The history of marketing dates back centuries, if not millennia.
While it has evolved over the years to include new and different methods, traditional marketing campaigns using TV, Radio, and magazines are still heavily utilised to this day. Digital marketing, by comparison, is still in its infancy.
While it may feel like it’s been around forever, the internet is actually only 30 years old.
As a result, there are fewer online marketing experts out there to learn from. What there are, however, are people who have perfected this skill through years of dedication and learning. Who better to learn from than those who have dedicated their careers to the field?
These 5 digital marketers below will help you on your digital marketing journey as they have plenty of tips and tricks to share.
Why should you follow digital marketing experts?
If you’re in the field already or are looking to join, following those who are influential can help you to stay up to date with the latest news and trends.
This is important to do as marketing techniques are always developing, usually in line with the introduction of new technologies.
Expert digital marketers are an excellent resource.
They provide interesting insights, share useful tips, and provide best practices that can help you to improve your own work. These are people who truly know what works and what doesn’t in the digital marketing world.
They are the best at what they do. They have been there, done that, and have the results to prove it. No matter what your specialism, you need to make sure you’re learning from others around you that do what you do. That way, you can take your own business to the next level.
Let’s take a look at some of the best digital marketers in the world.
1. Neil Patel
If you’re looking for someone who knows digital marketing, you’ll be hard pushed to find someone who knows more than Neil Patel.
His name and face is ubiquitous in the field.
If you’re looking for information on a new and emerging topic in the field, you can almost guarantee that he has insights to share.
As for his background, Neil began building his own website at 16. He struggled with the process and thought that others must be struggling too.
As a result, he decided that he wanted to learn everything he could about marketing, and then he could teach others to do the same.
Now, he’s a regarded as an SEO expert and is always sharing the latest tips and tricks with others in this area.
Neil has a number of impressive accolades to his name, including being ranked #1 marketer in the world by Entrepreneur magazine.
He has contributed to Entrepreneur himself as well as writing for Forbes. As for his own businesses, he is the founder of companies, Crazy Egg, Hello Bar, and KISSmetrics. He also developed his own keyword research tool, Ubersuggest, which was designed to make keyword research more effective and affordable.
You can also hire him to help your business (if you have the cash, of course). He has worked with companies like Amazon, NBC, and Viacom to increase their revenue through digital marketing.
Neil has a real dedication to helping everyone who wants to become better at digital marketing. His advice is non-technical and easy to understand.
His focus and interests are in bridging the gap in marketing knowledge. He wants to help marketers and businesses alike to embrace the industry and use it to their advantage.
If you want to learn from a digital marketing expert, Neil’s a great place to start.
Learn more about Neil Patel
Website
Podcast
Twitter
2. Rand Fishkin
Rand Fishkin is MOZ’s former CEO. For SEO experts, you’ll no doubt be familiar with the tools that MOZ has to offer. There are both free and paid tools that digital marketers can use in tracking their SEO efforts and improving them.
It’s an incredibly useful tool that many marketers swear by. It’ll come as no surprise, therefore, that Rand is one of the leading experts in the areas of search engine optimisation ad content marketing.
Rand is active on his blog and Twitter account where he is always sharing valuable information about the field.
He’s regularly the first to share thought-provoking commentary on any new or changing areas and how he thinks it will impact how digital marketers do their job.
Rand has an impressive history in the field, with not the most traditional of starts.
He dropped out of the University of Washington in 2000 to work full-time for his mother’s small business marketing firm as their website designer.
Not much after this in 2004 was when he created the SEOMoz blog that would later become one of the most important and popular resources amongst the marketing community all over the world.
In 2007, SEOMoz became MOZ and, as they say, the rest is history.
Rand has spent his professional life working to help marketers be better at what they do.
He is a writer and professional speaker. He has contributed to a number of books on the topic of SEO as well as writing his own.
His book Lost and Found: A Painfully Honest Field talks about the ups and downs of building a start-up that many people would shy away from. He shares his own experiences and difficulties candidly and helpfully.
Rand is also now the founder of a company called SparkToro, helping marketers to learn more about their audience.
Learn more about Rand Fishkin
Website
Twitter
Instagram
Ann Handley
Ann Handley is the Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs, a training and education company for marketers.
With over 600,000 subscribers, it trains marketers all over the world through both online and in-person programs.
