Marketing newsletters are easy to subscribe to and surprisingly hard to keep reading.
The worthwhile ones do more than summarise yesterday’s LinkedIn posts. They bring you an original idea, a useful framework, a well-researched example, or a tactic you can apply to real work.
This is my curated list of the best marketing newsletters to read in 2026. It covers growth, paid advertising, social media, go-to-market strategy, content, buyer psychology, AI, and newsletter growth.
There is no single “best” newsletter for every marketer. The right choice depends on what you are trying to get better at. If you only want the short version, start with the quick picks below.
How I selected these marketing newsletters
I work in growth and paid advertising and have held growth roles across 50+ technology companies in Europe, the UK, and the US. I read marketing newsletters to find ideas I can use—not to collect more unread email.
For this guide, I looked for newsletters that meet most of these criteria:
- Originality: The writer adds a point of view, research, examples, or firsthand experience rather than repackaging common advice.
- Practical value: A reader can apply the ideas to strategy, creative, campaigns, content, or team decisions.
- Subject expertise: The creator has credible experience in the topic they cover.
- Peer readership: I also checked which newsletters respected creators read themselves. This is not a formal endorsement, but it is a useful quality signal: for example, Kyle Poyar reads Maja Voje’s work, and Maja reads Karola Karlson’s.
- Consistency: The newsletter is active enough to become a reliable reading habit.
- Editorial quality: The writing is clear, specific, and worth opening.
- A defined audience: The newsletter knows who it is for and what problem it solves.
Subscriber numbers and publishing schedules change, so treat them as snapshots rather than permanent facts. The list was checked in August 2026.
Best marketing newsletters: quick picks by use case
- Newsletter and audience growth: Growth in Reverse
- Creator businesses: Creator Science
- Practical growth and paid social: Marketing Fix by Karola Karlson
- Newsletter monetisation: Newsletter Operator
- Practical AI workflows: Behind the Craft
- Go-to-market strategy: GTM Strategist
- Product-led and B2B growth: Growth Unhinged
- Product and startup operators: Lenny’s Newsletter
- Social media strategy: Link in Bio
- Paid social and Meta ads: The Performers
- Buyer psychology: Why We Buy
- AI for marketing leaders: The AI Marketing Generalist
Best marketing newsletters at a glance
The order below is editorial, not an objective universal ranking. I have grouped newsletters by where they are most useful.
| # | Newsletter | Creator | Best for | Typical frequency | Free option |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Growth in Reverse | Chenell Basilio | Newsletter and audience growth | Weekly | Yes |
| 2 | Creator Science | Jay Clouse | Building a creator business | Weekly | Yes |
| 3 | Marketing Fix | Karola Karlson | Practical growth and paid social | Bi-weekly | Yes |
| 4 | Newsletter Operator | Matt McGarry | Newsletter growth and monetisation | Weekly | Yes |
| 5 | Behind the Craft | Peter Yang | Practical AI workflows for tech professionals | Weekly | Yes |
| 6 | GTM Strategist | Maja Voje | Go-to-market strategy | Weekly | Yes |
| 7 | Growth Unhinged | Kyle Poyar | PLG, pricing, and B2B growth | Weekly | Yes |
| 8 | How They Grow | Jaryd Hermann | Long-form company growth teardowns | Irregular | Yes |
| 9 | Demand Curve | Demand Curve team | Tactical growth marketing | Weekly | Yes |
| 10 | Lenny’s Newsletter | Lenny Rachitsky | Product, growth, and startups | Weekly | Yes |
| 11 | Elena’s Growth Scoop | Elena Verna | Product-led growth and growth careers | Weekly | Yes |
| 12 | Link in Bio | Rachel Karten | Social media strategy and management | Twice weekly | Yes |
| 13 | Social Files | Tommy Clark | B2B social and LinkedIn | Weekly | Yes |
| 14 | The Social Juice | Jaskaran Singh | Social and marketing news | Weekly | Yes |
| 15 | Geekout | Matt Navarra | Social-platform news | Weekly | Yes |
| 16 | The Performers | Aazar Ali Shad | Paid social and Meta ads | Weekly | Yes |
| 17 | Bram’s Buzz | Bram Van der Hallen | Meta Ads updates | Monthly | Yes |
| 18 | Why We Buy | Katelyn Bourgoin | Buyer psychology | Weekly | Yes |
| 19 | Marketing Ideas | Tom Orbach | Unconventional marketing tactics | Twice weekly | Yes |
| 20 | Pierre’s Content Guides | Pierre Herubel | B2B content marketing | Weekly | Yes |
| 21 | The AI Marketing Generalist | Kieran Flanagan | AI systems for marketing and GTM | Weekly | Yes |
| 22 | The Marketing Millennials | Daniel Murray | Broad marketing ideas and trends | Three times weekly | Yes |
| 23 | Deez Links | Delia Cai | Media, culture, and internet trends | Several times weekly | Yes |
Best newsletters for newsletter and creator growth
1. Growth in Reverse by Chenell Basilio
Best for: Newsletter operators, creators, and marketers building an owned audience
Frequency: Weekly
Format: Free newsletter
Growth in Reverse is one of the most useful newsletters about newsletter growth because Chenell Basilio does the research most writers skip.
