10 Classic Copywriting Books for Results-Driven Content Marketers

10 Classic Copywriting Books for Results-Driven Content Marketers

Reader Comments (26)

  1. I’d add two, more recent, classics from the ad world: John Hegarty’s “Hegarty on Creativity: there are no rules” and Dave Trott’s “Predatory Thinking”.

    Both effortlessly achieve what so many fail to; to get you thinking ‘outside the box’.

  2. I found On Writing Well by William Zinsser a really good book about writing different forms non-fiction

  3. Great post Demian. I’ve seen this list time and time again posted in various websites. Definitely classics. I’ve read all of these except Influence but plan to soon. I would include “The Greatest Direct Mail Sales Letters of All Time” by Richard S. Hodgson. This is an excellent compendium of successful sales letters worth studying. Thanks for your fine post!

  4. *Made To Stick*
    I haven’t read any of these on this list, so I don’t know how it compares, but Made To Stick is a great read on how to make people remember what you told them long after you told them. It’s good for speakers and teachers especially, but since a content marketer is a teacher (What is your product and why do I need it?) it’s good for content marketing too.

  5. Great list! I knew of a few of the books including Robert Colliers book, but not a lot of the others as there are so many. Thank you for expanding my reading list! Can’t wait to read them.

  6. Great list! I have 6 or 7 of them on my shelf and if anyone wants to pay $400 for Breakthrough Advertising, just let me know. 🙂 Another good book is The Art of Writing Advertising, Conversations with William Bernbach, Leo Burnett, George Cribbin, David Ogilvey and Rosser Reeves. Get it here: http://www.amazon.com/Art-Writing-Advertising-Conversations-Bernbach/dp/0071410937

    I also like some of Herschell Gordon Lewis’s books, especially the ones that focus on print.

  7. Great selection!

    Those books are valuable in many ways, especially when you are looking for some innovative approaches. Claude Hopkins’s Scientific Advertising is a must-read for everyone who is about to take on a job related to advertising. This book should be read over and over for the many witty lines and paragraphs with valuable information. For me, Ogilvy, Hopkins, and Bogusky are the kings of marketing and advertising.

    I would like to recommend a book that impacted me recently: The Idea Writers: Copywriting in a New Media and Marketing Era by Teressa Iezzi. Teressa has an engaging voice. What I liked the most were the examples from real creative ad campaign challenges. The book can be valuable for creative types.

  8. Great list, and I add Cashvertising by Drew Eric Whitman to that as well, especially if you write ads for the digital space.

  9. Hey thanks for the list. Before I moved into digital, I was in radio. And Roy H. Williams, who is known as The Wizard Of Ads suggests you read books on poetry. Same thought pattern as yours here 🙂

  10. “Making Ads Pay” by John Caples.

    “Sales Letters That Sizzle” by Herschel Gordon Lewis

    “Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: The Classic Guide to Creating Great Ads” by Luke Sullivan

  11. One book I still treasure is the 1st edition of Joan Throckmorton’s “Winning Direct Response Advertising”. And from even further back, Bob Stone’s “Successful Direct Marketing Methods” was a key primer when I was starting out. There were far fewer good books around then. I don’t know if more recent editions have kept pace with digital changes but I bet they still have much to say about basic principles.

  12. I scoffed at the thought of this list of classic advertising books but when I clicked over to each amazon link it surprised the hell out of me. Every single book is rated 4 1/2 stars which in itself is not a complete rarity, it was the reviews themselves that said every single book is a must own and gospel truth. Thanks Demian I feel like you basically gave us an arsenal of wordsmith weaponry that could help small business topple larger campaigns if we go back and look to the greats who originated it all.

    • These look like some great books to read. I have also looked into Dan Kennedy. I would recommend his book The Ultimate Sales Letter to add to this list. John Carlton has a good course also. Its called The Simple Writing System. I already read the Psychology of Influence. I will have to look into some of the others. Thanks.

  13. Ann Handley “Everybody Writes”

    It is my Bible and will be a Classic!

  14. “How to Write a Good Advertisement” is the book I love best. When we write “good advertisement”, that means we have “good income”, right? And there are some books I love more are the books written by Napoleon Hill.

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