23 min read

50+ Marketing Resources to Help You Make an Impact in 2024

Dozie Anyaegbunam

Last updated on Nov 13, 2024

QUICK SUMMARY

Prefer books? I've got some great recommendations. Podcasts? I've got them. Courses? Same. All you need to do is scroll and click.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Social Media Strategy Brand Content Marketing Email Marketing Automation Digital Marketing Copywriting Design Research AI Leadership Analytics SEO

What resources for marketers exist out there that help you perfect the art of juggling the chaos of daily operations with bigger-picture strategic thinking? A ton.

But where to start. Whew! Well, here's a list of resources curated for you. Yes, you SaaS marketer. Make sure to subscribe, bookmark, and save resources as you go—because one of these resources might just lead to an “aha” moment that changes your business forever.

From the rise of TikTok to the drama of Twitter/X, social media moves fast. These resources will help: from free courses and newsletters to books and podcasts, you’ll get valuable insights into building wildly successful social media campaigns.

HubSpot’s free social media marketing course covers building a successful social media strategy with great tips on content creation, social listening, and measuring the ROI of your campaigns.

Perfect for marketing managers (and the CMOs who manage them), HubSpot’s course—including 38 videos spanning 5+ hours—is one of the best-value social media resources out there for anyone looking to improve their approach to social media management .

2. One Million Followers by Brendan Kane

Erick Brownstein, president at Shareability, a social media agency, recommends Brendan Kane’s book One Million Followers for social media insights: “Brendan gets the value of paid media better than anyone I know . . . and how really good content needs the right ignition and the right platform underneath it to be successful.”

Brendan Kane—a growth strategist for Fortune 500 brands and celebrities like Taylor Swift and Rihanna—uses his book to explain how he built a one-million-person social following in 30 days and outlines the repeatable principles you can use to achieve quick social media growth.

I came across Jack Appleby’s work on Twitter, or Marketing Twitter as some like to call it, where he uses his background running social campaigns for prominent brands like Beats by Dre and Twitch to inform against-the-grain takes on popular social marketing campaigns.

His social media newsletter, Future Social, which reaches 60,000+ marketers, is even better: each week, you’ll get a breakdown of real-world social media campaigns (and an explanation of what did or didn’t work with them).

I think he’s one of the best at analyzing what’s happening in the social world and then breaking it down into easy-to-swallow morsels. I was hungry while writing this. That’s all I’ll say.

Social Media Examiner is a blog with thousands of helpful posts about social media-related topics. The accompanying podcast, which has been published weekly since 2012, has hundreds of episodes diving into the intricacies of social media with host Michael Stelzner.

Notable interviews include How to Prepare for a Changing Meta Ads Landscape and Optimizing for TikTok Search.

Marketing Strategy Resources

Looking to sharpen your marketing strategy? Dig into the latest perspectives from top CMOs and marketing thinkers with the resources below.

5. Quantum Marketing by Raja Rajamannar

You’ll rarely find a marketing strategy book as widely read by Chief Marketing Officers as Quantum Marketing by Raja Rajamannar, the CMO of Mastercard.

The CMO of Microsoft raves about it, and the CMO of Unilever calls it a “must-read.” But that’s nothing compared to Ivan Pollard, the CMO of General Mills, who said, “This book will do to our view of marketing what Copernicus’ book did to our view of the world—it will change it forever.”

Enough said.

6. Harvard Business Review

Harvard Business Review (HBR) is a steady stream of data-backed marketing perspectives that challenge your assumptions. There are two main types of articles here: first, academics who share the results of studies about business, management, and marketing. Second, strategy insights direct from Fortune 500 C-suite figures and prominent business consultants like Peter Drucker.

You can find all of HBR’s marketing articles here.

7. Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger

Why does one campaign go viral—while another totally flops?

Jonah Berger, a marketing professor at Wharton, explores this question in his book Contagious. The book identifies six principles for virality and uses real-world examples to illustrate his points (like why 200+ million people shared a viral video of a blender).

That’s right—you can get a regular dose of marketing strategy right here! You didn’t expect me not to add something from us, right?

