SEO
How to Find and Reclaim Lost Backlinks
Building links is difficult. Which is why it’s so frustrating when hard-earned links disappear without warning.
Sadly, this happens all the time.
Here’s a screenshot of a link to Ahrefs’ Content Explorer in an article by Copy.ai:
This is a nice link from a page on a site with a Domain Rating (DR) of 93.
But take a look at that article now. The link is no more. It’s gone.
That would sure be a nice link to reclaim, right?
Yes. It would. The same goes for the hundreds of other links we’ve lost in the past couple of months. Which is where link reclamation comes in.
Link reclamation is the process of reclaiming lost links. You had a link. You lost it. You want it back. So you take steps to try to reclaim it.
What steps, I hear you ask?
It depends why you lost the link in the first place.
Here are four common reasons for link losses:
- Link removed. The author removes your link from the linking page
- Linking page deleted. The linking page no longer exists (404 error)
- Linking page redirected. The linking page gets (301) redirected
- Linking page noindexed. The linking page is no longer indexed in Google*
I’ve starred (*) that last reason because it’s not not technically a lost link. It still exists. But because the page isn’t indexed, it probably isn’t going to be as valuable.
Understanding the nuances associated with each “reason” is the key to taking action to reclaim the links. Keep reading to learn how.
Link reclamation vs. claiming unlinked brand mentions
Here is an unlinked mention:
Ahrefs is cited, but there’s no link.
You could argue that this should be a link. In which case, attempting to convert this to a linked mention would be a form of link reclamation, right?
Before I started writing the original version of this guide back in 2018, I made this exact point to Tim (my boss), to which he responded:
Mind. Blown.
You can’t reclaim a link you never had in the first place.
So this guide is all about reclaiming lost backlinks.
But…
If this post by Antonio Gabric is to be believed, the answer is yes—and very well. He says he reclaimied 31 backlinks from just 166 outreach emails. That’s an 18.67% conversion rate, which is pretty much unheard of in link outreach these days.
But the reality is that results can differ by industry, brand, and how you built or earned the links in the first place.
In fact, I think Antonio got such good results because he was clearly attempting to reclaim links built through “win win collaborations.” In other words, they were either paid backlinks or ones acquired through shady tactics like link exchanges:
It makes sense to expect the other party to hold up their end of the bargain when a deal is made, so this likely explains Antonio’s stellar results.
Still, link reclamation is a simple tactic that’s rarely a big time investment once you have things set up. This can make it well worth doing even if conversation rates are relatively low.
Bottom line? As with all link building tactics, you won’t know how well link reclamation works for you until you try it.
Follow these two simple steps.
1. Find lost links with Site Explorer
Site Explorer > enter your domain > Backlinks > Lost
Here you will see all the backlinks you’ve lost during the past 30 days.
For ahrefs.com, I see 6,285 lost links.
But the reality is that most of those links won’t be worth trying to reclaim. Many will just be junk that weren’t helping you to rank anyway.
To find links worth reclaiming, set the “Best links” filter to “Show best links only.”
If we do this for Ahrefs.com, 6,285 immediately drops to 594.
Sidenote.
You can configure “Best links” to filter for whatever types of backlinks you think are best. For example, if you only care about followed links from DR30+ sites with 10K+ monthly organic traffic, you can configure it to filter for only those links.
If you’ll only be doing link outreach in a particular language, it’s worth filtering for links from pages in that language too.
2. Pick the best opportunities
How you approach reclaiming a lost link will depend on the reason for its loss. Some may not even be worth trying to reclaim at all (more on that in a moment).
In Ahrefs, we label every link with a link loss reason:
You can also filter by link loss reason:
Let’s tackle if and how to handle each reason for link loss.
Link removed — Often worth pursuing
This means the link disappeared from the linking page.
Here are three common reasons this can happen:
- They refreshed their content, removing some external links in the process.
- They replaced your link with something better.
- They implemented a policy banning external links.
You can use the Page Inspect feature in Ahrefs to figure out which reason it is. Hit “Show changes” next to the link loss reason to bring it up.
You should see the HTML of the page before and after the link was removed. Removed sections are highlighted red, and new sections are highlighted green.
To quickly scroll to links you may have lost, use the up/down arrows in the search box on the left:
For example, here’s a link to our website that was replaced:
Here’s how to figure out the reason for the link loss:
- If the content is completely different, it’s probably a content update. Seeing lots of red and green in Page Inspect is a telltale sign of this. Check if your link would add value to the refreshed content and if so, pitch them.
