Without question, the Content Marketing World conference is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to all things content. This is where I should segue into a Death Star reference and something about a love child between Joe or Robert and Princess Leia. Or was it Chewbacca? I kid.
What I’m not kidding about is that there are over 150 speakers at Content Marketing World that have spent numerous hours researching, planning and crafting presentations as well as practicing and coordinating their travel and stay at the event. When you think about it, the cumulative amount of content created amongst all those speakers isn’t just formidable, it’s outright impressive.
As you may know, I’m very interested when it comes to influence in marketing and events create an ideal opportunity to identify, qualify and rank the social influence of the speakers that have worked so hard to deliver useful information to attendees. That’s exactly what I’ve done with this post and the 2016 Content Marketing World speakers.
Keep in mind, this is not a popularity list of marketers or a subjective list of personal favorites. It is a researched group of those who are most influential for “content marketing” based on social media and blog content on the web.
To create this list of 50 content marketing influencers, we used our client, Traackr’s, influencer marketing platform and their filtering methodology that combines topical relevance, resonance of that topic amongst the influencer’s community and overall reach. Traackr pulls data from crawlable RSS feeds, Twitter, public Facebook and LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and Google+.
“Content Marketing” is a huge topic and we could have easily added many more than 50, especially people like Stephanie Losee, Joe Chernov, Ahava Leibtag, Rand Fishkin, Ann Marinovich, Justin Levy, Jeannine Rossignol, Todd Wheatland, Kristina Halvorson and keynote speakers John von Brachel and Lars from LEGO. But, ironically, there are only 50 spots in a list of 50!
In the end, this list is a good mix of the smart brand, agency, vendor and industry content marketing talent you can expect to meet this week in Cleveland. Enjoy!
Michael Brenner @brennermichael
CEO, Marketing Insider Group, Author
Presenting: A Content Formula for Complex B2B Organizations and How B2B Executives Need to Strategize in the World of Content
Juntae DeLane @juntaedelane
Senior Digital Brand Manager, University of Southern California and founder of the Digital Branding Institute
Presenting: Using Content Marketing with No Budget or Resources to Build Your Digital Brand
Joe Pulizzi @joepulizzi
Founder, Content Marketing Institute, Author
Presenting: Welcome to the Content Marketing Revolution and Content Inc: Startups to Small Businesses
Pam Didner @pamdidner
Consultant, Author, Adjunct Instructor, West Virginia University
Presenting: How to Build a Global Content Marketing Team and The Step-by-Step Guide to Create Global Content Marketing Strategy
Ian Cleary @IanCleary
Founder and CEO of RazorSocial
Presenting: Tools and Technology for Building a Content Conversion Funnel
Carla Johnson @carlajohnson
Marketing and Customer Experience Consultant, Type A Communications, Author
Presenting: My Employee Said What?!?! Creating a Content Strategy For Employees, The Most Vital and Ignored Audience and How B2B Executives Need to Strategize in the World of Content
Andy Crestodina @crestodina
Strategic Director, Orbit Media Studios, Inc., Author
Presenting: Keynote: Content’s Fortune and Glory: How to Make Friends, Rank High and Get Famous Online and Web Design vs. Analytics Setup: 5 Little Design Decisions That Cause Big Analytics Problems
Lee Odden @leeodden
CEO, TopRank Marketing, Author
Presenting: How to Improve the ROI of Your Content Agency Investment and How B2B Executives Need to Strategize in the World of Content
Jay Baer @jaybaer
President of Convince & Convert, Author
Presenting: How to Use Customer Service and Community to Create Killer Content and Evolution and Opportunities in Business Podcasting – Q&A
Pawan Deshpande @TweetsFromPawan
CEO, Curata
Presenting: Ridiculously Awesome Curation Hacks to Goose Your ROI Like Crazy
Arnie Kuenn @arniek
CEO, Vertical Measures, Author
Presenting: How to Get 77% More Traffic from Your Existing Content
Chad Pollitt @chadpollitt
Adjunct Instructor, Rutgers University, VP of Audience & Co-founder Relevance, Author
