The ones that are truly worth subscribing for, and don’t just leave your inbox clogged with unread messages.

As a practicing marketing expert, I’m reading tens of newsletters every week. And I’m going to share my curated list of those that never fail to deliver original ideas and applicable advice.

Best marketing newsletters at a glance

Keep reading for an overview of each newsletter, links for subscribing, and even more suggestions.

Why should you read marketing newsletters in 2026?

These days, no top marketers learn by reading articles in old marketing blogs.

Instead, they search their LinkedIn feeds for the latest news and discussions.

And they open their inboxes to find new deep dives on growth tactics, social media hacks, and strategic GTM by the leading content creators in industry.

One thing that amazed me while researching the best marketing and growth newsletters is the abundance of excellence.

Two more takeaways:

1. 75% of the big newsletters run on Substack.
2. And their creators make millions of $ annually from subscriptions, courses, and consulting.

Huh, what a world!

So all the more reason for them to pour hours, thought, and craft into the weekly dispatches. And all the more reason to subscribe and get the top-quality articles (mostly) for free.

I’ve listed my top marketing newsletters that I genuinely value and read. They’re my go-to Narnia closet for new ideas, marketing tools, and growth tactics.

Best newsletters for newsletter & creator growth

Let’s start with the best marketing creators that write about building audience and selling products.

1. Growth in Reverse by Chenell Basilio

Subscribers: 40k+ · Platform: Substack · Frequency: Weekly · Best for: Newsletter operators and creators focused on growing their email list

If there’s one newsletter I never let sit unread, it’s Chenell’s. Every week she spends somewhere between 20 and 25 hours reverse-engineering a single newsletter’s growth story. How they got their first 1,000 subscribers, what referral mechanics they built, which lead magnets actually converted, where they plateaued and why.

The format is distinctive: part case study, part teardown, part annotated playbook. You don’t just learn what worked, you see the specific sequence of decisions that got there.

What makes it genuinely useful beyond newsletter creators is that the growth levers she surfaces: onboarding sequences, referral incentives, and audience segmentation advice translates easily to product-led companies too. If you’re building an audience of any kind, this is essential reading.

Start with: “7 Newsletter Growth Strategies From Studying Top Creators”

2. Creator Science by Jay Clouse

Subscribers: N/A (multi-million dollar creator business) · Platform: Ghost · Frequency: Weekly · Best for: Creators and solopreneurs building content-led businesses

Jay’s positioning — “helping creators grow through observation, experimentation, and iteration” — sounds calm, but the content is sharper than that. He writes about the decisions behind building a creator business with real rigour: what he tested, what the data showed, what he changed.

Recent issues have wrestled with genuinely hard questions: how to build a content strategy that isn’t algorithm-dependent, when to lean into AI and when it undercuts your value, what it actually takes to get people to pay for a membership.

He’s one of the few people writing about the creator economy who doesn’t make it sound easier than it is.

Start with: “The Barbell Content Strategy”

3. Marketing Fix by Karola Karlson

Subscribers: 15k+ · Platform: Substack · Frequency: Bi-weekly · Best for: In-house marketers and startup founders who want proven tactics and honest takes, not hype

Marketing Fix is written by one of the leading European marketing experts. With her 12y of experience in 50+ tech companies, Karola has plenty of proven tactics to share.

Every issue of Marketing Fix covers one specific, broken thing in startup marketing and works through how to fix it: a landing page that isn’t converting, a Meta ad account that stopped scaling, an email sequence that leaks subscribers.

The angle is practitioner-to-practitioner. No “here are the 7 pillars of” anything. Just what’s worked across 50+ startups and what has failed expensively.

Each issue also includes 3-5 cultural recommendations to build your taste and knowledge. The most valuable marketer skill in the era of AI.

Start with: Free Library: 95 Marketing Audit Questions

4. Newsletter Operator by Matt McGarry

Subscribers: 50k+ · Platform: beehiiv · Frequency: Weekly · Best for: Founders and creators running newsletters as media businesses

Matt has spent north of $20M on newsletter growth — buying subscribers, managing lists for The Hustle and Milk Road, building his own audience from scratch. Newsletter Operator is where he documents what he’s learned.

