Jessica Wells

Given the fact that most Americans (80%) check their email at least once, if not multiple times per day, it isn’t difficult to understand why so many organizations use email as a preferred marketing calling card.

However, these digital marketing messages don’t always land in the way we’d hoped:

  • About half (51%) of American consumers say they see too many marketing emails.
  • 25% of these (^) Americans also admit that they rarely – if ever! – open the marketing emails they see in their inbox.
  • Only about 26% of consumers said they actually visited a brand’s site after receiving a marketing email.

This last stat is particularly worrisome, because, for many marketers, this is the whole point – to spur action on the part of marketing email recipients, and lead them to the company’s social media or website for more information. The final goal, of course, is to support the overall conversion rate, and (fingers crossed) encourage email recipients to eventually complete a purchase or sign up for service.

Roughly 68% of millennials say that promotional emails impact their purchase decisions.

Overall, this means one thing for today’s marketing teams: While email continues to be a successful and accessible way to create a connection and encourage engagement on the part of your audience, we could also use a little help in this area.

Here’s the good news

There is certainly no shortage of ways to up our email marketing strategy and boost our click-through rates. From advice on building ideal email marketing campaigns, to tips for marketing automation, email lists and transactional emails, there’s plenty of expert advice that we can turn to.

Our own Brafton blog provides a perfect example, with specific blog posts on important topics like the best email marketing tips, and (my personal favorite) advice on use of fonts in email body copy.

Outside of our own blog, there are a few other email marketing blogs we’ve come to appreciate, thanks to writers’ unique takes, well-written tips and guidance, and expert advice that readers can almost instantly apply to their own marketing strategy.

Today, we’re going over our favorite email marketing blogs, including a few hand-picked blog posts to get your reading list started:

1. Marketo

Marketo, the makers of various marketing solutions – including software specifically for email marketing – is a leader in the industry, so it’s no surprise they’d end up on our list.

The Marketo Blog includes a host of helpful blog categories, including:

  • Artificial Intelligence.
  • Branding.
  • Content marketing.
  • Event marketing.
  • Lead management.
  • Mobile marketing.
  • Nurturing.
  • Sales.
  • And a bunch more.

Let’s look specifically at the Email Marketing section. This blog category offers up a ton of fantastic articles, including gems like:

With catchy headlines like these, it’s no wonder why so many professionals flock to the Marketo blog for tips, tools and advice to support their email marketing campaigns.

The articles are long enough to provide some meat to the content, as well as valuable, expert insights and guidance. However, the blog posts aren’t so long that they’re unapproachable – perfect for marketers that don’t have a ton of time on their hands, but still need to keep their fingers on the pulse of the email marketing industry.

An overall thread running through the Marketo blog is that email is a powerful channel for marketers, but it needs to be done right.

“Email today needs to feel like one-on-one conversations with each audience member, but it needs to scale,” Marketo pointed out.

And that’s (^) just on the blog page’s subhead. Imagine the informational gems you’ll unearth in the actual content. This is definitely a blog that’s worth checking out.

2. HubSpot

HubSpot is another leading name in the world of digital marketing, providing its own CRM, Marketing Hub suite and other email marketing platforms and tools. The company’s blog is visually appealing and intuitive and, similar to Marketo and the others on our list, covers a wide range of SEO, marketing campaigns and other topics.

In particular, the HubSpot blog has two key email-related sections we’d like to call out, including its Email Marketing section and Email Newsletter section. Posts in each category are even broken down according to readers’ familiarity and knowledge on the subject.

For instance, in the Email Marketing category, HubSpot offers 16 blog posts for those that consider themselves beginners, so these individuals can “learn the fundamentals and best practices”:

HubSpot notches things up a bit in its Intermediate section:

And, finally, for its Advanced audience, HubSpot offers high-level reading:

This kind of breakdown makes it easy for you and your team to find the exact articles that speak to you and your company’s strategy. And with content that touches on inbound marketing, marketing automation and data-driven marketing, there’s something for every skill level.

3. Unbounce

One might assume that a brand known for its landing page conversion solutions may not be the best place to turn to for email marketing content. But, one would be wrong.

Although many of the articles on Unbounce’s general blog page deal directly with landing page-related content, any professional marketer will tell you the important role that landing pages play in an email marketing strategy, particularly one aimed at inbound marketing.

Readers need a next best step accompanying the call to action, and often this boils down to directing them to a relevant landing page on the company’s site. For this reason, the Unbounce blog is the perfect place to turn, especially since its blog also includes a section just for Email Marketing content.

Some of our top article picks in this section include:

Like Marketo, Unbounce shares some words of wisdom at the top of its page, noting that email is an incredibly personal and powerful channel for marketing and thus “must be handled with care.” Top notch advice.

