Online marketing is evolving each day with newer trends and challenges. But thankfully, marketing isn’t a lonely ride.
There are several internet marketing experts and online marketing professionals who have thrived in the recent times. They have paved the way for the novices by sharing their knowledge and experiences at large.
If you need a helping hand to choose the right digital marketing tools or want to know some secret hacks for a roaring brand presence, it’s best to rely on them. Be it inspiration for your next campaign or leveraging the latest features of social media, they’ve got your back.
Let’s head straight to our curated list of 36 digital marketing experts whom you need to follow right away to learn about brand new tricks, upcoming trends, innovations, and viral campaigns for your online marketing strategies. We have divided these experts based on the niche they talk about the most.
Are you ready?
Let’s begin!
Table of Contents
Social Media Marketing
Michael A. Stelzner
- He is the founder of the Social Media Examiner blog.
- Author of 3 books on white paper writing and growth hacks for businesses
Why should you follow him?
Michael posts great videos on skill-building. His post covers everything from Facebook ads to internet marketing. His podcasts will provide you with tricks to boost your marketing skills and will keep you up-to-date about everything new in the world of social media marketing.
Janet Machuka
- She is one of the ‘Top 25 Digital Women’ in Kenya and founded #AfricaTweetChat, which has gained traction for over 150 million engagements.
- She is Business Insider’s ‘Top 5 Social Sales Influencer’ and works globally to help companies with their social media initiatives.
Why should you follow her?
Janet is all about promoting thought leadership and will encourage you to take rewarding actions. She mostly posts about brand building, campaign strategies, and humane marketing for creating a solid brand identity.
Neal Schaffer
- Neal’s blog (nealschaffer.com) has more than 500 blog posts to help support your digital and social media marketing
- He is a respected educator who teaches social media marketing at Rutgers University Business School as well as influencer marketing at UCLA Extension
- Neal has written 4 must-read books on social media marketing. His most recent book, The Age of Influence, is the definitive book on influencer marketing, but he has also written critically acclaimed books on social media marketing strategy (Maximize Your Social) as well as LinkedIn social media marketing (Maximizing LinkedIn for Sales and Social Media Marketing).
Why should you follow him?
Follow this digital marketing expert to get insights into buzzing topics like influencer marketing, the state of social media, as well as B2B marketing topics such as LinkedIn. You can also find Neal on Twitter, where he shares thoughts and news on digital and social media marketing strategies for every platform.
Mari Smith
- Mari Smith is known as “the Queen of Facebook.” She is the premier Facebook marketing expert and has been since 2007.
- Forbes describes Mari as, “… the preeminent Facebook expert. Even Facebook asks for her help.”
- IBM named Mari as one of seven women that are shaping digital marketing.
- Mari is coauthor of Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day and author of The New Relationship Marketing.
Why should you follow her?
Mari provides powerful advice on Facebook marketing that covers news, trends, and strategic methods. She also posts valuable information on content marketing, social media marketing, inspirational quotes for budding marketers, and more.
Madalyn Sklar
- She was among the ‘50 Must-Follow Women Entrepreneurs’ by The Huffington Post in 2017.
- Madalyn is ranked No. 1 in ‘Social Media Power Influencer’ in Houston, Texas.
- Her #TwitterSmarter chat posts have gained 10 billion impressions since its launch.
Why should you follow her?
Madalyn is for Twitter, what Mari is for Facebook. She will enrich you with helpful Twitter tricks and resources to grow your brand on the platform. Her #TwitterSmarter chat and podcasts are must listen, where she talks with industry experts about Twitter and other networks.
Rebekah Radice
- Helping busy business owners get more customers, grow their company, and make more money.
- Sharing today’s top marketing strategies with a community of 100k and growing.
Why should you follow her?
Rebekah shares the digital marketing knowledge that she has gathered while tutoring thousands of growth-driven leaders. She posts how-to guides and growth hacks on her website that can help digital marketing experts tailor a solid SMM strategy.
Sam Flynn
- Sam is the author of ‘Social Media Super Success’.
- She is a well-experienced social media trainer, helping businesses with her firm, Sam Flynn Social Media.
Why should you follow her?
Being a student of Business Psychology, her advice possess a unique edge. Learn how she engages audiences with her question series on Facebook. She posts about engagement, email marketing, and many exciting topics useful for beginners and veteran marketers.
