Top 10 Growth Hacking Books You Need to Read RN

Everyone knows that we love learning everything we can about growth hacking. We also love sharing this knowledge.

So, we put together a list of 10 books that we believe will help you and your business grow.

1. ‘The Lean Startup — How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses’ by Eric Ries

You’ve probably heard and read more about this book than we can tell you. A book you could breeze through on a weekend so you can start putting everything in practice when Monday comes.

Main lesson? Don’t waste too much time on creating the ‘perfect product’.

“Customers don’t care how much time something takes to build. They care only if it serves their needs.”

2. ‘Crossing the Chasm — Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers’ by Geoffrey A. Moore

An oldie but goldie. The 2014 revised edition touches upon more modern examples. Yet, regardless of the time and date, this book will not lose its meaning.

Even though it’s aimed more towards the B2B and tech communities, Moore’s insights and advice apply to any type of business.

“there is something fundamentally different between a sale to an early adopter and a sale to the early majority”

And, Moore thoroughly explains why.

3. ‘Traction — A Startup Guide to Getting Customers’ by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares

Delving deeper into how and why you should develop a ‘minimum viable product’, Weinberg and Mares give valuable insight into how to build your business and succeed.

“Almost every failed startup has a product. What failed startups don’t have are enough customers.”

This book is useful and authentic. The real-life examples, experiences, and advice they describe will inspire you to get started right now.

4. ‘Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products’ by Nir Eyal

How do people get hooked on a product? What makes it stick in their minds?

Hooked explains how the key to keeping users constantly engaged is by having them interact with certain triggers. For example, checking your phone when you receive a notification.

“frequent engagement with a product — especially over a short period of time — increases the likelihood of forming new routines.”

If this isn’t the formula for stickiness then we don’t know what else.

5. ‘Contagious — Why Things Catch On’ by Jonah Berger

2014’s Best Marketing Book according to The American Marketing Association. Are you sold?

Berger talks about why things become contagious — from society and its influence on our personal and consumer behavior to the secret science behind why word-of-mouth is always effective.

There are 6 characteristics that influence our behavior, which Berger ascribes as the acronym STEPPS. The book is an ode to why things go viral and how to make your product do the same.

6. ’11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era’ by Nilofer Merchant

A quick 88 pages long read but probably one of the most effective. In growth hacking, you need to firstly create value for your clients.

It’s one of the most important goals. Your clients might also need to create value for their own customers. This book explores how social media can provide that power of openness and connectivity with a brand that a good business relationship entails.

“To adapt to changing times, each of us must first be open to exploring the change itself.”

7. ‘Startup Growth Engines- Case Studies of How Today’s Most Successful Startups Unlock Extraordinary Growth’ by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown

Drawing from the rapid growth of startups like Snapchat, Hubspot, and Uber, Ellis and Brown talk about the new approach to business charm.

A quick and inspiring read, the book dives into each case study separately, analyzing and explaining their formulas for growth, or what they call ‘growth engines’.

Which one will be your favorite company?

8. ‘100 Days of Growth — Proven Ways to Grow Your Business Fast’ — by Sujan Patel & Rob Wormley

This book won’t disappoint. Patel is the growth hacker and Wormley the word master, and they will both reel you in.

A lot of the advice revolves around inbound and content marketing. So, if you’re struggling with that especially, this book is for you.

100 Days of Growth will transform in thousands in no time.

9. ‘The Power of Habit — Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business’ by Charles Duhigg

Growth Hacking doesn’t only involve coding and marketing knowledge. You should have a vision and understand what drives and influences people.

In this engaging read, Duhigg explores how habits can change your life. There’s plenty of examples of how certain companies sold their product after studying people’s habits and how they emerge.

“Small wins are a steady application of a small advantage.”

Much like growth hacking encourages rapid experimentation. 😉

10. ‘Growth Hacker Marketing — A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing, and Advertising’ by Ryan Holiday

The underlying question in all business books is how to get more for less. Saving the best for the last, this book is the perfect guide to understanding how big names, such as Airbnb, made millions in a matter of months with almost zero budget.

Holiday explains what a growth hacking mindset is and how to adopt it through an easy set of rules.

Forget everything about traditional marketing… the future starts now.