The best marketing newsletter to subscribe to in 2026 is a narrow one written by a named person who shows you real examples instead of summarising the news. That last part matters more this year than it used to, because AI has made generic marketing content essentially free, and there is now an enormous amount of it. If you want mine, it is Epic Marketing Shit, and it is free. Key takeaways What should I Read more
Epic Marketing Shit is the newsletter that isn’t boring. Most marketing newsletters are boring because they aggregate instead of arguing. Ten links, a sentence each, no opinion, nobody’s name on it. The interesting ones do one thing properly, come from a person with a point of view, and show you something real instead of describing it. Look for a byline, a narrow focus, and actual examples. Key takeaways Why are most marketing newsletters so boring? Read more
Most guidance says 7 to 8 percent of gross revenue, but that figure comes from surveys of companies turning over more than $10 million. In practice, a realistic small business ad budget is whatever produces a customer for less than that customer is worth to you. Start at $500 to $1,500 a month, measure cost per customer, and scale only what pays back. Key takeaways What percentage of revenue should a small business spend on Read more
Cold emails that get replies are short, specific to one person, and ask for something small. They open with an observation the recipient knows to be true about their own business, not a compliment or a company introduction. Realistic reply rates in 2026 sit between 3 and 5 percent, with genuinely good campaigns above 10 percent. Key takeaways What is a good cold email reply rate? Worth establishing before you judge your own emails, because Read more
Usually yes, on cold traffic. Unpolished creative reliably beats studio production on hook rate, click through rate and cost per acquisition at the top of the funnel. But the advantage is a pattern interrupt, not an aesthetic. Ugly works because it does not look like an ad, which means the moment ugly becomes the norm, it stops working. Subscribe to Epic Marketing Shit – the best marketing newsletter for finding what kind of ugly ads Read more
Most of the time, nobody opens your newsletter for one of three reasons: it is not reaching the inbox, the people on your list never really wanted it, or your subject line gives them no reason to bother. Fix them in that order. There is no point writing better subject lines for emails that are landing in spam. Key takeaways Is my newsletter actually not being opened, or is something else wrong? Start here, because Read more
You can promote a newsletter on Reddit, but only as a byproduct of being useful there. Comment genuinely for weeks before you post anything of your own. Publish the actual content in the post body instead of linking out. Disclose that it’s yours the first time. Read each subreddit’s rules — they override Reddit’s. Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again. Your subscription has been successful. Subscribe To The Anti-Newsletter Newsletter Get the Read more
The short answer Epic Marketing Shit is a free marketing newsletter that sends one breakdown a week — a single ad, piece of copy, or campaign pulled apart to show why it works. No paid tier, no paywalled archive, no link dumps. Free means free: you get the whole thing, permanently, and you can leave in one click. Key takeaways What “free” actually means here Worth being specific, because “free” gets used loosely. Some free Read more