10 Best Small Business Marketing eBooks

About a year ago I started collecting marketing eBooks. As of last week, I had 95 of them stashed away in my eBooks folder. That’s a treasure trove of marketing advice and a data base large enough to create a “best-of” list.

Notes to eBook Authors: In reviewing 95 eBooks, I developed a few best-practice suggestions
#1 Create your eBooks in landscape format. Computer monitors are wide, not tall. It is difficult to read an eBook with a portrait format.
#2 Include a link back to the eBook’s web address so that readers can easily share it with their friends.
#3 Include practical, actionable advice. Use eBooks to teach, not as a platform to tell people what you think.

I developed a scoring system to make the selection process as objective as possible. Here are the criteria used to select the best marketing eBooks:

The content must be useful to entrepreneurs and small business owners
It must deliver useful, practical advice. No manifestos and no theory only.
The eBook helps the reader understand the concepts behind the advice.
Free, and available to download with no registration or membership of any kind.
Easy to read
Not just a commercialized, self-promotion piece
Most Important, it positively answers the question: Will you be a better marketed business by reading the publication and following its advice?

Based on that criteria, here are my ten best small business marketing eBooks, including download links. These are the ten best I have seen. Do you have a suggestion that’s not on this list? Would you rate these eBooks as helpful to small business? Use the comment section at the end of the list to add your voice.

1. How to Use Facebook for Business – from HubSpot

Excellent resource for the Facebook novice. Even tells you how to get started advertising. Thorough with lots of helpful graphics. Could be a little stronger on tactics.

Download Link: How to Use Facebook for Business (PDF)

2. The Plot Thickens: Why Case Studies Studies Create New Customers – By Charles Brown

Really well written. Explains concepts as it gives instructions on how to create your own case study. Read this and you will know how to do it.

Download Link: The Plot Thickens (PDF)

3. New Rules of Viral Marketing – By David Meerman Scott

Great examples and step-by-step suggestions. You won’t get exact how-to advice, but it will create ideas and give you a major shove in the right direction.

Download Link: The New Rules of Viral Marketing (PDF)

4. Twitter for Business – By John Jantsch

Honest assessment of whether or not you should use Twitter for marketing. Good basics on getting started and using Twitter for business.

Download Link: Twitter for Business (PDF)

5. Email Marketing Metrics Report – From MailerMailer

Not just a metrics report, it’s a blueprint for better email marketing. Combines metrics with lessons learned from those metrics and translates them in to tips. Surprisingly, it’s better than MailerMailer’s Starter Guide eBook. (Although that’s a good companion)

Download Link: Email Marketing Metrics Report (PDF)

6. About Face – From The Advance Guard

A step-by-step how-to on getting the most from your Facebook Page. The only way it could be better is if they did it for you.

Download Link: About Face

7. Marketing Apple – By Steve Chazin

While this is not hands-on how-to advice, it is very practical on how to position your business and your product.

Download Link: Marketing Apple (PDF)

8. Converting the Believers: How to turn website visitors into buyers – From usereffect

Explains the big concepts then breaks them down into practical examples. Leans a little on the selling products online side, but good for all businesses trying to convert visitors on their website.

Download Link: Converting the Believers

9. Where the Hell Are You? – By Lindsay Polson