Think of The CMO Club's newsletter as a virtual CMO community with a weekly feed of our latest articles, podcasts, resources, and inspiration. Subscribe now to stay up-to-date on all things marketing & leadership.

Brand Marketing Resources

Building a brand is an art. But it can also feel like there are no set rules, so getting insights from branding experts is invaluable. Take advantage of the resources below to level up your brand game.

9. The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier

Brian Collins, the Executive Creative Director at Ogilvy, a global creative agency, says The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier “slices like a hot knife through all the turgid, pseudo-academic nonsense that surrounds branding.”

Originally published in 2000, the Brand Gap is a must-read for anyone who wants to create what the author calls a “charismatic brand” that consumers love.

10. On Brand Podcast with Nick Westergaard

Want to hear what experts at companies like Adobe, Ben & Jerry’s, HBO, and Salesforce have to say about branding?

Check out Nick Westergaard’s On Brand Podcast for in-depth conversations covering how branding works at companies worldwide. Start with this conversation with Miri Rodriguez on brand storytelling at Microsoft.

And if you’re an audiophile who loves to learn by listening to podcasts, here’s a great list of branding podcasts.

11. LinkedIn Course: Neil Blumenthal on Branding

Neil Blumenthal hosts a compelling LinkedIn Learning mini-course called How to Build a Brand that draws from his experience as co-CEO of the eyewear brand Warby Parker.

While browsing LinkedIn Learning, bookmark these two courses: Creating Timeless Brands with Soon Yu and Create Your Brand Message Strategy with branding consultant Jeffrey Shaw.

12. BrandStruck’s Branding Case Studies

BrandStruck maintains a database of 250+ brand strategy case studies.

For example, BrandStruck’s brand case study on TikTok gives all the essential information you need about the brand: its brand values, character, and archetype, and a collection of the brand’s most impactful campaigns.

Content Marketing Resources

Content marketing done right can greatly impact your brand’s success. Start by taking advantage of one of the courses or content hubs below as a quick refresher. Then, check out The Content Strategy Podcast to see how SaaS leaders apply content marketing today.

13. Semrush Academy Content Marketing Fundamentals

Ashley Segura, the former Head of Content for Authority Labs, leads Semrush’s course on content marketing. The course covers everything from audience research to content distribution and is perfect if you’re looking for a high-level overview of the latest ways to use content to promote your brand.

For more courses like this, check out our article on content marketing certifications.

14. The Content Strategy Podcast

The Content Strategy Podcast is hosted by Kristina Halvorson, the founder of Brain Traffic, a content strategy agency. Tune in for conversations with various content strategy leaders, many of whom work at high-profile SaaS companies.

Check out the episode featuring Kaysie Garza, the content lead at Hotjar, which covers topics like UX, customer journeys, and customer research.

15. Ahrefs Academy Content Marketing Course

What I love about the Ahrefs content marketing course is its clarity of focus. Most courses default to a high-level overview approach, with modules like Introduction, Principles, How to Measure Results, and so forth. Ahrefs, on the other hand, gets right to the good stuff: tactics.

The Ahrefs content marketing course covers popular tactics like content hubs, content audits, and improving on your competitors’ content—and also includes a module explaining the product-led content marketing approach used at Ahrefs.

16. Backlinko’s Content Marketing Hub

Kieran Flanagan, CMO at Zapier, recommends Backlinko’s blog and newsletter, saying: “I thought the blog was good. But the newsletter? Even better!”

Start with Backlinko’s content marketing hub, which covers essential information on content marketing fundamentals, content production, blogging, content writing, and more. While you’re there, make sure you sign up for their newsletter for marketers to get regular content marketing and SEO tactics.

Email Marketing Resources

To send emails that get results, you’ve got to send emails that are worth reading. Even more important, you must make sure your emails land in your audience’s inboxes. Not to worry—the following resources and tools will help you on both fronts.

17. The Future of Email Podcast

For interviews with big players in the email marketing industry, check out The Future of Email podcast with Matthew Dun. A highlight: the episode with Josh Kropkof of The Email Agency, who talks about how personality-filled email copywriting is more important than “personalization,” an oft-cited email marketing imperative.

See our article on the top email marketing podcasts for more podcast recommendations.

