Email marketing campaigns are still the lifeblood of many businesses, particularly those offering B2B products and services. Although sales success occurs in relatively low proportion (around 1.22% of sales emails result in a conversion) it remains a very inexpensive strategy, with an average ROI of $42 for every dollar spent. As you scale up, this ROI makes the enterprise worthwhile, and digital marketing automation makes it very possible.

There are plenty of blogs offering advice on how to optimize campaigns, enhance your email marketing efforts, and give reviews on the latest email marketing automation platforms and tools. With such variety on offer, how do you know who to trust?

We’ve collated some of the most useful and interesting email marketing blogs, and summarized what’s on offer in each one in the following article.  

First let’s decide what makes a useful email marketing blog, so that we have criteria with which to judge the candidate sites.

Marketer Milk: Discover email marketing news, resources, and guides

What to look for in email marketing blogs

Here’s what we believe makes for a good blog:

1. Readability: Clear, concise, and snappy content with no filler.
2. Regular updates: New posts are made every few days.
3. Authority: Coming from a source with first-hand knowledge.
4. Data-led: Information is derived from facts and data, rather than opinion.
5. Insight: Real lessons can be learned from the content.
6. Variety: The blog doesn’t feature the same content recycled endlessly.
7. Objectivity: The content isn’t focused on making you purchase the site’s product.
8. Image-led: How to articles are illustrated with screenshots and examples.

While there are other features that make a blog worth reading, we believe these eight qualities make for a perfectly composed blog article. Now let’s look at the contenders.

Related reads: 10 best product marketing blogs you should read in 2024

Top 15 email marketing blogs to follow in 2024

Here are 15 great email marketing blogs to learn from:

• Litmus Blog
• Iterable's blog
• SendGrid Email Deliverability Blog
• EmailOctopus blog
• Klayvio blog
• beehiiv blog
• ActiveCampaign Blog
• AWeber blog
• Mailchimp's blog
• The Email Marketers blog
• Keap's Email Marketing Blog
• SendX Blog
• Campaign Monitor blog
• The Moosend Marketing Blog
• Designmodo Blog

Okay, let's look at what each blog has to offer.

1. Litmus Blog

Litmus is an all-in-one email marketing service, and clearly their blog is part of their strategy to obtain new clients. However, their blog does contain a wide range of compact, incisive email marketing tips, and they publish several per week. Recently Litmus has published discursive pieces on such topics as email personalization, design and marketing trends, and recent technological changes such as Gmail pre-fetching images, which can affect your email open metrics.

Litmus’s articles are well-written, categorized by topic for easy searching and an indication is given of how long they’ll take to read. The data quoted therein is well-referenced with links to sources. Where pieces directly discuss Litmus products and partners, this is made clear.

• Sample article: Using Countdown Timers to Boost Engagement

2. Iterable’s Blog

Omnichannel marketing platform Iterable hosts a blog posting new articles every five to seven days. Their subjects are more varied than email campaigns alone, and they tend to be very current. There’s an article on “trendjacking,” for instance, which references the stellar recent success of Wordle over the last few weeks.

Iterable’s articles are largely written by in-house authors but there also guest writers who inject a lot of personality and opinion into their pieces, making them a fun read. Their articles also tend to be more in-depth and longer than many competing blogs. They are also helpfully sorted into topics — Company, Product, Engineering, Customer Experience et cetera.

This is a great blog to read if email marketing is just oner small strand of your omnichannel marketing strategy.

• Sample article: What’s in a Wordle – A Look at Trendjacking

3. SendGrid Email Deliverability Blog

SendGrid, an email automation product from Twilio, have their own branded blog called “The Full Send.” Like Litmus, their pieces tend to be short, taking around 3-8 minutes to read. They are notably more focused on email marketing matters than some more wide-ranging blogs.

Crafted by named writers, there are some laser-targeted and unusual topics such as the use of emojis in email campaigns and how to write an invoice email. Some of the articles are linked to specific SendGrid templates. There’s a strong focus overall on how to construct good emails for specific marketing purposes, which could be very useful for junior staff members learning the ropes.

• Sample article: Emojis for Email Marketing

4. EmailOctopus Blog

Email platform Octopus, whose clients include entertainment industry brands and not for profit providers, have a blog very much targeted at those composing emails for specific purposes. These include the construction of customer surveys, mailing list expansion and lead capture. There are also up to the minute pieces on developments within the industry, including, as exemplified below, the Google Ads grant for nonprofits.