Presenting: Paid and Unpaid Content Promotion and Distribution Methods That Actually Work
John Jantsch @ducttape
President, Duct Tape Marketing, Best-Selling Author
Presenting: Workshop: Content Inc.: Startups to Small Businesses
Robert Rose @robert_rose
Chief Strategy Advisor, Content Marketing Institute, Author
Presenting: Opening Keynote Q/A Interview: Content Marketing and Change Management – Making it Real, The Biggest Challenges and Opportunities in Content Marketing: A Q/A with Leading Technology Marketers, and Content Marketing is Broken – Here’s How to Fix It and Tie It to Real Business Results
Brian Carter @briancarter
CEO / Digital Marketing Consultant, The Carter Group, Author
Presenting: Facebook Advertising Lead Generation and Content That Sells
Bryan Kramer @bryankramer
President + CEO PureMatter, Author
Presenting: How to Create and Manage an Influencer Marketing Program
Marcus Sheridan @TheSalesLion
President, The Sales Lion
Presenting: The 7 Keys to Owning the Digital Age and Dominating Your Niche: Today, Tomorrow and Beyond and How to Tear Down Sales and Marketing Silos: The Secret to Developing a Culture of Content Across the Entire Organization
Jennifer Goforth Gregory @byjengregory
Freelance Content Marketing Writer and Strategist
Presenting: Hunting the Unicorn: Five Ways to Rope in Highly Qualified Freelancers
Gini Dietrich @ginidietrich
CEO, Arment Dietrich, Inc., Author
Presenting: Email Drop Campaigns That Work and Use PR to Fuel Your Content Marketing Efforts
Matt Heinz @heinzmarketing
President, Heinz Marketing Inc
Presenting: 50 Essential Content Marketing Hacks: New Tools, Tricks, Shortcuts, Best Practices and More to Convert Readers Into Customers
Russell Sparkman @fusionspark
Co-founder, CEO, Fusionspark Media, Inc.
Presenting: First, Find Your Mission: How to Use Brand Purpose to Drive Content Marketing Strategy
Ann Handley @marketingprofs
Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs, Author
Presenting: Keynote: A Look Back at the Best Marketing of 2017 and How to Level-Up Your Writing and Make it Ludicrously Spectacular
Mari Smith @marismith
Consultant, Facebook Small Business Training, Author
Presenting: Social Video: How Companies Are Succeeding with Videos on Facebook
Jay Acunzo @jayacunzo
VP of Platform, NextView Ventures
Presenting: The Content Talent Crunch: How Marketing Leaders Approach Hiring A New Breed of Marketer, and Unthinkable: How the World’s Most Creative Content Marketers Do What Others Wouldn’t Dare, and This Session Disappears in 10 Seconds: A Fireside Chat and Q/A on Snapchat
Cassio Politi @tractobr
Diretor de content marketing, Tracto
Presenting: How Small Differences in Buyer Personas’ Behavior Impact the Global Strategy
AJ Huisman @ajhuisman
Founder, Y Content
Presenting: How to Turn Highly Billable Professionals Into Extremely Productive Content Marketing Rockstars That Get Bottom Line Results
Jonathan Crossfield @kimota
Editorial Directoru2014Telstra Smarter Business Ideas, Bauer Media Australia
Presenting: Social Media and Your Audience: The Proper Approach to Social Communications
Doug Kessler @dougkessler
Creative Director & Co-Founder, Velocity Partners
Presenting: What Great Content Looks Like: The Power of Insight
Jeff Herrmann @jefflherrmann
Chief Strategy Officer, Fathom: A Digital Marketing & Analytics Agency
Presenting: Social Selling 101: 3 Methods to Enable a Social Savvy Sales Force
Ardath Albee @ardath421
CEO & B2B Marketing Strategist, Marketing Interactions, Author
Presenting: How to use Content to Maximize the B2B Buying Process and B2B Demand Generation – It’s Bigger Than You Think
Bernie Borges @bernieborges
Executive Producer: Social Business Engine, Find and Convert, Author
Presenting: Opportunities for B2B Brands in Live Video
Andrew Davis @drewdavishere
CEO, Monumental Shift, Author
Presenting: Killer Content: How Brilliant Brands Create Less Content and Deliver Bigger Success and Content Marketing ROI Simplified
Colleen Jones @leenjones
CEO, Content Science
Presenting: Leveraging Content Intelligence: Lessons Learned at American Cancer Society
Tom Webster @webby2001
Vice President, Strategy and Marketing, Edison Research
Presenting: The Forgotten Discipline of (Content) Marketing – What To Do When You’ve Written All the “Helpful” Content
John Hall @johnhall
CEO, Influence & Co.