18. Omnisend Academy

Whether you need to create sign-up forms, design automation workflows, or piece together your first email campaign, Omnisend Academy has a video tutorial for you. Their course modules are impressively specific: for example, you can learn how to improve email deliverability after iOS 15 or how to design messaging for cart abandoners.

19. The SaaS Email Marketing Playbook

If you’re a SaaS founder or CMO looking for email marketing inspiration, make sure to pick up The SaaS Email Marketing Playbook.

Greg Davis, founder & CEO of Pipeline, a sales CRM, says the book “helped us set up all of our initial emails for our SaaS business, Pipeline. This book is very valuable to new SaaS businesses because it will show you how to get more subscribers from free trials, retain users, and even get back subscribers who cancel their subscriptions.”

20. Litmus Email Testing

Not using Litmus yet? Your emails might be showing up broken and distorted in your recipients’ inboxes. You can use Litmus to quickly test and preview your emails in 100+ email clients, making sure your emails look amazing whether they’re opened in iPhone 15 Dark iOS or Microsoft Outlook.

Matt Lucas, a senior email developer at LendingTree, says, “Litmus has helped us automate and transform our pre-send testing process, saving us 3 hours on every email and boosting our email accuracy rate to 99%.”

Also, check out the (free) tool from Litmus; it shows you which Gmail categories tab your email will end up in.

Marketing Automation Resources

Whether you need expert-led insights on automation strategies, a back-to-the-basics marketing automation course, or simply a few time-saving automation recipes, the following resources have you covered.

21. The ActiveCampaign Podcast

With episode titles like The State of Marketing Automation and Building Better Automations, the ActiveCampaign podcast interviews automation experts for practical tips and strategies. You’ll find expert-approved tactics on everything from building sales funnels to ensuring solid email deliverability.

22. Zapier’s Automation Resources for Marketers

You can’t explore the world of marketing automation for long without encountering Zapier, which helps you create automations between thousands of different tools.

Check out Zapier’s resource hub to get ideas for time-saving automations, step-by-step guides to automate common tasks, and case studies showing how other companies use automation to boost productivity.

23. LinkedIn Learning: Marketing Automation Course

Jeffrey Staats, a marketing professor and former head of marketing at Able, a SaaS company, hosts this five-unit marketing automation course on LinkedIn. He covers fundamental concepts like what to automate, how to set up marketing automation campaigns, and how to collect data and measure results.

Digital Marketing Resources

Most lists of digital marketing resources include tired, outdated materials and marketing career advice. This list is different. Each resource below offers its own unconventional, no B.S. take on the world of digital marketing.

24. SparkTogether Virtual Conference

Most conferences are ‘meh,’ in the words of Madeleine Doyle, senior content marketing manager for Apptentive. But SparkTogether is in a different class. She explains: “I spent the whole day FURIOUSLY writing down notes for my team, saving links, and chatting with fellow marketing pros during SparkTogether. I got ZERO multitasking done, and it was 150% worth it. Best conference I've ever attended.”

Unusually for a virtual conference for CMOs and marketing leaders, SparkTogether isn’t recorded—which means speakers are free to share confidential case studies, unfiltered stories, and real financial figures.

Every month, Andrea Bosoni picks a website and breaks down how he would grow it, sharing the results in his newsletter Zero to Marketing. Luckily for SaaS founders, it’s nearly always a SaaS company.

For example, in his post on Wordtune, Andrea gives ideas for how the product might differentiate itself among the competitive, commoditized market of AI writing tools. Andrea's B2B newsletter is a must-have in your inbox.

26. DemandCurve’s Playbooks

Alex Kracov, the Head of Marketing at Lattice, an HR SaaS, says that the DemandCurve team “knows paid acquisition, conversion, landing pages, and a lot more very well. If you’re lagging behind on your growth skills, let them teach you what you’re missing.”

The best place to start? DemandCurve’s Playbooks. These comprehensive guides cover topics like marketing psychology, acquiring customers with TikTok ads, influencer marketing, and LinkedIn organic strategy.

Rather than providing generalized information, all of DemandCurve’s guides focus on the needs of startups and SaaS companies. Because they skip information that’s irrelevant to SaaS brands, they can speed up your learning curve.