Heidi Medina
- She is a LinkedIn coach with years of experience in her pocket.
- Heidi blogs on Talk to Heidi and writes on business, motivation, life, and food.
Why should you follow her?
Heidi’s writing is personal, relatable, and informative. She posts on productivity hacks, content marketing, brand building and will convince you to deploy an influencer marketing plan.
Content Marketing
Jay Baer
- Jay has been an eminent advisor to more than 700 companies since 1994, including Caterpillar, Nike, The United Nations, Oracle, Cisco, and more.
- He is the founder of Convince & Convert.
Why should you follow him?
Jay Baer, the ‘Hall of Fame’ speaker, posts evergreen material on content marketing and word-of-mouth marketing. His social podcast is a great way to stay connected with other digital marketing experts. Being an advisor to 700 companies, you can surely use his wisdom to strengthen your content efforts.
Ann Handley
- Ann is the author of 6 books based on content marketing and business writing, one of them is recognized as a Wall Street bestseller.
- She is the Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs.
- Ann is the co-founder of ClickZ.com, one of the first sources of digital marketing news and commentary.
Why should you follow her?
Ann speaks her heart out on social media. Her writing is relatable, engaging, and all about content marketing. She occasionally posts about work culture and thought leadership. Her Twitter posts cover every aspect of SMM.
Joe Pulizzi
- Joe is the founder of Content Marketing Institute, a leading content marketing resource.
- He won the ‘John Caldwell Lifetime Achievement Award’ from the Content Council in 2014.
- His book, Epic Content Marketing, was in Fortune’s ‘5 Must-Read Business Books of the Year’ in 2014.
Why should you follow him?
Pop-culture references make Joe’s content friendly and engaging. After scrolling down through his new fiction novel tweets, you will get to see many industry-related talks, content marketing predictions, his recent reads, and personal anecdotes of marketing his own product. On LinkedIn, he talks of churning good quality content.
Kristina Halvorson
- Kristina is the author of ‘Content Strategy for the Web’.
- She is the CEO of Brain Traffic, a well-recognized content strategy agency.
Why should you follow her?
Kristina actively posts about product content strategy, content design, and UX writing. She will guide you amid ever-changing content strategies scenarios. Tune in to her podcasts of established leaders’ interviews.
Darren Rowse
- Darren runs 2 blogs that receive 5 million visitors per month.
- He is the founder of ProBlogger Training Events.
Why should you follow him?
Darren is the ultimate guy for blogging and content marketing tips. You can find valuable how-to guides, growth hacks, and strategies around blog writing on his LinkedIn profile.
Michael Brenner
- Michael was recognized as ‘Top Business Speaker’ by The Huffington Post and ‘Top CMO Influencer’ by Forbes in 2017.
- He has written and co-authored multiple books on content marketing and digital marketing.
Why should you follow him?
Michael exhibits content strategy posts for startups and the need for empathy in decision-making. He will help you create a roadmap for quintessential content marketing. On LinkedIn, he posts thought-provoking content on the same.
Robert Rose
- Robert is the founder and Chief Troublemaker of Content Advisory, a consulting and education group for the Content Marketing Institute.
- His co-authored book with Joe Pulizzi, ‘Killing Marketing’, is called “The re-written rules of what marketing should be in the 21st century”.
- He has worked with 15 of the Fortune 100 companies.
Why should you follow him?
Robert has a knack for creating content with great storytelling. He gets to the core of the problem faced by content strategists. He believes great content is a space where people can pause and reflect upon their strategies.
George Stenitzer
- George was named the ‘Content Marketer of the Year’ by the Content Marketing Institute in 2013.
- He was named the ‘Best Marketer’ for 2 consecutive years by B2B Magazine.
Why should you follow him?
George posts about content marketing, customer psychology, social media marketing, and more. This web marketer can be found expressing his fondness for AI and what it holds for us in the future on Twitter.
Jeff Bullas
- Jeff Bullas was named the No.1 Content Marketing Influencer by Appinions, Onalytica, and other major platforms in 2014, 2015, and 2016.
- Forbes listed him as one of the “Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers” in 2013.
Why should you follow him?
Jeff is a major player in content marketing, but his expertise doesn’t stop there. He posts on SMM and SEO frequently. He posts a lot about Instagram’s marketing strategies.
