5 Best Reputation & Marketing Books to Read for MSPs

5 Best Reputation & Marketing Books to Read for MSPs

Reputation and marketing are intertwined. A poor reputation can thwart even the best marketing efforts, and a good one can take your lead generation activities to whole new levels.

There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel when working on polishing your MSP business reputation and content marketing efforts. There are tons of great books out there that give you tips and examples on what to do.

If you’re looking for a roadmap to help chart a stellar 2021 for your IT business, a great book can help. Below, we’ve got five of the best books on marketing and reputation management that can give you a roadmap to success.

Helpful Books That Can Offer a Boost for Your IT Business This Year

Marketing Guides for Small Businesses Reputation Management

Marketing Guides for Small Businesses is an organization that publishes books, podcasts, and other content that specifically speaks to the experience of the small business owner.

It’s Marketing Guide for Small Businesses Reputation Management by Phil Singleton, Ken Tucker, and Ray L. Perry offers insights into how business owners can overcome the damage that just one dissatisfied customer can do on the internet.

This book provides tips on how to deftly respond to online reviews so that your reputation is protected, and is laid out in an easy-to-read style for busy small business owners.

Marketing Guides for Small Businesses Reputation Management

Table of Contents:

  • Chapter 1: What Is Online Reputation Management?
  • Chapter 2: Your Reputation’s Starting Point
  • Chapter 3: Move Your SERP Results
  • Chapter 4: Content Brings Attention from All the Right Places
  • Chapter 5: Tools to Help You Keep Tabs
  • Chapter 6: Online Review Sites
  • Chapter 7: Next Steps

Amazon Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars

Amazon Review Highlights:

“This book points out a straight forward process on how to capitalize on happy customers and productively deal with unhappy ones.”

“A must read for anyone who relies on the web for getting customers.”

“It contains a wealth of information and also a host of practical tips. A great resource for any business.”

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Exactly What to Say: The Magic Words for Influence and Impact

This next book was listed as one of the Top 10 Business Books on Amazon for 2018 and has sold over 750,000 copies. It offers guidance on skills to steer a conversation so you can create a positive outcome.

Exactly What to Say: The Magic Words for Influence and Impact by Phil M. Jones helps business owners boost salesmanship, create scenarios where everyone wins and choose their words wisely for the best impact on their reputation.

These tips on the “magic words” for influence and impact not only help promote your brand and company reputation, they’re also very applicable to closing more sales.

Exactly What to Say: The Magic Words for Influence and Impact

Table of Contents:

  1. Opening Words
  2. I’m Not Sure If It’s for You, But
  3. Open-Minded
  4. What Do You Know?
  5. How Would You Feel If?
  6. Just Imagine
  7. When Would Be a Good Time?
  8. I’m Guessing You Haven’t Got Around To
  9. Simple Swaps
  10. You Have Three Options
  11. Two Types of People
  12. I Bet You’re a Bit Like Me
  13. If… Then
  14. Don’t Worry
  15. Most People
  16. The Good News
  17. What Happens Next
  18. What Makes You Say That?
  19. Before You Make Your Mind Up
  20. If I Can, Will You?
  21. Enough
  22. Just One More Thing
  23. A Favor
  24. Just Out of Curiosity
  25. Final Thought

Amazon Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Amazon Review Highlights:

“Easy to read, concise and gives us what we all want – sales info we can use right now to get the next sale.”

“Direct helpful guidance on getting through day to day negotiations and conversations without confrontation and pain.”

“A short read that will keep you thinking for a long time, make sure this book is on your desk.”

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Managing Online Reputation: How to Protect Your Company on Social Media

This book offers a comprehensive understanding that connects the dots between your reputation and social media and how perception can overcome reality if you don’t manage your online presence.

Since 8 out of 10 people in the U.S. are on social media and use it to find products and services, Managing Online Reputation: How to Protect Your Company on Social Media by Charlie Pownall is particularly applicable to any IT business owner.

The book provides recent examples of how organizations have managed their reputations the right way and the wrong way and offers techniques you can use to adeptly respond to negative social media posts.

Managing Online Reputation: How To Protect Your Company on Social Media

Table of Contents:

  1. The New Abnormal
  2. Defining Online Reputation Threats
  3. Strategic and Financial Threats
  4. Social and Environmental Threats
  5. Behavioral the Legal Threats
  6. Operational and Technological Threats
  7. Formulating the Right Response
  8. The Furious Customer
  9. The Rogue Employee
  10. The Committed Activist
  11. The Hostile Journalist
  12. The Backfiring Campaign
  13. The Changing Face of Crises
  14. Preparing for a Crisis
  15. Responding to a Crisis
  16. Recovering from a Crisis

Amazon Rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars

Amazon Review Highlights:

“Shows you how to navigate the sometimes treacherous social media landscape.”

