What makes us better marketing professionals? Sure, a degree or certification in marketing helps, but is that enough? Not quite. Although you can learn about the fundamentals of marketing at school or through a specialized course, you don’t get to learn about the nitty-gritties of marketing.
This is because we live in a world where marketing strategies evolve everyday, tools and techniques for marketing surface every hour, rules are broken every minute and new marketing milestones are achieved every second.
Surviving and succeeding in such a dynamic and demanding profession requires you to evolve all the time. Just because a strategy worked once doesn’t mean it will work again. You must revisit, improvise, and fine-tune your marketing strategy and update your marketing skills regularly.
“Marketing’s job is never done. It’s about perpetual motion. We must continue to innovate every day.”
Beth Comstock, Senior VP and CMO of General Electric
How do you do that? By learning and growing everyday. This is why we’re going to share how we constantly learn and update our skills and knowledge base – through newsletters.
There are 35 essential newsletters that provide great insights, tips, tools, hacks, techniques, and practical examples of what works and what doesn’t. These newsletters have been segregated based on the topics we tend to search for when reading their content (it doesn’t mean that many of them couldn’t fit in two or more categories):
A big bonus for all Twitteratis – we’re also including the twitter handles of the amazing industry influencers and thought leaders who regularly contribute their brilliant insights through these newsletters.
So without further ado, let’s take a look!
Startups
Working for a startup requires learning about this market to make the best decision possible when we create our marketing strategies. One of the best ways to stay informed is by following and reading well-curated newsletters.
Tom Tunguz
Email frequency – Every 2-3 days
Why subscribe – The blog by Tom Tunguz (@ttunguz) is essential for people working for startups. His analysis about valuations, funding, finances, SaaS metrics and business strategy are among the best I’ve found.
SaaStr
Email frequency – Every 4-5 days
Why subscribe – If you work for a SaaS Startup, like I do, you probably want the best content about traction, scaling your business, hiring, getting funding and ways to develop your business. SaaStr (@SaaStr) will deliver to your inbox content that will fulfill your needs to learn more and more about the startup scene.
SaaS Weekly
Email frequency – Weekly
Why subscribe – Hiten Shah (@hnshah) is Neil Patel’s partner in their successful business. His newsletter is a mix of curated content and his own posts talking about SaaS and Startups. Learn from one of the most successful entrepreneurs by subscribing to his newsletter.
First Round
Email frequency – Every 2-3 days
Why subscribe – First Round (@firstround) is all about startups, business and VC funding. Doesn’t matter if they are writing about Marketing and PR, Product, Management and Fundraising, you always find valuable information coming from people that know lots of different business.
Product Hunt
Email frequency – You get to choose between daily and weekly
Why subscribe – Receiving updates about new startups on the market is a great way to prospect companies that might find Route valuable and also to learn where’s the tech market is heading to and what cool things are being developed. One thing that I really like is the Product Hunt Tech Digest with tips of products like “The Ultimate Startup Kit”. A good way to learn about new tools that can help my job as a marketer.
Growth
Every early stage startup has just one word in mind: growth. Finding the best ways of growing their businesses gives startups a competitive advantage. Learning from the pros is a great way to stay updated on industry best practices and use this knowledge for their businesses. At least, that’s how we use the valuable content we get from these newsletters.
Growth Hackers
Email frequency – Every 2-3 days
Why subscribe – Growth Hackers (@GrowthHackers) forum is probably one of the best places on the internet to find great content about Startups and SaaS. When I open their newsletter I know I’ll spend a lot of time going from one topic to another, following the discussions and reading the blog posts.
Neil Patel
Email frequency – Every 2-3 days
Why subscribe – Neil Patel (@neilpatel) seems to be the person that knows about almost everything. He was the founder of some successful companies and he has actionable advice for marketer from content marketing to growth hacking. If you are just starting working with digital marketing he has something to teach you and if you are an experienced professional he can help you maximizing your knowledge with his advanced content.
Nir and Far
Email frequency – Every 3-4 days
Why subscribe – Nir Eyal (@nireyal) is the author of a well-known book among Startup professionals: Hooked. As I like consumer behavior and behavioral economics I started following his posts. I still didn’t read his book, but it’s on my list. If you want to learn more about how our mind works, following him is a good start.
Noah Kagan
Email frequency – Weekly
Why subscribe – I follow Noah Kagan (@noahkagan) because the content he shares and produces always aim to help marketers have the knowledge and the best data to take decisions on their own business. And his Email1K course is also great.
ConversionXL
Email frequency – Semi-monthly (twice a month)
Why subscribe – Peep Laja (@peeplaja) is probably one of the best professionals to get knowledge from when the subject is conversion. Whether you are just launching your business and want to start measuring conversions or you have a established business but want a full conversion rate optimization, this is the place to learn a few things.