Video Marketing
David Murdico
- David has consulting experience with T-Mobile, Bausch + Lomb, Tencent, Capcom, Pizza Hut, Atari, Dickies, and IBM.
- He is the founder of Supercool Creative Agency.
Why should you follow him?
David’s writing style is funny, expressive, and snarky. His posts cover all about video marketing. Get your daily dose of video marketing ideas and learn how to make your CTAs stand out.
Tim Washer
- Tim writes on multiple famous sites like SNL, Conan, and The Onion Sports Network.
- His award-winning corporate work has been featured in The New York Times, WSJ, Ad Age, Adweek, and Fast Company.
Why should you follow him?
Want that humor element in your video marketing strategy? Tim will guide you through it. Using humor in the dull video marketing campaign is his serious business. His blogs guarantee gems to every video marketer.
Bruce McKenzie
- Bruce is considered as one of the trailblazers of the explainer videos.
- He is the founder of the 2-Minute Explainer, now called Videotechbiz.
Why should you follow him?
Bruce’s posts will give you new insights into the world of video marketing to beat the competition. From account-based marketing, chatbots videos to new product explainer clips, he will convince you to form a new marketing strategy with video at its forefront.
Tyler Lessard
- Tyler holds the role of CMO at Vidyard, a video hosting platform.
- He also contributes to video expert blogs like Reelseo and MarketingProfs.
Why should you follow him?
Tyler believes in the power of data-driven video marketing strategy, and the same reflects in his posts. He talks about individual viewing behavior and one-on-one video messages while sharing tips to engage your community through video marketing.
George B. Thomas
- George is a Video Jedi and Co-Owner of The Sales Lion.
- He is a professional emcee and an Inbound marketing evangelist.
Why should you follow him?
George’s Linkedin profile will make you a Hubspot expert. He posts mostly on Youtube paid ads and relevant business strategies. His podcasts entertain multiple video marketing experts.
Email Marketing
Dela Quist
- Dela Quist is the founder and CEO of the leading email marketing agency, Alchemy Worx.
- He is the author of ‘Fear and Self Loathing in Email Marketing’.
Why should you follow him?
Dela is a renowned thought leader in email marketing and posts around email development strategy, email marketing optimization, copywriting, subject lines, and new marketing trends and happenings.
Jeanne Jennings
- She was among the ‘75 Email Marketing Influencers You Need to Follow’ by Atomicreach.
- She mentored elite clients like Hasbro, Network Solutions, PayPal, Scholastic, Verizon, Vocus, and WeightWatchers.
Why should you follow her?
Jeanne posts case studies, blogs on click-through-rates, drip email marketing campaigns, ROI generations, and everything that has the keyword email marketing in it. Her Twitter posts will give you rightful insights too.
Jordie Van Rijn
- Jordie is an independent consultant on email marketing and automation.
- He has helped companies like KLM, Unilever, AEGON, CZ, FNV, and NRC Media.
Why should you follow him?
Apart from having a great font on his Twitter username, Jordie posts resourceful content on email marketing and automation. You will learn tips to build a loyal customer base through email, look for spam traps, use AI for automation, and be informed about upcoming email marketing trends.
Elliot Ross
- Elliot is the CEO and co-founder of Taxi for Email, a marketer-friendly email creation platform.
- He has worked with major brands like BBC, London 2012, British Airways, IKEA, and Sky.
Why should you follow him?
Elliot’s Twitter posts are interesting to follow. You will see him split testing email headlines and giving tips to restrict internet tracking. On Linkedin, he actively posts about email templates, adaptive HTML formatting, and other aspects of email marketing. On Instagram, this web marketing expert shares books recommendations important for every marketer.
Skip Fidura
- Skip is associated with the DMA Email marketing council of the United Kingdom, distributing guidance on a responsible behavior framework to businesses.
- He is interested in integrating marketing messages across multiple online and offline channels.
Why should you follow him?
Skip posts informative content around persuading customers through email marketing, email accessibility, productivity hacks, and consumer behavior. If you are feeling the burn of email marketing, his posts will be a great help.
Chad S. White
- Chad was the ‘Email Marketer Thought Leader of the Year’ by Email Experience Council in 2018.
