In 2019, the Sleeknote Marketing department started a book club. But not just any book club…
A marketing book club.
Our goal was to introduce ourselves to new marketing ideas, which we could use to acquire new customers better, improve customer loyalty, and reduce customer churn.
In this article, I’ll share how we, as a department, have benefited from reading together as a group. I’ll also share to start a book club for your workplace to better align and collaborate as a team.
What Is a Book Club?
A book club is a reading group who read and talk about books based on a topic or an agreed-upon reading list. While it’s common for reading clubs to choose a specific book to read and discuss simultaneously, our marketing book club meets monthly to give each member enough time to read the book, reflect on their key takeaways, and prepare for the meeting.
What Are the Benefits of a Book Club?
The first obvious benefit of running a book club is it improves how a department does what it’s intended to do.
Take Sleeknote, for instance, which is a software-as-a-subscription (SaaS). The Marketing department not only needs to do everything that’s expected of a traditional marketing department but also, to be more precise, convert as many free trial users into buyers.
When a prospect (or user) starts a free trial, they have seven days to try our software. During that time, we send several segmented and triggered emails to help them familiarize themselves with the product before we ask for the sale.
Like most SaaS companies, we’ve struggled from time to time to invite users to take specific actions. For instance, one of two important milestones for a Sleeknote free trial user is to (1) create a popup and (2) add a piece of Javascript code to their website.
We knew that simplicity was important, but it wasn’t until we read Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg that we realized we weren’t simplifying our emails enough. In chapter one, Fogg explains that behavior happens when motivation, ability, and a prompt converge simultaneously.
When this idea came up in our meeting, we realized that, while users were able to do what we wanted them to, when prompted, they weren’t motivated. So, to help with that, we rewrote our emails to included more business-specific use cases.
All departments have problems that they’re aware of but don’t understand. These are the team’s “known unknowns.” However, by reading books that improve how the department does what it does, the team glens insights it wouldn’t have known otherwise.
The second, albeit subtle, benefit of running a book club is reading similar books ensures all team members in a department are aligned. That might be a framework with its own terms (like Scrum), or, in our case, a marketing ideology we want to follow.
A department comprises four team members, each with their own professional backgrounds and experiences. In our case, our teams’ backgrounds are as varied as info-marketing and e-commerce, to more traditional routes like academia.
Reading influential, principle-based books like The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Influence by Robert Cialdini have helped ensure that we all align when it comes to how we market our product and collaborate as a team.
How to Start a Book Club
Now that we’ve covered the two main benefits of running a book club, I want to share the three-step process our department follows to run its marketing book club.
1. Decide When to Meet (and for How Long)
The first step to starting a book club is deciding (1) how often you will meet and (2) the meeting’s duration. These two considerations will vary depending on the department’s size (i.e., the number of team members), the book’s length, et cetera.
In our experience, we’ve found scheduling a monthly one-hour meeting is more than adequate. A month enough time for each team member to read the book, write a book summary, if needed, and give their inputs in the meeting.
2. Choose a Book Selection Process
We’ve experimented with several book selection processes. Some worked well; others not so much. We first tried a voting system, but we soon found ourselves voting for books that sounded good, but ultimately underdelivered.
We then had all team members suggest three books each, which improved the above process. We found recommending a title with an explanation forces each team member to think about why their suggestion is a worthwhile read.
Our current process is different. We’ve read eleven books, as of writing, and there’s a lot of overlap. To combat information blindness, we now choose books, marketing or otherwise, that are most relevant to our team.
For instance, project management is an essential part of working as a team, given that there are four of us. We’re super organized as it is, but we know there’s always room for improvement. So, for our next book, we chose Getting Things Done by David Allen.
Once the department agrees on the upcoming month’s book, it’s everyone’s responsibility to read the book, whether that’s physically or digitally, or listening with Audible.
3. Decide on a Meeting Format
How you run your meetings will vary depending on the number of people in your department. If there are five or fewer people—as there are in our department—an hour is more than enough time for each team member to contribute.
During that meeting, each team member will go around, one member at a time, and share what their feelings about the book—what they liked, what they didn’t like, how the department could benefit from its idea, how it relates to other books you’ve read as a department.
While each team member takes turns doing this, assigning one person to take notes is a worthwhile idea. If your department works in quarterly project cycles, taking notes is crucial for future reference as our department does. Your notes will inform projects to take on, next quarter, and beyond.
After a few meetings, it’s best to keep a reading list of books you want to read, plan to read, and have read. We do this in ClickUp, which is where we manage all our projects, but you could also do this Notion, which I use to track my annual reading goal.
Our marketing department’s reading list in ClickUp.
Conclusion
We’ve read eleven books, as of writing, and each has benefited how we do our marketing. I’ve learned a lot from the books I’ve read, but I’ve also enjoyed reading with my team.
I’m always fascinated that four people can read a book and draw four different conclusions about what was relevant for our department. I will never tire of someone else’s perspective, even if I disagree.
If you’re an employee, ask your manager to run a book club for your department. If you’re a manager, consider it the best investment you can make in your organization.
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