Tons of over-hyped marketing books out there offer anything but value to the readers. We managed to find some of the best direct marketing books for the small business owner who has a low budget. Also, tried and highly successful marketers and business owners wrote true strategies and personal lessons.
Before deciding to buy a direct marketing book, you can refer to the reviews below to understand the core values that these 15 must-reads bring.
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Best Direct Marketing Books Reviews
The reviews below will provide you information about each book. After checking, it will be easy to figure out the book you need to read.
1. NO B.S Direct Marketing
The Ultimate No Holds Barred Kick Butt Take No Prisoners Direct Marketing For Non-Direct Marketing Businesses
By Dan S. Kenedy
Why Read?
The best point is that the strategies and historical examples are presented, helping the reader visualize direct marketing methods from the past to the present.
Thereby, it is easy for them to come up with ideas and put them into practice.
In this book, Kennedy challenges marketers to make marketing processes simple while staying focused on marketing. He also gives specific methods and plans for a marketing master plan.
He delivers a list of profit-proven and direct-mail tactics for many businesses.
However, this book includes some pitches for the author’s other books. Some are subtle, and some are not. If you don’t mind that, this book is still worth reading.
292 pages, Entrepreneur Press; 3rd edition (June 12, 2018)
Get the book (Amazon.com)
2. Getting Everything You Can Out Of All You’ve Got
21 Ways You Can Out-Think, Out-Perform, and Out-Earn the Competition
By Jay Abraham
Why Read?
Sought-after marketing expert, Jay Abraham, created this book to help you create new opportunities for wealth-building in business, enterprise, or venture. It executes through 21 ways you can out-think, out-perform, and out-earn the competition.
Jay Abraham has set up a proven tactical program to help you get there. Anyone can become more adept at spotting hidden assets, overlooked opportunities, and untapped resources around you.
The author walks you through managing your plan effectively and creating new opportunities to reach the clients for direct marketing.
384 pages, St. Martin’s Griffin; 1st edition (October 12, 2001)
Get the book (Amazon.com)
3. Successful Direct Marketing Methods
Interactive, Database, and Customer-Based Marketing for Digital Age
by Bob Stone and Ron Jacobs
Why Read?
This is one of the best-selling books in the world on how to succeed in direct marketing, and there is much wisdom to be found from the first to the last page.
Written by two experts, Bob Stone and Ron Jacobs, as the name suggests, it offers direct marketing methods that you can easily apply in the 4.0 era.
Here is a glance at what is covered in this book:
E-business: Banners, buttons, permission marketing, etc.
E-commerce: Online merchandising, usability, and navigation marketing
E-services: Online customer service, live operators, online chats, etc.
The content goes beyond marketing gimmicks to assist you in improving your direct marketing.
This book will be better if the author updates the time to get it younger than 40.
696 pages, McGraw-Hill Education; 8th edition (December 5, 2007)
Get the book (Amazon.com)
4. Dotcom Secrets
28 Virtually UNKNOWN Secrets To Grow Any Company Online With Sales Funnels
By Russell Brunson
Why Read?
The best thing about this Dotcom Secrets book is that it is the outcome of thousands of tests to bring a viable online direct marketing method to readers.
You can completely set up a marketing system and sales script to get ahead of the curve by applying the methods from this book.
Russell Brunson successfully applied them, and he is an entrepreneur starting his online company by himself. By the time he graduated, he had sold his products and services to get millions of dollars.
This book doesn’t include “how-to,” so it will not provide you a defined path for successful direct marketing strategies.
424 pages, Hay House Business (April 13, 2020)
Get the book: Amazon.com or Dotcomsecrets.com (recommend)
5. Sell Like Crazy
How to Get As Many Clients, Customers, and Sales As You Can Possibly Handle
by Sabri Suby
Why Read?
Similar Dotcom Secrets book, Sell Like Crazy, also talks about marketing funnel too. If you’re a beginner, the book is helpful for you. Inside the book, Sabri Suby shares that strategy that helps his Agency company – King Kong, grow really fast.
The strategy was used in 416 different Niches and generated more than $1.33 billion in sales.