Presenting: The New Jedi Mind Trick: How to Dominate Your Industry By Building Your Authority and Leveraging Influencer RelationshipsThe New Jedi Mind Trick: How to Dominate Your Industry By Building Your Authority and Leveraging Influencer Relationships
Buddy Scalera @buddyscalera
Senior Director Content Strategy, Global Health Science, The Medicines Company
Presenting: Creating A Visual Content Strategy that Scales
Deana Goldasich @goldasich
CEO, Well Planned Web, LLC
Presenting: Getting Executive Buy-In For Content Marketing
David Beebe @davidbeebe
Vice President, Global Creative and Content Marketing, Marriott International
Presenting: Between the Sheets of Marriott’s M Live
Rebecca Lieb @lieblink
Analyst, Advisor, Principal at Conglomotron, Author
Presenting: Contextual Content From Websites to Wearables to Wherever and Mobile Moments: Where Content Meets People, Places and Things
Jeff Julian @jjulian
Chief Marketing Officer, AJi, Author
Presenting: A Journey Through your First Agile Marketing Effort
Susan Borst @susanborst
Sr. Director of Industry Initiatives, IAB
Presenting: Great Content: Now What Are you Going to Do With It? Let’s Talk Native Advertising
Cameron Conaway @cameronconaway
Content Marketing Manager, Flow
Presenting: Journalism, Content Marketing and the Shared Wor(l)ds Between
Ian Altman @ianaltman
CEO, Keynote Speaker, Sales Advisor, Grow My Revenue, Author
Presenting: The Right Content to Accelerate Sales
Travis Wright @teedubya
CMO, CCP.Digital, Author
Presenting: How to Develop and Execute a Social Business Strategy
Paul Roetzer @paulroetzer
CEO PR 20/20, Author
Presenting: Content Marketing in the Machine Age: 25+ Tools and Techniques to Make Your Content More Automate and Intelligent
Mathew Sweezey @msweezey
Principal of Marketing Insights, Salesforce
Presenting: How to Improve the Value of Your Email Through Marketing Automation
Jesper Laursen @jesperlaursen
CEO, Native Advertising Institute
Presenting: Panel: Great Content. Now What Are You Going To Do With It? Let’s Talk Native Advertising
Amanda Todorovich @amandatodo
Content Marketing Director, Cleveland Clinic
Presenting: Team Building: How to Staff, Structure and Budget A Content Marketing Team
Mitch Joel @mitchjoel
President, Mirum Agency, Author
Presenting: Keynote: Content is Dead: Focus on the Network Effect and Evolution and Opportunities in Business Podcasting -A Q/A
Tami Cannizzaro @tamicann
Vice President, Head of North America Marketing, Oracle
Presenting: The New Rules of Global Customer Engagement: How to Build Momentum for Your Brand Around the World Through Content Marketing
I’m pretty sure people that attend conferences don’t realize the aggregate volume of effort that goes into an event like Content Marketing World and the CMI staff do a great job, which is self-evident given their growth and the recent acquisition. Hats off to Joe, Pam, Robert, Cathy and the CMI team for all their hard work in making Content Marketing World the death star of content marketing. See what I did there?
In addition to sharing this list of 50 content marketing influencers, I’ve pulled together the top 10 most popular content marketing articles from this blog from 2016. Enjoy!
- 6 Bad Content Marketing Habits
- How Social Media & Content Marketing Work Together
- SEO Tips and Tactics for Content Marketing
- Using Long-Form Content on Social Media as a Content Marketing Tactic
- 8 Ways to Build Credibility & Trust with Content Marketing
- What is a Content Marketing Strategy?
- 4 Elements of Successful Content Marketing on LinkedIn
- How to Be the Best Answer: Content Marketing Best Practices
- 38 B2B Content Marketing Case Studies for 2016
- Content Marketing: Integrity, Storytelling & Creativity
On the topic of Content Marketing World – I’m presenting on Thursday at 12:05pm in Room 1 on How to Improve the ROI of your content marketing agency investment. Unlike breakout sessions, pre-registration is not required for lunch and learns. It’s first-come, first served, so you should get there early if possible to get a seat.