About 80% of the content is directly about newsletter mechanics: paid acquisition channels, deliverability, monetisation models, engagement tactics. The other 20% is candid business-building content — experiments that didn’t work, how he structures his own operation, what he’d do differently.

In 2026 he’s been writing a lot about whether newsletters are still worth building as AI changes content distribution. His answer is nuanced and worth reading.

Start with: “Are newsletters still worth it?”

Best newsletters for GTM, product & B2B growth

If you’re interesting in learning about product growth and grow-to-marketing strategy, these are the best five newsletters to subscribe to.

5. Behind the Craft by Peter Yang

Subscribers: 140k+ · Platform: Substack · Frequency: Weekly · Best for: Product managers, engineers, and tech professionals who want practical AI workflows

This used to be called Creator Economy. It’s now Behind the Craft, and the editorial pivot is significant: it’s almost entirely practical AI tutorials now.

Not the “AI will change everything” think-piece variety, but step-by-step guides: how to vibe-code a working prototype in 15 minutes, how to set up AI agents, how to build an MCP, how to use Claude Code for real work.

Peter has 10+ years of product experience at Roblox, Reddit, Amazon, and Meta, which gives him a useful filter for what’s actually worth your time versus what’s hype. At 140k+ subscribers, it’s clearly resonating, particularly with PMs who want to stay ahead of what AI is changing in their work.

Start with: “7 Advanced AI Prompt Techniques”

6. GTM Strategist by Maja Voje

Subscribers: 33k+ · Platform: Substack · Frequency: Weekly (Fridays) · Best for: Founders and GTM leads at early-stage startups navigating product-market fit

Maja has worked with 750+ companies on go-to-market strategy and wrote the book on it. Literally, her book Go-To-Market Strategist became an international bestseller in 2023. The newsletter is the weekly distillation of what she’s seeing in practice.

In 2026, her content has a heavy AI-GTM angle: how to build GTM campaigns using Clay and Claude Code, how AI agents are replacing SDRs, what content engineering looks like as a distribution strategy. She’s also running original research, her “State of GTM Engineering 2026” survey is the kind of thing you’ll reference for months.

It’s one of the most practically structured newsletters in this list. Every issue has a clear takeaway you can implement the same week.

Start with: “3 Big Ideas for the AI-First GTM Era”

7. Growth Unhinged by Kyle Poyar

Subscribers: 84k+ · Platform: beehiiv (migrated from Substack, January 2026) · Frequency: Weekly · Best for: B2B operators and founders focused on PLG, pricing, and GTM

Kyle spent 15 years at OpenView (the VC firm that literally coined “product-led growth”) helping software companies scale from $1M to $100M+ ARR. He knows what the benchmarks actually are, not what founders claim they are.

Growth Unhinged publishes some of the most data-rich content in this space: real monetisation benchmarks, pricing teardowns, analysis of which GTM motions are working in the current market. His 2026 reporting on “the state of B2B monetisation” and “who’s actually hiring in GTM” are examples of original research that competitors can’t easily replicate.

He moved from Substack to beehiiv in January 2026, partly a technical decision, partly a signal of where serious newsletter operators are going.

Start with: “The state of B2B monetisation in 2026”

8. How They Grow by Jaryd Hermann

Subscribers: 56k+ · Platform: Substack · Frequency: Irregular (very infrequent in 2026) · Best for: PMs and founders who want deep company growth analyses

Honest caveat first: Jaryd posted once in 2026 (February, “I’m back, but different”) and hasn’t published since. He’s gone through extended hiatuses before and the writing quality when he does publish is exceptional — but you should know what you’re signing up for.

When it’s active, How They Grow publishes some of the most thorough company analyses available anywhere. His teardowns of Canva, PostHog, June, and others go 10,000+ words and surface strategic decisions most observers miss. The “Why They Died” series — post-mortems on failed companies — is equally valuable.

Worth subscribing if you can tolerate irregular delivery.

