakes.
Four Steps to the Epiphany
Steve Blank and this book launched the Lean Startup approach for building startups. This book pioneered the idea of four-step Customer Development Process to gain insights and pinpoint the right product for a specific market. Rapid iteration, customer feedback, testing assumptions are all well explained in this books and will leave you with essential skills to build your business to success.
Priceless: The Hidden Psychology of Value
Pricing plays an important role in purchase decisions made both in personal and professional aspects of life. Priceless is a journey into behavioral economics and psychological research in the area of pricing and money. This is an indispensable book for any way to persuades customers to purchase or sits across a negotiation table.
As an MIT alum with an engineering background, Mark Roberge was best suited to break the mould of sales being an art than science. This book is all about Mark challenging conventional sales methods with a data and metric driven approach. Applying the same formula, Mark grew Hubspot from a three-person startup to an IPO with a billion dollar valuation. This book is an action plan for product marketers to learn from him and replicate his success.
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Take Hold and Others Come Unstuck
This best-selling communications book is an essential read for those responsible for creating content. Book gives numerous examples to help you create stories that are understood, remember and acted upon by people.
Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers
This is a classic that created a new game plan for marketing departments in high-tech industries. This book truly addresses the subtleties of high-tech marketing and how to bring bleeding-edge products to larger markets. Book introduces the concept of chasm in relation with new product launches and how to cross the gap between early adopters and early majority.
Would you recommend us reading any other book? Tweet to
@verloopio to let us know.
