Digital marketing experts and influencers are professionals with years of vast unique experience and a desire to share that experience. And that means you need to be following them ASAP!
Check out our top 15 digital marketing gurus to follow in the new decade.
Top 15 digital marketing experts to follow ASAP
1. Gary Vaynerchuk
Gary Vaynerchuk is one of the most well-known digital marketing experts. He started his business journey in early childhood and hopped on the hype train of the rapidly growing Internet technology in the late ’90s. He was one of the first in the e-commerce niche, and one of the first marketing influencers who’s flourished on Youtube with their own shows.
He is also one of the best selling marketing authors, an angel investor, a public speaker, as well as VaynerMedia digital marketing agency owner. He’s been on top of most top digital marketing influencers lists for a while and is unlikely to stop there. If you want to learn from the best, Gary Vaynerchuk is the one.
Follow Gary: Twitter • Podcast • YouTube • Website
2. Neil Patel
Neil Patel is THE true guru of digital marketing, especially when it comes to search engines and content marketing. He is the leading force in SEO education and was labeled one of the top 10 digital influencers according to Forbes.
The best thing about Neil Patel is that he’s not all talk – he’s tested everything he teaches in practice as the co-founder at Crazy Egg, HelloBar, Kissmetrics and more. Besides his own businesses, he has consulted and growth-hacked such companies as Amazon, General Motors, Hewlett Packard and NBC.
Neil Patel’s website is a must-follow for any digital marketer, both for amazing in-depth articles and great SEO tools.
Follow Neil: Twitter • Podcast • YouTube • Blog
3. Ryan Deiss
Ryan Deiss is the creator of the Customer Value Optimization tactic that is a real revenue booster for online companies. As the founder and CEO of DigitalMarketer.com, he is one of the leaders in digital marketing education – his company provides training and tools for digital marketers that you should definitely check out.
With clients like Uber, Shopify, and InfusionSoft, he has consistently proven his high status as a digital marketing influencer.
Follow Ryan: Twitter • DigitalMarketer Podcast • Perpetual Traffic Podcast • YouTube • Blog
4. Rand Fishkin
Rand Fishkin is known not only for his mustached look but also as a former CEO of MOZ. If you know MOZ, it’s not hard to see why Rand Fishkin is one of the top search engine optimization and marketing influencers.
What people like about Rand Fishkin the most, however, is that he started as a blogger back in 2003. He then opened a consulting company, which later transformed into a software company that’s built the best SEO tool on the market. His business journey is something to learn from. Follow Rand if you rely on SEO techniques and would like to grow your project by moving to top positions in search engines.
Follow Rand: Twitter • YouTube
5. Larry Kim
Larry Kim is an influencer, online marketing expert, digital marketing coach, as well as the CEO and founder of MobileMonkey and WordStream – both known to most marketers. He’s also one of the top contributors on Medium and one of the 8 most popular authors on the platform. Larry Kim is one of the best Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and SEO influencers.
Follow Larry Kim for valuable insights into the world of digital marketing, Facebook and Google Ads.
6. Pam Moore
One of the top social media influencers, Pam Moore’s strength lies in social media marketing and conversion optimization. She shares the best strategies and techniques for boosting branding, selling on social media, brand development, social media optimization, and much more, with her audience of more than 1,000,000 followers.
She started as a social media marketing specialist with strong branding and business development skills and now helps other digital marketers improve their branding and social media reach.
Follow Pam: Twitter • Podcast • Website
7. Tim Ferriss
Tim Ferriss is the bad boy of the digital marketing industry. His 4-Hour Work Week book is on the Wall Street Journal’s and New York Times’ lists of best-sellers. He was one of the people who have placed their bets as investors on Facebook, Duolingo, Shopify, and more.
Besides numerous books, he is also known for his podcasts and audio shows that have already exceeded 100 million downloads. He teaches digital marketing, business management, leadership, and business development.
Follow Tim: Twitter • YouTube • Blog & Podcast
8. Kim Garst
Kim Garst is one of the top social media influencers and probably the most retweeted digital marketer ever. Forbes included her on the list of Top 10 people who influence social media marketing.
She is also a popular keynote speaker, best-selling author and a consultant for companies like IBM, MasterCard, and Microsoft.
Kim Garst can help you turn your social media into your main traffic and sales channel, and knows how to make people love your brand.
Follow Kim: Twitter • Podcasts • Website • Blog
9. Jennifer Polk
If you are a full-stack marketer and want to learn more about the multichannel marketing approach, Jennifer Polk is the best influencer for you.
