Talkwalker Blog

21 of the best digital marketing blogs in the US

Written by Talkwalker | December 8, 2019

The best digital marketing blogs all offer: insights, news, tips and strategies you can emulate to achieve similar results to what the pros do. Whether your focus is SEO, analytics, PR, social media, organic or paid, blogging, e-Commerce, B2B, or you just want to keep up with industry trends, there’s something for you to learn here.

These blogs are skimmable, scannable, readable, and even deep-diveable. They have all proven their worth to marketers many times over.

As you read, keep in mind ways to apply lessons shared here for your own brand or business. 

As you will learn, creating content doesn’t have to be difficult, because you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you tweet. SEO doesn’t have to be hard, you can tread a path heavy with web traffic. PR, communications, analytics, even the logistics of constructing a blog are all covered here for you. 

You have the power, and below, the resources, to not just learn these concepts, but master them. If you feel an impactful and insightful blog is missing from this list, let's hear it in the comments!

In no particular order:

Hootsuite | Social media tools and other important news you can use

Why it’s great: Hootsuite is one of the most important leaders in the social media space. The Hootsuite tool is a social media scheduler and analytical dashboard that can help boost your brand’s presence (and make your life easier once you find out your ideal posting time is 1:30am). All that’s great, but if you don’t have a clue about what content to post you won’t have many results to measure. The Hootsuite blog provides a wealth of important information from facts (like what size photo is ideal for Instagram) to suggestions on ways to reuse content and jump on trends in a timely manner.

What you'll get:

HubSpot | Digital commerce and marketing software, plus so much more

Why it’s great: HubSpot offers software for inbound sales and marketing, largely through social media marketing but also general ecommerce. Its blog covers all the topics you need, plus just about anything else under the sun that’s partially related to the field. They are thorough and informative, offering guides, ebooks, courses and certifications, reports, and original research. If HubSpot doesn’t cover it, you’re asking the wrong questions.

What you’ll get:

Convince & Convert | Jay Baer can teach you how to sell online

Why it’s great: Jay Baer is one of the most authoritative voices in the digital marketing field, and he offers his consulting services for whatever marketing problem you might face. But he also offers his blog as a place to answer your own problems, and it’s helpfully broken down by category.

What you’ll get:

 

NealSchaffer.com | How to grow personally or as a business, using influencer marketing

Why it’s great: Neal Schaffer literally wrote the book on influencer marketing. Besides having a wealth of experience in influencer marketing, he shares ideas that are both creative and common sense when it comes to getting started in the world of digital marketing and ecommerce. Especially with the quickly changing landscape of influencer marketing, there’s something at NealSchaffer.com that will help you keep up. You just have to find it!

What you’ll get:

  • What concerns the brand concerns Neal Schaffer’s team, and this blog post about giving influencers creative freedom while protecting your brand is an important lesson in trust, influencer identification, and engaging with a community. Brush up!
  • Learn how to boost your Instagram engagement, the marketer’s holy grail metric, by writing better Instagram captions. Sometimes we all need a gentle reminder that if you’re going to take 25 shots of the same thing in order to get the “perfect” one, maybe you should spend more than 45 seconds on the caption too. 

 

Trust Insights Blog | Data science for the digital marketer

Why it's great: Chris Penn and the team at Trust Insights are the fount you didn’t know you needed when it comes to data. Most surprising is that for a small team they sure do make big data accessible. 

Chris Penn and Katie Robbert lend their expertise in the field to marketers who often face unique problems. They have insightful and creative tips on how to use your data, and they share that knowledge on their blog. They are also master recyclers, turning a single piece of research or other content into a dozen or more different formats including ebooks, blogs, podcasts, webinars, videos, reports, guides... the list goes on. You can learn that skill from them very easily as well. 

What you’ll get:

  • This blog argues that content is a commodity, but as marketers we aren’t looking for people who view it that way. We’re looking for the connoisseurs who value quality in content. It’s an important way to look at yourself and the work you do, as well as where you source your marketing “beans” from. Read the post, then you’ll understand.
  • This isn’t a blog, it’s a podcast! But what’s really crazy is how many brands don’t have a YouTube strategy. These are the kind of Trust Insights you need. Plus, if you listen closely, you might be able to hear me rustling papers in the background.

