15 Newsletters To Level Up Your Marketing, And You!

I wanted to start off this article with a bit about how no one likes Spam… but that’d be a lie.

I really like Spam. The food variety. And that’s because my wife’s Chinese family has some delicious recipes that call for Spam that’s been diced and stir-fried along with some delicious Napa cabbage and other fine ingredients. If I’d ever eaten Spam before meeting her, I can’t recall it – and I certainly wouldn’t have willingly purchased it myself due to the reputation of canned ham.

But now, thanks to a personal recommendation and a delivery on the promise of tastiness, I’m a fan of Spam, and I know I’m not alone. One might even say that Spam brings people together, that it’s a #FoodFunnel as Stephanie Liu likes to quip.

So trust me when I say that not all email is bad. It’s not all spam. There are in fact quite a few email newsletters which I subscribe to and honestly look forward to getting – some even daily!

What follows is a list of marketing and industry-related newsletters and purveyors of sautéed information that will whet your appetite and regularly serve up spectacular entrées.

You see, what makes a good newsletter, well, good, is when it delivers DoorDash-like to your Inbox exactly what you ordered, consistently.

Let’s see what’s on the menu.

Total ANNARCHY

You might have guessed that I was going to lead off with Ann Handley’s masterpiece. It’s like seeing what today’s fresh catch is at the top of the menu – the absolute best, tastiest, stop-reading-now item on the menu. Ann’s “fortnightly” newsletter (damn, she even makes the frequency sound amazing) delivers wonderful marketing stories and information in a format that is consistent and is, in and of itself, something to be admired.

_Subscribe Here: https://annhandley.com/newsletter/

Morning Brew

This is one of the four daily newsletters that I swear by, and the very first that I crack open every morning. After I’ve cleared away all of the junk and automated notifications from my Inbox, I sit down with my morning coffee and start tearing through my Morning Brew like a pain au chocolat from my favorite brasserie in Paris. (That’s as messy-looking as it sounds.) Morning Brew is the perfect summary of news and tech to keep you informed, not just of what’s being discussed on social media, but as a human. 

_Subscribe Here: https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/r/?kid=b8929dff

Business Insider

While I’m not a Business Insider paid subscriber, I enjoy receiving their list of “10 Things In Tech You Need To Know Each Day.” Each point is succinct and timely and helps give me context as I read about or see other things happening throughout the day, such as the latest marketing tech acquisitions.

_Subscribe Here: https://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/free

New York Times

The Times is one of several publications and outlets that I routinely pay a subscription for, this this daily newsletter is free and a great place to get a handle on the day’s news and headlines. There are a few newsletters to choose from but Today’s Headlines is what I enjoy.

_Subscribe Here: https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters

Marketing Brew

The final daily email I swear by is the younger, hipper sibling of Morning Brew, Marketing Brew. While the chefs and cuisine are different, the food is always delivered with the same high degree of quality and mouth-watering relevance. You’ll learn what’s happening in the ad agency world, the latest in social network developments, and more!

_Subscribe Here: morningbrew.com/marketing/r/?kid=b8929dff

That’s it for the daily specials. The rest of these selections have been chosen for you to subscribe to like an omakase sushi meal. Just leave it up to me, and I promise each of these newsletters will deliver marketing taste-explosions to your Inbox regularly.

Agorapulse

The #1 rated social media management tool is committed to being the absolute best source of information and education for social media managers, and as such, publishes multiple blog posts per week on various social media tactics and strategies. You will learn something new and valuable each and every week. If Gordon Ramsey taught social media, it’d be like this, only without the judging.

_Subscribe Here: https://www.agorapulse.com/blog/

The Brand Behavior

From Juntae Delane and his team, this curated newsletter – like the New York Times recipe section – is 100% focused on helping you to define and grow your digital brand. 

_Subscribe Here: https://digitaldelane.com/brand-behavior/

Bryan Kramer

We hear all the time how much more authentic our online interactions should be, how much more personal our stories should be, how well done our steak should be, yet few are really talking about what that actually looks like. Bryan’s newsletters are compelling and timely.

