2015-06-30



Want to know more about specific aspects of digital marketing, but not sure who to follow? There are tons of digital marketing experts to choose from—the doers, the speakers, the writers, the researchers, and so on. In this post, we’re going to look at the top digital marketing experts you can follow in specific areas (use these links to navigate):

Content Marketing

Conversion Rate Optimization

Data & Analytics

Email

PPC

SEO

Social Media

Note that while some experts only talk about their area of expertise, others talk about digital marketing as a whole. Experts were discovered using a combination of Klout topic expert rankings, Followerwonk Twitter bio searches and Twitter account searches.

Content Marketing Experts



Content marketing can be a part of your overall digital marketing strategy. You can optimize your content for conversions, email content to your list, drive traffic to content through paid advertising, optimize content to rank for specific keywords in search and use content to keep social media accounts active. Here are some of the top recommended experts in content marketing.

Arnie Kuenn

Website • Social Profiles

Arnie Kuenn is the founder and CEO of Vertical Measures. He is author of “Accelerate: Move Your Business Forward Through the Convergence of Search, Social, and Content Marketing”; and co-author of “Content Marketing Works: 8 Steps to Transform your Business.”

Heidi Cohen

Website • Social Profiles

Heidi Cohen is the Chief Content Officer at Actionable Marketing Guide and President of Riverside Marketing Strategies. She is co-author of “Instant Content Marketing Success: 10 Tips from Leading Content Marketing Experts.”

Robert Rose

Website • Social Profiles

Robert is the Chief Strategy Officer for the Content Marketing Institute and a senior contributing consultant for Digital Clarity Group. He is co-author of “Experiences: The 7th Era of Marketing and Managing Content Marketing.”

Michael Brenner

Website • Social Profiles

Michael Brenner is the founder of B2B Marketing Insider and Head of Strategy at NewsCred, a leading content marketing software platform.

Jeff Bullas

Website • Social Profiles

Jeff Bullas is a blogger, author, strategist and speaker. He has been recognized by Forbes, Inc., Huffington Post, Social Media Examiner, LinkedIn, and others as an authority in digital marketing, content marketing and social media marketing.

Joe Pulizzi

Website • Social Profiles

Joe Pulizzi is the founder of Content Marketing Institute and Content Marketing World. He is author and co-author of several books including “Epic Content Marketing,” “Managing Content Marketing” and “Content Inc.” He also runs two podcasts on content marketing on iTunes: Content Inc. and PNR: This Old Marketing with Robert Rose.

Jay Baer

Website • Social Profiles

Jay Baer is the founder of Convince & Convert. He is author of “Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help Not Hype” and “The Now Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter, and More Social.” He also runs the Social Pros Podcast on iTunes.

Ann Handley

Website • Social Profiles

Ann Handley is the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs and co-founder of ClickZ. She is also the author of “Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content” and “Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars and More That Engage Customers.”

Lee Odden

Website • Social Profiles

Lee Odden is the founder of TopRank Marketing. He is author of “Optimize: How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media, and Content Marketing.”

Conversion Rate Optimization Experts



If you are driving traffic to a website that is not optimized for conversions, then you are likely throwing all of your marketing dollars down the drain. Here are some of the top recommended experts in conversion rate optimization.

Angie Schottmuller

Website • Social Profiles

Angie Schottmuller is an inbound marketing thought leader skilled at wielding magnetic content optimized for search, social, conversion and mobile.

Peep Laja

Website • Social Profiles

Peep Laja is the founder of ConversionXL. He is author of “How to Build Websites that Sell: The Scientific Approach to Websites”; “Master the Essentials of Conversion Optimization: Experts’ Approach to Optimization”; and “How to Persuade People: Hidden Secret Mind Tricks.”

Chris Goward

Website • Social Profiles

Chris Goward is the founder of WiderFunnel, the full-service marketing optimization agency that pioneered landing-page and conversion-rate optimization methods. He is author of “You Should Test That: Conversion Optimization for More Leads, Sales and Profit.”

