Are you sick of boring marketing newsletters that waste your time?
After years of subscribing and unsubscribing, I've become OBSESSED with finding the best marketing newsletters that are:
- Relevant to a specific niche
- Up-to-date/consistent
- Trustworthy
- Concise (I don't have time to read essays)
- Actionable
I ended up with 15 newsletters that I’ve segmented based on what they're the best at.
Feel free to jump to the section that most interests you:
- Best for social media news: This Week in Social Media
- Best for actional insights from social media news: Future Social
- Best for general marketing news updates: The Daily Carnage Newsletter
- Best for creators and influencers: Lindsey Gamble’s Newsletter
- Best for outside-the-box thinking: Growth Marketing Newsletter by Demand Curve
- Best for sparking ideas: Marketing Ideas
- Best for understanding the psychology of marketing: Science Says
- Best for positioning: Why We Buy
- Best for quick tactics: Marketing Examples
- Best for general news and trends: Stacked Marketer
- Best for learning about newsletters: Growth in Reverse
- Best for AI news: AIM- AI in Marketing
- Best for SEO news: Core Updates
- Best for B2B: ExitFive
- Best for ad creatives: The Weekly Ad Creative Newsletter from a $50M E-commerce Creative Strategist
Best for social media news: This Week in Social Media
This Week in Social Media (TWISM) is a weekly newsletter by Joshua Parkinson that covers everything that happened in social media that week.
If you’re a social media marketer trying to stay on top of the industry news on your coffee break, this is the newsletter for you.
What you’ll love
Bite-sized coverage of social media news segmented based on social media platforms without being preachy.
Unlike other newsletters, TWISM also covers key listicles, tutorials, videos, case studies, and infographics (or memes) that over 151K social media marketers find handy to help them get better at their jobs.
My favorite newsletter issue:
Rating
I don’t wanna toot our own horn (any more than I already have), so I’ll let our subscribers do it for us :)
Here’s what Tara Tamiko had to say about the newsletter:
Here’s one from Tammy Adams that got us smiling from ear to ear:
How does TWISM fare on my marketing newsletter checklist? Let’s see:
Is it relevant?
- Social media peeps have repeatedly said they’ve found TWISM incredibly relevant.
Is it up-to-date?
- Weekly issues mean TWISM brings red-hot stories to your inbox.
Is it trustworthy?
- We pick stories from verified sources (like Mark Zuckerberg or Adam Mosseri for Facebook/Threads/Instagram-related news).
Is it concise?
- Designed for skimmability, you can finish reading a TWISM issue within 5-10 minutes.
Does it have a central focus?
- Social media stories and tips.
Is it actionable?
- Each issue carefully curates tutorials, case studies, and videos to ensure marketers can easily implement them.
A perfect 6/6!
Subscribe here to become a better social media marketer today.
Best for actionable insights from social media news: Future Social
Future Social is a weekly newsletter by Jack Appleby that shares theoretical social strategies, content breakdowns, and case studies for social media marketers.
What you’ll love
While TWISM covers the news, Future Social goes beyond and provides actionable insights that brands can take from relevant stories while maintaining a conversational tone.
For instance, Adam Mosseri recently explained the nuances of Instagram’s algorithm. Future Social dedicated a section that provided actionable takeaways for brands that want to be seen on Instagram:
My favorite newsletter issue:
My rating
Is it relevant?
- If you want to stay on top of social media strategy and trends shaping the space, yes.
Is it up-to-date?
- You’ll get at least one issue every week, but to accommodate relevant social media changes, Future Social might put out multiple issues in a single week.
Is it trustworthy?
- Jack Appleby has 15+ years of experience working with key influencers and on social media campaigns for various heavyweights.
Is it concise?
- Each issue is roughly the size of a blog post, with key headings making it easy to skim. So, it’s not exactly concise, but the information packed in each issue and the flow make it worth reading till the end. (We’ll count it as 0.75 points to keep it fair for the readers)
Does it have a central focus?
- Social media strategy for brands.
Is it actionable?
- Yes, that’s what makes it stand out.
That’s a 5.75/6!
To become a member of Future Social, subscribe here.
Best for general marketing news updates: The Daily Carnage Newsletter
The Daily Carnage Newsletter is a daily marketing newsletter by the social media experts at Carney, delivering a handpicked list of social media stories and ad campaigns to 30K+ readers.
