My 8 Favorite Marketing Blogs You Should Read This Week
May 3, 2018
By Sarah Hecker
I know what you’re probably thinking: “Not another blog post about blogs!” But if you’re anything like me, then you’re always looking for something new to read. It can be hard to filter through all of the great content on the web, so more often than not I turn to my peers for suggestions. Goodreads, Amazon reviews, Reddit—these are all tools I use to crowdsource what is the best content, as voted on by my peers. For this article, I thought I’d share some of my personal favorites in case someone like you is looking for something new to read.
I’ve compiled eight of my favorite marketing blogs and added a few of my favorite articles from each. Hopefully, this will give you some new content to read, inspire a creative idea, or encourage you to try something new.
1. AdWeek’s Brand Marketing Blog
AdWeek is a long-running publication covering creative agencies, branded campaigns, and digital trends. While it typically focuses on Fortune 500 companies and AAAA advertising firms, this blog can be a valuable resource for keeping up with the industry’s leading brands and campaigns. This blog can also provide pulse checks on trends and positioning, giving you ideas for your own marketing and warnings of what to stay away from.
My Top 3 Articles
- 5 Breakthrough Brands With Ingenious Marketing That Hit a New Level in 2017
- Denny’s CMO Explains the Strategy Behind One of the Most Popular Brand Tweets of All Time
- How Pepsi Got It So Wrong: Unpacking One of the Most Reviled Ads in Recent Memory
2. The Sprout Social Blog
Sprout Social is a software company that focuses on social media management and analytics. As such, they have become one of my favorite thought leaders in the social media space. They regularly share insights based on their own research and experiences, and they work with everyone from SMBs to enterprise-level clients, so their advice covers a wide variety of practice areas and topics.
My Top 3 Articles
- How to Measure the Value of Social Media
- Social Media Manager vs. Community Manager: What’s the Difference?
- How to Identify Social Media Influencers & Collaborate on Campaigns
3. HubSpot’s Agency Post
It’s hard to talk about marketing without talking about HubSpot, and for good reason—they routinely cover some of the best topics in the industry and are trendsetters for inbound marketing and growth strategies. The agency blog is my personal favorite because I work at an agency, but this subset regularly shares content that is relevant to marketers from all backgrounds.
My Top 3 Articles
- 25 Last-Minute DIY Halloween Costume Ideas for Tech Geeks & Marketers
- 3 Brands at SXSW That Taught Me How to Tell a Story
- How to Write Faster: 12 Unusual Hacks [Infographic]
4. The Buzzsumo Blog
The title of Buzzsumo’s blog is “Data Driven Marketing Insights” and that’s one of the reasons I enjoy reading their content so much. While they don’t pump out as many articles as other publications, each piece of content is thoroughly researched and brings unique insights to the table. Since their platform analyzes a lot of content data, it’s a valuable resource for the Buzzsumo team and content marketers alike.
My Top 3 Articles
- Content Trends 2018: BuzzSumo Research Report
- How To Research and Create Evergreen Content
- Facebook Engagement for Brands and Publishers Falls 20% In 2017
5. The Moz Blog
Everyone reading this has probably already heard of Moz, but if you’re not regularly reading their blog, I suggest you start. SEO is one of the more transient marketing practices, and best practices are always changing. There are also multiple subsets of SEO, such as local and technical, and they operate by different rules than the usual keyword + blog formula you see in content marketing. Reading their blog is an invaluable resource to keeping up with these trends and changes.
My Top 3 Articles
- How to Target Featured Snippet Opportunities
- How to Track Your Local SEO & SEM
- How to Prioritize Your Link Building Efforts & Opportunities
6. Copyhacker’s Copywriting Blog
Writing isn’t a skill that you can learn once and be done with. Great writers are constantly practicing and perfecting their craft to become better at what they do. Because of how much writing marketers do on a daily basis, I always advocate for reading more writing advice and trying to keep your skills sharp. The Copyhacker’s blog is a great resource to get ideas for your own writing and marketing efforts.
My Top 3 Articles
- We used these 3 copywriting principles on a home page. And doubled ecommerce revenue. (Case Study)
- When you learn to write copy with a “reluctant hero,” you’ll never go back to flat writing
- This approach to “empathy in marketing” makes your page 10x more effective
7. The Kissmetrics Blog
The Kissmetrics Blog is another source of original research and data for marketers to draw from. Most of their content focuses on analytics and growth, so it is particularly valuable when you're trying to discover new approaches or improve results. It’s also worth mentioning that Kissmetrics has a robust webinar library, so if you’re a visual learner, be sure to check out their video content.
My Top 3 Articles
- What is Vero? 9 Things About the New Social Media App
- Brand Bias: Does Branding Matter For Driving Sales in B2B? Here’s What The Data Says
- “Hey $FNAME” is Dead. Here’s How to Personalize Marketing
8. The Databox Blog
Last but not least, we have the Databox Blog. Databox is a business analytics platform, so naturally much of their content reflects that. They offer actionable insights and research that give you a better idea of what other marketers are doing—and why it works. They often interview and survey other marketers to get a feel for the industry and related trends. This is my favorite go-to blog when I feel like I’ve hit a brick wall or need to work my way out of rut.
My Top 3 Articles
- 44 Social Media Marketing Tactics That Still Drive Engagement, Leads and New Customers in 2018
- Hard-Earned Facebook Ad ROI Secrets Revealed [Hacks, Process, Checklist, Dashboards, Metrics]
- The 10 Google Analytics Metrics Everyone Else is Tracking [Original Data]
Janko Ferlič
About the author
Sarah Hecker was formerly a Marketing Consultant here at SmartBug Media. She has a passion for all things digital which catapulted her into the marketing world post-college. After being introduced to HubSpot during her first full-time job, she fell in love with inbound marketing. Read more articles by Sarah Hecker.