Gainsight
Email frequency – Every 2-3 days
Why subscribe – If you work with Customer Success or need to learn how implementing this on your company can increase your revenue reading what Gainsight (@GainsightHQ) publishes is your first step. Actually, Lincoln Murphy (@lincolnmurphy) also publishes in sixteenventures.com and there you can find lots of different content with lots of insights and tips to help startups and marketers to do a better job.
Digital Marketer
Email frequency – Daily
Why subscribe – There are tons of Marketing blogs out there but Ryan Deiss (@ryandeiss) and his Digital Marketer blog focus on one thing: making things work. He tries to give actionable advice in every piece of content, things a marketer can learn and put into practice right away. It’s all about doing things and getting results.
Groove HQ
Email frequency – Every 2-3 days
Why subscribe – Groove HQ content is mainly created by it’s founder Alex Turnbull (@alexmturnbull). He follows the trend among startups to be open and clear about their business and what they are doing to grow. I know that everytime I open one of Groove’s newsletter I’ll read a really deep and long post that we’ll give me insights about my own work. This is something I value a lot, people sharing what they are doing trying to educate and help the market grow.
Marketing
Marketing newsletters for marketers is a no-brainer, but are you following the right ones? Well, we think these marketing newsletters are a great source of marketing tips and best practices.
Seth Godin
Email frequency – Daily
Why subscribe – He is the ultimate guru of marketing with one of the most popular marketing blogs in the world. Through his newsletter, Seth (@ThisIsSethsBlog) shares his thoughts, ideas and advice – all of which is all quite handy and inspiring. Recently, this marketing genius got inducted into the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame – need more reasons?
Kissmetrics
Email frequency – Weekly
Why subscribe – Marketers today need to understand (and sometimes master) different areas of knowledge and one really important is being able to understand user data through analytics. Although we don’t use Kissmetrics (@Kissmetrics) here at Route, all their content about marketing (blog posts, webinars, ebooks) help me not get lost in a world that sends us tons of data about people.
Inbound.org
Email frequency – Daily
Why subscribe – Go to Inbound.Org (@Inboundorg) and find great posts and advice from the inbound marketing community. Learn and grow everyday from your peers in inbound marketing, based on their experiences.
The MOZ Blog
Email frequency – Semi-monthly (twice a month)
Why subscribe – If you are looking for advice on how to stand out on Google, then this blog is for you. The Moz Blog (@moz) provides innovative and creative advice on everything related to inbound marketing and especially SEO.
Buffer
Email frequency – Weekly
Why subscribe – Buffer (@buffer) is your one-stop solution for everything in social media. Their excellent tips and tricks to boost your business and reach on social media are extremely useful and quite hard to find elsewhere.
Litmus
Email frequency – Monthly
Why subscribe – Litmus (@litmusapp) is the authority on email marketing. They provide insights on what works and what doesn’t in email marketing, how can you enhance your email marketing campaigns, as well as thought-provoking facts & statistics on elements of an email such as design, content, performance metrics, subject line etc. Plus, their newsletters look great!
AdEspresso
Email frequency – Weekly
Why subscribe – Social Media is a goldmine for marketers searching for other ad contact points beyond Google AdWords and AdEspresso (@AdEspresso) is a place to go to learn about marketing on Facebook.
Smart Insights
Email frequency – Every 2-3 days
Why subscribe – Marketing theory and strategy in one place. Although most of their best content is for people that pay for their subscription, what they offer for free is great. If you want to put your brain to work to learn about marketing, start reading Smart Insights (@SmartInsights) blog.
Copyblogger
Email frequency – Weekly
Why subscribe – Copyblogger (@copyblogger) sends useful tips and tricks on becoming a better content marketer. What I like is their no-nonsense, in-depth approach to sharing quality content and their excellent how-to articles, especially on blogging.
Content Marketing Institute
Email frequency –
Why subscribe – The name says it all. CMI (@JoePulizzi) is the powerhouse of the content marketing industry. Icing on the cake? We’ll give you double icing. Joe Pulizzi, one of the greatest content marketing evangelists, founded it. Additionally, CMI hosts Content Marketing World, which is the largest content marketing event in the world.
CoSchedule
Email frequency – Every 3-4 days
Why subscribe – CoSchedule (@CoSchedule) articles about content marketing and blogging must be on every content marketer reading list. To show you how important they were for us, we use their Headline Analyzer to check if our post titles are ok (for this one I tested 10 different healines) and their blog post checklist before we start writing.
Social Media Examiner
Email frequency – Daily
Why subscribe – SME (@smexaminer) provides some of the best resources for constantly educating social marketers. The world of social media marketing is fast-paced where things change every day, every hour, every minute and sometimes, every second. For such a dynamic field, the resources & education offered by SME is a heavenly gift. Oh, another thing, their newsletters look cute.
Marketing Profs
Email frequency – Daily
Why subscribe – Marketing Profs (@MarketingProfs) provides you with a wide-range of articles everyday that touch on the various aspects of marketing. Although it is quite extensive, occasionally some of the topics are quite interesting with several useful tips. My favorite is Veronica Jarski, who writes great articles wherein she gets straight to the point and provides practical solutions. Added bonus – highly creative and impactful infographics.