- If your link has been replaced, they probably because they found a better resource. Reach and ask why they replaced it. Get feedback, improve. This will prevent more link losses. They may even reinstate your link if you improve your content.
- If your link has been removed along with many others, they probably have a new external links policy. Don’t pitch. There’s not much you can do about this.
Sidenote.
There are other reasons links can be removed. These are just the common ones.
Not found — Sometimes worth pursuing
This means the linking page couldn’t be found during our last crawl.
There are three reasons this can happen:
- The site owner deleted the page intentionally
- The site owner deleted the page accidentally
- For some reason we couldn’t access the page when crawling. This might be because the site was temporarily down.
I would only recommend pursuing these opportunities if you think the page got deleted accidentally.
To check if the page was deleted, click to visit the referring page.
Here’s one that no longer exists from WPShout:
There’s no way of knowing for sure if it was deleted accidentally, but the page having lots of backlinks is usually a sign of this. After all, no sane SEO-savvy website owner would delete such a page without redirecting it.
To see how many links the referring page has, hit the caret next to the URL:
In this case, the page has backlinks from 109 websites.
That’s quite a lot, so it may be worth sending a quick “Hey, Just noticed that your page about ____ is broken. Did you mean to delete it?” email.
Looking for a better tactic here?
Give broken link building a shot. This is where you create a similar page, then reach out to everyone linking to the dead resource and suggest they replace it with yours. It can work very well if you find a dead page with a lot of good backlinks.
Broken redirect — Sometimes worth pursuing
This means the linked redirecting URL couldn’t be followed to its “destination” page during the most recent crawl.
There are a few reasons this can happen:
- Not redirected anymore: Linked URL (or one of the links in the redirect chain) is no longer redirecting.
- Not canonicalized anymore: Linked URL’s declared canonical changed.
- Destination changed: Linked URL now redirects to a different location.
Sidenote.
There’s also the “Dropped” reason, which means the linked redirecting URL was removed from our database. These links almost always still exist and aren’t worth worrying about.
Unless any of these things happened by mistake, there’s no link reclamation opportunity to pursue here. These links are reported as lost because of changes made on your website.
For example, we recently moved our API documentation. In doing so, we redirected the old URL to the new one. This then gets reported as a lost link.
Here’s another example:
This time, the declared canonical changed. Our list of SEO agencies in Bulgaria previously canonicalized to the homepage of our SEO agencies directory. I’m not close to this project, but I’m guessing this was because there were no agencies listed in this section so we didn’t want it indexed.
Now there are three agencies, so it makes sense to remove the canonical that pointed to the main page and have Google index the actual page:
In both of these cases, there’s no link reclamation opportunity because they’re the result of changes we intended to make.
The only time there might be a link reclamation opportunity is when redirects are removed by mistake, leading to 404s with backlinks. But, to be honest, it’s much easier to spot these opportunities by filtering the Best by Links report for the most linked dead pages. You can then just redirect them to wherever makes sense.
Noindex — Probably not worth pursuing
This means the linking page was noindexed since the last crawl.
You can verify the presence of this tag with the Ahrefs SEO Toolbar:
This is a strange case because your link is probably still on the page itself. It’s just that Google may not count it due to the page being noindexed.
If the site owner meant to noindex the page, there’s not much you can do about this.
But a lot of people noindex pages by accident. In which case, you might want to reach out and give them a heads up. This can be something as simple as:
Hey, Just spotted a “noindex” tag on your page about _______. Not sure if you did this on purpose but if not, you might want to fix it. Adding this tag removes the page from Google. 🙁
Here are two ways to spot accidental noindexing:
- Check if their homepage also has a “noindex” tag: Nobody in their right mind wants to de-index their homepage. The presence of a noindex” tag here almost always indicates that they’ve added a sitewide noindex tag by accident.
- Look out for signs of SEO: Nobody would optimize a page they planned to “noindex.” If the page shows any signs of optimization (e.g., targeting a high-volume keyword), the likeliness of an accidental “noindex” is high.
The reason I say you only might want to reach out is because they’ll probably realize their mistake and fix it eventually without your input. Reaching out may just waste your time.
Not canonical anymore — Probably not worth pursuing
This means the linking page is now specifying another resource as its canonical.
