BuzzSumo released the Top 100 Content Marketers to follow in 2021.
I spent a good number of hours going through the list, following amazing marketers, reading their content, and well… creating this post.
As I read the amazing content of these marketing influencers, I had this idea: gather one insight for each of these influencers.
I managed to get into a conversation with more than a dozen of these incredible marketers who were so kind to share an insight to be featured here… so enjoy!
49 Marketing Tips from the Top 49 Content Marketers
#1 Brian Dean
How-to posts and lists tend to be evergreen (lasting a long time on the web). If you’re thinking of creating something evergreen, these two types of content should be a priority.
Brian is the master of SEO and if you’re looking for a research-based article, you need to check this one out.
And notice this post… it is a list.
#2 Rand Fishkin
It’s difficult to choose channels for marketing these days. There are so many to choose from!
Rand, recommends choosing channels that intersect 3 things: areas you have personal interest + areas that reach potential customers + areas where you can provide unique value. Find the common ground and you’ll be one step ahead.
#3 Ross Simmonds
This is how most people blog: write content, struggle with writing, and publish it. Crickets. Repeat.
I’m a huge fan of Ross, and well, content distribution is his jam. Ross is an advocate of distributing the pieces of content you create across the web — Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Quora, niche forums, Facebook groups, you name it!
If you spend time creating a valuable piece of content, you must share it a lot more than you’re probably doing at this moment.
Ross Simmonds marketing insight:
“One of the keys to being a great marketer is being curious. One of the biggest mistakes marketers make is staying in our own lane of marketing.
We ONLY listen to marketing podcasts. We ONLY read marketing blogs. We ONLY follow marketers on Twitter. Huge mistake.You have to stay curious and gather insights from all around you. In doing so, you can make connections with your ideas that most marketers cannot. Stay curious.”
— Ross Simmonds
#4 Ann Handley
If you’re a small business, you should consider content marketing. Ann suggests micro-content for social media — Facebook, IG, TikTok, etc. Engage with your customers, be funny, and show your small business in a unique way. Marketing is not just for the big boring corporations.
#5 Kaleigh Moore
All marketing includes copy — ads, blogs, social posts, videos, etc! Kaleigh shared amazing tips on writing copy better. From writing in the first person to making the reader feel something to writing like your audience speaks… and more!
Copywriting is a skill to be learned. And documented.
Kaleigh Moore marketing insight
“In content marketing, documentation is critical. Make sure you have a style guide, detailed briefs, and onboarding materials for your team so there’s consistency across the organization.”
— Kaleigh Moore
#6 Tim Soulo
Speaking of copywriting… your copy and content must be amazing if you’re looking to earn links and get a higher google ranking.
What are you doing to get those link referrals coming through? Follow Tim’s advice.
#7 Andy Crestodina
Rather than trying to rank for “marketing” or “pizza”, go for long-tail keywords. They have lower search results but tend to have higher conversion rates. Why? Because they indicate a stronger intent to find the information.
Andy Crestodina marketing insight
“You’re going to be publishing a lot. Before you turn on the machine, take a minute and look closely at the template in which all of these articles will live. Did you miss anything?
Align your blog post detail template with best practices and you’ll get more value from every post forever. The template itself is a big factor in the percentage of people who bounce, click, share, comment, and subscribe.”
— Andy Crestodina
#8 Brian Clark
Every website, service, and business can be replicated. With a budget and a great team, you can copy the greatest businesses around.
So, how can you differentiate?
With content! When your content is appearing during your customer buying journey, you have an opportunity to market yourself differently — and share your story.
Read Brian’s post to learn an interesting story about Schlitz beer and water purification. You’ll get it.
#9 Ross Hudgens
Ross explains exactly what a KOB analysis consists of and how it can help you build keywords and rank higher.
Here’s his description of this strategy:
“KOB is the act of researching hundreds of topics in your vertical, fully gathering the data for them, understanding that data, and then using that to best prioritize your content in order to rank fastest.”
After following all the detailed steps, you’ll get the KOB score, which is meant to give you some guidance on writing content strategically.
#10 Melanie Deziel
You’re on a call with a client. There are two ways to approach this situation: only talking about yourself and your amazing expertise; being a good listener and understanding your customer’s pain point.
Melanie will definitely swipe left on the first one. And swipe right on the second. It’s all about finding the right way to approach marketing.
Melanie Deziel marketing insight
“Treat client interactions like any relationship you’re building. Take the time to listen and don’t make it all about you! The best relationships happen when there’s give and take.”