If you’re a digital marketer that specialises in B2B marketing, you’ll want to know about Ann and listen to what she has to say.
MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum is considered the premier global marketing event for B2B marketers to attend.
Having been in the field for a long time, Ann knows digital marketing inside out. She has written a number of bestselling books on the topic, such as Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide To Creating Ridiculously Good Content. She has also written Content Rules: How To Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, eBooks, Webinars (and more) That Engage Customers And Ignite Your Business.
Ann is also regularly called to speak at digital marketing events as an expert on the topic.
Furthermore, Ann is the co-founder of ClickZ.com. This is one of the first sources of interactive marketing news and commentary.
If you needed any more confirmation that Ann is a digital marketing guru, consider this. She sold ClickZ in 2000. Given that the internet is only just 3 decades old, she can truly be considered a pioneer in the field. Ann has amassed a large following of 420,000 followers on Twitter and is considered to be a LinkedIn Influencer. She is regularly referred to as one of the most influential marketers on social media.
Forbes has even named her a thought leader and one of the people shaping the field of modern marketing.
If you want to learn from an expert, check out what Ann Handley has to say.
Learn more about Ann Handley
Website
Twitter
LinkedIn
Shama Hyder
Shama Hyder is the founder of the blog, Marketing Zen, and a University of Texas graduate. If you’re looking to know anything about social media or B2B marketing, you might want to look at what Shama has to say.
Created in 2009, marketers across the world loved the Marketing Zen resource for its useful digital marketing insights that Shama shared and continues to share. Marketing Zen went through a big rebrand and is now Zen Media.
Shama holds the role of CEO in the company.
Zen media is an award-winning marketing & PR agency catering to B2B firms. The business describes itself as having a number of different “arms,” such as:
- Zen Digital – the digital marketing arm, providing services to clients
- Zen Made – the design & digital arm, helping brands to create physical spaces that integrate both digital marketing and real-life experiences
- Zen Mind – the thought leadership and visionary arm.
Shama’s goal is to simplify the world of marketing. She wants to use her experience to help guide people towards becoming more profitable and impactful.
Outside of Zen Media, Shama is also a bestselling writer of her book: The Zen of Social Media Marketing. Forbes has also named her one of their 30 under 30 to watch.
She has been named by Entrepreneur magazine as the “Zen Master of Marketing” and FastCompany.com called her the “Millennial Master of the Universe”.
Shama is very active on LinkedIn and Twitter, sharing useful tips and tricks with her 600,000 followers.
If you’re interested in digital marketing, Shama is the person to ask.
Learn more about Shama Hyder
Dharmesh Shah
Last, but by no means least, is Dharmesh Shah.
He is a leader in the field of inbound marketing and is the Founder and CTO of HubSpot. He’s an MIT graduate with a master’s degree in the Management of Technology. With over 1 million followers on LinkedIn, many people look to him for his insights on marketing and entrepreneurship.
HubSpot works with small businesses to make sure they have the right sales software they need to succeed.
Dharmesh knows the importance of automation and the value of technology to businesses and marketers alike. He has developed a wide range of tools for sales, customer service, and marketing that are affordable for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Dharmesh is also a bestselling writer, having co-written the book Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs. This book constantly ranks in the top 10 marketing books on Amazon.
If you want to read more from Dharmesh, he founded, and writes for, the OnStartups blog.
He provides lots of helpful information to anyone interested in building their own start-up. This website has now amassed over 350,000 members in its online community.
Learn more about Dharmesh Shah
How else can you learn about Digital Marketing?
If learning from these famous digital marketers has given you the desire to learn more about the field, there are many different ways you can do this:
- Starting and growing your own website and social media is a great way to get hands-on experience in a pressure-free environment
- Sign up to the email lists of some of these marketers and you’ll find helpful tips and tricks in your inbox regularly
- Take a course of digital marketing certification. This will help you to learn about the topic and test your knowledge. It will then come in handy when you’re applying for work in the future.
Research! Take to YouTube, Google, Social Media and just look for the insights of influential people working in the field.
Conclusion
If you’re looking to learn from some of the best online marketers in the world, these 5 are going to be hard to beat.
As you can see from their bios they all have expert levels of knowledge and an unmatched level of experience.
The best part is that they are all passionate about sharing their love for digital marketing with other people.
If you’re relatively new to the field or are looking for ways to improve your skills, turning to the experts for advice is a great way to be better at what you do.