Start with: “How PostHog Grows: The Power of Being Open-Core”

9. Demand Curve Growth Newsletter by the Demand Curve team

Subscribers: 100k+ · Platform: Custom · Frequency: Weekly · Best for: Founders and growth marketers wanting tested, tactical growth plays

Demand Curve publishes its 300th+ issue in 2026 and the editorial focus has shifted noticeably toward AI search and brand discoverability. Their recent issues such as “Why AI ignores your brand,” “How to overtake incumbents in AI search,” “The recommendation layer” are tracking a genuine shift in how people find products that most marketing newsletters are still catching up with.

The original format — three battle-tested growth tactics per issue, sourced from real startup experiments — remains, but it’s now supplemented by deeper strategic questions about what growth even means when AI mediates discovery.

Start with: “Why AI ignores your brand” (May 2026)

10. Lenny’s Newsletter by Lenny Rachitsky

Subscribers: 1M+ · Platform: Substack · Frequency: Weekly · Best for: Product managers and tech career builders at every level

The scale is hard to argue with: over a million subscribers makes this the most-read product and growth newsletter in the world. The quality matches it.

Lenny writes a deeply researched advice column that covers product strategy, growth frameworks, hiring, career development, and increasingly in 2026, the practical implications of AI on product work. He also publishes expert guest posts that are often as good as his own writing. The paid tier includes a 30k-member Slack community that has become a genuine professional network for PMs.

It’s broad by design — which means not every issue will be directly relevant — but the hit rate is high enough that it’s worth staying subscribed to.

Start with: “A guide to advanced B2B positioning” (2026)

11. Elena’s Growth Scoop by Elena Verna

Subscribers: 94k+ · Platform: Substack · Frequency: Weekly · Best for: Senior growth operators and product leaders at B2B SaaS companies

Elena has held growth leadership roles at Miro, SurveyMonkey, Amplitude, and Dropbox. She’s now doing growth at Lovable, which means her 2026 writing has a strong AI-native product angle: how vibecoding changes distribution, what it means when your product’s users include AI agents, how retention thinking changes when software is disposable.

She writes with strong opinions and doesn’t hedge them. “Revenue addiction kills companies.” “IC work is the new career flex.” You won’t agree with everything, but you’ll leave each issue having thought harder about your assumptions.

The 40% open rate on a 94k list is the real signal here.

Start with: “Your product has a new user. It’s not human.”

Best newsletters for social media marketing

Social media and paid social marketers. Here comes your list.

12. Link in Bio by Rachel Karten

Subscribers: 111k+ · Platform: Substack · Frequency: 2x weekly · Best for: Social media managers, brand social leads, and content strategists at consumer brands

Rachel ran social for Bon Appétit and Epicurious before going independent. That background — a social Webby Award, a National Magazine Award — is part of why the newsletter works. She’s talking to practitioners, as a practitioner, about the realities of doing social at real companies.

The format alternates between long-form interviews with the social managers behind recognisable brands (NASA, FIGS, LA Metro, Fishwife) and shorter strategy-focused issues. The quarterly Brand Social Trend Reports are some of the most widely shared documents in the social media world.

With 111k subscribers after five years, it’s clearly filling a gap that no one else has quite closed.

Start with: “Brand Social Trend Report: Q1 2026”

Recommended reading in this blog: If you’re still deciding whether social is worth your time and budget at all, I wrote about whether brands should go all in or all out on social in 2025.

13. Social Files by Tommy Clark

Subscribers: 17k+ · Platform: beehiiv · Frequency: Weekly · Best for: B2B founders and marketing leads building a LinkedIn presence

Tommy runs Compound Content Studio and writes about what he’s building and observing in B2B social — primarily LinkedIn. The focus is narrow enough to be genuinely useful: executive-led content, founder-led content systems, how to measure whether your social activity is doing anything.

His “State of Executive-led Content” reports have become a useful benchmark for B2B social. In 2026 he’s been writing increasingly about authenticity erosion — what happens to founder content quality as AI makes it cheap to produce.

Start with: “The state of Executive-led Content (April 2026)”

Recommended reading in this blog: If you’re running paid alongside organic, get inspired by these 105+ LinkedIn ad examples from fast-growth brands.

14. The Social Juice by Jaskaran Singh

Subscribers: 36k+ · Platform: Substack · Frequency: Weekly (Sundays) · Best for: Marketers who need a concise weekly digest of what changed in marketing and social media

The Social Juice is a weekly briefing, not a deep dive. Jaskaran covers platform updates, ad tech changes, consumer mindset shifts, and brand campaigns — all in one readable issue every Sunday.