Mention
Email frequency – Weekly
Why subscribe – Mention (@mention) provides timely and oh-my-god-why-didn’t-i-think-of-it-before tips on what works when it comes to content and social media marketing. Popular categories include marketing, social media, and startups, among others. Why subscribe? They promise that their newsletter will ensure you never miss a thing online. That’s good enough for me. What about you?
Tech
Until now, marketers had to understand about several fields such as psychology, biology, human behavior, neurosciences, statistics, economics… but nowadays technology is playing a huge role in marketing, especially for professionals working at startups. Even if you’re not the one using the tools or writing the code, it still is extremely important for you to know what your coworkers are doing. This helps you be more effective when formulating your marketing strategies.
MIT Tech
Email frequency – You get to choose between daily and weekly
Why subscribe – There’s always something new happening in the field of technology every second – and keeping up with all this information could be nightmarish. That’s where MIT Tech (@techreview) comes to your rescue. Their newsletters provide you with well-written (they do some serious journalism) articles that help you see, explore, and understand new technologies and their impact. Something that sets them apart is the fact that their newsletters are available in 6 different languages (other than English) – Portuguese, Spanish, German, Chinese, Italian and Arabic.
Mashable
Email frequency – You get to choose between daily, few days a week, and weekly
Why subscribe – When I was getting started in as a working professional, I was overwhelmed by the gazillion sites full of information on social media and technologies. I wanted a single repository providing me with up-to-date information on social media and emerging technologies. That’s what 29-year old Pete Cashmore (@petecashmore) (at that time, he was 19) did when he launched Mashable. Mashable (@mashable) provides quality content, curated as per your reading habits, right at your doorstep.
VentureBeat
Email frequency – You get to choose between daily and weekly
Why subscribe – VentureBeat, (@venturebeat) run by a bunch of seasoned journalists spearheaded by the award-winning tech journalist Dylan Tweney (@dylan20), is an excellent source for all things tech.
“VentureBeat is one of the two tech blogs that I regularly read.” – Mark Zuckerberg, Founder & CEO, Facebook.
Need we say more?
TechCrunch
Email frequency – Weekly
Why subscribe – The reason Michael Arrington (@arrington) launched TechCrunch was to share information about what’s making big waves in technology. They were the ones who first informed the world about Youtube’s acquisition by Google, way back in 2008. That’s how fast and accurate they are! Plus, their star-studded list of columnists and contributors includes MG Siegler, Andrew Keen, Chris Dixon, James Altucher, Mark Suster, among others – that’s proof enough of their credibility.
JavaScript Weekly
Email frequency – Weekly
Why subscribe – JavaScript Weekly (@jsweeklyfeed) does a weekly round-up of JavaScript news and articles and is one of the best sources to keep up to date on front end technologies. Curated by Peter Cooper (@peterc), this tech newsletter provides the most high impact articles from the world of JavaScript. Why subscribe? Because Paul Irish (@paul_irish), the developer advocate for Google and one of the coolest thought leaders in JavaScript and CSS, is subscribed to it and gives it an A+ rating.
Smashing Magazine
Email frequency – Weekly
Why subscribe – Hands down, Smashing Magazine (@smashingmag) is the best source for web designers and developers. Founded by Vitaly Friedman, this German firm’s well-curated newsletters provide great insights on design best practices and coding techniques. Their expert panel includes some of the biggest tech influencers such as Addy Osmani, Chris Coyier, Paul Irish, Ilya Grigorik, Lea Verou, Nicolas Gallagher, among others.
CodeProject
Email frequency – Weekly
Why subscribe – The Daily Insider, which is Code Project’s newsletter, provides developers with the latest updates on technologies and programming. Why subscribe? In their words, “Sign up to get the news you didn’t even know you needed to know in the most valuable 5 minutes of reading of your day.”
Web Tools Weekly
Email frequency – Weekly
Why subscribe – Web Tools Weekly (@WebToolsWeekly) is a front-end web design and development newsletter curated by Louis Lazaris (@ImpressiveWebs). The main reason you should subscribe to this newsletter is because they share brilliant insights on the best tools that programmers and designers should employ to boost productivity at work.
Conclusion
Few things to note, we have only listed blogs with great newsletters. Hence, although there are other awesome blogs out there, they didn’t make the cut since they don’t have an active newsletter. We at Route, also run a blog on trends and techniques in digital marketing with special focus on marketing automation.
However, we don’t believe in tooting our own horn, which is why we didn’t include our newsletter in the list above. If you wish to follow us, feel free to do so by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.
So, this is our list. What are the newsletters you are subscribed to? We would love to explore other great newsletters. Go ahead and post in the Comments section below.
*This post was co-written with Ayswarrya Ganapathiraman.