Data science. SEO. Content marketing. MarTech. Messaging. Websites. Lead generation. Social selling. If you’re a marketing leader responsible for the whole marketing ecosystem, chances are you have to keep up with a seemingly endless stream of topics, industry information, and new norms.
So, how do you do it?
Part of the answer is setting aside time to read the latest articles and studies by thought leaders in the space. Which is why if you don’t already have a weekly reading practice, we highly recommend one. Here are some of the most useful resources we at Catalyst keep in our own resource feeds:
Harvard Business Review
While HBR.org covers a variety of business-related topics, it’s their deep-dive research articles that really excite us.
Want to know how Americans’ bias change (or don’t change) over time? How about whether consumers actually buy sustainable products (and, if so, should you market your company’s sustainability)? HBR digs deep into everything from AI to customer retention to research on the psychology and habits of the people we marketers serve.
HBR gives readers three free articles per month—six if you subscribe and share your email address—or unlimited online access for $10 per month.
Forbes
Forbes CMO network publishes regular articles on topics that matter to CMOs—everything from loyalty programs to customer experience to case studies of companies getting it oh-so-right or oh-so-wrong.
One caveat on Forbes, though: Council members pay the publication to feature them and their articles. There’s some great advice out there from these successful business leaders, but it’s worth knowing that their inclusion is a paid PR opportunity for them—not necessarily always because they are the best people to quote and feature.
Entrepreneur.com
If you’re an entrepreneur, this one’s for you. The content is less about marketing and more about overall business and industry news and strategies—like how companies can make a positive social impact and where to find the latest cloud storage service.
HubSpot Blog
Whether you prefer the term content marketing or inbound marketing, this is your source for the latest on the topic. Learn how to write better blog posts, incorporate more video into your marketing, and wrap your head around new social networks as they continue to multiply like rabbits. And get real numbers on things like email opens across industries so that you can compare your marketing efforts to the rest of the market.
Advertising Age
Want to keep up with what other marketers are doing these days? Ad Age is the place to go for glimpses into who’s winning awards, losing their CMOs, and adjusting their policies—and why.
You can register for three free articles per month by sharing your email with Ad Age, or you can subscribe for an all-access pass to their online and print content for $129 per year in the US.
Your local business journal
It’s never a bad idea to know what’s going on in your local community—whether your business is hyper-local or decidedly global. Your local business journal can be a great prospecting tool and resource for finding relevant local events, as well as a way to assess the local business climate on a week-by-week basis.
MorningBrew
These quick daily emails will keep you informed and, as they say, make you smarter in five minutes. Newsletter sections include markets, trade, consumers, international, gaming, and more. Plus, the newsletter ends with a puzzle to get your brain going before the coffee kicks in.
Marketing Profs
From customer engagement strategy to content marketing, MarketingProfs publishes daily articles on the topics most relevant to marketers. They also publish plenty of infographics and stats that peek behind the curtain at real customer opinions and marketing trends.
Marketing Land
Another site with the marketer at its heart, Marketing Land covers a little of everything across the marketing landscape. Want to know if you should market on Reddit or Pinterest or what to do with your summer email marketing lull? Those are the kinds of topics you’ll see here.
The Catalyst Blog
We might be biased, but we think our own little slice of marketing insight is worth keeping up with. Here’s where we share whatever marketing insights are top-of-mind for us at the moment—from how to make your B2B marketing less damn boring to tips for elevating your influence.