- He is the author of ‘Email Marketing Rules’, and his insights have been taken in multiple email marketing books.
Why should you follow him?
Chad works as head of marketing research at Oracle, so you will find many blogs concerning digital marketing from Oracle. He also posts about email marketing trends, one-on-one email marketing, email design, and a couple of things on data privacy.
Paid search marketing
Brad Geddes
- Brad is the co-founder of Adalysis, a PPC recommendation software for Google Ads and Microsoft Ads.
- Bred has also written the book called ‘Advanced Google Adwords’.
Why should you follow him?
This official Adword seminar leader has a lot of interesting PPC insights on his Twitter profile. Bred’s KPI monitoring and diagnosis series is informative and must be followed, where he discusses changes in CPC, CTR, and click volume.
Lisa Raehsler
- Lisa is the founder of a SEM consulting platform, BigClick Co.
- She was among the ‘Top 25 Most Influential PPC Experts’ for 3 consecutive years.
Why should you follow her?
Lisa will let you know about best paid search PPC practices while warning of plausible advertising mistakes. Explore foolproof search engine marketing strategies from Lisa.
Frederick Vallaeys
- Frederick is the CEO of Optmyzr, a leading PPC management software system.
- He is one of the earliest members of Google and helped pioneer PPC marketing.
Why should you follow him?
Follow Fred to learn all the latest about how automation is changing the roles of PPC managers and to help position yourself for a successful career in this field. Catch his PPC Town Hall videos or podcasts, read his latest book, “Unlevel the Playing Field, the Biggest Mindshift in Digital Marketing” or read his posts on the Optmyzr blog. His content is helpful for beginners and experts to know more about new scripts or automations as well as strategies to make the most of new and upcoming trends in the world of search engine marketing.
John Gagnon
- John is a Bing Ads evangelist and works as Sales Director at Microsoft.
- He is among the ‘Top 25 Most Influential PPC Marketers’.
Why should you follow him?
John’s tweets about tech and ads have the perfect mix of data and marketing. Consider him your go-to mentor for using Bing Ads. He also posts about applying psychology to marketing which results in staggering outputs.
Kirk Williams
- Kirk is the owner of Zato, a paid search PPC micro agency.
- He is among the ‘Top 25 Most Influential PPCers’ listed by PPC Hero from 2016-2020.
Why should you follow him?
Kirk shares tips for managing the right budget for PPC ads and shopping ads in the wittiest way possible. He also answers FAQs around Google Ads. On Twitter, he will keep you informed about Google’s latest policies for advertisers.
Social media News
Matt Navarra
- Matt is a social media industry commentator, tipster, and leaker.
- He is recognized as an industry expert by major publications such as The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, USA Today, Newsweek, and Forbes.
- He has appeared on several global news channels like BBC News, The Today Show, BBC World, LBC Radio, The Today Show (NBC / US), Sky News, and more.
Why should you follow him?
Matt Navarra’s profile is a social media newspaper with topics like Hackers infiltrated Facebook data partners, Google is coming up with TikTok like platform, TikTok is facing grown-up problems, Zuckerberg wants to be understood and not liked, and much more. His analysis, advice, and commentary on social media activities are prolific and must be followed.
Karissa Bell
- Karissa is a Senior Tech Reporter at Mashable, a multi-platform media and entertainment company.
- Her work has also appeared in Wired, Macworld, Popular Mechanics, and The Wirecutter.
Why should you follow her?
Karissa posts trending news, personal commentary, and deep analysis of every social media platform and whatever is up with Silicon Valley. Her tweets will keep your social media news appetite satisfied.
Sarah Frier
- Sarah is a Technology Reporter for Bloomberg and an avid writer on social media.
- She is the author of ‘No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram’.
Why should you follow her?
Sarah is an active supporter of free speech and a constant commentator on Facebook policies. She shares click-worthy posts and articles on top social media platforms and does not shy away from criticizing any of them. She also posts about content that is on viral fever.
Conclusion
Being a marketer isn’t child’s play because digital marketing is evolving every minute. You have to be vigilant round-the-clock and keep yourself updated. It is mandatory to follow online marketing professionals and digital marketing experts to watch out for significant happenings. They inform all about the latest trends and walk you through their implementation and impact.
We have shared our list. Now it’s your turn. Who are your go-to marketing idols? Let us know in the comments.