27. Everyone Hates Marketers Podcast

Rafi Mendelsohn, the VP of Marketing for Cyabra, calls Everyone Hates Marketers “a refreshing approach to thinking and talking about marketing that I have just not seen in 13+ years of working in comms/marketing."

Louis Grenier runs Everyone Hates Marketers, which features unfiltered (and sometimes profane) interviews with marketing leaders and CMOs. One standout episode is a conversation with Scott Dikkers, who founded the satirical news media company The Onion; it features nuggets of marketing wisdom like “churning out ideas beats polishing them.”

Copywriting Resources

The world of content is increasingly influenced by mushy, meaningless AI text that rehashes old ideas. Copywriting that cuts through the noise—concisely and with original ideas—is worth more than ever. Let these copywriting resources be your guide.

Erica Schneider, former Head of Content at Grizzle, is a great follow in general; she has reliably thought-provoking posts on her LinkedIn and X accounts. But her Cut the Fluff copywriting newsletter is where it’s at: Erica sends out weekly lessons on what to cut and how to add value to your content.

Amanda Natividad, the VP of Marketing at SparkToro, says, “Erica goes beyond copywriting. She breaks down great writing into actionable frameworks with the examples and receipts to back them up.”

Neville Medhora is a veteran copywriter who has packaged up his knowledge into various courses and blog posts. His free Copywriting Course newsletter is presented in an entertaining, skimmable format that mixes examples of effective ads with insights from well-known copywriters.

Eddie Shleyner’s copywriting newsletter, VeryGoodCopy, has 60,000+ subscribers. Drayton Bird, the Global Creative Director for creative agency Ogilvy & Mather, is one of them; he says, “VeryGoodCopy shows you how to write and how not to write. How to think, and how not to think. Eddie is a damn good marketer. I recommend him.”

By subscribing to VeryGoodCopy, you’ll get a weekly essay about one principle you can use to create impactful copy and advertising campaigns.

31. Swiped.co’s Marketing Swipe Files

When you’re running low on inspiration, there’s nothing like browsing swipe files of successful ad campaigns to get you back in the groove. Swiped.co features dozens of ad campaigns, from modern to classic, with comments showing what made the ad copy so effective.

For example, check out this swipe file of ads using the “disruption” hook to catch readers’ interest.

Design And Creative Resources

Most of the field of marketing is in a constant state of flux as fresh trends emerge and new technologies develop. Design is—refreshingly—more constant. Browse these resources for enduring design principles and frameworks to apply to your ad campaigns and product marketing.

32. Atomic Design by Brad Frost

It doesn’t get better than a free, authoritative book on UX. That’s what you get with Atomic Design, which is available in its entirety on the website of Brad Frost, a UX designer, speaker, and consultant. The book covers his “Atomic Design” system and methodology and recommends tools to use. You can also order the book in ebook format.

Most design publications stick to talking about, well, design. Not UX Collective—it tackles diverse questions from a design-thinking perspective, some of which are only tangentially related.

Recent thought-provoking articles include How Cultural Superstitions Shape Our Design World and Why You’re Not Supposed to Put a Case on Your Smartphone.

34. Laws of UX

Laws of UX is a simple site that does one thing well: it hosts a collection of UX best practices. It’s easy to refer back to when you’re evaluating user interfaces (and, for CMOs, makes a great reference tool when you’re quizzing your design team).

Featuring timeless UX laws like the aesthetic-usability effect, Jakob’s Law, and the goal-gradient effect, Laws of UX dives into each and explains the rationale and further reading.

Market Research Tools/Resources

Technology has enabled market and audience research to be much more nimble than it was in years past. From identifying fast-rising trends to understanding your audience in novel ways, these resources will help you identify opportunities and fine-tune your product-market fit.

35. Exploding Topics

Good marketers keep up with the latest trends; great marketers stay ahead of them. If you want to catch the next trend before it takes off, Exploding Topics is the tool for you.

“As a VC, I try to see around corners,” says Josh Chapman, Managing Partner at Konvoy Ventures. “Exploding Topics helps me identify trends that no one else is highlighting. Which is extremely valuable to me as an investor.”

