Finding insightful, credible, and accurate marketing insights is a common small business challenge. Marketing and advertising your business online can be turbulent at times, and you need to rely on the right marketing resources to stay ahead of trends in your industry.
To help you find the best mix of marketing resources for your business, we asked over 530 businesses where they turn to for marketing insights, tips, and more and dove into the top responses.
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Where to find marketing resources
You can find marketing resources in countless ways, but some examples of popular places to find marketing insights could be blogs, social media, podcasts, and more. Ideally, you’ll want to use a mix of sources for your marketing insight to ensure you’re covering trends across all your promotion channels.
The top marketing resources ranked
We asked over 530 businesses “What resources do you use to learn more about digital marketing and running a business?” According to the results from our small business marketing trends report, here are the top spots for finding quality marketing resources:
- Websites, blogs, industry publications and forums: 30%
- Search/Google: 13%
- Social media: 12%
- Online courses and webinars: 12%
- Video: 11%
- Associations and colleagues: 8%
- Podcasts and books: 7%
- Email: 4%
- AI: 3%
What are the five most popular marketing resources in 2025?
Let’s take a closer look at the top five most popular places people go for marketing information, news, and insights.
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1. Websites, blogs, industry publications, and forums
The most popular resources for marketing news, education, and more, were online publications, such as online forums, like PPCChat, and industry news sites, like Social Media Examiner.
Respondents also mentioned specific marketing blogs like LocaliQ (which we were thrilled to see!) and HubSpot. Websites, blogs, and publications found online for marketing education are likely so popular because, not only are they free, but they tend to be more reliable and credible. Many authors behind online publications, for example, are PPC or SEO practitioners themselves.
An example of an online marketing industry publication.
2. Search engines (like Google)
Search was the second-most popular resource for marketing information, with nearly half of respondents using search calling out Google specifically. When you search for marketing answers on platforms like Google, you get a variety of informative formats right from the search engine results page, like images, videos, and more.
Looking up answers to your marketing needs this way can quickly provide a high-level overview (including help from AI Overviews themselves) to get a general idea of what you are looking for.
3. Social media
Next to online publications, websites, forums, and search, social media was the third most popular spot for marketing resources.
The top platform called out was LinkedIn with about half of those who use social media for marketing resources naming LinkedIn as their go-to. LinkedIn was followed by X, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram as other social media hubs for marketing expertise and insights.
These social media platforms are likely favored by businesses looking to learn more about marketing because they provide consistent and authentic information on marketing trends, news, and more.
4. Online courses and webinars
12% of businesses use online courses and webinars as marketing resources when they’re looking to inform their marketing strategy. However, courses were slightly more popular than webinars with 7% of businesses mentioning them as a go-to marketing resource versus webinars at 5%.
That said, both can be equally effective in relaying key marketing information and educational materials. For example, if you don’t have a ton of marketing budget to put towards training and education, free webinars could be a great solution. On the other hand, an online course subscription could provide your team with ongoing education for the long term.
While many online courses come with a cost, there are also free, self-guided classes online that can help businesses in a pinch, like the examples above.
5. Video
Video marketing is a core strategy for many businesses looking to build their online presence, but did you know it’s also a key source for marketing tips, insights, and more? 11% of businesses surveyed reported using video as an avenue for finding marketing resources.
Video content is known to be easy to digest. For example, busy business owners can have an educational marketing video running on one screen while they multitask other business management projects on the other screen.
To complement your marketing resources, use free marketing tools! To start, check out our free Google Ads Grader and Facebook Ads Grader.
What other types of marketing resources are popular?
Other top sources for marketing education and insights included associations and colleagues (8%), podcasts (4%), books (3%), email (4%), and AI (3%).
It’s interesting to see that many business owners and marketers rely on their networks and frequent industry conferences to stay up to date with marketing trends. It seems the classic route of reading books for marketing resource material is still a tried-and-true method, too.
In contrast, it’s no surprise email remains a go-to source for marketing intel, as there are plenty of marketing newsletters available for subscription from industry brands such as MarketingProfs, Social Media Today, DigiMarCon, and more.
What this means for marketers looking for resources (and brands looking to reach them!)
The first step in making informed marketing decisions is knowing where to find marketing insights you can trust. This ranking of popular routes for marketing resources can help you know where to go when you need to quickly brainstorm your campaign strategy, content ideas, and more.
As for marketing agencies looking to grow, try incorporating a variety of channels, from your blog to your newsletter, YouTube channel, and more, into your strategy to make it easy for businesses to find the intel they’re looking for from your brand.
For more help marking various marketing resource sources work for your business, see how our solutions can help your business or agency grow to its fullest potential across all channels.