Each edition reverse-engineers how a creator grew an audience: where the first subscribers came from, which lead magnets worked, how referrals were designed, and what caused growth to accelerate or stall. The result feels less like generic creator advice and more like an annotated case study.
The lessons also travel well beyond newsletters. Product and growth teams can borrow the same ideas for onboarding, referrals, segmentation, and community-led acquisition.
Start here: 7 Newsletter Growth Strategies From Studying Top Creators.
Not ideal for: Readers looking for broad marketing news or quick daily updates.
2. Creator Science by Jay Clouse
Best for: Creators and solopreneurs building content-led businesses
Frequency: Weekly
Format: Free newsletter with paid products and community
Creator Science treats creator growth as a discipline rather than a collection of hacks. Jay Clouse shares experiments, observations, and business decisions with unusual transparency.
Expect thoughtful writing on content strategy, memberships, audience trust, monetisation, and the role of AI in creative work. Jay is especially good at exploring the trade-offs behind a decision: what sounds attractive, what the data showed, and what changed after the experiment.
It is a strong choice if you want to build a durable creator business without pretending that every post, product, or launch will work.
Start here: The Barbell Content Strategy.
Not ideal for: In-house marketers who only want campaign tactics.
3. Marketing Fix by Karola Karlson
Editor’s pick for: Experienced in-house marketers and startup founders who want practical growth and paid-social guidance from an active practitioner
Frequency: Bi-weekly
Format: Free newsletter on Substack
Marketing Fix by Karola Karlson focuses on the parts of startup marketing that are not working—and what to do about them.
Issues cover topics such as diagnosing a Meta ad account that has stopped scaling, improving a landing page, building a growth strategy, evaluating creative, and using AI without replacing judgement. The advice draws on Karola’s 12 years in growth roles and work across 50+ technology companies in Europe, the UK, and the US.
The tone is practitioner-to-practitioner: direct, specific, and willing to say when a popular tactic is overhyped. Each edition also includes cultural recommendations intended to help marketers develop stronger taste alongside technical skill.
Representative issues: 95 Marketing Audit Questions and Meta Ad Examples.
Honest limitation: Marketing Fix is bi-weekly and selective, so it is not the right source for daily platform news or exhaustive coverage of every marketing channel.
4. Newsletter Operator by Matt McGarry
Best for: Founders and creators treating newsletters as media businesses
Frequency: Weekly
Format: Free newsletter
Newsletter Operator goes deep on the mechanics of growing and monetising an email audience.
Matt McGarry writes about paid subscriber acquisition, list quality, deliverability, engagement, sponsorships, and newsletter economics. His perspective is grounded in hands-on work growing large newsletters rather than theory alone.
The best issues connect individual tactics to the underlying business model. You learn not only how to acquire a subscriber, but when that acquisition method makes financial sense and what has to happen after someone joins the list.
