Digital marketing is one of the fastest moving industries anywhere. So whether you’re a professional marketer, or a business owner whose remit includes marketing, you need to be constantly reading expert advice and news on the latest innovations. Otherwise you’ll fall behind your competitors, or miss an opportunity you never knew existed.
That’s all very well, of course, but there is a bewildering amount of online content relating to digital marketing, and thousands of blogs or similar resources on the subject. It’s easy to sign up for continued alerts from each site where you see a good article – and then before you know it, you’re being bombarded and getting stressed that you can’t read all this stuff. So you end up unsubscribing or mass deleting, or just ignoring all of it.
You’ll only be effective at staying up-to-date if you’re selective, since you can only read so many articles a week. Be realistic. Pick a few blogs (say ten) that are consistently insightful and interesting, and stick with those as much as possible. Sign up for their email alerts, and move those emails to a folder in your inbox separate from everything else.
How do you find those ten super-useful digital marketing blogs? Well, we’ve done the hard work for you on that front, and compiled our favourites below. These blogs are written by teams or individuals who are at the forefront of digital marketing trends, or highly influential marketers. In each case, we’ve stated in what areas of marketing that blog tends to be strongest.
The best digital marketing blogs in 2015
The order of the top ten blogs is by alphabetical order according to the blog’s name; it doesn’t indicate a ranking of any kind.
Buffer
Best for: Social media; content marketing
Why you should read it: All Buffer’s articles are highly detailed, action-oriented and feature original research and graphs/charts. The focus of most of the posts is on how to use social media more effectively: typical topics might be how to gain quality followers, how to use analytics to get better results from social media, or great free tools or templates.
Copyblogger
Best for: Content marketing; social media
Why you should read it: Copyblogger is one of the most-visited content marketing blogs, and there’s a reason for that: their articles are dedicated to making you a better writer, capable of creating content that makes people sit up and pay attention. Check out their ebooks and forum as well, as both are useful resources.
Econsultancy
Best for: Data insights; email marketing
Why you should read it: This blog covers the full gamut of digital marketing, and posts several times a day on topics such as industry-wide trends, the challenges of data analysis and mobile optimisation, and how to do ecommerce better. Econsultancy also produce numerous white papers, surveys and research topics, which are worth browsing.
Hubspot
Best for: Content marketing, email marketing
Why you should read it: Hubspot’s marketing blog produces consistently interesting articles from a wide range of authors, and provides plenty of inspiration for new ideas. Content marketing tactics are a favourite, though you’ll also see pieces on SEO, productivity, email marketing and interviews with business figures.
Koozai
Best for: SEO, PPC
Why you should read it: Koozai is a UK-based digital marketing agency, and its blog is a great example of how an agency can demonstrate credibility through providing free content that shows expertise. All articles are tagged under five categories: SEO, Content Marketing, Paid Search, Social Media and Brand. Be sure to take a look at their videos too, which are often insightful.
Marketing Profs
Best for: Latest trends, data insights
Why you should read it: The article library at Marketing Profs is very extensive, and helpfully sorted by category – making it easy to read the latest posts on the topic you’re most interested in. As it’s designed to be a resource for marketers to develop their skills, the site includes some useful video tutorials and guides. If you’re on Twitter, search for the hashtag #marketingprofs for the latest articles and discussions.
Moz Blog
Best for: SEO, data insights
Why you should read it: If you can only read one SEO blog, this should be it. Moz is very selective when it comes to picking authors and angles, and their articles are always detailed, actionable, and quick to cover any algorithm changes or new search engine features. Moz’s coverage goes beyond technical SEO to include content marketing, PR, UX and keyword research. Definitely make a point to check out Whiteboard Friday, a weekly video on an SEO topic by Moz founder Rand Fishkin.
Occam’s Razor
Best for: Analytics, data insights
Why you should read it: Occam’s Razor is the blog of Avinash Kaushik, one of the most influential writers on the ‘so what?’ approach to analytics. In case you’re wondering, the Razor refers to a 14th-century principle that advocates always using the simpler of two theories that propose the same outcome. That mantra encapsulates Kaushik’s approach, which is not to get lost in data or produce fuzzy conclusions, but focus on the simplest methodology to use analytics to see what’s really affecting the bottom line. His articles are always long-form and always make you realise you could be doing your analysis (particularly with Google Analytics) a little better.
Quicksprout
Best for: Conversion optimisation, SEO
Why you should read it: This is the blog of Neil Patel, an entrepreneur who was cited by Forbes as one of the top 10 online marketers worldwide. He tends to post every couple of days or so, and almost every article is worth reading in full, as he covers mistakes and successes he’s seen in areas like linkbuilding, social media engagement, A/B testing, email marketing and many more. Immensely useful.
Unbounce
Best for: Conversion optimisation, UX
Why you should read it: Unbounce is a website testing tool, so naturally its blog concentrates on split testing, what makes an effective landing page, what obstructs conversion, etc. If you need inspiration or tips to get your key pages to work better, or want advice on how and what to test, make this blog your first point of call.
[bctt tweet=”Find out what the 10 most useful digital marketing blogs are in 2015″]
We hope that list is useful. Obviously it was difficult to pick ten from so many great blogs, so honourable mentions should also go to:
- The blog at Content Marketing Institute
- Convince and Convert, which is great for social media and content marketing strategies
- Social Media Examiner: useful for optimisation tips for any social network
- UnMarketing, for advice on getting better user engagement
- And of course, this blog at Yell Business!
Are there any other digital marketing blogs you always read that aren’t mentioned here? If so we’d love to hear about them: please let us know by leaving a comment below.