What sets it apart from other news-roundup newsletters is the cultural framing. He’s not just listing what happened; he’s connecting it to how consumer behaviour and brand strategy are shifting. “AI won’t kill marketing. We’ll do it ourselves.” is a good example of the editorial angle.

Start with: “This Week in Marketing: Evidence of Social Media Outrage vs. the Emergence of AI Sloptainment”

15. Geekout by Matt Navarra

Subscribers: 30k+ · Platform: beehiiv · Frequency: Weekly (Fridays) · Best for: Social media teams at enterprise brands who need to track every platform change

Matt Navarra has been covering social media platforms for over 20 years. Geekout is his weekly dispatch of everything that moved in the social media world that week: new Instagram features, Meta’s AI developments, TikTok regulatory news, LinkedIn changes.

If your job requires knowing what every major platform is doing, this is the most comprehensive single source for that. The audience includes teams at Netflix, TikTok, McDonald’s, and Amazon. It doesn’t offer analysis so much as excellent, exhaustive curation.

Start with: Any recent issue, the format is consistent and the value is in the completeness.

Best newsletters for paid advertising

Let’s move on to the dollar land: newsletters for marketers overseeing paid ad campaigns on Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, and more.

16. The Performers by Aazar Ali Shad

Subscribers: 13k+ · Platform: beehiiv · Frequency: Weekly · Best for: Media buyers, creative strategists, and performance marketers running paid social

Aazar is a rare thing: a serious practitioner who actually shares what he’s learning from running campaigns. The Performers reverse-engineers what’s working in paid social: specific ad formats, hook structures, creative testing methodologies, brand breakdown. Real examples included.

In 2026 the focus is increasingly on AI-generated ad creative: what’s working, what still needs a human, which AI ad formats are printing results and why. “AI Ads That Are Printing” and “25 Hooks to Scale Your Next Winning Ad” are representative of the practical, no-preamble style.

Start with: “5 Creative Insights from $50M Spend Ad Accounts”

17. Bram’s Buzz by Bram Van der Hallen

Subscribers: 100k+ LinkedIn followers · Platform: LinkedIn Newsletter · Frequency: Monthly · Best for: Digital advertisers and performance marketers running Meta campaigns

Bram is a Belgium-based Facebook Ads specialist, one of the top 25 PPC experts globally according to multiple rankings, and his newsletter is published exclusively on LinkedIn, which makes it unusual in this list.

Every issue covers Meta platform updates: new ad features, algorithm changes, tracking tools, consent mode updates. It’s more news briefing than strategic commentary, but if you run Meta campaigns, the timeliness and technical accuracy are genuinely valuable.

Worth noting: because it’s LinkedIn-only, you need to follow him there rather than an email subscription.

Best newsletters for buyer psychology & marketing ideas

18. Why We Buy by Katelyn Bourgoin

Subscribers: 63k+ · Platform: Kit · Frequency: Weekly · Best for: Marketers, copywriters, and founders who want to understand the psychology behind purchasing decisions

Each issue of Why We Buy explains one cognitive bias or psychological principle and shows how it applies to marketing and messaging. Normalcy Bias. The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon. Framing. The Dunning-Kruger Effect.

The format is deliberately contained — short, specific, immediately applicable. Katelyn doesn’t overexplain. You read it, you understand something about how people make decisions, and you think about where you’re leaving that insight on the table in your own marketing.

It’s one of the most consistently useful newsletters in this list, which is partly why it’s built to 63k without the kind of hype that surrounds larger publications.

Start with: Whatever the most recent issue is. The format is consistent and every issue is self-contained.

19. Marketing Ideas by Tom Orbach

Subscribers: 90k+ · Platform: Substack · Frequency: 2x weekly · Best for: Growth marketers and founders who want unconventional, psychology-backed tactical ideas

Tom leads a Growth Marketing team at Google and created the Viral Post Generator: a parody product that got 2 million users in a week and was acquired shortly after. He describes his niche as “unconventional marketing,” which is accurate: every idea draws on psychology, behavioural economics, or viral mechanics rather than standard channel execution.