You can see the declared canonical using Ahrefs SEO Toolbar:
9 times out of 10, these are nothing to worry about. Common reasons for canonicals include:
- Canonicalization to HTTPs (from HTTP)
- Canonicalization to a standardized version of the URL (e.g., with/without trailing slash)
- Canonicalization to the same content at a different URL
In all of these instances, your link will still exist (and “count”) at the canonicalized version of the URL.
But sometimes, canonicals are indicative of a mistake…
For example, the URL this referring page declares as its canonical gives a security warning:
That doesn’t look right at all.
But here’s the thing: in cases like these, Google is smart enough to realize that it probably shouldn’t respect the canonical. In which case, it will still index the linking page and the link won’t technically be lost. Therefore, there’s rarely any opportunity here.
301/302 redirect — Probably not worth pursuing
This means the linking page redirected to a different URL during the most recent crawl.
Much like canonicals, redirects are rarely worth pursuing. Common reasons for them include:
- Redirect from HTTP to HTTPs
- Redirect to standardized version of the URL (e.g., with/without trailing slash)
- Redirect to new location of page (e.g., blog.ahrefs.com to ahrefs.com/blog/)
In each of these cases, the redirected URL will usually still link back to your site.
But sometimes, pages are deleted and redirected elsewhere. This often leads to a true lost backlink. You can easily check whether this is the case by searching the source code of the final destination URL for yourdomain.com.
No results? The redirected page doesn’t link back to you.
I would only recommend pursuing these opportunities if:
- The redirected page contains an unlinked mention: This is rare but if it happens, you can treat it as an unlinked mention opportunity.
- There’s a clear link opportunity on the redirected page: If a link to a resource of yours would add value to the page, reach out and suggest it.
In all other cases where the redirect is irrelevant (e.g., an old blog post redirected to the site homepage), leave it and cut your losses.
PRO TIP
Want an easy way to check whether the 301/302 redirected pages link back to you?
Make a copy of this Google Sheet, then filter the Backlinks report in Ahrefs’ Site Explorer for links lost with the 301/302 redirect status. Next, enter your domain in cell A1 of the sheet labelled “Settings,” then paste the referring pages (from the report export) into column A in the sheet labelled “Redirects.” It will show whether each final redirected URL contains a link back to your site.
Further investigate any with the label “Link lost :(”
NOTE. This sheet is an edited version of the one created by The Tech SEO here.
Crawl error — Not worth pursuing
This means we couldn’t crawl the referring page during our last attempt.
Crawl errors can occur for all kinds of reasons. Usually they’re not worth worrying about and the links will reappear during the next successful scheduled crawl.
Dropped — Not worth pursuing
This means we dropped the referring page from our database.
It’s very likely that the link is still on the page. We only count them as lost because we’re no longer able to see whether it’s there or not.
Here are a few reasons why we might drop a page from our index:
- We crawled a “better” page with the same content.
- The page was disallowed by robots.txt for at least 2 months.
- The domain does not exist anymore.
- The page has a low URL Rating (UR).
Final thoughts
Link reclamation isn’t a one-time process. You will lose links all the time for many different reasons. It pays to regularly check for lost links and reclaim any that you can.
It may even be wise to re-allocate some of your resources away from link building and towards link reclamation. This is because reclaiming lost links can often be easier, less time-consuming, and ultimately less costly than building new links.
My final piece of advice? Pick your battles wisely. Don’t try to reclaim links that were lost for good reason. Pursue those you stand a good chance of reclaiming.
For more link building tactics that don’t require new content, check out our list of link building strategies.
SEO
Video Advertising Metrics & Brand Advertising With Greg Jarboe
Last week Greg Jarboe wrote an article for SEJ covering insights from the 2024 IAB Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy Report which was the second part of a two-part report.
The first part reported that overall spending on digital video advertising in the U.S. is projected to grow 16% and that in the last four years, the share of ad spend has shifted to 52% of the total market share in the U.S.
US Digital video ad revenues are expected to reach $63 billion in 2024.
From the second part of the report, what stood out was the shift in measurement metrics for video from reach to business outcomes. According to Cintia Gabilan, IAB’s VP of the Media Center:
“But now business outcomes are the most important metrics to assess success, with reach and frequency coming in second. However, measurement is not yet where it needs to be. Two-thirds of buyers cite issues across nine key areas of measurement.”
