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7 Content Marketing Books to Read in 2018 These must-reads will give you an edge in your online marketing efforts.

By Syed Balkhi

entrepreneur daily

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

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Content marketing is more than just about running successful campaigns and working hard to sustain business growth. It's also about innovation and finding new ways to create valuable content to attract customers.

As a content marketer, you will never be able to develop a successful marketing campaign by doing the same things you've been doing or copying your competitors. You can only stay on top by learning new strategies and experimenting with new ideas.

There's no better way to achieve this goal than by seeking advice from some of the world's leading marketers and entrepreneurs. Thankfully, you don't have to spend thousands of dollars on coaching sessions. You can use books for that.

Here are some great content marketing books to help you supercharge your marketing strategy and grow your sales.

Pre-Suasion by Robert Cialdini

You're obviously aware of the power of persuasion in marketing. Pre-Suasion by Robert Cialdini is a must-read for any marketing campaign to successfully attract leads and customers to trust a brand or a product. But, have you heard about pre-suasion?

Related: 3 Surprising Takeaways From Robert Cialdini's 'Pre-Suasion'

Dr. Robert Cialdini, one of the leading experts in persuasion and negotiation, explains in this book how to effectively persuade someone to take action by first altering their beliefs, and attitude. Before you drive someone toward your sales page, you need to persuade that person to believe in your product. This book explores that concept and beyond.

Content - The Atomic Particle of Marketing by Rebecca Lieb

Where will marketing be without content? It's the most important part of any marketing strategy. But, it's even more important for developing the right type of high-quality content to achieve successful results.

Content - The Atomic Particle of Marketing by Rebecca Lieb is a "research-based guide to content marketing" you can use to learn the importance of content and how to effectively create it. In addition, you can also recommend this book to anyone who needs to be convinced of the power of content marketing.

The Lead Machine by Rich Brooks

From creating blog posts to growing your email list, The Lead Machine by Rich Brooks covers it all. Generating leads is an important part of growing any business and converting website visitors into customers. In this book, the marketing expert Rich Brooks takes you through the necessary steps to help you get started in digital marketing.

Related: Stop Spending So Much Money on Lead Generation and Do This Instead

While you may already be aware of some of the strategies in this book, there is a lot more you can learn from this book that can be applied to your existing content marketing campaigns.

Content That Converts by Laura Hanley

Content That Converts by Laura Hanley is a great book for B2B companies looking to get out of direct selling or warming up the leads before calling. It walks you through, step-by-step, how to write persuasive copy that converts into leads.

You will also learn how to distribute the content through email and SEO to help you expand your reach.

The Road to Recognition by Seth Price and Barry Feldman

If you run a small business or a blog that uses personal branding, The Road to Recognition by Seth Price and Barry Feldman is a book you must read. It helps you understand how to use your name as a brand to grow a following and generate more sales.

The book is filled with useful actionable advice in the form of 26 lessons that you can apply to your own business to create a powerful and an effective personal brand.

Guest Blogging Goldmine by Tom Corson

Guest blogging is an important strategy in content marketing that many people overlook. Guest Blogging Goldmine by Tom Corson establishes the importance of guest blogging to get more blog readers, and in turn more customers for your product. You will learn the best strategies to search for guest blogging opportunities and how to measure their success.

Non-Obvious by Rohit Bhargava

The latest edition of the Wall Street Journal bestseller, Non-Obvious, is a book that shows you the ways to spot not-so obvious marketing trends that can help grow your marketing efforts. Marketing expert Rohit Bhargava also shows you how to develop a subtle mind to create marketing strategies that allow your business to stand out from the crowd.

Related: 18 Marketing Trends to Watch in 2018

Remember, to master marketing you also need to master the art of storytelling and connecting with customers through your content. So, don't just read marketing books. Read every other book you can get your hands on to learn and find new ideas.

Syed Balkhi

Entrepreneur, Growth Hacker and Marketer

Syed Balkhi is an entrepreneur and the co-founder of WPBeginnerOptinMonster and WPForms

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

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