These 13 Top Digital Marketing Blogs will help you to take action in your business and get results. In this post, I’ve compiled 13 of the marketing blogs that I read regularly, week in and week out. Some of them I have read for years and some are new – all will help your marketing efforts.
BY DONNA MORITZ | PUBLISHED JULY 24, 2019
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I’m fortunate to have built a solid business based around this blog. If you’d told me 8 years ago that I would grow a successful, award-winning marketing blog, I would have laughed. I could write… but… a “writer”?
A huge part of my success as a blogger has been the lessons I’ve learned from other blogs and the content they share. I turn to a whole range of marketing blogs for my own learning and growth over the years – all with their own voice, nuance and style.
So, I decided to share the blogs that I turn to on a regular basis, to learn from and be inspired by. And most of all, these blogs challenge my perceptions about the state of all things marketing.
Criteria for Sharing these Marketing Blogs
I wanted to share the key blogs that I read right now. I have been a reader of some of these blogs for years, and a few blogs are new. I subscribe to them by email or notifications or check in regularly when I see them post on social.
All are filled with thought-provoking, actionable advice that’s current in the marketing industry (or in their marketing niche).
There’s no science to this selection. Or influencer marketing scores. Or voting. Or Twitter followers. Or Blog Traffic calculations. Instead, this list of digital marketing blogs is purely based on my given how helpful these blogs have been for my business.
Enjoy! All blogs are in alphabetical order (ie in no order of preference). I love them all ;o)
Find the blogs that resonate the most with you, then pick 2 or 3 to focus on. Add them to your own list!
13 Digital Marketing Blogs that You Can’t Miss
1. Agorapulse Blog
Agorapulse has been my social media management tool of choice for a few years now. You can read my review of it here.
The Agorapulse blog has a team of quality writers who pen helpful, actionable articles about social media including industry-specific articles, case studies and round-up posts, as well as posts reacting to changes to social media platforms.
From visual content tools to analytics, and more – it’s a blog that continually churns out quality content (and no fluff).
2. Andrew and Pete
I had the pleasure of meeting this lively British duo a few years ago after they approached me via email to speak at their first summit. Despite never having met them, I replied heck yes after reading their super-personalised PDF invitation. Trust me, this is a rare and special kind of unicorn. You could say that they “had me at the PDF”.
Since then, I’ve watched these lads go from strength to strength, building a successful membership program and launching a conference. They even keynoted Social Media Marketing World in 2019, and they rocked it.
Lately, I have been finding myself watching their YouTube videos more and more and reading their blog. Andrew and Pete’s videos are their core content, but I am adding their blog to this “marketing blogs” post, because they write super helpful blog posts based around those videos.
I’ve never watched a video of Andrew and Pete’s (or read a blog post) that didn’t have me nodding my head in agreement, laughing or taking away some nugget of gold. Usually all 3 things together. Case in point:
They break the complex down to simplified steps. Any (cough) experienced marketer would benefit from the friendly smack-over-the-head that their advice brings.
How did two young fellas get so wise? I don’t know, but I’m just glad they’re hungry to keep evolving, and they’re sharing it with us. Put simply, Andrew & Pete’s advice is relevant for business owners and marketers of all levels. So check them out!
Try out a few blog posts from Andrew & Pete:
Read Andrew & Pete’s Blog here.
3. Content Marketing Institute (CMI)
The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) is a leading blog that’s dedicated to advancing the practice of content marketing. The site is packed full of practical, how-to articles as well as advice from the experts, news and industry trends. Here are a few posts to get you started:
Read the Content Marketing Institute Blog here.
If you’re looking to up your content marketing game, then be sure to check out Content Marketing World, held in Cleveland in September every year. I am speaking again in 2019 so if you grab a ticket, be sure to use my code MORITZ19 for $100 discount.
4. Destination Think
I’ve been fortunate to do a lot of speaking and training in the tourism industry – from Tourism San Diego to the Organisation of World Heritage Cities in China (Hello, Unesco). Part of this evolved a few years ago, when I was a speaker at some amazing tourism events run by Destination Think.
Their savvy team provides consulting and marketing services to some of the world’s biggest Destination Marketing Organisations (from Tourism Australia to Destination British Columbia).
