Thought leadership content is a powerful weapon in the marketing and sales arsenal. And especially so, in the SaaS and tech industry.
These industries are hotbeds for innovative ideas, opinions, and insight. And that’s what their audience looks for in content.
Individuals such as Brian Halligan, the founder & CEO of Hubspot, and Neil Patel, co-founder of multi-million dollar software companies Crazy Egg, Hello Bar, KISSmetrics are both considered to be thought leaders in the SaaS industry. And as thought leaders, they have both helped raise the profiles of their businesses.
From their examples, we can see that thought leadership content compels the audience to take action. It builds trustworthiness, competence and credibility - all while driving purchasing decisions.
A 2020 Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study shows that almost 50% of the decision makers spend one hour or more consuming thought leadership every week.
That said, one of the best ways to build thought leadership is through newsletters. Newsletters help package thought leadership around industry debates and conversations in the best way possible.
Moreover, you can quickly and organically grow your following with incentivized signups and referrals. Your subscribers are more likely to be engaged, and engaged subscribers are the first step to a successful email list.
In this blog, we will share with you five super interesting newsletters that build thought leadership in the SaaS and Tech industry. We will see what makes them so effective and unique. Let’s dig in.
Make Professional News Fun like The Hustle
Recently acquired by Hubspot, The Hustle is a daily newsletter that provides snackable, quippy news on a variety of professional industries.
By offering different kinds of stories, The Hustle provides a comprehensive news cycle. Readers can quickly scan emails for daily news segments.
And often, readers are also offered the opportunity to go deep on an idea or story. This keeps the publication fresh for readers.
What we particularly love about the content is that it has a conversational tone to culture and tech coverage, with stories like Inside the world's most booked Airbnb listing and Soylent: What happened when I went 30 days Without Food, as well as business stories with an entrepreneurial focus like Clearco created a new way to fund ecommerce businesses. Now, it's expanding.
“The Hustle’s voice makes professional news fun, and the email model will appeal to millennials who want to absorb content in their own time”, said Melanie Shreffler, senior insights director at Cassandra.
The fact that The Hustle was acquired by Hubspot highlights the importance of thought leadership content for SaaS companies.
“By acquiring The Hustle, we’ll be able to better meet the needs of these scaling companies by delivering educational, business and tech trend content in their preferred formats,” said HubSpot’s senior vice president of marketing Kieran Flanagan in a statement.
Cover Topics in Depth like Azeem Azhar at The Exponential View
The Exponential View by Azeem Azhar is a highly regarded newsletter on the Future. It talks about how AI and other exponential technologies are transforming business and society.
In his long-form weekly newsletter, Azeem talks about two to four hot topics in the tech space. Like this one on 🔮 Moon ladders; China's tech policy; electric vehicles; blue hydrogen & Luddites ++ #335.
He often features special guest editions where he invites thought leaders and experts to comment on different topics. Like this one 🔮 TikTok's atmospheric growth; Kim Stanley Robinson on climate & China's Area 51 ++ #330.
What’s interesting about The Exponential View is the in-depth coverage it gives to the reader with a clear takeaway. In addition, Azeem shares additional reading material for the reader with every story.
With the newsletter, The Exponential View also has a podcast in collaboration with Harvard Business Review.
Make Boring Things Interesting like The Tedium
The Tedium by Ernie Smith is a popular “offbeat” newsletter for telling stories about things that usually don’t have stories told about them.
This biweekly long-form newsletter takes a deep, deep dive into a single topic in every edition.
The newsletter has an interesting story behind the name. Tedium is “the quality of being boring for a long time.”
Ernie Smith says, “The best way to describe tedium is that you know it when you see it, because you feel a little bored diving in.”
The central idea of the newsletter is to make boring things interesting. A few examples include this piece on the risks of “disc rot” to data preservation; this story about the iconic email client Eudora; and this feature on the growth of a fan community around vintage Silicon Graphics gear.
Tedium's stories have been published in places as diverse as Vice, Atlas Obscura, Popular Mechanics, Neatorama, and numerous other outlets.
Curate content like Recur by Profit Well
Recur is a newsletter delivered by Profit Well, a business intelligence platform that helps drive subscription revenue.
Each month, subscribers receive over 30 pieces of research and in-depth analyses of different issues arising in the subscription economy. Subscribers can also opt for the weekly newsletter.
Recur is a classic example of thought leadership content by a SaaS company. It focuses on a specific niche - that is insights into the subscription economy. And hence, it positions ProfitWell as an expert and thought leader in the space.
Along with a daily newsletter with data insights, Recur has a weekly long-form newsletter that takes a deep dive into concepts relevant to the subscription economy. For example, this one on What is unearned revenue? Top FAQs on unearned revenue.
It also includes videos and interviews with world-class leaders in the SaaS/subscriptions industry.
Deliver Knowledge like Inside
Inside publishes a portfolio of 14 newsletters that covers everything from AI, to politics, to cryptocurrency, and more. Written by researchers and analysts, it shares the latest trends and news in business, tech, and venture capital.
What we love about Inside’s newsletters is that they are short and crispy. And you always find something new and interesting. Like this newsletter issue on AI which does a great round up on what’s happening in the AI world.
“Inside Daily Brief manages to apply old school journalistic integrity and vigor, and deliver it in a modern and easily-consumed format. In the midst of an incredibly busy work day - IDB provides me a window out to the world at large!” writes Karn Ghosh, Founder & CEO at Kinela.
With more than 750,000 active subscribers on board and 40% open rate, Inside is doing thought leadership just right.
These are some of our favorite picks for newsletters in the Tech & SaaS space. We hope you found them interesting, and would love to know which ones you follow.
Newsletters are a great way to build thought leadership content for your audience. Good thought leadership content will ultimately help you build strong relationships and an engaged audience who you can sell to.
Curious to know, have you thought about starting a newsletter? If there’s something stopping you, we can help.
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