You don’t need to graduate from marketing school to read this book. He shares a step-by-step plan and easy to understand:
How to write a headline
Create irresistible offer
HVCO
GodFather strategy
and more
395 pages, Sabri Suby; 1st edition (January 1, 2019)
Get this book (Amazon)
6. One Page Marketing Plan
Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand Out From The Crowd
By Allan Dib
Why Read?
One-Page Marketing Plan is one of the bestselling direct marketing books on Amazon at this time. The book is not just a marketing plan like others that you ever read. It’s a business plan for small companies, who have a low marketing budget.
As a small company, no one knows how good your products or services are until after the sales. Before they buy, they only know how good your marketing is. Your plan doesn’t need to have dozens of pages that you have excited to draw with very detail but never see and check again.
The One-Page Marketing Plan change the game. It’s straightforward but powerful.
Small and medium-sized businesses can stop doing random acts of marketing. Stop invest in something that didn’t work, and bring profit to your business. Your marketing message will be clear and more focused on target marketing, and the results have been amazing.
240 pages, Page Two; Reprint edition (January 25, 2021)
Get this book (Amazon.com)
7. The Advertising Solution
Influence Prospects, Multiply Sales and Promote Your Brand
By Craig Simpson
Why Read?
Experts always have a genius method to handle marketing problems and ensure the benefits they have set.
That’s why Craig Simpson and Brian Kurtz released The Advertising Solution to help readers better understand how to do direct marketing and write compelling advertising copy.
You will learn how to create brand awareness, sell products, and win customers’ hearts. Those are the basics but are essential for anyone who wants to succeed in direct marketing.
This book is among the fastest routes to learn those fundamental steps.
Some people think its method doesn’t sufficiently encourage the buyers to purchase the product immediately. You can try it to check this comment.
234 pages, Entrepreneur Press (October 17, 2016)
Get the book (Amazon.com)
8. The Boron Letters
By Gary Halbert and Bond Halbert
Why Read?
Direct marketing is an open field, and people are continuously inventing great ways to improve the direct marketing process. For Gary C. Halbert, his book is truly unique as it leads us to a strategy that is not merely selling but navigating life’s hurdles.
You will learn how to overcome obstacles and apply them in your directing marketing plan.
This strategy will remain effective even in the future 100 years because it is based on human psychology that is not likely to change. With this lesson, it’s effortless to convince buyers.
Would you mind not ignoring this book because you will surely find much interesting and useful knowledge from it?
Although this book provides less “how-to,” you’ll learn valuable lessons as long as you invest your time reading it.
148 pages, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (June 11, 2013)
Get this book (Amazon.com)
9. Marketing Made Simple
A Step-by-Step StoryBrand Guide for Any Business
By Donald Miller
Why Read?
This is one of the greatest books that famous expert Donald Miller has written.
What you get from the book is a clear process in direct marketing. You need to evaluate primary factors and direct marketing results to create a perfect strategy. Donald Miller points it all out.
Through the book, you can read more of his series, such as Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen, to get a complete vision of direct marketing for your business.
However, we found the E-mail marketing part in this book is not suitable for the trend.
209 pages, HarperCollins Leadership (March 17, 2020)
Get this book (Amazon.com)
10. Building A Story Brand
Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen
By Miller Donald
Why Read?
Donald Miller wrote Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message, so Customers Will Listen and saved many brands from losing millions of dollars. Thank him so much for helping us figure out how to convey our brand’s message to customers effectively.
You will learn how to create values and put them into meaningful messages, thereby emphasizing the brand and drawing new clients.
Donal Miller delivers one of the most effective ideas in direct marketing. In the long run, it will produce positive results and make it easier to come up with the right direct marketing strategy for your business.
You can completely trust this book because it helps you reach customers simpler and faster.
Some people think that it’s better to apply in sales. However, if you can take advantage of its knowledge for direct marketing, your plan will be outstanding.
240 pages, HarperCollins Leadership; Illustrated edition (October 10, 2017)
Get this book (Amazon.com)
11. The Ultimate Sales Letter
Attract New Customers. Boost your Sales.