Brian Massey

Website • Social Profiles

Brian Massey is the Conversion Scientist at Conversion Sciences, the agency whose conversion optimization process will generate more sales from your website. He is author of “Your Customer Creation Equation: Unexpected Website Formulas of the Conversion Scientist.” He also runs the Conversion Scientist podcast on iTunes.

Oli Gardner

Website • Social Profiles

Oli Gardner is the co-founder of Unbounce, the popular marketing tool that allows marketers to build, publish, and A/B test landing pages without IT.

Craig Sullivan

Website • Social Profiles

Craig Sullivan is the Optimizer in Chief of Optimal Visit, helping increase conversion and improve the UX of their multi-channel and multi-platform businesses.

Joanna Wiebe

Website • Social Profiles

Joanna Wiebe is the founder of Copy Hackers, the home of conversion copywriting.

Tim Ash

Website • Social Profiles

Tim Ash is the CEO of SiteTurners and founder of the worldwide Conversion Conference events. He is co-author of “Landing Page Optimization.” He also runs the Landing Page Optimization podcast on iTunes.

Rich Page

Website • Social Profiles

Rich Page is the founder and principal consultant for Website Optimizer. He is author of “Website Optimization: An Hour a Day” and co-author of “Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions.”

Bryan Eisenberg

Website • Social Profiles

Bryan Eisenberg is the co-founder and CMO of IdealSpot. He is co-author of several books including “Buyer Legends: The Executive Storyteller’s Guide”; “Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results”; “The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist Period”; “Persuasive Online Copywriting: How to Take Your Words to the Bank”; “Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer”; and “Waiting for Your Cat to Bark: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing.”

Data and Analytics Experts

You can’t expect to do digital marketing without looking at some data to ensure that your strategies are making a positive impact on your bottom line. Here are some of the top recommended experts in data and analytics.

Dan Zarrella

Website • Social Profiles

Dan Zarrella is the award-winning social media scientist at HubSpot. He is author of “The Science of Marketing: When to Tweet, What to Post, How to Blog, and Other Proven Strategies,” “The Social Media Marketing Book” and “The Facebook Marketing Book.”

Daniel Waisberg

Website • Social Profiles

Daniel Waisberg is an Analytics Advocate at Google and the Founder of Online Behavior. He is author of the upcoming “Google Analytics Integrations” book.

Annie Cushing

Website • Social Profiles

Annie Cushing is the founder of Annielytics and former VP of Marketing at YourTango.com. She oversees analytics and all reporting efforts for her clients.

Brian Clifton

Website • Social Profiles

Brian Clifton is a measurement strategist, advisor and renowned practitioner of website performance optimisation and former head of Web Analytics for Google. He is author of a series of books on “Successful Analytics” and “Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics.”

Eric Peterson

Website • Social Profiles

Eric T. Peterson is the founder and senior partner of Analytics Demystified, a web analytics and optimization consulting firm. He is author of “Web Analytics Demystified: A Marketer’s Guide to Understanding How Your Web Site Affects Your Business”; “Web Site Measurement Hacks: Tips & Tools to Help Optimize Your Online Business”; and “The Big Book of Key Performance Indicators.”

Avinash Kaushik

Website • Social Profiles

Avinash Kaushik is the co-founder and Chief Education Officer for Market Motive and Digital Marketing Evangelist for Google. He is author of “Web Analytics 2.0 and Web Analytics: An Hour a Day.”

Email Marketing Experts

It’s becoming harder to reach your customers through organic search with so many changes to the Google search algorithm. It’s also harder to reach your customers on social media due to the decline of organic reach. This is why your email list is more important than ever. Here are some of the top recommended experts in email marketing.

Ragy Thomas

Website • Social Profiles

Ragy is the founder and CEO of Sprinklr, where he empowers companies to reimagine their customer-facing operations to manage consumer experiences across every touch point.

Tink Taylor

Website • Social Profiles

Tink Taylor is founder and COO of dotmailer and dotDigital Group. He serves as a key and influential member of the UK Direct Marketing Association’s Email Council and also the International Advertising Bureau.

