40 Best Influence & Persuasion Books

These are the 40 best books about influence marketing, persuasion, and spreading ideas. Maybe I can convince you to spread this list? 😉

This could be the most important book list I ever made. We all want to change other people’s minds. We want to convince our spouse, educate our children, influence our colleagues, and manipulate our managers. Every day we deal with customers, suppliers, friends, and politicians, and we often try to change their minds about something.

That’s why we need these books.

The books listed here cover various areas, such as trust, stories, brain science, games, and social networks. But they all have one thing in common: they help you persuade people and influence their behaviors. You will notice that the list includes the major classics, but it has a bias towards newer books. Because, after all…

When you aim high, don’t just get to know the giants. Find the small ones standing on their shoulders.

I made this list for employees, managers, coaches, marketers, parents, politicians, NGO’s, and community leaders.

Go change the world!

Enjoy reading.

This ranking of 50 best influence & persuasion books is the average of five different rankings: the number of Amazon reviews, the number of GoodReads reviews, the average Amazon rating, the average GoodReads rating, and the number of days since first publication. That means this list shows you a mix of the most popular, best rated, and (relatively) newest books in this category.

#	Title	Author	Year
1	The Impact Equation Are You Making Things Happen or Just Making Noise?	Chris Brogan, Julien Smith	2012
2	To Sell Is Human The Surprising Truth About Moving Others	Daniel Pink	2012
3	Pitch Anything An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal	Oren Klaff	2011
4	Made to Stick Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die	Chip Heath, Dan Heath	2007
5	Influence The Psychology of Persuasion (multiple editions)	Robert B. Cialdini	1984
6	Loyalty 3.0 How to Revolutionize Customer and Employee Engagement with Big Data and Gamification	Rajat Paharia	2013
7	How to Win Friends & Influence People	Dale Carnegie	1952
8	The Business of Belief How the World's Best Marketers, Designers, Salespeople, Coaches, Fundraisers, Educators, Entrepreneurs and Other Leaders Get Us to Believe	Tom Asacker	2013
9	Contagious Why Things Catch On	Jonah Berger	2013
10	Enchantment The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions	Guy Kawasaki	2011
11	Return On Influence The Revolutionary Power of Klout, Social Scoring, and Influence Marketing	Mark Schaefer	2012
12	Breaking Out How to Build Influence in a World of Competing Ideas	John Butman	2013
13	Influence Marketing How to Create, Manage, and Measure Brand Influencers in Social Media Marketing	Danny Brown, Sam Fiorella	2013
14	Lead with a Story A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives That Captivate, Convince, and Inspire	Paul Smith	2012
15	Grouped How small groups of friends are the key to influence on the social web	Paul Adams	2011
16	Return on Relationship	Kathryn Rose, Ted Rubin	2013
17	Influencer The Power to Change Anything (multiple editions)	Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, et al	2007
18	Winning the Story Wars Why Those Who Tell (and Live) the Best Stories Will Rule the Future	Jonah Sachs	2012
19	The Thank You Economy	Gary Vaynerchuk	2011
20	Unconscious Branding How Neuroscience Can Empower (and Inspire) Marketing	Douglas Van Praet	2012
21	Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive	Noah J. Goldstein, et al	2007
22	Trust Agents Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust	Chris Brogan, Julien Smith	2009
23	The Dragonfly Effect Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways To Use Social Media to Drive Social Change	Jennifer Aaker, Andy Smith	2010
24	The New Relationship Marketing How to Build a Large, Loyal, Profitable Network Using the Social Web	Mari Smith	2011
25	Spreadable Media Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture	Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford, Joshua Green	2012
26	Influence Science and Practice	Robert B. Cialdini	1988
27	Purple Cow Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable (multiple editions)	Seth Godin	2003
28	Make Your Idea Matter Stand out with a better story	Bernadette Jiwa	2012
29	How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age	Dale Carnegie	2011
30	Stand Out Social Marketing How to Rise Above the Noise, Differentiate Your Brand, and Build an Outstanding Online Presence	Mike Lewis	2012
31	The Commitment Engine Making Work Worth It	John Jantsch	2012
32	All Marketers Are Liars The Underground Classic That Explains How Marketing Really Works–and Why Authenticity Is the Best Marketing of All	Seth Godin	2005
33	Unique Telling Your Story in the Age of Brands and Social Media	Phil Cooke	2012
34	Invisible Influence The Power to Persuade Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere	Kevin Hogan	2013
35	World Wide Rave Creating Triggers that Get Millions of People to Spread Your Ideas and Share Your Stories	David Meerman Scott	2009
36	Brainfluence 100 Ways to Persuade and Convince Consumers with Neuromarketing	Roger Dooley	2011
37	Fascinate Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation	Sally Hogshead	2010
38	Nudge Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness (multiple editions)	Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein	2008
39	Six Pixels of Separation Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone	Mitch Joel	2009
40	Your Network Is Your Net Worth Unlock the Hidden Power of Connections for Wealth, Success, and Happiness in the Digital Age	Porter Gale	2013

Do you like this list? Please share, retweet, like, +1, or pin it. You probably have no idea how much work this was… 🙂

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If you like my work, please have a look at my little book How to Change the World. You can get it on Amazon, in PDF, on paper, and as e-book. It's available in English and many other languages.