The 2x weekly cadence is generous. A Sunday idea roundup and a Wednesday deep dive. Subscribers include people at Amazon, Meta, Spotify, and LinkedIn, which suggests the ideas are landing beyond the startup world.

Start with: “How to launch like a top 1% company”

Best newsletters for B2B content marketing

There are not that many newsletters for B2B marketers specifically. But the ones that do bring plenty of invaluable expertise to the table.

20. Pierre’s Content Guides by Pierre Herubel

Subscribers: 34k+ · Platform: Substack · Frequency: Weekly · Best for: Early-stage B2B startup founders and marketers building content marketing from scratch

Pierre co-founded a B2B business that went from $0 to $1.5M in 18 months, largely through content. He’s now a consultant who’s worked on 300+ marketing projects and reaches 65k+ people daily. The newsletter is where he documents the systems and frameworks behind that.

The format is unusually visual — Pierre leans heavily on infographics, which makes complex content strategies digestible and shareable. His 2026 content has focused on team-led LinkedIn strategies, podcast-first content systems, and what the “marketing game” looks like when AI is producing most of the content.

Start with: “Our Complete $1M GTM System for 2026”

Best newsletter for AI in marketing

These days, most marketing newsletters cover AI tactics to some extent. This one below is AI only.

21. The AI Marketing Generalist by Kieran Flanagan

Subscribers: 14k+ · Platform: Substack · Frequency: Weekly · Best for: Senior B2B marketers and growth leaders who want to build AI into their marketing systems

Kieran was previously SVP of Marketing at HubSpot and has been writing about AI for marketing longer than most. In 2026, his newsletter has become almost entirely focused on Claude Code for marketing — building GTM systems, creating AI-powered content workflows, setting up second-brain-style knowledge systems.

It’s more technical than most marketing newsletters and is better suited to people who are comfortable getting hands-on with AI tools rather than just reading about them. “I built an AI Second Brain. It’s made me a 10x better GTM leader” and “Agentic-Led Growth: A New Model for How B2B Companies Grow” give a good sense of where his thinking is.

Start with: “The 4 New Claude Code Features for GTM Operators”

Best general marketing newsletters

22. The Marketing Millennials by Daniel Murray

Subscribers: 116k+ · Platform: Workweek + Substack · Frequency: 3x weekly (Sun/Tues/Thurs) · Best for: Marketers at all levels who want a broad mix of tactics, trends, and inspiration

Daniel has built one of the largest marketing communities online — 116k+ newsletter subscribers and over 1 million LinkedIn followers. The newsletter is the written counterpart to his podcast, covering a wide range of marketing topics with a conversational tone.

The 3x weekly cadence means it’s high volume. Not every issue will land for you, but the breadth is the point — it tracks trends across every marketing discipline and makes connections that niche newsletters miss. It’s the most accessible starting point for early-career marketers who want to orient themselves quickly.

Start with: “Get AI to recommend your brand”

23. Deez Links by Delia Cai

Subscribers: 39k+ · Platform: Substack · Frequency: Several times weekly · Best for: Media professionals, journalists, and marketers who work at the intersection of culture and content

Delia is a former Vanity Fair correspondent, and Deez Links is the original links-format newsletter on Substack. It’s now five years old and still one of the most distinctive voices in the space.

It’s not a marketing newsletter in the traditional sense. It’s media and culture commentary: what’s worth reading, what’s happening in the industry, what the internet is doing now. But for anyone whose work involves content, storytelling, or attention — which is most marketers — it’s a genuinely useful lens.

The writing is sharp and often funny in ways that most marketing newsletters aren’t.

Start with: Anything recent, the format rewards just jumping in.

More newsletters worth subscribing to

These didn’t make the extended list above but are worth knowing about depending on your focus:

Behind the CMO — interviews with CMOs at fast-growing companies, useful for senior marketers who want the leadership perspective.

Ahrefs’ Digest — the most reliable SEO and content marketing newsletter from a team that generates a lot of original research.

Buffer’s Social Media Newsletter — solid social media strategy content with Buffer’s characteristic accessibility.

SparkToro — Rand Fishkin on audience research, zero-click content, and the shift away from traditional search. Niche but excellent.