Start here: Are newsletters still worth it?
Not ideal for: Marketers who do not operate a newsletter or media product.
Best newsletters for GTM, product, and B2B growth
5. Behind the Craft by Peter Yang
Best for: Product managers, engineers, and tech professionals who want practical AI workflows
Frequency: Weekly
Format: Free and paid content
Behind the Craft has evolved from a creator-economy publication into a practical guide to working with AI.
Peter Yang publishes tutorials on prototyping, AI agents, MCP, Claude Code, prompts, and other hands-on workflows. His product experience at companies including Roblox, Reddit, Amazon, and Meta gives him a useful filter for separating tools that improve real work from tools that merely produce a good demo.
Choose it if you want to build with AI, not just read predictions about it.
Not ideal for: Readers looking for classic brand, advertising, or content-marketing advice.
6. GTM Strategist by Maja Voje
Best for: Startup founders, marketers, and operators building a go-to-market motion
Frequency: Weekly
Format: Free newsletter with paid resources
GTM Strategist makes go-to-market strategy concrete.
Maja Voje combines frameworks with examples, checklists, and company teardowns. Topics include ideal customer profiles, positioning, channels, founder-led sales, product launches, and the transition from early traction to a repeatable growth motion.
The newsletter is particularly useful for teams that know they need “GTM” but are still untangling what that means in practice. It connects strategy to the decisions a small team must make this week.
Not ideal for: Large-company marketers looking for mature-enterprise operations advice.
7. Growth Unhinged by Kyle Poyar
Best for: B2B SaaS leaders working on product-led growth, pricing, and monetisation
Frequency: Weekly
Format: Free newsletter
Growth Unhinged is one of the strongest newsletters for understanding how modern software companies grow.
Kyle Poyar writes about product-led growth, packaging, pricing, sales-assisted conversion, AI business models, and go-to-market benchmarks. Issues often combine operator interviews, original data, and a clear point of view.
It is especially valuable when your question sits between product, marketing, sales, and finance—such as how to package an AI feature or when self-serve growth needs human support.
Not ideal for: Consumer marketers or readers looking for campaign-level tactics.
8. How They Grow by Jaryd Hermann
Best for: Growth practitioners who enjoy detailed company teardowns
Frequency: Irregular
Format: Free and paid content
How They Grow publishes long, carefully structured analyses of how notable companies acquired users, built loops, and expanded.
The strongest pieces connect several growth mechanisms instead of isolating a single tactic. You see how positioning, product experience, distribution, retention, and network effects reinforce one another.
The trade-off is cadence. Publishing has been infrequent, so treat the archive as a reference library rather than a newsletter you will reliably receive every week.
Not ideal for: Readers who prefer short, frequent dispatches.
9. Demand Curve Growth Newsletter
Best for: Startup marketers who want tactical growth guidance across channels
Frequency: Weekly
Format: Free newsletter
The Demand Curve newsletter covers acquisition, landing pages, conversion, content, email, and paid growth in a direct, structured format.
Its main strength is breadth without becoming pure news aggregation. The writing usually turns a marketing problem into a framework, checklist, or set of examples that a team can test.
It works well as a general growth-marketing subscription, especially for early-stage teams that need useful ideas across several channels rather than deep expertise in only one.
Not ideal for: Specialists looking for advanced depth in one narrow discipline.
10. Lenny’s Newsletter by Lenny Rachitsky
Best for: Product managers, founders, and growth leaders
Frequency: Weekly
Format: Free and paid newsletter with community access
Lenny’s Newsletter has become a broad operating manual for product-led technology companies.
Lenny Rachitsky combines interviews, benchmarks, tactical guides, and expert contributions on product management, growth, hiring, leadership, marketplaces, and startups. The archive is large enough that it often works better as a searchable reference than a conventional newsletter.
Its scale attracts strong contributors and detailed operator stories. The paid tier is most useful for readers who will also use the archive and community, not just skim the weekly email.
Not ideal for: Marketers who only want advertising and campaign execution.