“It’s a valuable and practical resource. Especially as someone who is not a communications pro…”

“It’s full of realistic steps hands-on executives can take to protect company reputation, while at the same time being very readable and easy to digest.”

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Online Reputation Management: Secrets from a Pro Ethical Hacker

This book offers full view of how everything you touch online impacts your reputation and revenue. This includes blog posts, news, social media posts, and even images.

Online Reputation Management: Secrets from a Pro Ethical Hacker by Fernando Azevedo is written by someone who has managed online marketing campaigns and business reputation issues first-hand.

This book is designed to be somewhat of a crisis management guide on how you can use legal and legitimate strategies when faced with cyberbullying and bogus bad reviews for your IT business.

Online Reputation Management Secrets

Table of Contents:

  • Chapter 1: Online Reputation Management – What It Is and What It Isn’t
  • Chapter 2: A Closer Look at Offline and Online Reputation Management
  • Chapter 3: The Need for ORM – Why Online Reputation is Important
  • Chapter 4: Online Reputation Management (ORM) vs. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  • Chapter 5: ORM General Rules and Tools that can Help You Monitor Your Online Image
  • Chapter 6: Things You Need to Understand About Online Reputation Managers
  • Chapter 7: Simple ORM for the Unsophisticated Net User
  • Chapter 8: Best Examples of Successful ORM
  • Chapter 9: Your Ultimate Guide in Creating Good Online Reputation
  • Chapter 10: Sample Cases of Failed ORM
  • Chapter 11: Reputation Management Mistakes to Avoid
  • Chapter 12: FAQs Regarding Ways to Eliminate Negative Search Results
  • Chapter 13: The Dark Side of Online Reputation Management
  • Chapter 14: Cyber Criminals and Your Online Reputation

Amazon Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars

Amazon Review Highlights:

“I found his ideas very helpful, and enjoy how he elaborated on ways to assess and improve your ORM.”

“It was filled with incredibly useful tips and tricks, as well as positive and negative examples that will help be build my online business.”

“This book is a wonderful introduction to the importance of online reputation management.”

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Own Your Reputation – A Guide To An Online Reputation That Attracts Customers, Clients, Patients, And Followers

This book was specifically designed for local businesses and nonprofits to help them create a positive and powerful reputation and brand. It includes several real-world marketing and reputation management examples from local businesses, making it one of the most relevant for small business owners.

Own Your Reputation – A Guide To An Online Reputation That Attracts Customers, Clients, Patients, And Followers by Greg Jordan is written from a marketing perspective and highlights how your online reputation impacts leads, sales, and customer retention.

You’ll find multiple ideas and principals you can adopt for your own MSP business covering topics like reputation protection, the importance of brand journalism, how to respond to negative reviews, and much more.

Own Your Reputation: A Guide To An Online Reputation That Attracts Customers, Clients, Patients, And Followers

Table of Contents:

  1. Why An Online Reputation Is So Important
    • Business Excellence
    • Reviews Affect Sales and Outcomes
  2. Build a Reputation That People Trust
    • 11 Common Online Reputation Challenges
    • Eight Online Review Best Practices
    • Respond To Reviews In These Ways to Boost Your Reputation
    • Shift Your Reputation into High Gear with An Online Review Management System (ORMS)
  3. It’s Showtime!
    • The Twin Levers of Online Reputation
    • How Valuable Online Content Grows Your Reputation
    • How Social Media Helps (or Hurts)
    • Local Marketing Power – Google My Business
    • Brand Journalism – It’s More Than Just Pretty Golden Stars
  4. Manage Your Reputation
    • Scout the Internet
    • Know What’s Being Said About Your On Social Media
    • Formulating Your Reputation Brand Plan
    • Handling Negative Reviews
    • Protection Your Online Reputation

Amazon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Amazon Review Highlights:

“This book touches on a lot of great points that even the most “seasoned” business owner or manager can learn something from.”

“The author successfully highlights various online avenues to market and grow your business.”

“This isn’t a theoretical book of outdated what ifs, it’s a trove of real world business solutions applicable to the current day and age.”

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Learn From Those Who’ve Walked in Your Shoes  

Many of these authors have learned about marketing and reputation management from the “school of hard knocks,” making their wise advice and lessons all the more helpful.

What’s your favorite business-building book? Share your recommendations in the comments!

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