Buffer blog | Social media tools and analytics

Why it’s great: Buffer is another social media scheduler, but this isn’t a blog post about social media schedulers. What makes the Buffer blog great is their thorough and consistent breakdown of the science of social media. There are algorithms at play, and shifting. Buffer helps you stay up-to-date on the fast moving landscape.

What you’ll get:

Cassandra Daily | Gen-Z marketing: it’s more than “OK Boomer”

Why it’s great: Gen Z marketing. They do the research, and their insights prove it. They offer daily updates into the world of Gen Z (and before that, Millennials) and brands. How brands are reaching the demographic, how they’re failing, what is cringey and what is successful. And they’ll be the first I’m sure to offer the brand insights for Gen Alpha that marketers are waiting for (you know, like, in a few years. Let the kids be kids for now).

What you’ll get:

  • Marketing to this generation may be more than “OK Boomer” but before we get there, why don’t you give yourself a full refresher on that meme and what it means.
  • Experiential marketing is one of the best ways to engage Gen Z. It shows them the brand is meeting them on their level, they have to opt-in to participate, and there’s very few rules you have to abide by. This look at “Choose your own ad(venture)” experiences may be all the inspiration you need in order to build your own experiential marketing activation for Gen Z. 

Contently | Content marketing agency for everything

Why it’s great: As the name might imply, Contently is a content purveyor. Their blog is actually divvied up for two segments. Marketers should check out “The Content Strategist” to keep abreast of the trends of the moment in brandland. Freelancers have their own space dealing with freelancer specific issues like pricing, tax season and other problems that are unique to freelancers, like taking time off. 

What you’ll get:

Duct Tape Marketing | One of the best digital marketing blogs for small business owners

Why it’s great: Duct Tape Marketing is aimed at small business owners who have to do everything-- including marketing. John Jantsch created the blog to help entrepreneurs become better marketers.

What you’ll get:

Daily Carnage | Thought leadership and news, for digital marketers

Why it’s great: Carney is a full service digital agency, who happen to run a successful and very digestible daily newsletter, Facebook Group, and social media conference. Their success at winning clients helps inform the topics of their content which generally focus around informing you, the reader. The Facebook Group is also a tremendous resource for those who come across a digital marketing dilemma, with peers eager to lend advice and opinions on tools, strategy, best practices, and even career advice.

What you’ll get:

 

Need help with digital marketing? Get the guide.

Animalz | Content marketing agency, with a blog that's an excellent resource

Why it’s great: This is a blog firmly aimed at content marketers. It’s an easy read, iconoclastic, and informative all at once. The examples below only scratch the surface at the breadth of topics covered here but suffice to say that they’ve thought of everything from career advice to SEO to sales enablement and then some. 

What you’ll get:

  • An explanation and indictment of why all blogs read the same. It argues that SEO has killed creative writing in the name of ranking. I was convinced by the argument, then I read the comments. Now I’m not sure. What do you think?
  • Content and sales should march in lockstep and this post does a great job of explaining why. The only problem of course is you need a content guru who’s also a master of the sales cycle. Hard to find, but solid advice.

ShareThis Blog | Products to make sharing on websites easier, and great content to inspire you

Why it’s great: There’s something for everyone here, and by everyone I don’t just mean social media marketers. The blog is broken up into 3 sections: Best Practices, Thought Leadership and Engineering, where you can learn how to squeeze the absolute most out of your data.

What you’ll get:

  • Twitter best practices, because we all make rookie mistakes. It’s also how we learn.
  • The first time I was told to schedule a gated and dark post, for all the retirees in the whole state of Florida, I freaked right out. What does that even mean? I wish I knew about this blog explaining dark posts back then.

Spin Sucks | Public relations & communications for the digital world

Why it’s great: Gini Dietrich is one of the most respected voices in the social & digital marketing world. She brings her expertise of PR and communications to the digital realm in her blog. I love that she is not afraid to call out mistakes made by brands so others can learn from them. The Spin Sucks blog is divided into four categories - social media, communications, entrepreneurs, and marketing. 

