The Top 13 Digital Marketing Blogs that I Read and the Reasons Why

The digital marketing industry changes almost on a daily basis, and as such, any digital marketing professional worth their salt must keep up to date with the industry. There is so much information out there, so many blogs to read, that it’s just not possible to read them all.  And whilst I will always be on the lookout for new information, there are certain blogs that I subscribe to because of the quality and value of content that they provide.

So, here are the blogs that I subscribe to and find the most interesting and useful - Ranked in no particular order:

1. Hubspot
   As a Hubspot partner, it would be remiss of me not to keep up to date with what they have to say. Hubspot are a company that provide sales and marketing software and are pioneers of the concept of inbound marketing. They are masters at content marketing and produce an unbelievable amount of content on a daily basis. Infact, they have a number of different blogs, one for sales, one for marketing and one aimed at their partners. They very much practice what they preach, providing top of funnel, middle and bottom of funnel content covering a whole range of sales and marketing material that’s useful whether or not you’re a digital marketer. Not only is the content interesting, but you can learn a lot by studying the type and frequency of content that they produce.
   
   
2. DigitalMarketer.com
   Ryan Deiss of Digitalmarketer.com is known as one of the gurus of internet marketing and Digitalmarketer.com is an extremely useful resource for those wanting to learn about putting together digital plans. Ryan’s business model is a membership paid subscription site (although the blog is free) where he provides plenty of templates, blueprints and plans to launch digital campaigns. Whilst the content won’t make you an expert in any one field, It covers most of the main digital marketing platforms at a sufficient level to help you launch successful marketing campaigns. The blog covers a wide range of subject matter and is a great overview of the digital marketing landscape.
   
   
3. PPC Hero
   One of my specialisms is paid search and as such it’s important that I keep up to date with what is going on in the pay per click world. The likes of Google AdWords, Bing, Facebook and Twitter are constantly updating their platforms and technologies and there are always new strategies to consider. PPC Hero provide updates, news, opinion as well as how-to guides.
   
   
4. Wordstream
   Wordstream is one of the leading providers of PPC management software designed to help PPC users optimise their accounts using the company’s “If this, then that” technology. Their whole being is about helping people get the most out of PPC and as such, whilst they cover some content on the general digital marketing industry, their blog is heavily weighted towards paid search.
   
   
5. Cpcstrategy.com
   This blog is mainly aimed at PPC technicians across all the main platforms and has a heavy lean towards e-commerce such as Google Shopping campaigns and Amazon ads. The articles here tend to be more in-depth and a little more technical than the other PPC blogs that I’ve mentioned.
   
   
6. Jonloomer.com
   Known as a master of Facebook advertising, this blog is a must for anyone who is investing money in social search. I particularly like the way that each of his blog articles are available on audio as well as in written format.  He is one of the fastest to test and provide opinion on any new features on Facebook’s advertising platform and gives in-depth reports. Jon also performs many tests to optimise his own accounts and often will provide detailed case studies and tutorials on those tests.
   
   
7. Think With Google
   With Google being the daddy of the internet, as you’d expect, they have an immense insight into the digital marketing landscape. The Think With Google blog provides a fantastic insight into the latest industry trends. There are also some amazing tools that you can use such as the customer journey tool and the consumer barometer.
   
   
8. Infusionsoft
   Similar to Hubspot, Infusionsoft are a provider of marketing automation software, however, their target market tends to be towards the small business sector.  Infusionsoft’s mission is to help small businesses grow and, as such, the articles they provide cover a huge range of business development topics.
   
   
9. Searchengineland.com
   Anything to do with search, you’ll find it on Search Engine Land. It covers all the main search technologies, techniques and platforms such as PPC, SEO, mobile and social. This blog is busy, with 6-10 articles being published each day so if you can’t keep up to date with that amount, then they produce a handy daily digest blog post called SearchCap.
   
   
10. Social Media Examiner
    This is a great resource for increasing your social media knowledge. The articles tend to be more focused on the “how to” side of things rather than on industry insight and opinion. The articles are generally not too technical and often will walk you through a technique or strategy.
    
    
11. Simo Ahava
    I first came across Simo Ahava when I was searching for information relating to Google Tag Manager. Simo is a digital analytics guru and he gives plenty of insight into using analytics to improve your marketing. He spends a great deal of time explaining tools such as Tag Manager and as such, his blogs do get very technical.
    
    
12. Inbound.org
    Inbound.org is not so much a blog, but a community of digital marketing professionals that share either their own articles or features that they have found interesting.  There’s an excellent level of interaction between the community and it’s a great place to get opinion and feedback.
    
    
13. Klood Digital
    It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t mention Klood Digital now would it?! At Klood we have a number of digital marketers who each have their areas of expertise and knowledge covering the whole digital spectrum. This blog gives our take on developments within the industry as well as plenty of how to guides.

As a quick tip, I use an app called Feedly to keep up to date with these blogs. Feedly grabs the RSS feeds that I want to monitor and pulls them into an app so that I can read the blogs at my convenience in one place and it keeps tracks of the articles that I’ve read or reviewed and those I’m yet to look at.

What are your favourite marketing blogs - Let us know in the comments box below.