— Melanie Deziel, keynote speaker and author of The Content Fuel Framework: How to Generate Unlimited Story Ideas
#11 Kristina Halvorson
Content writer. What does it imply? Kristina puts it so well, when mentions these 3 points:
- Research (a hell lot of it);
- Confront what actually know and what you don’t;
- Risk revealing some ignorance to the world.
Is it hard? Yes. But it’s worth it.
#12 Neal Schaffer
I love this article by Neal.
It’s about nano influencers — influencers with 1,000 – 10,000 followers and how they help you leverage your marketing efforts.
- They tend to be more authentic. After all, they don’t have a huge following.
- They love building community and have high engagement rates in their posts.
- They are cost-effective.
This makes nano influencers an incredible opportunity for smaller businesses.
#13 Jay Baer
If you’re looking to develop your content marketing strategy, read Jay Baer’s article. His 7 steps for developing an (effective) content strategy are gold. These are the steps:
- Determine Objectives for Content Marketing
- What’s Your One Thing?
- Measure Your Content Marketing
- Define Your Audiences
- Research Audience Needs
- Create a Content Execution Plan
- Create a Content Amplification Plan
Get your plan done today.
#14 Michael Brenner
Are you a small business? Great! Michael Brenner shares his best marketing strategies.
From SEO to PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, email marketing, content marketing, etc.
In terms of content marketing, Michael highlights the importance of thinking about content with a long-term perspective which will help you position yourself as an expert.
#15 Brian Honigman
We’ve mentioned influencing marketing. But it’s never too much to mention it again!
In this post, Brian mentions two ways of working with influencers without paying a fortune.
How? By compensating them in different ways — exposure, access, and association.
In terms of exposure, this can be done by interviewing this person and featuring them on your accounts, allowing them to contribute to your channels and re-sharing their content.
All great ideas! Check Brian’s post to learn the two other ways.
Brian Honigman marketing insight
“Content marketing is basically storytelling with the intention of achieving business goals. It’s a wonderful way for your organization to tell stories that matter to your customers, building a relationship with them beyond a sales transaction.
As global competition increases and the internet gets noisier, the connections companies have with their customers will be the differentiators that impact who they decide to spend with. It’s already happening and will continue to be more important every year.”
— Brian Honigman, Marketing Consultant, Career Coach for Marketers
#16 Sandeep Mallya
Sandeep shares amazing listicle articles on his blog. This one caught my attention… why? Because it covers the 15 Best Marketing Youtube Channels.
With so much content out there, I really appreciate having this list on my mind when I’m looking to consume educational content!
Sandeep Mallya marketing insight
“Repurposing content sounds like a tedious task, but it’s what differentiates good content from remarkable content. When you repurpose your posts, you reach a wider audience. Publishing a thoroughly researched, well-written post is only half the job. The other half involves repurposing your post. Repurposing also allows you to breathe new life into old content.
Here are some ideas for repurposing your existing posts:
– Turn your best posts into videos
– Design infographics
– Turn your popular posts into podcast episodes
– Create interactive content pieces like quizzes, polls, etc.
– Convert your best posts into eBooks
– Republish your posts on Medium and LinkedIn”— Sandeep Mallya, Founder of 99signals & Startup Cafe Digital
#17 AJ Ghergich
Do you have a website with content? It’s time for a technical SEO audit.
This article by AJ goes into the depths of a technical audit that will get your page’s Google praise. Really, you must read the article and follow the steps.
#18 David Meerman Scott
The sales department is responsible for the sales, right? Well… Yes, but not only.
In his article, David highlights the importance of everyone engaging in sales — whether you’re an accountant or a lawyer. Everyone in the organization must embrace sales.
David Scott marketing insight
“Educate and inform instead of interrupt and sell.”
— David Meerman
#19 Kevan Lee
Kevan’s newsletter is a gold mine. In a September issue, he shares his tactics for an earned education (that it’s not an expensive MBA). Surrounding yourself with great people is one of them, joining communities, taking online courses. You name it.
This issue is full of valuable insights for thriving in the business world… without an MBA 😉
#20 Colleen Jones
I love content, for since I can remember. And when I saw this tweet by Colleen, I knew this had to be the piece of content to share.
You can think about content, brainstorm, take all the SEO courses in the world. But in the end, you can’t expect ANYTHING you haven’t invested in content. What are you waiting for?
#21 Gerry Moran
“Content is King. But, is your Kingdom Interested?” This is how Gerry states the importance of creating relevant content for your audience.
If they’re using social media to inform their buying decisions, you MUST be there. It’s not enough to have great content. The content must be where your audience is looking for it.
