There are hundreds of marketing newsletters competing for your attention. Maybe thousands.
So I did something different: I asked the speakers and panelists at Ahrefs Evolve, our conference in San Diego from October 13-15, which newsletters they actually read and recommend.
The result? A curated list of newsletters that span SEO, media, tech, leadership, and strategy.
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Best for: Staying up-to-date on all things SEO and AI
Author: Aleyda Solis
Number of subscribers: 38,000
Email frequency: Weekly
Recommended by: Sophie Brannon, James Norquay
Subscribe link: https://seofomo.co/
If you only subscribe to one SEO newsletter, it should probably be this one.
Every Sunday, Aleyda Solis delivers SEOFOMO, a roundup of the week’s most important search news, insightful blog posts, open jobs, upcoming events, who you should follow, and more. Think of it as the SEO industry’s pulse, distilled into one email.
Sophie Brannon is a big fan:
“Aleyda Solis is one of the best up there with sharing the most up to date information not just from what she produces (which is a TONNE) but also from others in the industry with a really varied distribution. 10/10 would recommend.”
James Norquay adds:
“Aleyda does a great job collecting what’s new and interesting in the SEO industry every week.”
If your FOMO extends beyond search, Aleyda also publishes MarketingFOMO and AI Marketers, which broadens the scope to cover wider AI and marketing ideas.
Best for: Starting your morning with marketing news
Author: Marketing Brew team
Number of subscribers: 345,000
Email frequency: Daily, Monday to Friday
Recommended by: Chris Schweppe
Subscribe link: https://www.marketingbrew.com/
Marketing Brew is the marketing-focused spinoff of the popular Morning Brew daily newsletter. It’s sharp, witty, and perfectly formatted for the modern inbox: news you can actually digest with your morning coffee.
Expect breakdowns of new ad campaigns, trends in media buying, regulatory changes affecting marketers, and quick takes on the platforms we live on (Google, Meta, TikTok, you name it).
If you like the idea of staying in the loop without slogging through industry whitepapers, this one’s for you.
Best for: The best SEO and marketing content from across the web
Author: Si Quan Ong
Number of subscribers: 260,000
Email frequency: Weekly
Recommended by: Patrick Stox
Subscribe link: https://ahrefs.com/newsletter
Of course, we couldn’t leave out our own Ahrefs’ Digest.
Each week, I curate the best reads from our blog alongside a selection of the most insightful articles published elsewhere. You’ll get SEO deep dives, case studies, the occasional spicy take from industry experts, and best of all, memes!
Best for: How AI is changing media, journalism, and the news
Author: Pete Pachal
Number of subscribers: Unknown
Email frequency: Three times a week
Recommended by: Heather Physioc
Subscribe link: https://mediacopilot.substack.com/
For marketers who think beyond CTRs and campaigns, Media Copilot sits at the fascinating intersection of publishing, journalism, technology, and discoverability.
Heather Physioc calls it one of her must-reads:
“It’s bigger picture thinking and content on timely developments, and this one lives at the intersection of media/journalism/publishing and technology/search/discoverability for me.”
If you’re curious about how platforms shape the way information is distributed and what that means for content strategy, this is your pick.
Best for: Learning SEO’s soft skills
Author: Tom Critchlow
Number of subscribers: Unknown
Email frequency: On hiatus
Recommended by: Carrie Rose
Subscribe link: https://newsletter.seomba.com/
You’re probably really good at SEO tactics: keyword research, content, and link building. But can you get executive buy-in for your projects? Can you pitch a new initiative? Can you navigate office politics?
That’s where Tom Critchlow’s SEO MBA comes in.
The newsletter teaches the soft skills they don’t cover in SEO courses: leadership, business skills, and strategic thinking for marketers.
The bad news: The newsletter is currently in hibernation. The good news: Its archive is still around. Good long-form essays never run out of fashion and you can still learn from Tom and get better at communicating with executives, progressing in your SEO career, running SEO agencies, and more.
Best for: Big-picture thinking on technology and society
Author: Azeem Azhar
Number of subscribers: 100,000
Email frequency: Weekly
Recommended by: Mark Schaefer
Subscribe link: https://www.exponentialview.co/
Marketing doesn’t happen in isolation. Instead, it’s shaped by broader forces like AI, automation, and the shifting digital economy. Azeem Azhar’s Exponential View helps you make sense of those forces.
It’s a newsletter about how technology is transforming business, society, and our future. You’ll find essays on AI ethics, the economics of platforms, and the kind of macro trends that help you zoom out of your day-to-day campaigns and see the bigger picture.
Mark Schaefer calls it a must-read, and we can see why: staying future-focused is one of the best ways to keep your marketing strategy relevant.
Best for: Weekly wisdom
Author: James Clear
Number of subscribers: 3,000,000
Email frequency: Weekly
Recommended by: Madhav Bhandari
Subscribe link: https://jamesclear.com/3-2-1
This newsletter has a simple weekly format: three short ideas, two quotes from others, and one question to reflect on.
It’s not strictly about marketing. But it’ll make your marketing better.
Madhav Bhandari explains:
“It’s been invaluable for me as a marketing leader. Some weeks it’s about productivity, other times it’s motivation, or just perspective on how to keep going when things aren’t working. I treat it more like a leadership newsletter than anything else.That 3-2-1 structure makes it both easy to read and impossible not to think deeply afterwards. It’s helped me navigate many of the complexities that come with marketing leadership.”
Best for: Keep up-to-date in SEO
Author: Mark Williams-Cook
Number of subscribers: 12,000
Email frequency: Weekly
Recommended by: Cyrus Shepard
Subscribe link: https://coreupdates.com/
Each edition of Core Updates gives you a digestible summary of the latest search news and tips.
Recommended by Cyrus Shepard, it’s a practical way to stay informed without doomscrolling Twitter.
Best for: Marketing strategy for startups and SaaS
Author: Emily Kramer
Number of subscribers: 50,000
Email frequency: Twice a month
Recommended by: John-Henry Scherck, Devin Bramhall
Subscribe link: https://newsletter.mkt1.co/
Startups don’t have the luxury of bloated marketing teams or endless budgets. They need lean, effective, scalable strategies, which is exactly what Emily Kramer delivers in MKT1.
She can do this because she has built marketing teams at companies like Asana, Carta, Astro (acquired by Slack), and Ticketfly. She knows what actually works when you’re in the trenches of B2B marketing. Not theory. Reality.
Best for: Business strategy through a tech lens
Author: Ben Thompson
Number of subscribers: 40,000
Email frequency: Weekly
Recommended by: Kevin Indig
Subscribe link: https://stratechery.com/
Ben Thompson’s Stratechery is legendary in tech circles, and it’s just as valuable for marketers.
Each essay unpacks a big trend in technology or business (think platform strategy, the economics of subscription businesses, or the ripple effects of AI) and explains what it means for companies, industries, and yes, marketers.
Kevin recommended it, and it’s easy to see why: if you want to think more like an executive and less like a channel manager, Stratechery will reshape how you see the business landscape.
Final thoughts
These recommendations came from the people speaking at Ahrefs Evolve in San Diego this October 13-15. They’re practitioners who’ve built successful marketing teams, grown organic traffic at scale, and solved problems worth sharing.
Want to learn from them in person? Grab your ticket to Ahrefs Evolve and join us for three days of talks, workshops, and conversations about the future of SEO and marketing.
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