When I want to know “what’s what” in the fast-changing Tourism Industry, I refer to Destination Think’s Blog. If you work in tourism, you should read this blog too. It covers topics such as Brand and Identity (Place), Content Marketing & Campaigns, Destination Marketing Strategy & Visitor Experience – all written by some of the best minds in tourism. Check out some of the articles under these major categories:
Work in Tourism? I also highly recommend you check out Destination Think’s Tourism Sentiment Index, a tool for measuring the Word of Mouth for Destinations. It’s a game-changer.
Read the Destination Think Blog here.
5. {Grow} by Mark Schaefer
What can I say about Mark Schaefer and his mind? It’s brilliantly insightful and he’s probably one of the few people I trust for insights on the current state of marketing… and the future (as well as a healthy dose of humor while dissecting our marketing past).
If you haven’t read Mark’s books The Content Code, Known and Marketing Rebellion, you need to. Marketing Rebellion, in particular, will flip your thinking about how marketing (and consumers) have changed … and what we need to do about it.
Those same smarts can be found throughout his blog posts. The {Grow} blog on his website – Businesses Grow – is full of engaging, easy-to-read articles. You only have to look at the comments section to see that it resonates and gets us all thinking.
As Mark says, his blog sits at the intersection of marketing, technology and humanity. There’s a good reason why it’s consistently ranked as one of the top 5 business blogs in the world. Here are a few of his posts – to get YOU thinking:
Side note… I went down a rabbit hole while finding some of the posts I love on this blog. It’s why I usually have to grab a hot cup of coffee or glass of wine before going near Mark’s blog because I end up staying a while.
6. Later
I love Later’s blog for Instagram marketing trends, tips and tools. I rarely see a post that I don’t want to read! Part of the reason the Later team knows so much about Instagram is that their tool is an awesome Instagram scheduling tool. As such, they stay in their own lane on the blog, talking all things Instagram.
Later’s blog titles alone hook me in. They follow these up with actionable content I can use, based on data and case studies. And they use fun visuals and lots of screenshots and visual examples, which always helps!
Here are a few posts you might want to check out:
7. Over
I love Over. Since I first discovered this tool, it’s been my favourite app for design on a phone – it’s just the most intuitive, finger-and-thumb-friendly design tool on a mobile phone that I have come across.
Yes, other DIY-design tools have created “apps” fashioned after their desktop tool, but Over (to me) is the leader of the bunch. Mainly because it was created from the ground-up for designing on a smartphone. Which brings me to their blog….
The Over Blog is a different kind of beast for me, because I read it mainly when I open the Over app. It’s there, inviting me to discover:
Over has integrated the blog with the app, so when you open the app, you’re shown the blog thread at the top of the screen. Then, your functionality to start designing is at the bottom of the screen. I admit it. I often end up reading articles when I actually went into the app to start designing. But they are just so. dang. interesting. So I always learn something, even if distracted.
The Over Blog is one of the few marketing blogs I always read on mobile. But the beauty is that once I get my inspiration, I’m already IN the app. So, I can start creating or trying what I just learned.
Over has a whole range of article types including:
If you want to dabble with design (as a non-designer or a designer) then this is a great blog to read!
8. Razor Social
My friend, Ian Cleary has built a fabulous blog filled with super helpful content around marketing technology. If you use marketing tools online and want to get the best out of them – from funnels to optimizing blog content – then Ian’s blog is a great place to start. Razor Social content that ranges from how to use social media tools to how to work with influencers.
Read the Razor Social Blog here.
9. Social Media Examiner
Soical Media Examiner was a no-brainer to add to this list! It was the first real “social media blog” I started reading almost a decade ago. I’ve also been fortunate to be a speaker (6 times!) at their annual conference, Social Media Marketing World in San Diego as well as writing for the blog over the years.
Social Media Examiner is definitely a go-to source for the social media marketing industry. Their team publishes daily How-to articles, podcast interviews (the Social Media Marketing Podcast), Tool articles, Viewpoints, Round-ups from the Pros, and Research articles. They also produce the super valuable Social Media Marketing Industry Report on an annual basis. And their team is an awesome bunch of super-nice people.
Here are a few articles to check out:
You can read Social Media Examiner here.
10. Social Media Lab by Agorapulse
Agorapulse is back on this list for a second time, but it’s for a very different kind of blog – the Social Media Lab.