The Exploding Topics market research newsletter is a great place to start. You can also use their website’s filter function to sort by topic (for example, marketing).

36. SparkToro’s blog

Rand Fishkin, the founder of Moz, is a legend in the digital marketing space. His new company’s blog, SparkToro, is where his latest thinking lives.

One highlight is Rand’s post on content strategy, where he convincingly argues that most companies still use strategies that worked 10+ years ago—and explains a better approach that works today.

37. Think With Google

You’ve probably already used Think With Google’s most famous tool, Google Trends, which allows you to use Google search data to understand consumer trends and behavior. Google offers a few more market research tools under the Think With Google umbrella, including Insights Finder (an audience research tool) and Market Finder (a market identifying tool).

38. AnswerThePublic

All keyword research tools have a common flaw—they’re based on past data. But consumer behavior is constantly changing; trends are rising and falling, and 15% of Google queries have never been searched before.

AnswerThePublic puts a new twist on keyword and audience research, using search engine autocomplete data to display a interconnected web of the different questions people are asking related to your keyword. Sarah Evans, digital strategist for BOTTLE PR, says that AnswerThePublic “uncovers rich, less crowded, and sometimes surprising areas of search demand we wouldn’t otherwise reach.”

AI For Marketing Resources

Things are changing fast in the world of marketing and AI; even experts in the field have only been practicing for a few years. The best way to keep up? Resources like podcasts, online courses, and newsletters from people who are experimenting with AI daily.

Samuel Woods has used AI marketing techniques in his consulting work with companies like Atlassian, HubSpot, Teachable, and Salesforce. His Bionic Marketing newsletter provides short, weekly tutorials on how to actually use AI and machine learning for marketing.

Recent editions have covered topics like generative AI video, AI agents, and AI marketing trends.

40. The Marketing AI Show

For the latest in marketing AI news, check out The Marketing AI Show, which focuses on actionable information for marketers. Recent podcast episodes have focused on Google Bard versus GPT-4, Microsoft’s Copilot Pro, and Meta’s open-source efforts to achieve artificial general intelligence.

41. HubSpot Academy’s AI for Marketers Course

HubSpot’s Academy strikes again! Even though AI for marketers is a relatively new specialization, HubSpot already has a course for it. You’ll learn practical tips—like how to optimize content and gain predictive insights with AI—as well as explore ethical considerations.

Marketing Leadership Development Resources

Marketers have a way of getting bogged down in tactics and details; campaigns have a lot of moving parts, after all, and there’s endless data to analyze. As a marketing leader, you need to know when it’s time to take a step back and zoom out. When that time comes, these are the resources you’ll want to have at hand.

42. Traction Conference

If you want insights on marketing leadership from founders of fast-growing companies and Fortune 500 executives, sign up for the Traction conference. There’s a heavy SaaS presence: past speakers have included leaders from SurveyMonkey, Zapier, Mailchimp, and Atlassian.

43. Chief Marketing Officers at Work by Josh Steimle

Chief Marketing Officers at Work by Josh Steimle is a different kind of marketing management book. Instead of preaching strategies and tactics, it features interviews with CMOs from companies like Target, GE, Home Depot, and Spotify—and lets them do the talking.

As John Rampton, CEO of Due.com, says, “Most marketing books tell you what to do. This book shows you what CMOs are actually doing to make their organizations thrive.”

44. The Economist

You might know The Economist for its in-depth news coverage. But it’s a surprisingly thorough and rigorous business publication, too. Recent articles cover topics like the challenges of marketing to Gen Z and the possible productivity gains of using generative AI for business. And The Economist’s dedicated work and management column offers reliable leadership insights.

45. Uncensored CMO Podcast

If you’re looking to hear from the heavy hitters of the marketing world, look no further than the Uncensored CMO podcast. Host Jon Evans interviews experienced executives like Antonia Wade, global CMO at PwC, and Nancy King, VP of marketing at Airbnb.

Rather than seeking out surface-level, PR-friendly soundbites, the Uncensored CMO digs in, asking the world’s best marketers for honest perspectives on their successes and failures.