Justine Jordan

Website • Social Profiles

Justine Jordan is the marketing director at Litmus. She organizes the Email Design Conference in Boston and London.

Jordie Van Rijn

Website • Social Profiles

Jordie van Rijn is the founder of Email Monday and a email marketing consultant. He was recognized as one of the Top 50 Email Marketing Influencers in 2014 by Cision.

Dr. Dave Chaffey

Website • Social Profiles

Dr. Dave Chaffey is the co-founder of Smart Insights. He is author of “Digital Business & E-Commerce Management”; “Emarketing Excellence: Planning and Optimizing Your Digital Marketing”; “Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation, and Practice”; and “Total E-mail Marketing.”

Chad White

Website • Social Profiles

Chad White is the Research Director at Litmus, a provider of email creation, preview and analytics tools. He is author of “Email Marketing Rules: A Step-by-Step Guide to the Best Practices that Power Email Marketing Success.”

Loren McDonald

Website • Social Profiles

Loren McDonald is the Vice President of Industry Relations, where he educates clients and prospects on best practices and emerging trends in email, mobile and social marketing and marketing automation. He is author of “Almost Everything You Wanted to Know About Email Marketing.”

Dennis Wakabayashi

Website • Social Profiles

Dennis Wakabayashi is the Director of Digital and Social Strategy for the McDonald’s account with Morach Partners.

Mark Brownlow

Website • Social Profiles

Mark Brownlow is the founder of Email Marketing Reports, a freelance business writer and speaker.

Pay Per Click Experts

Sometimes, organic tactics are not enough. When you start paying for advertising, the rules change—you have to find the right combination of commercial keywords and conversion-optimized, highly targeted landing pages to get results. Here are some of the top recommended experts in PPC.

Lisa Raehsler

Website • Social Profiles

Lisa Raehsler is the founder of Big Click Co. She was recognized as one of the most influential PPC experts in 2012, 2013, and 2014 by PPC Hero Blog.

Kim Clinkunbroomer

Website • Social Profiles

Kim Clinkunbroomer is the Executive Vice President of Paid Search Marketing and a Partner at Philly Marketing Labs.

Matt Umbro

Website • Social Profiles

Matt Umbro is the Senior Account Manager in charge of Community at Hanapin Marketing. He oversees content production for PPC Hero. He also runs the popular #PPCChat Twitter hashtag.

David Szetela

Website • Social Profiles

David Szetela is the founder of Clix Marketing. He is author of “Customers Now” and co-author of “Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Marketing: An Hour a Day.” He also runs the PPC Rockstars podcast on iTunes.

Melissa Mackey

Website • Social Profiles

Melissa Mackey is Search Supervisor at gyro, the largest independent B2B agency in the world. She is author at Beyond the Paid, a blog on PPC strategy.

Brad Geddes

Website • Social Profiles

Brad Geddes is the Founder of Certified Knowledge, a company dedicated to PPC education & training. He is the author of “Advanced Google AdWords” and the only person selected by Google to conduct the Advanced AdWords seminar series. He also runs the Marketing Nirvana podcast on iTunes.

Jennifer Slegg

Website • Social Profiles

Jennifer Slegg is a Search Engine Marketing Consultant and regular contributor at the SEM Post. She regularly speaks at Pubcon, SMX, ClickZ and other industry events on search engine marketing.

Larry Kim

Website • Social Profiles

Larry Kim is the founder and Chief Technology Officer of WordStream. He was recognized as one of the most influential PPC experts in 2013 and 2014 by PPC Hero Blog.

Search Engine Optimization Experts

Search engine optimization touches all aspects of your digital marketing strategy. From the start, your website should be optimized for your top keywords. To ensure your website ranks well for additional keywords, you have to create keyword-optimized content. To help customers find you on social media, you must have keyword-optimized social profiles. Here are some of the top recommended experts in SEO.

