Books I’m Reading to Start Learning about Online Marketing and Copywriting
If you read my first blog post, you know that I’m starting this blog to help myself figure out a little bit more about social media marketing and thinking about what kind of business I want to start–I have two masters degrees and I’m a writer, and I want to figure out a way to be my own boss and work for myself. I bought two books last week and I’ve started reading them: Influencer by Brittany Hennessy and The Copywriter’s Handbook by Robert W. Bly. I’m still reading these books, but I figured I’d go ahead and talk a little bit about them and how I’m taking them so far; I’ve got some time before the college semester starts back up to learn a few things about what services I’d like to eventually offer and how to position my content and YouTube channel.
Influencer, by Brittany Hennessy
Influencer is a book about building an engaging audience and and building your brand as an online influencer: YouTubers, Bloggers, and other content creators. The first thing I’ll mention is that this book is not necessarily for me—or at least it wasn’t: more on that later—it’s very geared towards those individuals who are ready to go 100% in on engaging with their audience and tackling sponsorship deals, etc. Obviously, I’m not quite there, and originally I didn’t anticipate even trying to be a content creator. I’ve changed my opinion somewhat as my YouTube channel’s audience grows, but I’m still in the very early stages of building something like that.
So far, the book has fairly practical advice on how to utilize social media channels (Instagram, YouTube, .etc.) that I’m still finding useful to take note of, even if it’s just for later. Part 1 of the book,. “Building Your Community,” is as far as I’ve gotten, and been relevant to the work I’m putting into building this website and blog, and my YouTube channel. It’s also the reason I decided to try to blog on my website for a while. It’s much easier to test things out with a blog, and there’s less equipment rquired. My background in writing is also helpful. But, the main takeaway I got from the section was that my website is something I can completely control, and my social media isn’t; they have policies I have to abide by and they could take down my content without warning. We’re also in a challenging landscape politically these days, and if enough people don’t like you, it’s incredibly easy for people to flag things on those platforms solely out of disagreement.
I’m still reading the book, and I’ll probably talk more about it again after finishing it, but if you’re interested in reading it, here is an affiliate link below. Note that it’s an affiliate link and I may earn a small commission on the purchase if you click the link—there’s no additional cost or anything, but I’m required to disclose these things.
The Copywriting Handbook by Robert W. Bly
The second book, The Copywriting Handbook, is a little trickier to talk about because I found myself disagreeing with it a lot at the beginning. I have a background in creative writing and I found the push against creativity very frustrating. But, I also have a business degree, and I understand where the author is coming from.
Basically, this is a book about copywriting, which means writing that is meant for advertising and getting sells. I’m familiar enough with marketing because of my MBA, but I’d never really studied copywriting itself. The first major point this book makes is that advertising campaigns that focus on creativity don’t result in sells or in people remembering the product. That’s where I have the issue–I definitely remember those Snickers Super Bowl commercials and I remember that they were for Snickers, and I remember that they were funny. But, I think the point remains that too much focus on creativity can be a hindrance to the sales.
I’m going to read the rest of the book and see how I feel about it. I’m probably a little unique in that I have a business degree and a creative writing degree, and so it makes sense that I would value creativity more than the average person. I’m not ready to throw all creativity down the drain for any sells of my services or work that I do for any future clients.
If you’re interested in the book, I’ll put another affiliate link below. Again, this is an affiliate link and I mean earn commission on your purchase if you use the link.
I’ll let you all know what books I end up reading in the future, and I’ll especially note the ones that really helped over time. I’m also a creative writer, so I’l be sure to mention fiction and other literary reads from time-to-time, but I’m in building-my-business mode right now.