Alphabet (Google) has also just announced their quarterly earnings – and out of this was the insight that Brand advertising – rather than direct response is driving YouTube revenue.
To discuss this and to throw insight into why this is important and why he was “shocked” about these changes, I reached out to Greg to get his thoughts.
Greg started out as a director of corporate communications in the 90s when websites were called “new media.”
And, he has worked with video marketing since the mid-2000s. He has followed the development and uptake of video in online marketing and SEO for the last 15 years.
Why Video Advertising Metrics Have Shifted
I asked Greg why he was shocked that brand advertising is driving YouTube revenue and then, why he was shocked about the shift in video advertising metrics.
Greg said,
“I’ve been following this trend for at least 15 years, if not longer, and it was one of those things where I wondered how come nobody else saw this.
Too many American brands and agencies were still hung up on the television era and all the metrics they used were just fine for measuring TV reach and frequency.
They might have occasionally layered in a bit of engagement if they were sophisticated because they knew online video allowed for likes, shares, or comments. But they were mostly using what I would call marketing outputs to measure their success.
Back then, a few of us Pioneers were saying no, focusing on business outcomes. But, that sort of advice wasn’t being taken up very often. Now, suddenly, a majority of brands and agencies are using business outcomes to measure success.
My theory is that a majority are now using the ability in YouTube to set your business goal for your video ad campaign. Amongst the available settings are awareness and consideration, website traffic, leads, or sales.
So, if you let artificial intelligence say ‘okay, if that’s your goal then here’s where we want to display your video ad’, then you are focusing on business outcomes. Not because you have taken advice about making that choice, but because you’re allowing AI to give you the best practice and make that choice for you.
I’m shocked that people are finally doing the right thing, but I’m suspicious that they don’t know they’re doing the right thing or why. They are simply taking advantage of the new AI capabilities that Google is rolling out.”
Why Video Advertising Revenue Is Shifting To Brand Advertising
I then asked Greg to explain why brand advertising is shifting more revenue to YouTube.
Greg said,
“Connected Television (CTV) has basically swept aside linear TV, and more than half of the ad dollars have now moved to CTV. When you’re advertising on CTV, your goal is awareness or consideration. This shift is probably as big as the advent of mobile advertising was 15 or more years ago.
Connected Television is now shifting ad dollars. What this means is that a lot of advertisers, both on the client and agency sides, are now using AI to steer money that used to go from terrestrial TV to YouTube. YouTube has huge reach in the UK as well as the US, and that’s brand advertising.”
The conversation shifted to TikTok, which is now dominant among emerging demographics like Gen Z. If it doesn’t become outright banned in the US, TikTok is going to continue to have a growing influence over audiences.
I asked Greg, how we can start to embrace this shift in measurement metrics for TikTok? How can we apply business outcomes to TikTok?
Greg responded by saying,
“TikTok shared research, that highlighted the buyer journey as a loop rather than a straight line. Everyone knows the customer journey is not a straight line, but TikTok emphasized the looping process, including discovery and consideration phases.
Too many marketers still work with the metaphor of the sales funnel, which was invented in 1924. The customer journey does not travel straight down a funnel; it loops.
SEOs and content marketers must understand where the customer needs to find their content during discovery and evaluation modes.
This means creating content that captures interest and builds a relationship over time until the customer decides to do business with them.”
I asked Greg,
“How can SEOs and content marketers produce the kind of content needed for this process?”
His response was that this was hard. He went on to say that digital marketers need to unlearn what they have learned, and that’s really hard for marketing professionals to do because it’s not how things worked last year.
Greg said,
“But it’s not last year anymore. The really good agencies, brands, marketers, SEOs, and others are constantly adapting.
One of the things I learned when writing my book, “YouTube and Video Marketing,” is that the landscape changes constantly. I had to go back and revise early chapters before I could turn back to writing later chapters.”
Greg’s final advice was to avoid using books as a source of learning:
“The book publishing process is too slow; any book you pick up is probably already outdated. Stick to fresh information from online industry news publishers to stay updated.”
Unlearn Everything You Knew Before And Learn Again
If video advertisers are inadvertently selecting the goals for their campaigns through AI, or if they are actively making that choice, video advertising is finally shifting to be focused on business outcomes.
It appears that the industry might be moving away from the historical influence of television-era metrics and becoming more sophisticated with their measurement.