Marketing Analytics And Reporting Resources

Data-driven decision-making is a buzzword in marketing for a reason: without analytics, you’re flying blind. To make sure you’re not driving 100 miles per hour in the wrong direction, you’ll want to reassess your marketing analytics tactics regularly. Fortunately, the insights of some of the smartest marketing analytics people in the world are available below.

46. Semrush Academy Fundamentals of Marketing Analytics

Jeff Sauer is the founder of Data Driven, an analytics training business. He hosts Semrush’s training on marketing analytics, which covers the fundamentals of Google Analytics (GA4), Google Tag Manager, and Google Search Console. Then, he dives into how to use these and other tools to design your strategy, measure performance, and gain a competitive edge.

47. Metrics & Chill Podcast

Jeremiah Rizzo, Databox’s brand and marketing manager, hosts the Metrics & Chill Podcast, one of the most popular marketing analytics podcasts. Each episode features an interview with an expert marketer and covers strategies to help you measure results and drive growth.

Save these episodes to listen to later:

Using KPIs to Drive Holistic Growth (with Benyamin Elias, VP of Marketing at Podia)
The State of Business Reporting (with Pete Caputa, Databox)
Using “Process KPIs” to Hit Goals (with Hillary Carpio, director of ABM at Snowflake)

48. Avinash Kaushik’s Blog

Avinash Kaushik is the author of two best-selling web analytics books and was the former Sr. Director for Global Analytics at Google. His blog is a must-read for high-level strategic insights on advanced analytics.

Recent articles include contrarian perspectives on picking the right KPIs, avoiding useless CMO dashboards, and how to design experimentation and testing programs that actually give CMOs useful, practical data.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Resources

Struggling to stay in front of Google’s constant algorithm changes—and wondering how AI factors into your SEO strategy? These SEO experts tackle those thorny subjects and more.

These days, the world of SEO is less stable than it’s ever been. AI is part of the reason for this volatility. But there’s also Google itself, which rolled out nearly one update per month to its algorithm in 2023.

Amid this chaos is Marie Haynes, who lives and breathes Google algorithm updates. Her Search News You Can Use Newsletter is unfailingly insightful. Marie increasingly focuses on the effect of AI on Google search. Sign up for her newsletter or follow her on X.

50. The Moz Blog

The Moz Blog has an epic stash of content—nearly anything you need to know about SEO, you’ll find it here. From recommendations of the best SEO reporting software to the best SEO courses out there. They've got these topics all covered.

It’s also more advanced and technical than many blogs about the practice of SEO. You’ll find articles on topics like:

How to set up SEO-friendly content architecture.
Harnessing non-branded search traffic for sustainable growth.
What to do after you’ve exhausted your high-intent keyword list.

Check out the Moz blog here.

51. Matt Diggity’s YouTube Channel

Clickbaity YouTube thumbnails? Check. Sensationalist video topics? Check. Matt Diggity is a marketer through and through, and that’s evident on his highly-optimized YouTube channel.

But SEO is all about testing theories and running experiments to see what works—and no one experiments better than Matt Diggity. (For example, check out this video on how his 100% AI website—with no backlinks—performed in Google’s search results).

Refreshing takes on SEO? She’s got it. Insightful content. She’s got it. Deep expertise to back up her opinions? Amy’s got it all.

Amy’s SEO newsletter is a must-subscribe. Plus, she’s got the best memes and analogies. Every Friday, she shares a detailed perspective on the world of SEO. Check out this piece on why every day in content doesn’t need to feel like Groundhog Day.

I told you she’s got the best analogies.

To Stay Ahead of the Curve, Take Action Now

So, you’ve just scrolled through 50+ resources for marketers. What now?

Hopefully, you’ve subscribed to a few newsletters, podcasts, and YouTube channels as you’ve gone through the article. (And while you’re at it, make sure to subscribe to The CMO’s newsletter here for the latest in marketing strategy insights).

After you’ve set yourself up with a consistent flow of knowledge from the world’s leading marketing practitioners and thinkers, start absorbing them whenever you can—you might just find that one of those nuggets of wisdom means the difference between marketing success and failure in 2024 and beyond.

Social Media Marketing Resources

1. HubSpot Academy’s Social Media Marketing Course