10 Online Marketing Experts You Should Follow When You Start Your Digital Career

If you’re new to the world of online marketing, you may feel a little overwhelmed by all of the information out there. With writers focusing on everything from content marketing to social media to search engine optimization, knowing who’s worth listening to can be confusing, especially when many writers are self-proclaimed experts.

Carefully sifting through those who are self-proclaimed and those who are actual leaders in the field can prove to be incredibly difficult for those who are new to online marketing. If you want to improve your online marketing skills or you’re just getting in the game, learning from the true professionals is critical. To help you filter through all the noise, here’s a list of some online marketing experts that I personally respect and learn from all the time.

Content Marketing Experts

Content marketing is the process of creating valuable content in the form of text (copy), images, videos, and more in order to attract an audience and increase the number of leads and conversions. In 2014, content marketing has become one of the most important types of online marketing and is continuing to grow in 2015. Two of the best content marketing experts to follow are:

1) Brian Clark: Brian Clark is the founder and CEO of Copyblogger, which is one of the most influential blogs out there. Copyblogger is known for the tips, tools, and resources regarding content marketing that it provides to everyone from online marketers to individual bloggers. Clark has been named by Forbes as a Top 10 Online Marketing Expert and named by BusinessWeek as a person that more entrepreneurs should follow.

2) Heidi Cohen: Heidi Cohen is an online marketing expert who specializes in content marketing and social media. Creator of the Actionable Marketing Guide, Heidi Cohen is world-renowned and has spoken at marketing events across the globe. Her online marketing guides and e-books provide those in the online marketing world with the know-how they require to help improve their businesses and reach their goals.

SEO Marketing Experts

Related to content marketing is search engine optimization. SEO marketing is the process of creating content and web pages that are optimized for search engines, making them more discoverable and increasing the amount of traffic received. SEO is often considered to be a marketing science and can be difficult to perfect. Two great SEO and digital marketing experts to pay attention to are Aaron Wall and Danny Sullivan.

3) Aaron Wall: Aaron Wall is the founder of SEO Book, the guide that provides help for perfecting an SEO strategy. Furthermore, Mr. Wall provides SEO training, as well as online SEO news and tips. His free keyword research tool is great for choosing keywords to inform your content strategy.

4) Danny Sullivan: Danny Sullivan is a leading SEO expert and a name that most people in online marketing are familiar with. If not familiar with Danny Sullivan himself, online marketers around the globe have heard of Search Engine Land, the amazing company founded by Danny Sullivan that provides business and online marketers with information about everything ranging from SEO to SEM to Social.

Social Marketing Experts

Social marketing is exactly what it sounds like – the act of using online social media tools and platforms, like Facebook or Twitter, to market a business, product, service, brand, or blog.

5) Jeff Bullas: Jeff Bullas is both a blogging expert and a social marketing genius, and has made Forbes’ Top 40 Social Marketing Talent list. His blog also receives over eight million page views per year, and LinkedIn has named him as a Top Social Media Expert You Need to Know.

6) Sean Gardner: Sean Gardner is a social marketing king and a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and Social Media Week. Gardner has also been named number one on a list of Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers in 2013.

Pay Per Click Advertising Experts

Pay per click advertising, or PPC advertising, is a paid advertising phenomenon that dominates the online work. PPC works by having advertisers (businesses) pay for an ad only when a consumer clicks it. In order to better understand and create PPC ads, the online marketing experts Larry Kim and Joanna Lord can help.

7) Larry Kim: Larry Kim is one of the names most commonly associated with PPC advertising. Mr. Kim is the founder and CTO of WordStream, the company that offers smart alerts, visual reports, landing page tools, and call tracking tools for PPC advertising.

8) Joanna Lord: Joanna Lord has years of PPC, SEO, PR, social media, CRO, analytics, content development, and more under her belt. Currently the VP of Marketing at Porch, Joanna Lord spent several years driving growth at the inbound marketing platform company, Moz.

Blogging Experts

Everyone is familiar with the practice of blogging – even if they haven’t written a blog themselves, they’ve read one. Creating a great blog that’s worth reading and that will attract a large audience, though, isn’t always easy. For business owners who are taking their first steps into the world of blogging, Darren Rowse and Ann Handley are two big names to pay attention to.

9) Darren Rowse: ProBlogger.net is a leader in the blogging industry, and they’re lucky enough to have Darren Rowse work has a blogging and copywriting expert for the company. If you need to learn about how to blog effectively for your business, Darren Rowse can help you get started.

10) Ann Handley: MarketingProfs is a very knowledgeable website that many online marketing professionals and businesses looking to improve their online marketing techniques and blog turn to. Their chief content officer is Ann Handley, who also happens to be a regular contributor to Entrepreneur.

Importance of Following Digital Marketing Experts

If you’re a business owner, following the advice, trends, and tips provided by digital marketing experts can help you become an online marketing expert yourself. By learning from people who have done content marketing, SEO, social media marketing, PPC advertising, conversion rate optimization, and blogging, before, you and your business will become significantly more successful online.

Now, who am I missing? There are so much more great online marketing experts out there. Let me know who your favorites are in the comments…