What marketers need to consider is that everything they have relied on previously is now changing. What worked last year is no longer working.
We are seeing this across the entire spectrum of SEO and online marketing with everything in flux as the influence of AI integrates and becomes established.
The advice is to unlearn what you relied on before and learn again and don’t rely on outdated information.
Everything is changing faster than it can be printed so make sure you turn to sources that are as up-to-date as possible.
Thank you to Greg Jarboe for offering his opinion and being my guest on IMHO.
More resources:
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SEO
Google’s AI Overviews Appear In 3.9% Of Trending News Searches, Study Finds
Google’s AI Overviews rarely appear in trending news searches, study finds. Health queries most affected.
- AI Overviews appear in only 3.9% of trending news searches.
- Health-related queries are most likely to trigger AI Overviews.
- Hard news topics rarely generate AI Overviews.
SEO
I Asked 26 Marketers for Their Best Marketing Books. Here’s What They Recommend
What are the best marketing books?
To find out, I asked 26 marketers (from Ahrefs and elsewhere) to recommend a book that influenced their marketing work.
Here are their recommendations:
Author: Daniel Priestley
First published: 2015
Recommended by: Joshua Hardwick
Here’s why Joshua recommends this book:
“It’s one of those books where the lessons seem obvious in hindsight. You’re reading it thinking “ohhh…. Obviously! Why didn’t I think of that before.”
For example, one of the key lessons is that you need to know your business’s capacity (how many clients/customers you can serve), then create more demand for your offering than that. In this way, you will always be ‘oversubscribed’ and will be able to pick and choose who you want to work with. It also gives super actionable advice rather than theoretical mumbo jumbo. Daniel literally explains how to build demand for your business in ways you can actually put into practice.”
Author: Robert B. Cialdini
First published: 1984
Recommended by: Ryan Law, Nick Churick
Here’s why Ryan and Nick recommend this book:
“I think ‘persuasion’ is the ultimate goal of everything we do in content marketing. We want people to believe in our opinions, trust in our judgment, and assume that the methods and processes we share actually work. However, most content marketers are scared to actively persuade people and to try to advocate for their ideas. They end up usually just dumping rote information on the page in a take-it-or-leave-it kind of way.
Influence is a classic for a very good reason: It talks through six different tools in the persuasion toolkit (reciprocity, scarcity, authority, commitment and consistency, liking, and consensus) and shows how real people apply them in everyday life. It’s very easy to turn the book’s ideas into better marketing.”
“Because marketing equals understanding people, predicting their behavior and influencing it, which is basically psychology.”
Author: Ryan Holiday
First published: 2017
Recommended by: Tim Soulo
Here’s why Tim recommends this book:
“Perennial Seller explains what it takes to create notable work that will stand the test of time. Instead of giving readers any tricks, hacks, or loopholes to exploit, it highlights the importance of fundamentals like doing hard things, understanding your audience, building a dedicated following, developing relationships, and more.”
Author: Bob Moesta, Greg Engle
First published: 2020
Recommended by: Audrey Liu
Here’s why Audrey recommends this book:
“Marketing fundamentally is about connecting the product to users and helping them transform and reach their ideal state. This book provides a framework on how to go about mapping your customer journey, from first thought, passive looking to actively looking, deciding and buying. And the push and pull people experience when they’re buying.”
Author: A.G. Lafley, Roger L. Martin
First published: 2013
Recommended by: Ruoshan Tao
Here’s why Ruoshan recommends this book:
“This book changed my life. It was the first thing that I read which properly clarified my thinking on strategy. It’s a super simple framework that’s applicable to most businesses, written in a layman-friendly way. I also liked a lot of the examples, which were entertaining to read. It also wasn’t annoyingly repetitive like a lot of other business books.”
Author: Maria Veloso
First published: 2013
Recommended by: Despina Gavoyannis
Here’s why Despina recommends this book:
“Copywriting skills are the foundation of all marketing. No matter what platform or channel you’re marketing on, the words you use matter. This book gives you the fundamentals needed to make an impact with content.”
Author: Cal Newport
First published: 2016
Recommended by: Chris Haines
Here’s why Chris recommends this book:
“The marketing world can be a noisy environment. This book reminded me that to cut through the noise, you need to practice “deep work” and focus on creating work that can’t easily be created if you want to stand out. I applied this to a number of my posts at Ahrefs and started running more polls on social media and interviewing people to get more unique and original insights from the SEO community.
