As a business, it’s important to continue learning about your craft. The more you learn about marketing, sales, growing a business, handling employees, and other areas, the better owner/manager you become. These days, there are multiple amazing resources available to business owners including podcasts, newsletters, blogs, videos, online courses, and more. Today, we’re focusing on marketing newsletters.
Which marketing newsletters should you subscribe to in 2021? Before we answer that, why should you read marketing newsletters at all?
Even if you’ve been in business for 30 years, this doesn’t mean you don’t have opportunities to learn. Especially in the field of marketing, techniques and practices are always evolving. What worked last year might not offer anything of value now. Therefore, the first reason to read marketing newsletters is to stay on top of the ever-evolving marketing world. What’s trending? What’s changed? What is likely to change shortly? With this information, you can prepare for the changes and stay ahead of the competition.
The numbers don’t lie in marketing, but one of the things that keeps people interested is the subjective nature of marketing. It’s all about evoking emotion in our audience and getting them to engage with the brand, and there’s not always a universally successful approach. As a business, you need to find the approach that works for YOUR target market. By reading marketing newsletters, you learn the different perspectives and opinions of other professionals.
Finally, what’s there to lose? For the most part, marketing newsletters are free, and this means we’re tapping into the extensive experience of marketing professionals for no charge. We learn from different perspectives and receive the latest industry news, in a more efficient way than doing this research manually.
For beginners and experts alike, HubSpot is an experienced name and always a good place to start for marketing newsletters. You’ll find discussions and news relating to social media, SEO, lead generation, blogging, email marketing, and other topics. Another reason we decided to start with HubSpot is that it offers different newsletters for Agencies, Marketing, Services, and Sales. When signing up, choose between the various newsletters and how frequently you wish to receive them.
In case you didn’t know, Intercom is designed as a messaging platform for websites. However, it’s rare to see the brand shouting about its own service in the newsletter, and this makes it perfect for our list. In the past, we’ve seen topics such as customer support, tech trends, startups, and product development mentioned in the newsletter.
One feature we like in particular is when members of the Intercom team contribute to the newsletter. As well as being informational, Intercom manages to find a blend of entertainment and seriousness with their newsletter.
If it’s SEO you’re interested in, there aren’t too many that can compete with Moz, and its newsletter is just as valuable. Available every other week, the newsletter is mainly designed to point you in the direction of its detailed articles. With all the best content from the Moz team in one place, you don’t need to read through everything and waste your time with irrelevant content.
There are many reasons to like the newsletter from CMI, but one of the biggest is that it answers some of the most common marketing questions. Furthermore, there’s flexibility which means you’ll choose from daily notifications, weekly insights and summaries, or another option. If you choose the weekly offering, you’ll get:
Content Marketing Institute also allows you to personalize your newsletter with topics that interest you. When subscribing, you choose from a list of what content you would like to receive.
As the name suggests, this one is all about staying in touch with the world of social media marketing. Every year, there seems to be growing importance on Facebook, Instagram, and all other social media giants. As a knowledgeable team, Social Media Today can produce a relevant and interesting newsletter time and time again.
For those interested in social media, this is one of the best newsletters around (and it’s also available daily!). Each day, you’ll receive a newsletter consisting of content from its own platform and from the blogs of others. Also, you’ll get tips and trends for the social media marketing world.
If you don’t have much time to consume newsletters, Neil Patel is a good option because it’s never really more than a few links and small pieces of text (this isn’t to say that they aren’t worth reading!). Neil Patel has built his platform up into a worldwide brand, and one that competes with other names on this list.
Normally, the newsletter offers useful insights into specific topics with each one focusing on a different area. As well as a strong message, it encourages readers to continue their learning elsewhere.
If you don’t already use Product Hunt, the website lists the hottest products available around the world. In terms of their newsletter, it follows a similar theme by explaining the top products from the day before. Products are upvoted and downvoted according to public opinion so they’re not solely relying on one arbitrary opinion.
As marketers and businesses, it’s useful to know the products currently in with consumers. Also, there could be an opportunity to use Product Hunt with your own product launches and get your name mentioned in its newsletters.
When it comes to The Daily Carnage, it’s all about arming marketers and business owners with the knowledge they need to succeed with different aspects of marketing. As well as industry trends, the newsletter covers techniques, best practices, hand-selected content, and tips. If you’re also bored with the very official approach to marketing, then this is the newsletter for you because The Daily Carnage brings some fun to the process.
The eagle-eyed among you will have spotted the extra ’n’ in ‘Annarchy’ and this is because it’s created by Ann Handley. As an influential digital marketer, Ann is the owner of MarketingProfs and is always helping in this field through virtual training courses, conferences, and other events. As a biweekly effort, the newsletter keeps us up to date with industry events, trends, and news.
Why choose Total Annarchy? When selecting a newsletter, you need to know why each is unique. With this one, we think it’s the personal touch added by Ann. As somebody who has been through it all, she’s seen everything over the years and her experience is obvious in each newsletter. Sometimes, she’ll even share personal struggles and her personal life; this is something not available with many company newsletters.
Not so long ago, Sam Parr, founder of The Hustle, was arranging a startup conference for all Millennials. During this process, he mentioned the idea of a newsletter and received thousands of subscribers instantly. Now, 300,000 people receive daily emails, which are written in a casual language and in an approachable way for beginner marketers.
Although The Hustle was originally launched for younger readers, we don’t see a reason why older readers will dislike this newsletter (as long as you don’t mind the somewhat unofficial language!).
This is another name you might recognize for SEO, and we know that many use this platform for email marketing purposes. In Ahrefs’ weekly newsletters, readers learn all about the most recent blog posts. Just like the platform itself, the newsletter is steadily growing in followership because each edition is engaging and contains genuinely useful insights.
Finally, we’re including Invision because it covers a topic that is often forgotten in more general marketing newsletters - graphic design. Even in marketing newsletters that claim to cover everything, graphic design is often a subject left untouched. Considering the importance of design in marketing, this is surprising. Don’t fear, everything you need is available with Invision.
As is expected with a graphic design leader, the newsletter excels in terms of appearance and the content isn’t too far behind either. In each, you’ll learn about coding, design, and lots more relating to this area. If you aren't interested in design, you aren’t left behind because you’ll also learn about promotions, blogs, webinars, and other marketing tools.
With this, you have a dozen amazing marketing newsletters to subscribe to. Depending on your needs, choose the newsletter that will provide the most value. While some need an all-round marketing newsletter, others will look for specific newsletters on SEO, design, social media, or something else entirely. Also, feel free to let us know your favorite marketing newsletters if they aren’t mentioned on our list!