What you’ll love
As you would expect from a digital marketing newsletter, The Daily Carnage has a central section for trending stories. Beyond that, I’ve noticed that they tend to experiment with the other sections of their newsletter to keep it entertaining. You might find games, trivia, and polls in issues, which would keep the engagement of The Daily Carnage pretty high.
A lot of marketing folks like collecting past ads, either for nostalgia or to stock up on their swipe files. "Ads from the Past" is a staple section in each issue of ‘The Daily Carnage’ that caters to this subsection really well:
My favorite newsletter issue:
My rating
Is it relevant?
- If you’re in marketing, yes.
Is it up-to-date?
- Yep, with its daily updates, it’s a little similar to Google Discover.
Is it trustworthy?
- Absolutely.
Is it concise?
- Yep, the "Tactics/Takeaways" section can be a bit long at times, but generally, it’s very concise.
Does it have a central focus?
- Marketing updates.
Is it actionable?
- Watch out for the "Tactics/Takeaways" section.
The Daily Carnage scores a perfect 6/6!
To become a member of The Daily Carnage, subscribe here.
Best for creators and influencers: Lindsey Gamble’s newsletter
Lindsey Gamble's weekly newsletter curates the most important trends, news, and updates about influencer marketing, the creator economy, and social media for 5K+ involved readers.
What you’ll love
Lindsey Gamble provides a dual viewpoint on the creator economy for the readers — as a creator and as a marketer. This makes the deep dives into industry trends and stories that much more nuanced.
My favorite newsletter issue:
My rating
Is it relevant?
- If you're a creator/influencer, you should definitely subscribe to this newsletter.
Is it up-to-date?
- Yep.
Is it trustworthy?
- Buffer named it as one of the best marketing newsletters of 2024, so that’d make it pretty trustworthy in my book.
Is it concise?
- No, this newsletter dives deep into each social media platform along with actionable takeaways for influencers and creators.
Does it have a central focus?
- Creator economy.
Is it actionable?
- Lindsey Gamble provides a breakdown of why you should care about a trend or an update in the newsletter, so yes.
Final score: 5/6
To become a member of Lindsey Gamble’s Newsletter, subscribe here.
Best for outside-the-box thinking: Growth Marketing Newsletter by Demand Curve
Demand Curve’s Growth Marketing Newsletter shares the top strategies and tactics used by fast-growing startups, twice every week.
What you’ll love
Demand Curve turns the learnings from their agency work into written growth content. The content then gets validated by their community (92K+ marketers) and enriched with real-world examples and data. Once the tactics are proven, they find their way into the newsletter:
For instance, this brilliant piece on "opinionated defaults":
My favorite newsletter issue:
My rating
Is it relevant?
- If you are a marketer who wants to learn about the unique ways different startups grow, this is the newsletter you should subscribe to.
Is it up-to-date?
- Yes, readers get 2 weekly issues that look at the strategies that work today.
Is it trustworthy?
- Marketers from companies like Twitch, Slack, Zendesk, Stripe, and Salesforce swear by it.
Is it concise?
- No, this newsletter dives deep into a specific growth marketing tactic with examples and actionable takeaways. We’d definitely sit down with a pencil while reading it.
Does it have a central focus?
- Growth marketing strategies.
Is it actionable?
- Yep. Each growth strategy is followed by a detailed breakdown of how marketers can implement it for their use case.
Final score: A solid 5/6.
To become a member of Growth Newsletter by Demand Curve, subscribe here.
Best for sparking ideas: Marketing Ideas
Marketing Ideas is a weekly newsletter by Tom Orbach that shares unconventional, battle-tested, and practical marketing ideas with 30K+ readers.
What you’ll love
Tom Orbach’s unique marketing niche — Unconventional Marketing, takes frameworks from behavioral economics and psychology and applies them to marketing.
For instance, here’s a breakdown of the “mini-game marketing playbook” and how you can implement it for your brand:
My favorite newsletter issue:
My rating
Is it relevant?
- If you feel stuck trying to come up with ideas for growth, you can trust ‘Marketing Ideas’ to have a unique solution for you.
Is it up-to-date?
- Yep, one email sent every Friday on the unconventional ‘growth hacks’ that will work.