11. Elena’s Growth Scoop by Elena Verna
Best for: Growth leaders, product-led companies, and marketers developing their growth careers
Frequency: Weekly
Format: Free and paid content
Elena’s Growth Scoop is candid, opinionated, and rooted in senior growth experience.
Elena Verna writes about product-led growth, growth models, retention, experimentation, career progression, team design, and the realities of leading growth inside companies. She is particularly good at naming organisational problems that teams often misdiagnose as channel problems.
Read it when you want to understand not only what a growth team should test, but how the company must be structured for that work to succeed.
Not ideal for: Beginners who need step-by-step channel tutorials.
Best newsletters for social media marketing
12. Link in Bio by Rachel Karten
Best for: Social media managers, strategists, and brand marketers
Frequency: Twice weekly
Format: Free and paid newsletter
Link in Bio is one of the most grounded newsletters about running social media for brands.
Rachel Karten combines interviews with social managers, platform observations, campaign examples, and practical commentary on the work behind a brand account. The writing respects social media as a craft rather than reducing it to posting frequency and engagement hacks.
It is especially useful for people responsible for editorial judgement, community tone, and explaining the value of social work internally.
Not ideal for: Readers looking primarily for paid-social buying tactics.
13. Social Files by Tommy Clark
Best for: B2B founders and marketers using LinkedIn and founder-led social
Frequency: Weekly
Format: Free newsletter
Social Files focuses on the systems behind effective B2B social content.
Tommy Clark writes about LinkedIn strategy, founder-led distribution, content formats, hooks, team workflows, and the difference between posts that earn attention and posts that sound like corporate filler.
The advice is most useful for B2B teams where the founder or subject-matter expert is part of the distribution strategy.
Not ideal for: Consumer social teams working mainly on TikTok, Instagram, or community management.
14. The Social Juice by Jaskaran Singh
Best for: Marketers who want a quick mix of social-media news and practical ideas
Frequency: Weekly
Format: Free newsletter
The Social Juice curates social-platform updates, examples, tools, and tactical observations in a readable format.
It is useful when you want enough industry awareness to stay current without opening a dozen tabs or following every platform employee. The mix is broader and faster than a deep specialist publication.
Not ideal for: Readers looking for one sustained argument or a detailed research report in every issue.
15. Geekout by Matt Navarra
Best for: Social media professionals who need to track platform changes
Frequency: Weekly
Format: Free newsletter
Geekout is a reliable briefing on what social platforms are testing, launching, changing, or quietly removing.
Matt Navarra has spent years tracking product updates across Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, YouTube, and emerging platforms. The newsletter is useful because many social features roll out unevenly and are poorly documented.
Subscribe if platform changes affect your day-to-day work and you need a compact weekly scan.
Not ideal for: Readers who want evergreen strategy rather than news.
Best newsletters for paid advertising
16. The Performers by Aazar Ali Shad
Best for: Performance marketers and creative strategists working on paid social
Frequency: Weekly
Format: Free newsletter
The Performers focuses on Meta ads, performance creative, testing, and campaign execution.
Aazar Ali Shad’s strongest issues break down the relationship between the offer, message, creative concept, and media-buying result. That makes the newsletter useful for both paid-social buyers and the creative teams supporting them.
Choose it if you want specialist paid-social ideas rather than a broad marketing digest.
Not ideal for: Readers focused mainly on organic growth or brand strategy.
17. Bram’s Buzz by Bram Van der Hallen
Best for: Meta advertisers who need product and policy updates
Frequency: Approximately monthly
Format: Free LinkedIn newsletter
Bram’s Buzz covers changes to Meta Ads, including campaign features, measurement, automation, and platform direction.
The value is specificity. Instead of scanning general marketing news for the few items that matter to an advertiser, you get a concentrated view of Meta’s ecosystem from someone who follows it closely.
Not ideal for: Readers who need weekly tactical tutorials or coverage beyond Meta.
Best newsletters for buyer psychology and marketing ideas
18. Why We Buy by Katelyn Bourgoin
Best for: Marketers, founders, and copywriters who want to understand buyer behaviour
Frequency: Weekly
Format: Free newsletter
Why We Buy explains behavioural science in a way marketers can use.