Agorapulse’s founder, Emeric Ernoult, decided to invest heavily into this initiative ($15k per month) to help us “crack the code” of social media. His smart team do just that by running experiments to prove or disprove hypotheses around what is actually working. They run both organic and paid experiments and then write about them on the blog and a regular podcast.
Basically, Agorapulse wants to save us from doing the dirty work. Instead, they give us the process, results and conclusions about what is working right now in social media. Check out some of the resulting posts from their experiments:
I highly recommend keeping an eye on the results from the Social Media Lab team. Like me, you might find some of those results to be quite surprising!
You can read the Social Media Lab Blog here.
11. Tailwind Blog
I am a daily user of Tailwind app to manage my Pinterest scheduling and so much more. You can read my full review of Tailwind here. I am also an avid reader of their blog. It’s one of the blogs I share most on Pinterest and it features awesome articles about Pinterest and Instagram.
Tailwind’s blog tagline is “World Class Marketing Made Easy and Fun for everyone”. I would agree with this. The articles are always insightful and focused on actionable results with how-to and step-by-step examples. And some cool visuals for sharing on social media.
Here are a few articles from the Tailwind Blog for you to try on for size:
12. Wave.video
Wave.video is my go-to video editing tool for quick, easy, social video. I did a full review of it here. But they’ve also produced a pretty classy (and super easy-to-read) blog that keeps getting better and better. If you read this blog, you’ll up your video marketing game.
Here are a few examples of the posts that you will find on their blog:
Read the Wave.video Blog here.
13. Smart Passive Income Blog
I’ve followed Pat Flynn for a while and listened to his Smart Passive Income Podcast, but recently I’ve been diving more into his blog too. It’s a mix of written articles and podcast show-notes from his podcast, which suits me as I like to read as well as go-audio when I am out and about.
Pat’s website is really well segmented these days. You can find what you want easily from categories like Podcasting, Better Blogging, Online Courses, Tools of the Trade, Email Marketing and Affiliate Marketing.
Here are a few articles to check out: How to Win with Email Marketing in 2019
Top 5 Major Business Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make
How to Start an Online Business
Read the Smart Passive Income Blog here.
Not Enough Marketing Blogs For You?
Here are a few more blogs that I love diving in to from time to time:
Depositphotos Blog – this is anything BUT a blog about boring stock photos. The Depositphotos blog showcases a great mix of helpful marketing and business articles (featuring a lot of visual content) through to interviews, news, and design articles (even design for beginners). I also love their photo collections like the Internet of Things in 2019. From drone images to cats atop Robovac’s, they showcase the best of stock photography (and they’re anything but boring). Read the Depositphotos blog here.
Ian Anderson Gray – you’ll need a cup of something to sip while you read Ian’s posts – they are mega – on Seriously Social. He does very thorough reviews on marketing tools and technology and also writes about live-streaming and how to be more confident when you go live (plus the tech and gear to do so). Read Ian’s Seriously Social blog here.
Yoast Blog – if you want to up your SEO and search traffic game, then check out the Yoast Blog. I’ve written about the Yoast plugin here. This plugin is free to to use so if you have a WordPress Blog, be sure to use it. I wouldn’t blog without it. The Yoast blog has useful tools and tips for optimizing your blog for SEO. Check it out here.
Neil Patel – Another great SEO blog, is by Neil Patel. He’s got some super-helpful content and he breaks down his tips into easily actionable steps in his posts and videos. Neil has also created an awesome SEO tool called Uber Suggest and it’s free… like really free! Then he helps you use it by sharing tips in his blog and videos. He’s definitely worth following. Read his blog here.
The Pinterest Blog – if you use Pinterest, then following the Pinterest blog is well worth the effort. Pinterest includes news, what’s working on Pinterest, tips for using Pinterest, as well as showcasing businesses doing well on Pinterest. Read the Pinterest Blog here. It’s as easy to read and consume (and as pretty to look at) as Pinterest is.
Over to You
What marketing blogs do you rely on for your most valuable marketing advice? Are any of these on the list? I’d love to know your favourite blogs in the comments below.
Donna is a Visual Content Strategist and founder of Socially Sorted, listed by Forbes as a “Top 5 Social Media Blog You Need to Know About”. Donna helps brands leverage the power of visual storytelling and content strategy in their business. Her content has been featured in publications such as Forbes, Inc. & Entrepreneur and she is a speaker and trainer on visual content for the marketing and tourism industries internationally.