#22 Michele Linn
Want to know the most underused but effective content marketing strategy? Publishing original research.
That’s right, according to Michele. Only 37% of B2B marketers use their original research to publish data and reports.
With these reports, you’re building a valuable asset for anyone in the industry. Original data works. Period.
#23 Jay Acunzo
You want to grow your business. Connect with your customers. Reach new people. But how?
Jay answers that question with one word — resonance. And this flywheel happens to help you do just that — become your audience’s favorite.
If you have 10 minutes, please, do yourself a favor and read this BRILLIANT article by Jay.
#24 Margot Bloomstein
Innovative ideas are challenging to implement. People resist change.
But Margot suggests a different approach. Instead of approaching people with “here’s what I created”, using the pronoun “we” — “here’s what we created together”, increases the chances of adopting new ideas and pushing them forward.
#25 Mark Schaefer
What is branding? Well… that’s complicated. Mark goes over the changing dynamics of brands over time.
It’s no longer about the mission, but what people tell each other about the brand. And really, branding has never been more important.
Mark Schaefer marketing insight
“The economic value of content that is not seen and shared is zero. So yes, we need great content , we need to develop an audience, but we also need a strategy to help the content to move through our audience and beyond.”
— Mark Schaefer, Bestselling author of “Marketing Rebellion
#26 Ryan Law
Good content vs great content. What are really the differences? And most importantly, how can you turn good content into great content
Ryan has written an in-depth guide to writing blog posts that readers actually care about. The best part? Great writing can be taught! So, learn with the experts.
#27 Ardath Albee
The top challenge of B2B content marketing is “Creating content that appeals to multi-level roles within the target audience.”
Ardath helps you solve that problem rather quickly by creating personas or doing the proper research on your customers. You must know your audience first if you want to appeal to the target and not to the masses.
#28 Ekaterina Walter
Customer experience. Standing for something. Being useful. Not flashy. Taking action. Telling stories with heart.
That’s what Ekaterina and her co-author teach in the book “The Laws of Brand Storytelling” — a guide to win customers’ hearts and minds.
Ekaterina Walter marketing insight
“Tell, don’t sell”
— Ekaterina Walter
#29 Meghan Monaghan
Looking for content ideas? Meghan got you covered!
From using the google autocomplete function, to exploring related searches to headline generators, you will end up with dozens of great ideas for your content. Obviously, you should still give planning a role in your strategy!
#30 Hilary Marsh
Hilary is a content strategy expert. And her perspective on building one that sticks is great!
First, build a strategy from a strong foundation. Second, foster champions and allies. Third, keep your content alive.
#31 Melanie Boylan
Should you niche down? Or does that mean losing a huge percentage of your audience? Well, both.
Melanie talks in-depth about the importance of finding a niche, niching down, or not. It is highly relevant for those looking to get a proper answer to these questions!
#32 Mark Traphagen
Keywords this. Keywords that. There are a lot of misconceptions related to keyword SEO analysis, volume, and competition.
Mark does an exceptional job going through the depths of keyword research and how you should approach this metric the right way.
#33 Anthony Gaenzle
What is the second largest search engine? Youtube! Youtube videos offer a valuable opportunity for small businesses.
Anthony goes through some of the objections people have regarding video, “I don’t have time or skills”, “What kind of videos should I make?” But search no more, this post has what you need to thrive on Youtube.
Anthony Gaenzle marketing insight
“Focus first on adding value for your target audience. Each piece of content you create should be dreamed up with your audience’s needs in mind.
What problems can you help them solve? How can you improve their lives? What type of content are they looking to receive? What formats do they prefer?
Once you have these answers, craft content with your audience first and foremost in mind, but make sure to appease those search engine crawlers as well so they can grasp the concept of your content and give you a bump in search results.”
— Anthony Gaenzle – CEO, Gaenzle Marketing and Founder
#34 Amanda Nelson
Amanda is a woman of causes — from techpink, to breast cancer campaigns, to celebrating women founders. Her amazing contribution at salesforce as a marketer highlights exactly that.
She is the perfect example of combining passions and doing it with excellence. Her publications on Medium are worth reading!
#35 Debi Norton
Struggling with content marketing? Debi tells you to focus on this single objective: “Reach the right audience, with the right message, at the right time.”
Debi is right. The audience, message, and timing are the three most important factors of content marketing.
#36 Kylene Kaelin
I love Kylene’s perspective on social media. She focuses on figuring out what makes people tick and why they share stuff online.