Katelyn Bourgoin takes concepts such as social proof, loss aversion, framing, and choice architecture and connects them to familiar buying situations. The best issues help you see why a message or offer works rather than simply telling you to copy it.
It is an accessible starting point for marketers who want stronger customer research, messaging, and conversion thinking.
Not ideal for: Readers looking for platform news or media-buying advice.
19. Marketing Ideas by Tom Orbach
Best for: Marketers who want unusual campaign ideas and creative prompts
Frequency: Twice weekly
Format: Free and paid content
Marketing Ideas is built for marketers who are tired of seeing the same playbook repeated.
Tom Orbach shares unconventional tactics, examples, and provocations designed to help readers generate ideas. Some suggestions will fit your brand and others will not; the point is to widen the option set before you default to another generic campaign.
Use it as creative stimulus, then apply your own judgement to the execution.
Not ideal for: Teams looking for a complete, evidence-heavy strategy in every issue.
Best newsletter for B2B content marketing
20. Pierre’s Content Guides by Pierre Herubel
Best for: B2B founders and marketers building a content system
Frequency: Weekly
Format: Free and paid content
Pierre’s Content Guides covers B2B content strategy, writing, distribution, repurposing, and the systems needed to publish consistently.
Pierre Herubel’s work is strongest when it turns an abstract content goal into a repeatable workflow. The newsletter is useful for small teams that cannot rely on a large editorial department but still need content to support pipeline and authority.
Not ideal for: Consumer brands or readers looking for paid-media guidance.
Best newsletter for AI in marketing
21. The AI Marketing Generalist by Kieran Flanagan
Best for: Marketing and GTM leaders building AI into their operating systems
Frequency: Weekly
Format: Free newsletter
The AI Marketing Generalist is aimed at marketers who want to move from experimenting with prompts to redesigning workflows.
Kieran Flanagan, formerly SVP of Marketing at HubSpot, writes about AI-assisted research, content systems, agentic workflows, Claude Code, and the changing structure of go-to-market teams.
The newsletter is more technical than most marketing publications. That is a strength if you are ready to build, test, and connect tools rather than only read high-level AI predictions.
Not ideal for: Marketers seeking non-technical beginner guides.
Best general marketing newsletters
22. The Marketing Millennials by Daniel Murray
Best for: Marketers who want a broad, accessible mix of tactics and trends
Frequency: Three times weekly
Format: Free newsletter
The Marketing Millennials covers a wide range of topics in a conversational style, from brand and content to social media and campaign ideas.
Daniel Murray has built a large marketing audience across the newsletter, podcast, and LinkedIn. The breadth makes this a useful orientation tool for early-career marketers and generalists.
The high publishing frequency is the trade-off: not every issue will match your role, but the variety is the reason to subscribe.
Not ideal for: Specialists who only want advanced depth in one channel.
23. Deez Links by Delia Cai
Best for: Media professionals and marketers working at the intersection of culture, content, and the internet
Frequency: Several times weekly
Format: Free and paid newsletter
Deez Links is not a conventional marketing newsletter. Delia Cai writes about media, culture, publishing, and what the internet is paying attention to.
That makes it valuable for marketers whose work depends on taste, storytelling, and cultural awareness. The links-format curation also helps readers discover writing and ideas outside the standard marketing echo chamber.
Not ideal for: Readers who want tactical campaign checklists.
More marketing newsletters worth subscribing to
The 23 newsletters above are the main recommendations. These additional publications are also worth exploring when they match your role:
- Behind the CMO: Interviews and resources for senior marketing leaders who want the CMO perspective.
- Ahrefs’ Digest: SEO and content-marketing guidance backed by strong product data and original research.
- Buffer’s Social Media Newsletter: Accessible social-media strategy for small teams and creators.
- SparkToro: Rand Fishkin on audience research, zero-click behaviour, and the changing search landscape.
- Marketing Brew: A broad industry briefing covering advertising, agencies, brands, social platforms, and media.