She is a well-known advisor to chief marketing officers, marketing team-leads and marketing specialists all over the world. Jennifer Polk’s strength is in e-commerce, customer engagement, and brand awareness. If you are aiming to become a CMO or already are one, Jennifer Polk can teach you a thing or two about how to do it right.
Follow Jennifer: Twitter • Website
10. Scott Stratten
Scott Stratten is a former music industry marketer, and one of the top video marketing influencers around. He is a skilled marketer, an author of numerous best-selling business and marketing books, and a passionate speaker.
He consulted companies like PepsiCo, Walmart, Microsoft, and Adobe. Scott’s favorite topic is the disruption in marketing.
Follow Scott: Twitter • Website • Podcast • YouTube
11. Jay Baer
Jay Baer’s slogan is “Turn customers into more customers”. He is a best-selling author and a founder of five (5!) multi-million dollar companies.
His main specialization is word-of-mouth and viral marketing that makes your customers bring more customers. Jay Baer is a genius of customer engagement and retention. He is also known for his podcasts, and of course, his Convince & Convert digital marketing agency that works with clients like Cisco.
If you want to understand your customers more, turn them into your brand advocates and boost your viral marketing then Jay Baer is an influencer you need.
Follow Jay: Twitter • Website • YouTube • Blog & Podcasts
12. Jeff Sheehan
Jeff Sheehan is a viral marketing guru. His Sheehan Marketing Strategies company develops buzz marketing techniques for giants like IBM and Apple. Jeff Sheehan specializes in Linkedin and Twitter marketing.
Follow Jeff: Twitter • LinkedIn
13. Leonard Kim
Leonard Kim is a branding expert and one of the top digital marketing influencers around. He is also one of the most followed TED speakers: he teaches business mindset, personal branding, influencer marketing, startup approaches, Linkedin marketing and more.
If you want to know about the latest digital marketing news, trends and best-working techniques then following Leonard Kim is a must.
Follow Leonard: Twitter • Website
14. Neal Schaffer
Neal Schaffer is one of the top social media influencers. He is not just an influencer, but a consultant, speaker, and writer. Neal is popular for his books, guides and blog articles on digital marketing and social media marketing hacks and practices. He produces marketing-related content for Forbes, USA Today and Mashable.
Follow Neal Schaffer to learn more about how to position your company, improve your branding, and make social media marketing finally work for you.
Follow Neal: Twitter • YouTube • Website
15. Donna Moritz
Donna Moritz is a digital marketing expert, social media, content, and visual marketing influencer, as well as a brand ambassador for many successful companies.
She is a pro in content strategy development and visual storytelling. Her Socially Sorted blog is packed full of marketing hacks, tricks, and tips, and her articles have been published on Hubspot and Marketo.
If you want to learn how to boost your social presence with beautiful content and increase your brand awareness – Donna Moritz is the influencer for you.
Follow Donna: Twitter • YouTube • Blog
Why you need to follow these digital marketing experts
Smart people learn from the mistakes, but also from the successes of others. If you want to know what really works and what doesn’t in the world of digital marketing, following the people who have firsthand experience with the latest methods, techniques, and practices is a must.
It doesn’t really matter what you specialize in – email marketing, pay-per-click marketing, search engine optimization, social media marketing, or content marketing – you have to keep learning from the best. They may not share everything they know, but they will provide you with valuable insights and tools you’ll need to take your business to the next level.
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Rand Fishkin should’ve been at #1 to be honest. Great list!
To be honest, agreed! Though we tried to keep the order in this list random – it’s just a list of awesome people to follow and learn from 🙂
I’m constantly on the lookout for pros to learn from, many thanks for the list, Paul!
Thank you, Ashli!
We have a few more articles you may like. Hope you will enjoy this article about sales books!
big agree w brian, rand should be at #1
Thanks so much for including me in this list guys – so many people I look up to right here. Sorry I missed this but I’ll share it for you now!
Thank you so much, Donna!
Your blog is like Wikipedia, I don’t even understand how I ended up on this article though I started reading about colors in email marketing!
However, your writing is great and the list of marketing gurus is amazing!
Cheers!
Many thanks, Wilford!
This means we are doing everything right if you’ve managed to start with colors and finish with marketing gurus 😉
Thank you a lot for sharing this bunch of marketing gurus! Bookmarked.
Thanks, Jean!
Great article:) I’d add Christian Farioli to the list. if you wanna know more about the advantages of digital marketing, he’s the guy to follow. I was able to attend his conference and learned so much. It helped me consider digital marketing in a new light for my start-up business.
Thanks for sharing this bunch of marketing gurus! Bookmarked!
HI, Thanks for creating an list of amazing people, I would say add Brian Dean as well in the list.
Neil Patel is the best. These are good resources though.
thanks for the information