Julie Joyce

Website • Social Profiles

Julie Joyce is the owner of and Director of Operations for Link Fish Media, Inc., a link building company based in Greensboro, that specializes in creating custom link building campaigns for clients. She is also a founding member of the SEO Chicks and Avant Greensboro.

Wil Reynolds

Website • Social Profiles

Wil Reynolds is the founder of Seer Interactive, a Philadelphia-based SEM/SEO consulting firm that puts equal focus on doing great things for its clients, its team and the community at large.

Michael King

Website • Social Profiles

Michael King is the founder of iPullRank and leads teams covering consumer insights, content, social strategy, SEO and marketing automation. He is a regular speaker at SEO industry conferences including SMX East, SearchLove NYC, Seattle Interactive, SMX Israel, SMX West, SES New York, LinkLove London, SMX Advanced and MozCon.

Ann Smarty

Website • Social Profiles

Ann Smarty is the Community and Brand Manager of Internet Marketing Ninjas and founder of MyBlogU, a collaboration network for creating epic content. She is a contributor for Search Marketing Standard magazine, a premium online marketing publication delivered via print.

Danny Sullivan

Website • Social Profiles

Danny Sullivan is a Founding Editor of Search Engine Land. He serves as Chief Content Officer for Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo conference series.

Barry Schwartz

Website • Social Profiles

Barry Schwartz is the CEO of RustyBrick, a New York Web service firm specializing in customized online technology that helps companies decrease costs and increase sales.

Rand Fishkin

Website • Social Profiles

Rand Fishkin is the founder and former CEO of Moz. He is co-author of “Inbound Marketing and SEO: Insights from the Moz Blog” and “The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization.”

Social Media Marketing Experts

Social media is an important part of your business’s branding. You can use it to connect with your potential customers, current customers and brand advocates. You can use it to show the human side of your brand. And, of course, you can use it to promote your content, your products and your services. Here are some of the top recommended experts in SEO.

Sandi Krakowski

Website • Social Profiles

Sandi Krakowski is the founder and president of A Real Change International, Inc. and Sandpaper Tablet, Inc. She is author of “#BeMore” and “Read Their Mind: How to Hear What the Marketplace Wants and Build a Huge Business.”

Peg Fitzpatrick

Website • Social Profiles

Peg Fitzpatrick works with Guy Kawasaki on social media marketing strategy and is the director of digital marketing for Kreussler Inc., covering the online brand management and as well as traditional marketing. She is co-author of “The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users.”

Andrea Vahl

Website • Social Profiles

Andrea Vahl is a social media consultant and speaker who is passionate about helping small businesses understand and leverage the power of social media to actually grow their business.  She is co-author of “The Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies.”

Pam Moore

Website • Social Profiles

Pam Moore is CEO and co-founder of Marketing Nutz, a full service digital marketing, experiential branding agency based in Orlando. She has been recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Social Media Power Influencer.

Rebekah Radice

Website • Social Profiles

Rebekah Radice is a social media strategist, speaker and digital marketing specialist, the Chief Experience Officer of Imagine WOW, a digital marketing agency. She is co-author of “Fire Up! Taking Your Life and Business to 11.”

Mari Smith

Website • Social Profiles

Mari Smith is one of the world’s leading social media thought leaders, widely recognized for her Facebook marketing expertise. She is co-author of “The New Relationship Marketing: How to Build a Large, Loyal, Profitable Network Using the Social Web and Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day.”

Viveka von Rosen

Website • Social Profiles

Viveka von Rosen is the CEO of Linked Into Business and co-founder of LinkedProspecting. She is author of “LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour a Day.”

In Conclusion

These are not, by any means, the only digital media experts and thought leaders out there. This list could go on and on and on. If you want to find more experts in a particular area of digital marketing, you can do so by logging into LinkedIn, visiting the profiles of people mentioned above and looking at the People Also Viewed column at the right of their profile. You will find up to 10 more suggested people who have similar expertise. Enjoy!

The post 56 Digital Marketing Experts You Should Follow on Social Media appeared first on Sprout Social.

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