What you’ll get:

 

Banana Data | AI & data science, but also jokes and memes

Why it’s great: It’s the only site on this list that is a Tumblr, so enough said really. As marketers it’s extremely easy to get too caught up in our work, and take ourselves too seriously. As data practitioners, well, let’s just say it’s an even bigger problem for data practitioners. Banana Data is a blog and unobtrusive email newsletter on AI and data science that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s the only resource you need if you want to stay informed on the world of data science without really knowing any algorithms or code. 

 

CampaignLive | The marcomms water-cooler (Subscription required)

Why it’s great: The US offshoot of the longtime UK standard-bearer for the marcomms community is a great resource for the marketing and communications industry in the US. Keep up with the latest campaigns and comings and goings from the major agencies and brands. It offers a place for marketers to gather and discuss the industry. It also has some cool features like “One Word Answers” and “Agency of the Year Awards” that help you as a marketer think differently.

What you’ll get:

SEMrush | The main SEO blog everyone should read

Why it’s Great: SEMrush is an indispensable tool for content marketers. It makes sense then that their blog is an excellent resource for anyone needing help with their SEO, SEM, PPC, or content marketing in general. When staring into the black box that can be search engine land, SEMrush has as much access and insight as anyone in the game, so you know their advice will deliver the goods.

What you’ll get:

  • A summary of a #SEMrushChat (happens weekly on Twitter) around pillar content. You know pillar content when you see it, because it often makes you want to click through to other resources, or dive deeper into a certain niche. In short, pillar content is content you can build around, and that’s valuable for every marketer.
  • For the SEOs in your life, and the people who love them: How to find low competition keywords to drive up traffic without tons of time and effort.

Madalyn Sklar | Twitter tips for building communities

Why it’s great: Madalyn Sklar is a Twitter whiz who can teach you how to get the kind of engagement that matters--quality and community-driven discussions.

What you’ll get:

Social Media Examiner | News, but for social media professionals

Why it’s great: The team that puts on Social Media Marketing World also has a deep website that covers organic and paid on just about every social media platform. If you prefer it in podcast form, their content comes that way too.

What you’ll get:

Moz | SEO products, advice, and thought leadership

Why it’s great: Moz is the SEO leader when it comes to innovation and insights. Their blog is a tremendous resource whether you’re an SEO beginner or a pro who just wants to keep up with the industry. 

What you’ll get:

  • If SEO has you scared and you don’t even know where to start with it, how about finding out why SEO is necessary in the first place. You don’t need to learn everything to make SEO work for you.
  • For example, do you need that location card to come up first for your local business? Here’s how to master local SEO.

Talkwalker | Social listening and marketing insights

Why it’s great: Talkwalker is a social listening platform. As such, two things inform all of our blog posts: data and listening. Having this wealth of data at our fingertips allows us to provide unique insights into trends and cultural moments that goes way beyond our personal opinions or experiences. Listening is more than just social media, and that’s reflected in our blog posts. In addition to pulling data from blogs and forums, we allow customers to enter their own data into our powerful AI engine. Listening is about engaging in a positive way. It’s about a reaction that steadies a reeling brand. Or better still, it’s about eliminating the need to react because listening has foretold these trends to you and you were ready for them. It’s about measuring your successes while identifying ways to improve next time. It’s one step towards enacting a digital transformation for your organization. 

All of that is important, because what the Talkwalker blog offers you is a way to emulate those successes. 

Our blog is filled with guides, ebooks, reports, templates, calendars and more - all designed to easily help you prove that what you do matters. We have a tremendous and diverse team from all over the globe and our content reflects that.

Big brands turn to Talkwalker when they need a truly global solution: one that reflects local market realities and idiosyncrasies while respecting companies’ global processes. 

What you’ll get:

So there you have it, a look at the best digital marketing blogs in the US. Hopefully you’ll be able to use at least one of these sites as a resource and inspiration.

Did I miss one? Feel free to leave a link in the comments.

If you still feel stuck, and aren’t sure where to even begin, we have one last piece that might help you: How to go from marketing strategy to marketing plan: a complete guide.