I feel this book is relevant for marketers, because we can easily get distracted by the latest shiny thing and lose sight of the big picture of what we’re working on. This book is a reminder to focus on the things that matter.”
Author: Jeremie Kubicek, Steve Cockram
First published: 2015
Recommended by: Robert Lai (Chief Executive Officer, Kaliber)
Here’s why Robert recommends this book:
“I recommend this book because it walks you through the reasons why at times we’re not as effective as we’d like to be and how some of our practices may be taking us further away from our targets, despite working extremely hard towards them.
Similar to a car, our 5th gear is where we find ourselves working 100km/hour. However, when driving at that speed, we miss the small details. Those small details as it relates to things like performance marketing could be qualitative details of our campaigns or zooming in too closely to our cost per leads, as opposed to assessing the other promising benefits like driving awareness.
Working in high gear doesn’t allow us to be creative or think qualitatively, which are also important aspects of an effective marketer. Manage your mind and you’ll extract more from your days!”
Author: Al Ries, Jack Trout
First published: 1980
Recommended by: Andrei Țiț, Mateusz Makosiewicz
Here’s why Andrei and Mateusz recommend this book:
“This is a mandatory read for product marketers. First principles type of book. Positioning is winning a place in the customer’s mind, which is often portrayed as a “ladder”. Conversely, the opposite is true. Positioning is a zero-sum game, where one known brand needs to get out of the “mind ladder” for a new one to get in.”
“If marketing is about one thing, it’s about perception, and this book is perception management 101.”
Author: Adam Grant
First published: 2021
Recommended by: Delbert Ty
Here’s why Delbert recommends this book:
“Great book in helping you question existing biases. As a marketer, you should always question and think like a scientist running experiments. It’s easy to get stuck in a certain way of thinking because that’s how it’s always been. As a scientist, you approach things with intellectual honesty and curiosity. That’s how you accrue knowledge as a marketer.”
Author: John Doerr
First published: 2018
Recommended by: Erik Sarissky
Here’s why Erik recommends this book:
“I have a feeling that most self-help marketing books tend to be very theoretical and recycle the same theory. This book contains good case studies, provides clarity, and shows how to set effective OKRs without BS.”
Author: Des Traynor, John Collins
First published: 2018
Recommended by: Igor Gorbenko
Here’s why Igor recommends this book:
“I respect Intercom as a company. They make great products and are 100% worth learning from. This book is basically their marketing playbook that anyone can take and adapt to their business. It was an easy read, well-paced, and supported by visuals where necessary. Great way to introduce tech founders to marketing processes.”
Author: Darrell Huff
First published: 1954
Recommended by: Ashwin Balakrishnan
Here’s why Ashwin recommends this book:
“Our world is one where data is everywhere but data literacy is in short supply. I call it the twofold curse of the modern marketer. We’ve become so reliant on data to inform our opinions and decisions that we trust numbers at face value. We’ve forgotten what it actually means to “trust your gut” in marketing.
Huff’s book explains how data and data visualization can be used to misrepresent facts or support a predetermined argument, shows you what that looks like so you can “trust your gut” when you recognize it in the wild, and tells you how to go about using data with more honesty.
One might say it’s more relevant today than when it was first published in the 1950s.
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
First published: 2005
Recommended by: Louise Linehan
Here’s why Louise recommends this book:
“Blink made me think a lot more about the psychology of the audiences I create content for, but also about the ways in which I interpret my own audience. The main concept that stood out was “thin-slicing”, or the idea that often, decisions made quickly can be just as accurate as those made methodically and deliberately.
I thought about that specifically in relation to attribution, since I would spend a lot of time and effort trying to piece together the impact of my content throughout the customer’s journey. It was probably the first time I had an “anti-attribution” thought, i.e. my existing knowledge and intuition could have allowed me to draw the same conclusions in half the time.
I also practice “thin-slicing” when I come to write about a new topic. I often find my clearest thoughts and best ideas come at the very beginning, before I get too into the “weeds” of researching and writing. I’ve learned to pay attention to those initial instincts and make sure I take notes. They’re always super useful to come back to when I’ve got ‘too close to the problem.’”
Author: Allan Dib
First published: 2016
Recommended by: Michelle Lindner
Here’s why Michelle recommends this book:
“I recommend this book to anyone in business. It’s probably too basic for advanced marketers, but it’s always good to revisit the fundamentals that don’t change. Despite the title, it’s not full of the gimmicky bullshit and “innovative” terms that don’t actually mean anything.”
