What are the best books for content strategists?

Last updated June 2020.  

Business Communications and Content Strategy Books

Here are content strategy books (or related) that we frequently reference or are on our reading list:

"How To" Create Exceptional Web Content

• Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works by Ginny Redish
• Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson | View Shelly Bowen's review of this book on Amazon
• Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug
• The Elements of Content Strategy by Erin Kissane
• Get Content Get Customers: Turn Prospects into Buyers with Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett
• Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
• Audience, Relevance, and Search: Targeting Web Audiences with Relevant Content by James Matthewson, Frank Donatone, Cythia Fishel
• Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content by Colleen Jones (read all about it here)
• The Accidental Taxonomist by Heather Hedden
  
  
  

Writing with Sensitivity

• White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
• How to Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
• Make Change: How to Fight Injustice, Dismantle Systemic Oppression, and Own Our Future by Shaun King
  

Optimizing the User Experience

• The User's Journey: Storymapping Products that People Love by Donna Lichaw
• Designing Interface Animation: Meaningful Motion for User Experience by Val Head  
  

Marketing to People

• The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly by David Meerman Scott
• Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs (The New Rules of Social Media) by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah
• Digital Body Language: Deciphering Customer Intentions in an Online World by Steven Woods
• Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking, Revised Edition by Andy Sernovitz
• The Open Brand: When Push Comes to Pull in a Web-Made World by Kelly Mooney
• Content Strategy at Work: Real-world Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project by Margot Bloomstein

• Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan
• Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions by Guy Kawasaki
  

Getting Inside Their Heads (So We Can Speak Their Language)

• Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average by Joseph Hallinan
• Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
• Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely
• Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me) by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson

Innovating with Content

• APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur -- How to Publish a Book by Guy Kowasaki

• Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin
• Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
• In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing by Matthew E. May
• Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod
• Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality by Scott Belsky

• Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Shieh

Have you read any great books that have inspired you to create exceptional content for your company? Let me know. I'd love to add them to my reading list!

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