Is it trustworthy?
- Tom Orbach is the Head of Growth Marketing at Wiz.io and found a spot in Forbes 30 Under 30 for his unconventional parody product- a “Viral Post Generator”. I’d say this makes him a pretty reliable source on unconventional tactics that surprisingly make sense.
Is it concise?
- Yep, each issue tends to have a maximum read time of 3 minutes.
Does it have a central focus?
- Unconventional and practical marketing frameworks.
Is it actionable?
- Tom makes it a point to include a step-by-step breakdown on how you can implement the marketing framework in that issue.
Final score: 6/6!
To become a member of Marketing Ideas, subscribe here.
Best for understanding the psychology of marketing: Science Says
Science Says is a weekly science-based marketing newsletter that provides actionable insights from the latest scientific discoveries to 30K+ readers.
What you’ll love
Science Says provides you with marketing recommendations based on proven evidence. No opinions, no biased case studies, just facts.
For instance, did you ever feel short, easy-to-spell brand names were more trustworthy?
There’s a research paper that provides statistical evidence and the reason behind why that holds true:
Most of the research covered by the newsletter falls under the umbrella of behavioral science. Of the 10,000-odd research papers published in marketing, hardly 1-2% are actually useful to companies, and that's what Science Says brings to the table every Tuesday.
My favorite newsletter issue:
My rating
Is it relevant?
- As marketing gets more data-driven, convincing stakeholders or your boss about a new strategy can be tedious. But, if you had the backing of research, it’d be much easier to sell it to the higher-ups. That is what makes Science Says increasingly more relevant today.
Is it up-to-date?
- Science Says usually shares actionable insights based on new research published in the last 1-2 months. However, if nothing impactful was published recently, it would come from previous studies. (Fair enough, I won’t hold that against them.)
Is it trustworthy?
- The founder of Science Says, Thomas McKinlay, has spent over 10 years in marketing at Google and other startups and has a team of vastly experienced marketing PhDs from reputed universities. So, if I were a betting man, I’d say Science Says is a pretty reliable source for marketing research.
Is it concise?
- Yep, each issue is a 3-minute read that provides an actionable insight derived from a relevant marketing research paper.
Does it have a central focus?
- Scientific marketing research-based insights.
Is it actionable?
- Science Says doesn’t just provide information on the latest marketing research. There’s also a dedicated section to help you implement it as well:
Final Score: 6/6!
To become a member of Science Says, subscribe here.
Best for positioning: Why We Buy
Why We Buy is a weekly newsletter by Katelyn Bourgoin that shares buyer psychology insights with 63K+ readers.
What you’ll love
It doesn’t matter if you are a founder, marketer, creator, or copywriter; understanding buyer psychology holds the key to growth. While cognitive biases are one of the central themes of the newsletter, ‘Why We Buy’ also provides actionable insights on using those cognitive biases for good across different industries.
For instance, Goodhart’s Law states that when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
The gist of it is that chasing metrics blindly can have negative long-term consequences.
But how do you use it to sell better?
Why We Buy has a fitting answer:
My favorite newsletter issue:
My rating
Is it relevant?
- If you are a marketer who wants to improve their product’s positioning to sell better, ‘Why We Buy’ is a must-read.
Is it up-to-date?
- Yep.
Is it trustworthy?
- Katelyn Bourgoin is a serial entrepreneur who’s built businesses and brand strategies for all sorts of companies. She’s faced failures and triumphs, which means the insights are coming straight from someone who’s been in the trenches for well over a decade. Hell yeah, this is a reliable marketing newsletter 😎
Is it concise?
- You can finish reading each issue in ~5 minutes.
Does it have a central focus?
- Buyer psychology insights.
Is it actionable?
- Each issue includes a dedicated ‘How to Apply This’ section to help you take action now.
Final score: 6/6!
To become a member of Why We Buy, subscribe here.
Best for quick tactics: Marketing Examples
Marketing Examples is a weekly newsletter by Harry Dry that shares 3 marketing examples, 2 copywriting tips, and 1 favorite tweet to 130K+ readers.
What you’ll love
Marketing Examples uses visual cues to break concepts into easy-to-understand chunks.
For instance, Harry Dry advocates for addressing the elephant in the room with your copy in an issue.
