They say that if you keep being asked the same question then you should write a blog post about to answer the question.  I listen to a LOT of audio, both podcasts and audiobooks.  I’ve seen people asking for any good business audiobooks at least three times, and I’ve been able to help with my recommendations three times.

While I don’t listen to that many audiobooks (about one a month), I tend to listen to primarily business audiobooks, so I can give a recommendations for them.

So here’s a list of the best audiobooks I listened to in 2017.  Please note that the links below are affiliate links, which means that at no extra cost to you, I get a payment for any books you order through it.  I will probably use this money to pay to listen to more audiobooks in 2018…

So in no particular order is the list:

They Ask You Answer by Marcus Sheridan

I’ve seen Marcus Sheridan speak and he’s quite intense – he speaks like a pastor telling you the errors of your content marketing ways.  But there is no doubt that this guy REALLY knows what he is talking about when it comes to Content Marketing, that is attracting people to your business by using attractive content to your audience.  He’s walked the walk and talked the talk on it – he managed to rescue his own fibre-glass swimming pool company by adopting a strong content marketing policy.

This is very much a practical guide about how to use Content Marketing in your business, by concentrating on answering the questions that your customers are looking to get answered before they are ready to purchase.  He also discusses making use of behind-the-scenes content and how to actually do content marketing.

Known by Mark Schaefer

Mark Schaefer is very much the thinking academic type, but he has colossal experience within marketing and he is always looking to see the latest trends in marketing.  This book addresses the important issue that faces a lot of us who are in online business – I’m doing all this work producing content online, when is something going to happen?  Mark makes the strong case that this process will take time as you need to become “Known”, at which point your efforts will start to reap fruits.  He also goes through ways to try and fast-forward this process by picking a new niche or medium and how to know if what you are doing is actually going to get your anywhere.  If you are already a household name then this book may not be for you, but for the rest of us it’s extremely useful.

Unscripted: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Entrepreneurship by MJ DeMarco

I’d never heard of this guy and this book, but saw it recommended in a Facebook group.  The book has real faults – it’s says things in an overly long way and isn’t structured that well.  But the points made are really good.  It also talks about basic entrepreneurial money-management in a way that I haven’t seen addressed elsewhere.  The author has shoved in lots and lots of great business advice.

I think if you want to listen to an audiobook to understand how the world is changing because of the introduction of online business then this is a very good place to start.

 Influence by Robert Cialdini

This isn’t a new book, but for anyone remotely interested in Marketing it is a must-read.  It goes through how marketers can use basic psychology to sell products.   It goes through a number of principles, like the principle of reciprocity – that if you do something for someone they will do something back for you.  It is both an interesting, well-writing and useful book.  Thoroughly recommended.

The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber

Again, this isn’t a new book, though it is a newer version of an older book.   It explains a fundamental reason why so many small businesses fail – they are based on a person rather than a system.  The E in the title isn’t anything to do with electronic or the internet but refers to entrepreneur.  It is so easy when you are very good at something to start a business doing the same thing that is entirely based around you; but this book takes you through the need to take yourself out of the business and instead build systems so that anyone can do the job and that your business can grow.  A lesson I still need to learn (maybe a re-listen is in order!)

 

This is my top 5.  Steal the Show by Michael Port and Epic Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi would take the runner-up slots, and to spare their blushes I won’t mention the other 5 business books I listened to last year.

There are a couple of books that might have made the list but I actually listened to in 2016, namely How to Get a Meeting With Anyone by Stu Heinecke and The One Thing by Gary Keller.