more than twenty years after the turn of the century and we still don’t have flying cars parked in our backyards. We do, however, have the brave new world of zeroes and ones. What 90’s sci-fi movies didn’t fail to predict is that the period beyond the year 2000 would bring a new and exciting age for everything with the prefix digital. This is especially true for marketing and computing.
One of the surefire methods to grow your business and render your agency more visible in the oversaturated digital marketing landscape is, in fact, word of mouth. You can love them, you can hate them, but marketing influencers are those who can help your agency expand, and expand fast. They are those coveted wildcards whom you should follow and learn from, and if you are lucky enough to be noticed and endorsed by at least one of the big ones, you may just meet the right people from your niche, pave the way for your company to expand and gain access to major events.
No matter what niche your agency operates in, generating positive buzz and far-reaching word of mouth around your brand will jumpstart your marketing campaign in no time. According to data provided by Musefind, 92% of modern consumers will go with an opinion coming from an influencer instead of trusting traditional advertisements.
This brings us to the notion that very few people are willing to admit: ads are pretty much history and influencers are those multi-passes you should be seeking now. They enjoy credibility, a strong and attention-grabbing social media presence, and are constant and consistent sources of valuable and fresh data that new agency owners can benefit from greatly. And, if you play your cards right, only one share that comes from their side is able to initiate the ripple effect that can make all the difference and skyrocket your brand’s marketing campaign.
With that in mind, here are some of the most relevant digital marketing influencers to follow in 2021.
John Rampton
With 1.5 million followers on Twitter, Rampton is among the most prominent internet marketing gurus that should be on your radar. He’s an entrepreneur, an investor, a start-up enthusiast and the leading man behind Due – one of the most successful online payment companies. Time dubbed him a marketing expert, while the Entrepreneur magazine recently ranked him second on the list of Top 50 Online Influencers in the World.
Visit his blog here.
Rand Fishkin
Fishkin is one of the must-follow personas if you are interested in the latest actionable tricks of the trade from the world of content, social media, and SEO. He has nearly half a million followers on Twitter, he’s a co-founder of Inbound.org, while his former main company, Moz, is one of the most successful SEO agencies currently on the web.
For those seeking thought-provoking and innovative insights on the modern digital marketing landscape, Rand is the influencer to learn from.
Larry Kim
Kim has been dominating the fields of software product management, software engineering, and Internet marketing since 2007. His company, WordStream, offers top-shelf internet consulting services and is packed with avid and experienced marketers and engineers. Larry also managed to write four award-winning books on advertising, management, and marketing. Impressive.
Heidi Cohen
Heidi is a world-class expert on social media, mobile and content marketing. She’s worked with various globally successful companies and brands, and most importantly, she likes to share her most valuable insights via her weekly newsletter called the Actionable Marketing Guide.
Ann Handley
With half a million followers on Twitter and over 18 years on the digital marketing scene, Ann is the gal you want to learn from, especially if you seek content marketing tips and tricks that can get the job done.
She says she’s “waging a war on mediocrity in content writing,” and we support her in this endeavor 100%.
Neil Patel
We cannot talk about prominent digital marketing individuals and not mention this content magician. Patel is pretty active on LinkedIn and Twitter and has 300,000+ followers who Neil before him (sorry for the bad pun) and eagerly wait for his next insightful post. He worked with companies like Amazon and NBC, while he also works as a columnist at Forbes, Entrepreneur, Huffington Post…
You can visit his blog or his Quick Sprout page where he shares his expertise almost on a daily basis, so if you want to learn how to increase your website traffic and help your agency reach wider audiences, Neil Patel is the man to follow.
Jeff Bullas
Jeff is a successful blogger, consultant, strategist and public speaker who specializes in online corporate and personal branding. He learned how to make the most out of social media and now shares his insights with his 562,000 followers, while he also uses his own page to provide his audiences with a myriad of useful and actionable tips on how to build a successful brand.
Avinash Kaushik
Few people can talk and write about data and digital marketing and make it sound so simple. Avinash is one of those people. He was dubbed Google’s Digital Marketing Evangelist due to his ability to help marketers and executives grow their businesses and master the often messy world of digital data.
