Most marketing newsletters are boring AF, I’ll be the first to say it.

As busy marketers, we try not to spend all of our time scouring the internet for useful information.

Our inbox was supposed to be a place we turn to for quick, digestible communication from companies.

Instead, we are now constantly flooded with marketing newsletters that provide very little value to us.

Why do most marketing newsletters suck?

Most marketing newsletters try to do too many things at once.

From product updates to event invites to random blog posts, emails are supporting every single aspect of your business.

What’s more, whether it’s a newsletter or not, any email that you send needs to focus on one message if you want it to deliver.

While a lot of us think that email newsletters can kill many birds with one stone, it can’t.

The focus and intent of a marketing newsletter need to be clear as soon as the reader takes the first glance.

It also needs to provide readers with something they cannot get from your other marketing channels.

But do people even care about newsletters anymore? Perhaps we should forget about marketing newsletters altogether?

Eeeh, not so fast.

Why we still need to care about marketing newsletters

Even though so many new marketing strategies have surfaced since emails, it’s still considered one of the most effective types of marketing.

According to Chief Marketer, “email marketing outperforms other tactics for lead generation”, Campaign Monitor tells us that 89% of marketers consider that their email marketing strategy is a success, and HubSpot says it clearly contributes to improving sales.

It’s personal, it’s targeted and it’s meant to be consistent.

“Email may be old-school, but having the most relevant pieces of news handed over to you in a digital package is still extremely valuable” (Contently).

We shouldn’t forego email newsletters altogether, but if your current program isn’t giving any result, take a step back and evaluate what you’re doing.

New year, new newsletter

Don’t be afraid to shuffle the cards from time to time.

Here at Mention, we recently decided to revamp how we did our marketing newsletter (again).

Why?

Because it was something we wouldn’t want to read ourselves anymore.

More importantly, it wasn’t helping our company get closer to our objectives such as generating new leads and growing a large and engaged email list.

So, to improve this, we had to take a good hard look at our old newsletters and ask ourselves:

• Why are we creating an email newsletter?
• What do we want to get out of it?
• Are we providing value to our readers?
• How much time, resources and which tools do we need?
• How will we promote it?
• How will we measure the progress?

These are must-ask questions that every marketer should ask themselves before creating an email newsletter strategy.

We also decided to focus our newsletter on one topic and incorporate — when relevant — related articles from other companies.

The result?

Our readers are already raving about the look and content of our new newsletter. The best part is that we’re seeing a 20% increase — on average — on our open rates, compared to our previous version.

Now, this is not something we just came up with out of the blue.

There are actually several awesome newsletters out there that inspired us to revamp ours – here are seven you should sign up for immediately.

Starting with our dearest Mention Memo.

1. The Mention Memo

Every week, you’ll get a hot little newsletter filled with cool gifs, valuable free resources, and insightful commentary around a trending marketing topic such as Instagram Stories, big tech trends from CES and Facebook marketing. You’ll also get practical tips, tricks, and free resources you can use for your own marketing strategy.

Why we like it

Not to toot our own horn but it’s visually appealing and stands out from a lot of the other newsletters we get in our inbox.

Secondly, we hear that it’s actually interesting and valuable to marketers.

Sign up for it here.

 

2. Geekout Newsletter by Matt Navarra

If you do any sort of social media marketing or community management, Geekout is a must to subscribe to.

This popular free weekly newsletter curates all the latest social media platform news, tips, tricks, tools and new features.

Why we like it

Trying to keep updated on all the latest social media features and platform changes is hard work. Geekout is one of the most complete, up-to-date summaries of literally everything you might need to know, saving us hours each week on research.

We’re a big fan of the “Quick hits” snippets. Geekout cuts out all the BS and gives you the lowdown on the latest trends in a single sentence.

Sign up for the newsletter, and check out previous editions here.

3. Please Advise

Please Advise is a daily marketing newsletter curated by the folks at Top Hat. Consider Please Advise your daily call-to-action.

It’s broken into 3 simple sections. LOOK, DO and TRY. The best part? It’s packed with information you’ll actually use and you can read it with a quick swipe.

Why we like it

If you’re in marketing, Please Advise is a no-brainer. It’s a well designed, quick read that you’ll enjoy opening up everyday.

Sign up for it here.

 

4. The Hustle

The Hustle founder Sam Parr came across the idea of a daily newsletter for millennials while trying to promote HustleCon, a startup conference he was organizing.

As a result, he got an overwhelming response for his newsletter which helped him eventually grow to a 300k+ subscriber base.

According to Digiday, “Parr hopes to carve out a niche by bringing a conversational tone to culture and tech coverage”…

With informal language like “dude” and “insane”, the site has a “bro voice“.

The newsletter includes stories with provocative titles like Soylent: What happened when I went 30 days Without Food and The Rebranding of The Trailer Park.

Why we like it

Interesting topics presented in casual, millennial bro speak.

Sign up for it here.

5. TL;DR Marketing

If you’re looking for a minimalist, no-fuss format to keep you up to date with the latest news without getting distracted, TL;DR is the newsletter for you.

TL;DR provides a really succinct overview of the essentials, including the latest updates on social media, SEO, paid media marketing and more. This daily newsletter comes highly recommended if you’re looking to protect your focus while still wanting to keep on top of the latest industry trends and changes.

Why we like it

This is our go-to newsletter for when we’re strapped for time (which is… often). The TL;DR newsfeed mini-site with web-stories is really nicely designed too in the same minimalist style as the newsletter.

Sign up for it here.

6. Intercom

Intercom is a messaging platform for websites, and their newsletter has virtually no mention of their product.

The memo themes span from tech trends, product management, marketing, customer support, and startups.

What’s cool is that they usually have members from their team comment on the topic.

You get the sense that like they really enjoy writing them – we enjoy reading them!

Why we like it

It’s funny, unique and provides a good distraction from our work

Sign up for it here.

7. Product Hunt

Product Hunt is a curation platform showcasing the best new products released  every day around the globe.

Their newsletter usually contains the top 5 to top 10 best products of the previous day (mostly based on how many upvotes they gathered).

Why we like it

There are two main reasons why we like love Product Hunt’s newsletter.

The first one is quite obvious: we like to discover new projects and tools that can help us to do a better job as marketers.

And the second one is that we like to boost our product launches via Product Hunt and often end up in the newsletter, among the best products of the day 😎

8. The Daily Carnage

Carney+Co. is a full-service agency specializing in design and development for the browser, desktop, and mobile platforms.

The agency is empowering marketing pros with great knowledge, best practices, and latest industry trends through its “Daily Carnage”, a hand-picked list of the best marketing content delivered to your inbox daily.

Why we like it

Exactly this: “There has been a gap to focus on online marketing in a fun, relevant way. I LOVE the Daily Carnage.”

Sign up for it here.

Bonus: Buzzfeed’s This Week in Cats

So this last newsletter is by no means related to marketing, but it’s brilliant so I had to include it. You can expect in This Week in Cats: top-quality photos of cats, stories of cats and the highly-anticipated Cat of the Week.

Need I say more?

I can’t believe I’ve only just discovered it. Thank you internet.

Why we like it

Very niche topic. Informative and entertaining.

Sign up here.

Did we miss any?

We’re always looking for interesting marketing newsletters we can draw inspiration from. What are your favorite ones? Let us know on Twitter @mention.