“Social Media is democratizing the internet and the incredible amount of information available online, and helping the small business down the street to compete with the huge brand with a multimillion-dollar budget.”
How are you using social media?
#37 Andrew Davis
Is your about page any good? Well, you probably are saying “sure.”
But Andrew has a different answer… In this incredible video, he shares the secret of increasing sales with your about page by embracing where you do business. Shinola’s example is perfect.
#38 Carla Johnson
What is your brand purpose? Does it sound dreamy? Perfect.
Carla highlights the importance of having a higher sense of purpose in your business, which leads to performance. “It’s these big ideas and the meaningful difference they make in the world that bring out the best of everyone in a company.”
“If you want people on social media to listen and pay attention when you share, you have to do that with their content FIRST.
Before you post content, create trust-building conversations by engaging with other people’s content. Contribute in a meaningful way to the conversations that are already happening online and set an intention for connection.
Share your own stories, values, and personality to establish and nurture relationships on social media. Then invite people to move to one-on-one conversations where you can explore deeper connections that lead to opportunities, collaborations, and sales.”
— Deb Coman
#40 Pam Didner
If machines can distinguish between a furry dog and fried chicken, they should be capable to help us with marketing, right? You bet!
Pam highlights the benefits of using AI in marketing — from understanding your customers, to improving customer experience, and optimizing sales journey. Her insights are worth reading!
Pam Didner marketing insight
“Understand your audience deeply. I mean deeply.”
— Pam Didner
#41 Mike Allton
If you’re looking for great podcasts about marketing (which you should), Mike tells you exactly which agency ones you should listen to. I’m having a lot of fun diving deep into these!
#42 Adam Connell
I love guest posts. But guess what? It’s difficult to get in.
Adam shares his amazing strategy to get a lot more positive answers. And none of them involve spamming people with dozens of pitchy emails. It’s all about connection and engagement.
“Many businesses make the mistake of thinking they need to publish content in a certain cadence. While regularity certainly is important, what’s even more important is making sure your content is helpful/inspiring before setting and acting according to a strict calendar.
As a “golden rule” you will try to follow (e.g. the monthly newsletter or daily social post), commit to being helpful and adding value, not just adding to the already existing noise. How often you can deliver this, will be the next question to answer.”
— Maël Roth
#45 John Bonini
How do you describe your work? Blogger, promoter, the seller? What about this subtle change:
John Bonini marketing insight:
“If you and/or the company you work for has been publishing content for more than 2 years, your greatest opportunity for short-term traffic and lead growth is not in publishing new stuff, but updating the old stuff.
Before you publish anything new this month/quarter, you should consider updating these types of posts first.1. The Biggest Losers: Content that’s decayed (lost organic traffic) at a high volume over the last 3,6,12 months.
2. The Almost Famous: Content that’s currently ranking on page 2. An update could give it the bump it needs to drive material increases in organic traffic.
3. The Nobodies: Content that’s targeting high-intent, high-volume keywords that are not ranking at all. These need to be re-written and restructured.
Updating those 3 types of content is an investment that could pay off big right now.”
— John Bonini
p.s. Bonini’s patreon membership is sooo worth it!
#46 Gina Schreck
What are the steps to create a personal brand and build authority? Gina tells you just that.
First, define your topic. Second, choose your format. Third, answer your public. Fourth, continue learning. Fifth, show up!
Check her post to learn more about each of these steps!
“Quit creating bland oatmeal content that everyone else is sharing. Share your opinion on something in your industry or answer questions that your audience is actually asking.
Bottom line, BE INTERESTING, BE HELPFUL, or BE QUIET!”
— Gina Schreck
#47 Eli Schwartz
You know about the importance of SEO — keyword research, link building, analytics, etc.
But Eli knows what other factors will help you rank: Creativity and logic. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the word creativity and SEO come together. And that’s why you need to check Eli’s work.
#48 Cathy McPhillips
Want to incorporate AI in your marketing strategy? Cathy gives you all the answers to your questions.
Lack of time, fear of AI, and unethical behaviors? If these are some of your concerns, you’ll have them deconstructed in Cathy’s article.
Cathy McPhillips marketing insight
“Content marketing needs to get to the heart of your customers, not your product. What do they need? What are their pain points?
Then as a content marketer, how can you create, distribute, and amplify your content so your customers can actually find it? That’s where technology comes into play.”
— Cathy McPhillips
#49 Joe Lazauskas
Want to be friends with the CMO? Joe gives you the blueprint.
First, know exactly what your business marketing objectives are. Then, set KPI’s for those objectives. These two steps will give you a raise… and results!