_Subscribe Here: https://bryankramer.com/

Chris Brogan

If you were to compare Chris Brogan to a famous chef, it’d obviously be Jaime Oliver. Like Oliver’s Naked Chef series, Chris Brogan breaks down today’s marketing and business dilemmas, puts them into real terms, and offers simple approaches that will help regardless of who you are or where you’re at on your journey.

_Subscribe Here: https://chrisbrogan.com/nl/

Christopher Penn

If Penn’s Almost Timely Newsletter were a recipe, we’d rate it 5/5 but with a difficulty score of Advanced and a Time To Prepare value of 20+ minutes. There’s a tremendous amount of delicious value in this weekly offering, and Christopher has one of the most analytical minds in the business, so be prepared for incredible statistics employed like a sous-chef to reinforce his point.

_Subscribe Here: https://www.christopherspenn.com/newsletter/

If all these food analogies are making you mouth-wateringly hungry, why not take a snack break?

Cole Schafer

Do you wanna know why my ragù is better than yours? Hours are spent coddling the ground meats with butter and milk and splashes of wine, while the tomatoes and onions and garlic explode with caramelized goodness in my Crueset. I imagine Cole hunched over his keyboard much the same way, prodding paragraphs with a wooden spoon until every ounce of flavor has oozed out. Oh, and he writes a damn good newsletter on writing, too.

_Subscribe Here: https://www.honeycopy.com/stickynotes

Heidi Cohen

When you’re in Barcelona, you absolutely take the time to visit Can Culleretes in the heart of the old Gothic quarter for cuisine that’s quintessential Catalan. By the same token, when you want to experience authentic marketing and business information, you turn to Heidi Cohen and her Actionable Marketing newsletter.

_Subscribe Here: https://heidicohen.com/subscribe-to-actionable-marketing-newsletter/

Lights, Camera, Live

Have you ever been on the hunt for a restaurant where the mood and atmosphere is as fresh and exciting as the food? Perhaps where you’ll be served sizzling Mexican fusion cuisine on a cast iron skillet while a Mariachi band plays too loudly somewhere nearby. That’s what Stephanie Liu delivers with her Lights, Camera, Live newsletter – a scrumptious look at today’s latest social media developments, particularly with regard to live video and strategy.

_Subscribe Here: https://www.lightscameralive.com/

Mark Schaefer

One of my favorite columns in the local paper is where the journalist’s beat is scoping out all of the new restaurants and latest menu changes. Each week he tells me what’s new, what’s opened, and where I should be planning on dropping my next date night budget. Mark Schaefer brings his decades of marketing experience and observations to the fore each week as he tells you exactly what he thinks about something that’s going on, some poké-bowl trend he’s cleverly sniffed out.

_Subscribe Here: https://businessesgrow.com/subscribe/

Marketing Hyperdrive

Like that restaurant-beat writer, let me now share with you the new kid on the block, a fun joint where the food is new, yet familiar. Delicious like buttered lobster over a bed of polenta, but not pretentious like Beluga caviar.

Marketing Hyperdrive is my new weekly newsletter and it features unique thoughts and insights into today’s marketing world, as well as the latest articles and training opportunities from myself and trusted colleagues. 

_Subscribe Here: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/marketing-hyperdrive/

I’m sure I’m the only one who has sat eagerly spying on my waiter to see when they’d finally come marching out of the kitchen with our steaming food piled-high on a serving plate held aloft like this year’s King’s Tribute. Starving and nibbling on every last bread crumb until, finally, the chef’s culinary creation is placed before me and my fork is already shoving food into my face as the waiter asks me if I need anything else, to which I mumble to stop bothering me, I’m eating.

Maybe that’s just me, in which case you won’t mind waiting a day or three for some of these newsletters to start arriving at your table. But arrive they will, if you order them, just don’t forget to tip your waiter.