Articles are in-depth, practical, and well-illustrated with a step-by-step approach to creativity. Authors are named and references are properly linked, making this a very professional blog, which publishes new content roughly every 3-6 days.

• Sample article: How Nonprofits can Build an Email List with the Google Ads Grant

5. Klayvio Blog

Klayvio, a popular ecommerce email marketing software, goes big and bold in its blog, with large, colorful illustrations and dramatic headlines. Here’s an example: “Sex, Drugs and DTC: Why ‘Taboo’ Brands are Owning Marketing.”

Their articles are categorised under seven headings including “Email Marketing”, “SMS Marketing” and “Acquisition.” Articles are in-depth without being overwhelming, and there are highlighted quotes from industry leaders to drive key points home.

Their “how to” articles include a good range of brand examples, and the interview-style features are a great addition. Kayvio manages a good balance between informative and entertaining, with a sober yet readable style.

• Sample article: Text STOP to Unsubscribe: How to Keep this from Happening to your Brand.

6. beehiiv's blog

The beehiiv blog is a must-follow for any email marketer looking to level up their game. Their posts dish out practical, nitty gritty advice on everything from optimizing your content to advanced tactics for growth.

What I dig is they skip the fluffy theorizing and focus on proven strategies backed by data. So whether you're looking to better engage your audience, improve deliverability, or maximize revenue opportunities — they've got you covered.

Seriously, their email marketing posts range from newsletter formatting quick tips all the way to high level list segmentation and lifecycle methodology. So no matter where you're at with your program, their insights will hit the mark.

The team really knows their stuff. And they update with new trends and industry benchmarks constantly so you stay ahead.

• Sample article: Top 16 Opt-In Email Examples (Winning Opt-In Forms)

7. ActiveCampaign Blog

This leading CRM automation platform posts under several strands, which are sequentially listed on their landing page, although you have to scroll down to reveal each topic. Headers include Growth, Updates, Culture and Spotlight.

Culture is particularly unusual, delving into such topics as Black Lives Matter, businesses surviving the pandemic and combating poor mental health. The eclecticism of the blog definitely makes it stands out from more procedural contenders.

Spotlight explores some case studies, and the Growth strand delves deeper into content marketing and CRM issues. This is a good blog to follow if you want to read around the customer relationship topic in general, rather than just focus on email campaign issues.

A small criticism might be that it’s a little clumsy in terms of navigation. Posting dates are not very specific but it appears they post several new articles weekly and authorial styles vary from the casual to the semi-formal.

• Sample article: 5 Win-Back Email Campaign Examples that will Get Customers Back

8. AWeber Blog

AWeber is a landing page builder which helps optimize email engagement and mailing list subscriptions. Their blog articles are often accompanied with attractive, punchy infographics rather than stock photos.

The sales function is foregrounded. Case studies of satisfied clients intermingle with more newsworthy or “how to” type pieces. For instance, there’s an article by a work from home mom and entrepreneur who uses the platform. The practical articles are well-illustrated with plenty of data, as well as bullet-points to highlight memorable tidbits.

Read length is about 3-8 minutes per article, with recent pieces covering such topics as subscription gathering and SEO optimization.

• Sample article: Your Start-to-Finish Pan to get 1000 Email Subscribers

9. Mailchimp’s Blog

Mailchimp probably needs no introduction, being one of the world’s leading email marketing and newsletter platforms, named in 2021 as one of G2’s Best Global Software Companies.

Its blog is well-designed with illustrations accompanying each article and an ornate font for its headers which somewhat resembles the New Yorker’s iconic typeface. Mailchimp’s “how to” articles are lengthy and erudite, and written in a semi-formal manner.

There are customer case studies to help inject more personality into Mailchimp’s content. Uniquely, some of these are accompanied by interview clips, which add variety. Illustrations in a hand-drawn style inject a down to earth tone. There are occasional, marketing book round-ups too.

Small quibbles — it’s not easy to filter all articles in one strand or see posting dates until you click on an individual article. Otherwise, this is a predictably excellent blog.

• Sample article: Georgia Crafted’s Takes on Customer Retention.

10. The Email Marketers Blog

Specialist email marketing agency The Email Marketers certainly know their topic, being a globally distributed team of experts. There are articles on the basics (A/B testing, market segmentation), deep dives (retention emails, holiday email marketing), email marketing tools, and features on some of their clients and partners (including Klayvio), as well as occasional press releases.

