Building a StoryBrand
Donald Miller
A messaging framework based on how stories work. Miller argues that customers ignore confusing brands and shows how to rewrite your website and pitch around the customer's story.
First published 20177 books in this topic
Marketing and Sales Books for Startups
A good product with unclear positioning sells slowly. These marketing and sales books cover how to position a product, tell a story customers remember, get people talking and build a repeatable sales process.
Founders selling to businesses get the most from Obviously Awesome, Crossing the Chasm and Predictable Revenue. Consumer founders will find Contagious and This Is Marketing closer to their world.
The oldest book here is Crossing the Chasm (1991); the newest is Obviously Awesome (2019).
Contagious
Jonah Berger
A Wharton marketing professor explains why some products, videos and ideas spread by word of mouth while others vanish, and turns his research into six principles anyone can use.
First published 2013Crossing the Chasm
Geoffrey A. Moore
The classic guide to the gap between enthusiastic early adopters and cautious mainstream buyers. Moore shows how to win one niche completely and use it to reach the wider market.
First published 1991Obviously Awesome
April Dunford
A practical guide to product positioning from a veteran tech marketer. Dunford gives a team process for defining who your product is for, what it replaces and which market frame makes it look obvious.
First published 2019Predictable Revenue
Aaron Ross and Marylou Tyler
The book behind the sales development rep role. Ross explains how Salesforce split prospecting from closing and built an outbound process that brought in new business month after month.
First published 2011Sell Like Crazy
Sabri Suby
A direct-response marketing playbook from the founder of an Australian digital agency. Suby shows how to attract strangers with free content, nurture them and turn them into paying customers.
First published 2019This Is Marketing
Seth Godin
Godin's most complete book on marketing as a generous act. He argues that you should pick a small group of people, understand what they believe and make something that changes things for them.
First published 2018Free Fe/male Switch tools for this topic
- Marketing Plan GeneratorFree F/MS tool
- Digital Marketing moduleFree F/MS Startup School module
- Social Media 101 moduleFree F/MS Startup School module
- 100 SEO methods for startupsF/MS SEO directory
- Content and search methodsStep-by-step guide on a sister F/MS directory
- Go-to-market validation SOPsStep-by-step guide on a sister F/MS directory
Other startup book topics
Startup methodsLean Startup, customer development, design sprints and business model tools.Customer validationCustomer interviews, experiments and proof that people will pay.StrategyWhere to compete, how to win and how platforms and monopolies work.Disruption and technologyDisruption theory, AI-era companies, DevOps and creative confidence.Founder storiesMemoirs and histories that show what building a company feels like.Leadership and managementHiring, goals, culture and leading a team through hard calls.Mindset and habitsHabits, decision-making, resilience and designing a working life.Money and fundingCash flow, term sheets, investors and selling your company.Product and growthProduct discovery, habit-forming products, traction channels and scaling.Women and inclusive foundersAdvice, stories and money talk for women and underrepresented founders.Business skillsHow a business works, negotiation, persuasion and startup ecosystems.
Or browse the full directory of 100 startup books.