- Marketing Examples: Harry Dry’s visual breakdowns of copy, landing pages, campaigns, and positioning.
- Total Annarchy: Ann Handley on writing, content, voice, and the craft of communicating clearly.
- ICYMI: Lia Haberman’s detailed coverage of influencer marketing, creators, and social platforms.
- Stacked Marketer: A fast daily briefing across paid ads, SEO, social media, analytics, and conversion.
- Growth Memo: Kevin Indig on SEO, organic growth, AI search, and the strategy behind sustainable acquisition.
- Really Good Emails: A searchable collection of real email design and copy examples rather than a traditional editorial newsletter.
- Future Commerce: Thoughtful writing on brand, culture, technology, and commerce for DTC and retail leaders.
- The Daily Carnage: A daily collection of campaigns, tools, trends, and creative inspiration.
- Swipe Files: Corey Haines’ examples, teardowns, and frameworks for marketers who learn by studying real work.
How to choose the right marketing newsletters
A long list is only useful if it helps you build a better reading habit.
Start with two newsletters:
- One specialist newsletter for the skill closest to your work—paid social, product growth, social media, content, or AI.
- One broader newsletter that exposes you to ideas outside your immediate role.
After a month, keep the newsletters that regularly make you save, forward, test, or discuss something. Unsubscribe from the ones you admire in theory but never open.
The goal is not to build the world’s most impressive inbox. It is to find a small set of writers who improve your decisions.
Frequently asked questions about marketing newsletters
What is the best marketing newsletter in 2026?
There is no universal best marketing newsletter. The most useful choice depends on your job and current priority. Growth in Reverse is a strong fit for newsletter growth, Lenny’s Newsletter for product and startups, Link in Bio for social media, The Performers for paid social, and Marketing Fix for practical growth and paid-social strategy.
What are the best free marketing newsletters?
Most newsletters in this guide offer a free edition. Strong free starting points include Growth in Reverse, Marketing Fix, GTM Strategist, Growth Unhinged, Demand Curve, Link in Bio, Geekout, The Performers, Why We Buy, and The AI Marketing Generalist. Some also offer paid archives, communities, courses, or additional issues.
Which marketing newsletters are best for startup founders?
GTM Strategist, Growth Unhinged, Demand Curve, Lenny’s Newsletter, and Marketing Fix cover the most useful ground for startup founders. Together they address go-to-market strategy, product-led growth, acquisition, positioning, and practical marketing execution.
Which newsletters are best for paid advertising?
The Performers is a specialist choice for paid social and creative strategy. Bram’s Buzz is useful for Meta Ads updates. Marketing Fix connects paid-advertising execution to broader growth strategy, landing pages, and creative judgement. Stacked Marketer is a broader daily briefing that includes paid-media news.
Which marketing newsletters cover AI?
Behind the Craft is best for practical AI tutorials and workflows. The AI Marketing Generalist focuses on AI systems for marketing and go-to-market teams. Growth Unhinged explores the business-model and GTM implications of AI. Marketing Fix covers AI from a practical marketing perspective, including where automation helps and where human judgement still matters.
How many marketing newsletters should I subscribe to?
Start with two or three. Pick one newsletter for your core discipline and one for broader context. If a newsletter remains unread for a month, unsubscribe and use its archive only when you need a specific answer.
Are marketing newsletters better than marketing blogs?
The content can be similar, but the reading behaviour is different. A newsletter arrives on a schedule and builds a habit; a blog waits for you to visit or find it through search. Many strong marketing writers use both: the newsletter creates a direct reader relationship, while the website keeps useful work searchable.
Are all the newsletters in this guide active?
The main list was checked in August 2026. Publishing schedules can change, especially for independent newsletters. How They Grow has published infrequently, so it is better treated as an archive. Before subscribing to any newsletter, check the date of its latest edition.
A final recommendation
Do not subscribe to all 35+ newsletters.
Choose the one that matches the problem you are solving now. Read three recent issues before subscribing. If the writing gives you a useful idea, a better question, or a decision you can make differently, it has earned a place in your inbox.
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