Reading is something I cannot get enough of. It is how I got so into digital marketing: I started reading about it, adding up what I had learned, and, ultimately, creating my own procedures. After I developed a passion in my soul for all things digital, I began pursuing certifications in all my specific areas of interest. Now, I set aside time every day to go over the most important articles in B2B marketing and digital communications.
As careers advance, responsibilities pile up and time becomes more and more scarce. Our inboxes get cluttered with spammy emails we didn't opt-in for and lots of unnecessary replay-all messages. The amount of caffeine we ingest grows proportionally to our to-do list. We even bring the phone to bed so we can stay productive until the very last seconds of the day.
There is so much to read and so little time. How can a modern CMO keep up with his or her reading list? Newsletters.
I am not talking about the old, ugly newsletters you used to get a few years ago. I'm talking about the best of the best, curated by marketers for marketers. Here is a list of the newsletters any modern CMO or marketing director needs to subscribe to:
HubSpot is leading the charge in inbound marketing. They have shown us how cold calling, advertising and spam-laden email blasts are a thing of the past. Idea Grove is a HubSpot Gold Partner, and we help our B2B tech clients bring more visitors to their websites with our inbound marketing programs, convert those visitors into leads, and close more deals with our sales enablement services.
By now we all know Google is king. Knowing everything happening at the company is valuable.
I never understood why pay-per-click advertising was the ugly stepchild of many B2B technology PR and marketing campaigns. I know, earned media and organic search results are ideal, but let's be honest: securing tier one coverage and earning a spot on the first page of search results is extremely time consuming and costs as much or more as an online media ad spend. Luckily, more and more people are realizing that, and paid advertising is not the bad guy anymore.
Furthermore, the way Google, social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, and popular publishers have decided to seamlessly integrate ads into the rest of their content—in ways that users often have a hard time noticing—tells marketers that online advertising is not going anywhere, and its use will actually increase moving forward. I get my daily dose of PPC from these newsletters:
I hope this list was helpful. We’ll be back soon with more newsletter options for B2B technology marketers in areas like social media, email marketing and public relations.
Let me know in the comments if there are any newsletters you can't do without.