Social media specialists, SEO gurus, digital marketing evangelists… the modern marketers are mysterious creatures. They shape the digital marketing landscape day in – day out, spreading innovative ideas and making perplex tools to implement said ideas.
Their influence is all around. But who are they?
Here are the top marketers, in no particular order.
1. NEIL PATEL
Specialty: Organic Growth
Who is he?
Neil Patel is recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 35 by the United Nations. According to Forbes, he is ‘One of the top 10 marketers’.
According to Entrepreneur Magazine, ‘He created one of the 100 most brilliant companies’. And according to everyone who bought his book, ‘Hustle’, he is a NY Times best selling author.
Neil is currently focused on KISSmetrics, a customer engagement automation platform, as a co-founder. He’s also co-founded Crazy Egg and Hello Bar, and has provided his services to Goliaths like Amazon, GM, HP and NBC.
Why is he on the list?
Open a new tab and google ‘Online Marketing’. Or don’t, because I’m not fond of cheap suspense and I’m going to tell you anyway.
Ready?
Neil Patel is the first result! Actually his blog, then neilpatel.com and third comes the standard Wikipedia article about ‘Digital Marketing’.
Neil Patel has literary made his name synonymous with digital marketing and for good reason.
Besides the google results, his blog ranks high in both quality and quantity, with his all-time most read articles being: “The Science of Instagram: How to Get More Followers and Likes”, “Do You Want More Traffic” and, of course, “The Beginners Guide to Online Marketing”.
2. JEFF BULLAS
Specialty: Social Media
Who is he?
Jeff Bullas is a blogger, a speaker, a consultant, a strategist, and a best-selling author. His mission: “To inspire and educate people on “How to win at business and life in a digital world”.
As it goes with many stories, Jeff’s journey in the digital marketing world had a rough start. It begins with him being divorced, closing his business, unemployed and owing 2 x Chateau Lafite 1865 bottles in debt (that’s $50k).
With some time on his hands and nothing to lose, he became interested in marketing. He started reading -a lot- and found his own Holy Grail: Social Media. He then started blogging about social media marketing, as a form of escapism; a truly profitable escapism.
10 years and 333k tweets later, Jeff is considered by many the King of content marketing and a major social media influencer.
Why is he on the list?
Can 560k+ Twitter followers be wrong? What about 5 million annual readers?
Jeff’s blog and tweets provide valuable human-centric info and advices regarding social media and content marketing. He is featured in many lists, including:
One of the “Top 20 Influencers of CMO’s” – Forbes, 2017
#1 Content Marketing Influencer – Onalytica, 2015 & 2016
#1 Content Marketing Influencer from 6M+ daily web updates – Appinions, 2015
#8 The World’s Top 40 Social Marketing Talent – Forbes, 2014
I would also include him in the “Top 10 Most Active Digital Marketers on Twitter” list, with Jeff tweeting more than 3,000 times per month (what?!).
3. SEAN ELLIS
Specialty: Growth
Who is he?
Sean Ellis is an entrepreneur, an angel investor, and a startup advisor. In the early days, he was the marketing force behind two companies, LogMeIn & Uproar.com, that led to their initial public offering. Ellis was also the first marketer at Dropbox, Lookout, LogMeIn, and Xobni – each now worth billions of $$$.
Nowadays, he is the CEO and founder of GrowthHackers.com. He is also the CEO and founder of Qualaroo, which is the renamed and reshaped KISSinsights after its purchase, effectively a behavioral insight survey software with the final purpose of converting site visitors into customers.
Apart from his involvement in growing larger companies, Sean is a startup growth expert, if not the startup growth expert. A true top marketer.
Why is he on the list?
Have you ever heard the term “growth hacking”? I’ll assume that it’s a ‘Yes’, otherwise I can’t even imagine what you are doing here. OK so, “growth hacking”: Sean Ellis coined that term! And then he co-wrote a book about it, called “Hacking Growth”.
Sean Ellis is responsible for the huge leap forward the digital marketing world took, through growth hacking and the impact this had on the industry.
4. RAND FISHKIN
Specialty: SEO
Who is he?
Aka “The Wizard of Moz”. Rand Fiskin, among other things, is the founder of SparkToro, a company currently in the makings, with a mission “to discover any target audience’s influential publications, channels, and people.”
Rand was the CEO of a SaaS company that offers SEO tools, called Moz (… and now finally the whole Wizard pun makes sense). A classic self-taught individual with an entrepreneurial spirit, Rand started his digital marketing career in 2002 and Moz 2 years later.
He is also a blogger, co-author of 2 books, “The Art of SEO” and “Inbound Marketing & SEO”, and co-founder of Inbound.org.
Why is he on the list?
If you’re thinking SEO, you’re thinking Rand Fiskin. He has offered to SEO what I have offered to my landlord. A lot.
He is sharing his knowledge through his blog posts and his YouTube series called Whiteboard Friday, with many thousand views.
He’s been featured in Business Week’s 30 under 30 and Business Journal’s 40 under 40. His next goal probably? Forbes’ 50 under 50.
5. Avinash Kaushik
Specialty: Web Analytics
Who is he?
An author, a blogger and a… Google’s Digital Marketing Evangelist. Believe me, I don’t come up with these titles.
He has worked for companies such as Intuit, DirecTV, Silicon Graphics, and DHL and with companies such as Unilever, Dell, Time Warner, Vanguard, Porsche, and IBM.
Avinash received the 2009 Statistical Advocate of the Year award from the American Statistical Association, and the 2011 Most Influential Industry Contributor award from the Web Analytics Association.
He lectures at major US universities including those of Virginia, California, Utah and Stanford University.
Why is he on the list?
Avinash is the Final Boss of Analytics. He is the face behind the numbers: He is remarkably good at turning a bunch of 0110101111 into a bunch of $€$€$$$€$.
Through his books, “Web Analytics: An Hour A Day” and “Web Analytics 2.0”, his blog, Occam’s Razor, and his twitter profile counting 190k+ followers, Avinash influences the digital marketing globe in a way that only few can.
… to be continued
I write for GrowthRocks, one of the top growth hacking agencies. For some mysterious reason, I write on the internet yet I’m not a vegan, I don’t do yoga and I don’t drink smoothies.