Author: Seth Godin
First published: 2003
Recommended by: Elysa Han
Here’s why Elysa recommends this book:
“Clear and practical content, which naturally makes me pause, think, and reflect. In this regard, it helps me grasp his concepts and messages a whole lot better.
Case studies are really helpful to put things into perspective, so it’s worth pointing out that Godin included a number of these. In a nutshell, he emphasizes for marketers (or even humans in general) to never be stagnant. Stay curious, adaptable, and when there are things to be done, ideas to be executed, just do it.
This is really a mindset thing for me that will probably stay relevant, and serve as a reminder for a long time to come.”
Author: Deepak Malhotra, Max Bazerman
First published: 2007
Recommended by: Daria Samokish
Here’s why Daria recommends this book:
“This book is for people who love learning through stories and real-life examples. With this book, you can figure out the basics of negotiation through the smart moves of people who have made decisions in real-world negotiations.
It was personally amazing to learn how people turned hopeless situations into benefits, navigated crises by finding an unobvious common ground, or managed good deals with people playing hardball. On top of amusement, it adds insights into your own psychological biases and perceptions of other people to help you build a mindset for negotiations as a tool for everyday life, not only for business. After reading it, I secured my first deal that saved me the third part of the budget.”
Author: Atul Gawande
First published: 2009
Recommended by: Constance Tan
Here’s why Constance recommends this book:
“I’m a huge fan of this book as it was instrumental in helping me focus on tasks that actually make an impact, and putting in a process that consistently brings results as a team.”
Author: Kindra Hall
First published: 2019
Recommended by: Sam Oh
Here’s why Sam recommends this book:
“This book gave me a starting point to kickstart how to go about learning about storytelling. But if I’m being 100% honest, I feel I learned most in the past year by just trying and doing things.”
Author: Dale Carnegie
First published: 2019
Recommended by: Patrick Stox
Here’s why Patrick recommends this book:
“Marketing is just another form of sales. Building relationships help with sales and getting buy-in for marketing ideas.”
Author: Lynda Barry
First published: 2008
Recommended by: Rebekah Bek
Here’s why Rebekah recommends this book:
“I’d peg this book as more of a … writing/creative prompt or guide? I like it exactly because it defies definition while helping me to stop self-censoring and pay attention to and channel my inner thoughts. It reminds me that creative things can speak to the heart and that you should find the story already inside of you to tell.”
Author: Erin Meyer
First published: 2008
Recommended by: Lin Gwee
Here’s why Lin Gwee recommends this book:
“Really helps marketers in thinking about cultural nuances and crafting messaging/campaigns that resonate, especially for regional marketers!”
Author: Donald Miller
First published: 2017
Recommended by: Amy Kim
Here’s why Amy recommend this book:
“With the cookie-less era, a branded website is more important than ever. Creating inbound traffic will be important, but the more crucial thing is to hold and grab the customer’s attention on your webpage. This book was very helpful in showing me how to make an impactful storyline for any website.”
Author: Gary Halbert
First published: 2013
Recommended by: Me!
Here’s why I recommend this book:
“Copywriting, or writing itself, is a fundamental skill of digital marketing. It underlies everything, from ad copy to content, from video scripts to social media. I was lucky enough to chance upon this book when I wanted to learn copywriting.
This book isn’t really a book, but a series of letters from the well-regarded copywriter Gary Halbert to his son Bond Halbert. But within it lies all the copywriting lessons, tips, and strategies you need. In fact, one of the major lessons I remember—and it’s still a much-recommended tip today by other famous copywriters, including Sam Parr of The Hustle—was to handcopy famous ads and sales letters. Which I took to heart: I copied by hand every single issue of the Boron Letters. I personally think the one or two months I took to do this skyrocketed my writing skills like no other method.”
Final thoughts
Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman at Ogilvy Group, once tweeted:
Jeremy Bullmore: “The best books to read on advertising aren’t about advertising.”
— Rory Sutherland (@rorysutherland) July 15, 2020
You can see it’s true—most of the recommended books here are barely about marketing. Instead, they’re about something else—business, productivity, storytelling, psychology, and statistics.
If you broaden your perspective, you might find some cool ideas from elsewhere you can apply too.
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