Unbounce Conversion Marketing Glossary

The Unbounce blog also offers The Conversion Marketing Glossary, which helps break down different marketing tools and buzzwords. While not specifically part of its blog, this is a very helpful resource to ensure that marketers can talk the talk, as well as walk the walk.

4. Campaign Monitor

This one’s a no-brainer, honestly, given the fact that Campaign Monitor is a leading provider of email marketing software that lets users design and send branded, automated emails.

The company’s blog includes several highly relevant sections for those seeking email marketing blog posts:

Readers can also choose articles based on specific industries, including ecommerce, retail, publishing, travel and hospitality. And there’s the option to browse the blog based on the type of content, including guides, infographics, webinars, training videos and more.

Some of the titles that caught our eye include:

While all the blogs on our list cover an extensive array of topics related to email marketing, Campaign Monitor’s blog just might be the most comprehensive. It contains usable templates, tips and best practices pertaining to email design and strategy creation.

5. MarketingProfs

This blog wouldn’t make a list of the most visually appealing blogs, but that does not mean it has any less to offer in terms of relevant guidance, tips and advice on email marketing campaigns and strategy.

MarketingProfs allows readers to peruse through content using a sideline filter menu, which includes options to break down results according to content type, events, topics, publication date, read time and more.

These laser-focused filtering capabilities mean readers can home in on the most relevant and specific reading based on their own needs and interests. There’s even the option to filter content by the subject matter expert who wrote it.

It offers pages upon pages of email-related content, using the Email Topic filter. From content to inform email campaign strategy, to details and breakdowns on data-driven marketing and KPIs, there are articles on just about everything an email marketer could be searching for.

Some of our favorite articles from MarketingProfs include:

Some of these are gated lead-gen assets and others are blogs that are free to read, so long as users complete an email sign up (which is also free). In either case, MarketingProfs is a key, information-packed resource.

6. Marketing Land

This blog has been a personal favorite for years now, and is another great source of news and insights relating to email marketing and overall campaigns.

Marketing Land and its team of writers does a fantastic job keeping up with trends and emerging names in the content and email marketing industries, exploring overarching industry happenings as well as approaches specific to certain brands.

Marketing Land’s blog includes key categories like social, SEO, analytics, MarTech and more. Its extensive topic library helps readers narrow down their choices, and its Email Marketing section covers things like trends, best practices, tips and how-to guides.

Compared to the other blogs on our list, Marketing Land includes more news-related articles, including announcements from leading marketing firms and brands in the industry.


There is also an array of evergreen tips and best practice content and informational pieces, including these headlines:

Marketing Land has become a leading reference for the Brafton team, and may also make its way into your inbox as well.

A small side note here: Search Engine Land, of which Marketing Land is an offshoot, is also worth checking out. While this blog does not include an email marketing specific section, its library is equally full of important and helpful categories.

7. Neil Patel and KISSmetrics

OK, I’ve saved this one for last, because it’s a bit of an interesting case.

KISSmetrics is a veritable king of marketing data, providing a marketing platform that helps users leverage data-driven insights to engage customers and increase conversion rates. In the past, I’ve personally used KISSmetrics blogs for reference and as direct sources – this graphic on page load times (now hosted on Neil Patel’s site) was one of my favorites.

Now, though, when you navigate to the KISSmetrics blog, you see this page:

Kissmetrics Blog page says it's coming soon.

And here’s the reason why: In 2017, former KISSmetrics employee Neil Patel purchased the KISSmetrics website (including the blog) to build traffic to his own site. After cutting the fat and keeping the best blog posts and resources, Patel built redirects, which now lead readers to the best KISSmetrics content (hosted on Patel’s site).

It’s important to note here, though, that Patel doesn’t own the KISSmetrics business or marketing platform in its entirety, just the blog website.

“With KISSmetrics, a lot of the content was similar to NeilPatel.com,” Patel wrote. “For the ones that were similar, I kept the NeilPatel.com version considering this blog generates more traffic than the KISSmetrics one. As for all the content that was unique and different, I ended up moving it over and applying 301 redirects.”

While KISSmetrics’ own blog URL provides the “Coming Soon” page, (and there’s little [to no] news as to when and if a new blog will come to fruition) readers looking for KISSmetrics content can now turn to Neil Patel, a marketing genius in his own right.

This merger means readers get the best of both: the data-driven marketing insights from KISSmetrics, with Patel’s own knowledgeable, yet approachable perspective and nuggets of wisdom.

Neil Patel blog drop-down feature

As for Patel’s main blog, it’s about as savvy, visually appealing, simple to navigate and informative as any marketer could hope for. Using the intuitive “I want to learn more about _____” feature at the top, readers can navigate to Patel’s Email Marketing section, where he provides interesting articles and videos like:

Patel’s move to buy up his former employer’s blog is certainly an interesting one. His voice is one to pay attention to in the email marketing and overarching digital content marketing industry.

Are there any other email marketing blogs that you follow and would recommend? Let us know in the comments below!