Marketing Brew — Morning Brew’s marketing vertical, 4M+ readers, daily 5-minute briefing covering advertising, brand strategy, social media, and agency news. The best single source for staying current on the marketing industry at large.

Marketing Examples — Harry Dry’s visual breakdown of great marketing copy, landing pages, and campaigns — 130k+ subscribers. Each issue picks one real example and dissects exactly why it works. Invaluable for anyone who writes or designs marketing materials.

Total Annarchy — Ann Handley’s bi-weekly newsletter on writing, content, and marketing craft — 42k+ subscribers. Read it if you want to write better, not just publish more.

ICYMI — Lia Haberman’s weekly Substack on influencer marketing, creator economy, and social platform strategy — 25k+ subscribers. One of the most thorough weekly roundups of what’s happening in creator and brand partnerships.

Stacked Marketer — a daily multi-channel briefing covering paid ads, SEO, social media, and CRO. Practical and fast to read for performance marketers who need to stay current across all channels at once.

Growth Memo — Kevin Indig’s weekly newsletter on SEO, organic growth strategy, and search. Particularly strong on how AI is reshaping organic search and what that means for content strategies.

Really Good Emails — not a traditional newsletter but a curated gallery of excellent email design and copy. Essential for anyone writing or designing email campaigns who needs inspiration from what real brands are actually sending.

Future Commerce — weekly newsletter on the intersection of brand, culture, commerce, and technology for DTC brand leaders. More thoughtful and philosophical than most commerce newsletters, which makes it useful for positioning and brand strategy thinking.

The Daily Carnage — a daily marketing newsletter covering campaigns, tools, trends, and creative inspiration curated by Carney agency. Good for sparking ideas and staying aware of what brands are doing creatively.

Swipe Files — Corey Haines’ newsletter and community around marketing examples, teardowns, and frameworks. For marketers who learn best by studying what’s actually working rather than reading theory.

Frequently asked questions about marketing newsletters

What is the best marketing newsletter in 2026?
It depends what you’re optimising for. For sheer quality and depth, Lenny’s Newsletter (1M+ subscribers) is the most consistently excellent. For tactical growth marketing, Demand Curve and Marketing Fix. For social media practitioners, Link in Bio. For B2B operators, Growth Unhinged. For paid social, The Performers.

Are marketing newsletters free?
Most of the newsletters in this list are free to read, with optional paid tiers that unlock archives, community access, or additional content. Lenny’s Newsletter has the most robust paid tier: it includes a 30k-member Slack community and access to years of archived content.

How many marketing newsletters should I subscribe to?
More than three and your inbox starts working against you. Pick one that matches your primary focus — growth, social, paid, content, or GTM — and one broader one for peripheral awareness. The rest are searchable archives when you need a specific answer.

What’s the difference between a marketing newsletter and a marketing blog?
The writing is often the same; the distribution is different. A newsletter arrives in your inbox on a schedule, which creates a different reading habit than a blog you have to remember to visit. Most of the best marketing writers have moved primarily to newsletters over the past three years, which is part of why this list matters.

Which marketing newsletters are best for startup founders?
GTM Strategist (Maja Voje), Growth Unhinged (Kyle Poyar), Demand Curve, and Marketing Fix cover the most ground for founders specifically — GTM strategy, growth mechanics, and marketing execution for companies that are still figuring out what works.

Which marketing newsletters focus on AI?
Behind the Craft (Peter Yang) for practical AI tutorials. The AI Marketing Generalist (Kieran Flanagan) for AI applied specifically to marketing systems. Growth Unhinged (Kyle Poyar) for AI’s impact on GTM and pricing. And increasingly, almost every newsletter in this list has a significant AI angle in 2026.

Are any of these newsletters inactive?
As of June 2026: tl;dr Marketing by Saijo George is discontinued. The Pipeline by Austin Hughes last published in September 2025. Own Your Category by Josh Lowman last published in October 2025. How They Grow by Jaryd Hermann has been very infrequent (one post in 2026). The rest are active with regular publishing schedules.

The post 35+ Best Marketing Newsletters in 2026, Read by TOP 5% Marketers appeared first on Marketing Fix blog.