Kaushik has published two bestselling books on web analytics, while he also keeps a very tidy and informative blog. Back in 2009, the American Statistical Association gave him the Statistical Advocate of the Year Award, while 2 years later the Web Analytics Association honored him with the Most Influential Industry Contributor Award.
Grant Cardone
Cardone is able to dominate all prominent social networking platforms. He’s a successful entrepreneur, a bestselling author, and a true mentor for anyone looking to become adept at business growth and potent digital marketing strategies. Forbes recently pronounced him the most successful marketing influencers to follow.
If you find yourself in Miami or anywhere near Vice City next year in February, make sure to attend his growth conference, we are sure it’s going to be more than useful.
Danny Sullivan
With over half a million followers on Twitter, Sullivan is among the main people to follow if you are trying to figure out how to make yourself more visible in the eyes of Google. He’s a founder of two very successful companies Marketing Land and Search Engine Land and now works for Google as a public speaker and an educator on how search engines work.
He’s also a huge sci-fi fan, so you can expect some pretty cool and out-of-this-world tweets and references.
Aleyda Solis
Aleyda has over 50,000 followers on Twitter and is one of the most successful and sought-after experts on SEO. She’s worked with many startups and companies that reached global fame, so you know she is able to provide insightful tips.
She also runs a rather informative personal blog that is packed with actionable digital marketing tips on how to rank higher in Google search, reach more potential clients and grow your company like a pro.
In 2015, Forbes recognized her as one of the top 10 digital marketing specialists to follow and learn from.
Scott Stratten
President of Un-Marketing, Stratten is among the most respected experts in authentic social marketing, so those who want to learn how to reach their target audience more easily should join the other 181k people who are following him on Twitter.
Some of the most prominent industry leaders and entrepreneurs worked with Scott when they needed help with their social media strategies. Forbes recently included him in the top 5 social media influencers list.
Oli Gardner
Oli is one of those old-school digital marketing pioneers who genuinely believe that sharing is caring. He’s a passionate public speaker, co-founder of Unbounce, and one of the most important influencers in the field of landing pages and data-driven marketing strategies.
Shama Hyder
Be sure to become one of her 45,000+ followers on Twitter who have the privilege to learn the digital marketing and PR tricks of the trade from this all-around digital marketing expert and highly respected best-selling author. Hyder is also the CEO at ZenMedia, a globally successful online marketing and digital PR agency. She also quite witty and her fantastic sense of humor is what made us love her even more.
Joe Chernov
Chernov has over 25,000 Twitter followers and is one of our favorite digital marketing personalities. He’s a CMO at Robin Powered and Insightsquared, and has been praised and recognized as one of the most prominent influential marketers by the Content Marketing Institute and Adweek.
One of his latest tweets read: “Any fool knows what to say on an employee’s first day. A leader knows what to say on their last.” We couldn’t agree more.
Juan Merodio
With over 103,000 followers on Twitter and 17,000 on his YouTube channel, Juan is one of the most successful digital marketing and social media experts in Spain and Latin America. Merodio is an avid public speaker, which is why numerous marketing related conferences across the globe hire him to teach and preach on how a young company should use online marketing strategies to grow their business.
Joanna Lord
Lord is currently the CMO at ClassPass, but has also been working for such huge names as Porch, BigDoor Inc., and Moz. She likes to share her vast knowledge and experience via the blog posts she writes for Entrepreneur, Marketing Land and JoannaLord. We at Reportz believe Joanna is one of the brightest minds in niches like brand marketing, growth hacking, and content.
Barry Schwartz
Barry is currently the news editor of Search Engine Land and the main man behind the SEO platform Search Engine Roundtable that has become one of the most popular websites in the search marketing community. If you want to stay in the ever-changing loop of Google algorithm updates, Barry is the guy to follow.
Closing Word
These are just some of the influential digital marketing experts you can learn from and our Reportz team is sure we failed to mention many of them who also deserve the spotlight. However, we do guarantee, if you choose to follow at least 3 of the influencers we mention above, you will find yourself on the right track to turn your business around and grow your agency at the right pace.