By Dan S. Kenedy
Why Read?
This work is similar to The Boron Letters but with a completely different interpretation and application. Dan S. Kennedy has helped us identify new problems arising while applying direct marketing in the era of e-mail and instant communication.
This masterpiece provides us with updated sentence patterns and examples to suit the modern age, formulas for creating an attractive headline.
Moreover, he provides many exercises to sharpen the creativity of word ideas and the best way to attract customers through visuals.
This book is not an in-depth book but still provides you with a basic understanding of direct marketing.
240 pages, Adams Media; Fourth edition (February 14, 2011)
Get this book (Amazon.com)
12. Scientific Advertising
21 Advertising, Headline, And Copywriting Techniques
By Claude Hopkins
Why Read?
In the 4.0 era, direct marketing is all about using words, headlines, and copywriting techniques. Claude Hopkins researched this topic to release this book.
He clearly shows how to write copy and provides ways to test the effectiveness of different approaches. From there, calculate the performance in detail to change and improve the efficiency of the direct marketing online process.
It won’t be easy to overstate the practicality and useful knowledge that Hopkins brings. Instead, it would help if you experienced it for yourself and put it into practice to see why so many people recommend this book.
However, the context in this book is quite old, so you need to apply it creatively.
88 pages, Merchant Books; Illustrated edition (February 1, 2014)
Get this book (Amazon.com)
13. Ogilvy On Advertising
By David Ogilvy
Why Read?
There is a lot to discover in Ogilvy on Advertising Paperback written by David Ogilvy.
The important point is that he brings the reader all aspects of advertising. He helps them realize how to take advantage of direct marketing to suit their business context.
The content of this book is as below:
The secrets behind advertising that works
How to successful copywriting and attract people to read the articles
Advertising for charities
You can get a lot of useful knowledge from the book and especially have an objective view of direct marketing and sales.
This book has a minus. The physical condition is not good as it is slightly hard to read the text.
363 pages, Prion; New edition (February 13, 2014)
Get this book (Amazon.com)
14. Dare To Dream And Work To Win
Understanding Dollars and Sense of Success in Network Marketing
By Thomas Barrett
Why Read?
The highlight of this book is in The Ten Levels of Commitment. It helps you to calculate your mental clarity easily.
Through that, you can devise direct marketing strategies more effectively when you put yourself in the customer’s shoes. As a result, you understand and hit what they need.
In addition, the book also provides insights on how to create a coherent vision when building a business, which will greatly affect the direct marketing process. Below is what the book will cover:
Four Ingredients of Success
Three Stages of Growing Business
Method of creating leadership insights and growing a team.
If you are looking for a book that helps you more than direct marketing, this is a great choice. It is also the minus of this book, for the content doesn’t solely focus on direct marketing.
213 pages, Thomas J Barrett Phd; 0 edition (March 5, 1998)
Get this book (Amazon.com)
15. One Million Followers
How I Built a Massive Social Following in 30 Days
By Brendan Kane
Why Read?
To build a brand in the 4.0 era, you need to do many things, such as creating transformative content, connecting with customers through social media, etc.
How to take advantage of a social networking platform to build a global brand?
That’s the question many business owners ask, and they’ve found the answer precisely in Brendan Kane’s book One Million Followers: How I Built a Massive Social Following in 30 Days.
This book gives you the knowledge of creating valuable unique content that engages and connects the community, thereby building a brand through multiple social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Snapchat, etc.
Some advice sounds contradictory. If you don’t mind, you can pass it and enjoy this book.
288 pages, BenBella Books (October 9, 2018)
Get this book (Amazon.com)
Conclusion
We have read the highlights of the best direct marketing books above.
Direct marketing encompasses many aspects, and there is a lot to learn to edge out the competition. Many books on the market talk about direct marketing, but the above 15 recommendations are the most straightforward ones, so we’re sure your time is well-spent.
Hopefully, our reviews can help you find the book that is the most suitable for your preferences.
If you know of any helpful direct marketing books that suit small business owners with low budgets, please share them with us in the comment below. So I can update the list to share with others.
Thank You!
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