If you are a creative person or someone from the marketing domain, you must have heard about Seth Godin’s books before.
Seth Godin has written more bestsellers than people read books in their entire life. The number right now is around the 22 mark. It’s obvious he’s doing something right.
Seth Godin’s books mainly consist of marketing, leadership, and creativity. If there’s one author from whom you want to learn marketing from, then Seth Godin is your man.
Let’s dive into the top 9 Seth Godin books that everyone must read.
Linchpin
You don’t require any effort to fit in and be like everybody else in the workforce, but you require to put in a lot of effort to stand out.
That is essentially what a Linchpin is. It is to stand out from the ordinary and be unique.
Linchpins are in high demand today. With Artificial Intelligence and Automation looming over our heads it’s essential to be on top of our game.
If anyone can do it, then a computer can be taught how to do it and layoffs in those sectors are inevitable.
Click here to read the summary of Linchpin
“The combination of passion and art is what makes someone a linchpin.”
Seth Godin
The Practice
Waiting for perfection is another way of procrastination.
In Seth Godin’s latest bestseller The Practice Shipping creative work he talks about hitting that send button.
A lot of us don’t submit what we’ve done because of fear of rejection. We are simply too afraid and we end up rejecting our own work.
One key takeaway I got from the book is this: your work is not going to be for everybody so don’t try to please everybody.
If you try to please everybody, you’ll end up disappointing yourself.
Click here to read the summary of The Practice
“The only choice we have is to begin. And the only place to begin is where we are. Simply begin. But begin.”
Seth Godin
Permission Marketing
If Marketing is done without permission, then it is simply spam.
Do Marketers ruin everything?
E-mails had a very good open rate close to 90% in the ’90s.
Ads did very well too, with a high click-through rate.
Now advertising is everywhere, and we’re well-tuned to avoid it.
People are getting turned off by ads because it violates their personal space and comes without their permission.
Pop-up ads and ads on YouTube aren’t getting anybody’s attention. People can’t wait to skip the unskippable ads to watch what they want.
It’s necessary to create something remarkable that gets people talking. Innovation does not have to be expensive. All it needs is to “WOW” the audience.
Click here to read the summary of Permission Marketing
“Permission Marketing is just like dating. It turns strangers into friends and friends into lifetime customers. Many of the rules of dating apply, and so do many of the benefits.”
Seth Godin
Free Prize Inside
As a kid did you ever make a fuss to get a cereal box that had a free prize inside?
Not too long ago cereal boxes had an element of surprise to hook their audience’s attention, i.e. kids.
What gift will I get if I can get my mum or dad to buy this cereal box was always on top of the kid’s mind. It was a soft innovation that ruled marketing in the food sector for a while.
Free Prize Inside sold over 200,000 copies and came packed in a cereal box. Creating a product worth remarking about makes the customer want to buy and not the other way around of you trying to sell hard.
Click here to read the summary of Free Prize Inside
“You can keep waiting to get plucked from obscurity, or you can learn how to champion your project one person at a time.”
Seth Godin
Purple Cow
When you look at a regular cow and you spot a purple cow. The Purple Cow makes you go Wow!
A purple cow is something to make a remark about. When something stands out it’s worth noticing it’s a purple cow.
Do you know what is the major reason for any startup to succeed?
Not the team/execution of ideas.
Business Model
Funding
Of course, the above terms play a critical but the most important reason is TIMING!
Amazon entered retail at the right time.
Facebook entered social media at the right time.
Tik Tok reimagined social media at the right time.
Bitcoin is often pitched as the replacement of the bank. How innovative do you think it is going to be and have you got on the bitcoin train yet?
What do you think is going to be the next purple cow?
Click here to read the summary of Purple Cow
“In your career, even more than for a brand, being safe is risky. The path to lifetime job security is to be remarkable.”
Seth Godin
Tribes
As a species we went from hunting gathering and moving to sitting still for long hours.
Sure we have evolved as a species, but is it for the better.
There used to be a time when we had conversations, now we text.
There used to be a time when we went out now we’re all locked up.
There used to be a time when we worked together now we work for ourselves.
A tribe of many has been broken down into you’re on your own.
What does the future hold?
Click here to read the summary of Tribes
“A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.”
Seth Godin
All Marketers Tell Stories
Georg Riedel was a glass manufacturer from Austria. He sold a story where wine tastes better when served in the proper Riedel glass.
There was no scientific evidence to prove his claim but you know what people bought it.
Georg Riedel made millions of dollars not from his glasses but from his marketing.
Kit Kat is well known for its marketing but they saw a dip in sales from 2002-2007. Kit kat really needed a break this time.
Kitkat linked itself to coffee, which is consumed frequently. So every time you think of coffee, Kitkat comes to mind.
The marketing team set up Kit kat displays right next to coffee stations with such adverts linking to coffee.
As a result Kit Kat and coffee was a hit and sales increased by nearly 8%.
All Marketers are not liars they just sell stories.
Click here to read the summary of All Marketers Tell Stories
“All marketers are storytellers. Only the losers are liars.”
Seth Godin
The Dip
Don’t start a blog if you can’t put in the work for 10 years.
Don’t start a podcast if you can’t make it to episode 100.
These are Seth Godin’s words, not mine.
We live in a world of instant gratification. We need it now!
But Success is a long journey, A marathon and not a sprint.
It’s not getting any easier to break through because everyone’s doing it.
Being Successful now is a matter of hanging on when others have let go.
Everyone’s hot off the start, and then they lose steam. Hitting the dip is like hitting a roadblock or plateau.
It’s like hitting a plateau in the gym. You have to push through to get to the other side.
Click here to read the summary of The Dip
“A woodpecker can tap twenty times on a thousand trees and get nowhere, but stay busy. Or he can tap twenty-thousand times on one tree and get dinner.”
Seth Godin
We are all weird
Before we had smartphones we all watched TV. Everybody watched the same thing and mass marketing worked and now its dead.
The death of the TV industrial complex was a huge shift for marketers. The Longtail phenomenon emerged where people had to be catered for their unique individual tastes.
It took some time for marketers to get their message across because it was weird. When something that worked for so long breaks, it looked awkward at the start but now it looks like marketers seem to get their message across quite well.
“The epic battle of our generation is between the status quo of mass and the never-ceasing tide of weird.”
Seth Godin
Click here to read the summary of We are all weird
What are your favourite Seth Godin books from this list? Let me know in the comments below.