“What’s one thing that’s obviously true about the brand, but people keep tiptoeing around it, fearing that addressing it will lead to lesser sales?”
Find the answer to the question. Turn it into an advantage, and watch the money roll in:
My favorite newsletter issue:
My rating
Is it relevant?
- Need inspiration for a landing page, social media post, cold emails, hooks? Then Harry Dry probably has the answer for you every Monday.
Is it up-to-date?
- You betcha.
Is it trustworthy?
- You betcha (2x).
Is it concise?
- You can finish reading an issue while waiting for your meeting to start :)
Does it have a central focus?
- Insights from marketing examples that work.
Is it actionable?
- Harry breaks down the secret sauce behind each tactic and shows you how to recreate it for your dish.
Final score: 6/6!
To become a member of Marketing Examples, subscribe here.
Best for general news and trends: Stacked Marketer
Stacked Marketer curates digital marketing news, trends, tech, and actionable advice for digital marketers who:
- Do email marketing.
- Run paid search campaigns on Google and Bing.
- Run paid social ads on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, etc.
- Do content marketing and SEO.
- Run an e-commerce store, online business, or digital agency.
What you’ll love
Emanual Cinca’s brainchild summarizes the most relevant digital marketing news stories in ~7 minutes.
Don’t think that’s a big deal?
The Stacked Marketer also provides dedicated sections for infographics (who doesn’t love data points that make you sit up?):
Also, brain teasers. Cause gamification equals higher engagement:
And if that wasn’t lighthearted enough, there’s also chuckle-worthy news for the peeps who might want a break from the monotony:
Evidence suggests this is a great way to break down those Monday Blues!
My favorite newsletter issue:
My rating
Is it relevant?
- If you're a digital marketer, the answer is a resounding yes.
Is it up-to-date?
- Updated every weekday, ‘The Stacked Marketer’ is the go-to resource for digital marketing news.
Is it trustworthy?
- Emanual Cinca grew it from a small newsletter to a full-fledged media company considered a trusted source by various media outlets today.
Is it concise?
- 7 minutes is all you need to stay on top of the trends, tech, and news stories in your space with this digital marketing newsletter.
Does it have a central focus?
- Digital marketing news and tactics.
Is it actionable?
- Each issue provides one actionable insight into SEO, advertising, content, and social media to help you do your job better.
Final score: 6/6!
To become a member of Stacked Marketer, subscribe here.
Best for learning about newsletters: Growth in Reverse
I'm going meta with this one.
Growth in Reverse is a weekly newsletter by Chenell Basilio in which she reverse-engineers how top creators GROW and MONETIZE their newsletters.
What you’ll love
Chenell doesn’t just talk about the top newsletter playbooks but also shares actionable insights on how to implement those playbooks:
My favorite newsletter issue:
My rating
Is it relevant?
- If you're a newsletter creator, Growth in Reverse is supremely relevant.
Is it up-to-date?
- Yes.
Is it trustworthy?
- Absolutely. Fancy a deep dive into why it’s reliable? Read her newsletter issue, where she reverse-engineered her growth to 24K+ subscribers in 11 months.
Is it concise?
- Nope. But, from a selfish standpoint, I love the deep dives.
Does it have a central focus?
- Growth playbooks for email marketing newsletters.
Is it actionable?
- You can simply scroll to "How You Can Replicate X’s Success" for each issue to get the actionable tips you need for newsletter growth.
Final score: 6/6 in my book, but 5/6 for marketers who might not want to spend more than 2-3 minutes on a newsletter.
To become a member of Growth in Reverse, subscribe here.
Best for AI news: AIM - AI in Marketing
AI in Marketing, or AIM for short, is a weekly newsletter by Fergus Dyer-Smith that shares the most important updates in marketing related to AI. The focus is mostly on the AI tools that marketers should be looking for.
What you’ll love
This is the first LinkedIn-based newsletter on my list, and it also includes a video listing the key points of each issue.
Besides that, Fergus Dyer-Smith keeps each issue short—a maximum of 5-6 stories, points of interest, and actionable advice for marketers.
My favorite newsletter issue:
My rating
Is it relevant?
- If you’d like to stay on top of AI news as a marketer, yes.
Is it up-to-date?
- Yep, Fergus Dyer-Smith consistently puts out weekly updates to ensure peeps are always on top of the AI wave.