Thematically related articles are highlighted alongside the piece you’re reading, a nicely intuitive feature. Although their in-depth pieces might lack backlinks and references, they aren’t short on insight, such as the example piece below.

• Sample article: Top Ten KPI for Email Marketing

11. Keap’s Email Marketing Blog

Keap’s email marketing articles are a strand within their overall B2B marketing blog, and as such are posted roughly monthly. Nevertheless, they are worth reading, and referencing, since they contain a lot of fascinating data and insight.

For instance, the example article given below reveals that over 47% of subscribers open emails, inspired by the subject header alone. Their editorial style is accessible and easy to read, and the headers of thematically linked articles are interspersed, leading you down new, fascinating rabbit holes.

Keap is an all-in-one CRM, and the various strands of its two blogs (marketing and product) are well worth a visit too.

• Sample article: The Ultimate Guide to Email Subject Lines

12. SendX Blog

Helpfully tagged for subject matter, SendX’s articles take between 5 and 10 minutes to read and cover topics as wide-ranging as how to increase attendance at online events/webinars and the marketing of crypto products.

Unusually for marketing blogs, you can filter by article author as well as topic or tag, making this one of the easiest blogs to navigate. Colorful illustrations and screenshots break up the text and authorial style ranges from collegiate to semi-formal. Another useful feature are the embedded tables of contents, so you can jump straight to a salient point.

Our only real quibble for this far-reaching blog is that articles aren’t dated, and it’s not easy to see how frequently the blog is updated.

• Sample article: The Beginner’s Guide to Email Tagging that can Help Boost Engagement

13. Campaign Monitor Blog

A unique feature of Campaign Monitor’s blog is that it tells you which articles are trending, so you can check out what’s especially popular before delving deeper. Subjects are cleverly specific and current, such as their piece on the difference between marketing to Gen Z and Millennials. You'll find many different topics ranging from email marketing strategy to social media.

There are explanatory graphics (some of the best we’ve seen) and links to helpful resources, making this a great resource to share. Campaign Monitor’s email builder is strong on eye-catching design and their blog follows suit with a grid-format image-led layout and short summaries which appear when you rollover each header.

Articles take up to ten minutes to read and are posted several times per month, though not to a regular schedule. It’s a very well-composed and attractively designed blog.

• Sample article: 45 Valentine’s Email Subject Lines your Subscribers will Love

14. The Moosend Marketing Blog

Email service provider (ESP) Moosend has a unique filtering system for its blog — you can selectively reveal articles aimed at beginner, intermediate or advanced marketers. There are also sidebars highlighting resources and tutorials in case any of the subjects inspire a need to know more.

Articles are listed on a scrolling page with subjects, authors and opening paragraphs highlighted. Read More buttons are provided to take viewers to the article in question. There are also carousels of highlighted features.

Moosend’s articles are thorough, well-referenced and the text is broken up with bullet points and screenshots to illustrate key learnings. Listicles provide a lot of links to useful tools and authors are named. Most helpfully, a lot of great examples from top brands are used throughout their “how to” entries.

• Sample article: What is Email Segmentation? Strategies for Highly Targeted Campaigns.

15. Designmodo Blog

Designmodo goes bold on its blog page with giant illustrations and large headers. As you might expect from a design-led platform for email templates and landing pages, there’s a focus on design. Recent topics include current web design and UI trends, Valentine’s Day email newsletters and email marketing campaign structure.

New posts appear roughly weekly, and a table of contents is provided, as well as plentiful illustrations and screenshots. Bylines are given, allowing readers to build a relationship with bloggers they trust. Visitors can click on a writer’s name to reveal a little more about their experience and expertise, as well as all the articles by that individual.

News articles are easily located from the blog page and there are “Editors’ Picks” to facilitate browsing. It’s another great blog to add to your browser favorites.

• Sample article: How to Set Up a High Conversion Email Marketing Campaign

Discover the best email marketing content

Crafting an effective email requires deep knowledge and experience within the email marketing space. With all these wonderful email marketing blogs, small businesses could easily lose several hours a day just browsing. What would be extremely helpful is some way of aggregating and highlighting useful and great content, so you can find it with ease.

Fortunately, we’ve come to the same conclusion! We’re collected and curated a newsletter for brand new marketing content. While it covers a host of topics in marketing, there are links to many fantastic articles on email campaign construction and issues in omnichannel marketing.

Check it out here and sign up to ensure you get the very best marketing content delivered straight to your inbox.