Is it trustworthy?
- As the CEO of Wooshii for over 15 years, Fergus played an instrumental role in creating Wooshii Assist — an AI operating system for marketing systems. As one of the first people to jump on the AI train, he has my trust.
Is it concise?
- Yep, each issue is created for skimmability, so you could finish each issue in 2-3 minutes.
Does it have a central focus?
- AI updates for marketing.
Is it actionable?
- Each news story comes with a key takeaway for marketers.
Final score: 6/6!
To become a member of AIM, subscribe here.
Best for SEO news: Core Updates
Core Updates is a weekly newsletter by Mark Williams-Cook that focuses on SEO news and tips for 9K+ digital marketers.
What you’ll love
Core Updates reads like a listicle that contains bullet points around SEO news stories and tips.
SEOs and Listicles is still a better love story than Twilight 🙃.
The founder behind Core Updates also runs a podcast called "Search with Candour", so every newsletter issue also contains a blurb about what every new podcast episode talks about:
A section of Core Updates that I loved as a newsletter fan was the referrer leaderboard, which introduces an element of gamification to the OG acquisition channel (word of mouth):
My favorite newsletter issue:
My rating
Is it relevant?
- It’s the best SEO newsletter… around.
Is it up-to-date?
- Yep, every Monday, you can rest assured that you’ll get the latest SEO updates of the week.
Is it trustworthy?
- Mark has been working in SEO for more than twenty years. He founded AlsoAsked, a search intent research SaaS tool, and runs an SEO agency (Candour), so I’d say he knows a thing or two about SEO.
Is it concise?
- 6-7 minutes every Monday keeps the SEO troubles away.
Does it have a central focus?
- SEO updates and tips.
Is it actionable?
- Yes, you can start implementing these tips right away.
Final score: 6/6!
To become a member of Core Updates, subscribe here.
Best for B2B: ExitFive
ExitFive is the go-to B2B marketing newsletter for 27K+ subscribers, sent weekly by the Exit Five team.
What you’ll love
ExitFive focuses on a single topic per issue (could be a case study or a trend breakdown) with job listings and event reminders sprinkled along the way.
The newsletter issue will often extend the Exit Five podcast, in which Dave Gerhardt (Founder of Exit Five) interviews B2B professionals.
My favorite newsletter issue:
My rating
Is it relevant?
- If you are a B2B marketer looking for practical insights, this newsletter is for you.
Is it up-to-date?
- Yep.
Is it trustworthy?
- Dave Gerhardt, the mastermind behind the Exit Five community, helped Drift to a $1B exit and Privy to a $100M + exit. If there’s someone you should trust to get you the most relevant B2B insights in your inbox, it’s Dave Gerhardt.
Is it concise?
- Yep, 1 key concept breakdown that’s pretty skimmable.
Does it have a central focus?
- B2B insights.
Is it actionable?
- Every concept is followed by handy tips on implementing it for your specific use case.
Final score: 6/6!
To become a member of ExitFive, subscribe here.
Best for ad creatives: The Weekly Ad Creative Newsletter from a $50m Ecommerce Creative Strategist
As the name suggests, this is a weekly newsletter by Janky Patel where she shares high-converting ad creative inspiration and ideas.
What you’ll love
Janky shares 3 paid social ad creative examples in each issue that contain:
- A small description of the ad
- Why it works
- Actionable tactics for your creative team
Short, sweet, very niche, and packs a punch 😎 Towards the end, Janky shares key LinkedIn posts that ad creatives might be interested in.
My favorite newsletter issue:
My rating
Is it relevant?
- Stuck coming up with ideas for paid social ads? TWACN has got you covered.
Is it up-to-date?
- Yep, yep, yep.
Is it trustworthy?
- Janky Patel is a reliable source because she has managed over $50M in ad spending on Meta for DTC brands.
Is it concise?
- Yep, the maximum read time for an issue is 3 minutes.
Does it have a central focus?
- Ad creative inspiration and ideas.
Is it actionable?
- Janky shares key tactics that you can use to lower your CAC on Meta.
Final score: 6/6!
To become a member of this newsletter, subscribe here.
Which marketing newsletters do you subscribe to?
Am I missing your favorite newsletter on this list?
Let me know in the comments below!
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