50 Content Marketing Influencers and Experts to Follow into 2019

Content Marketing World 2018 will be here before you know it. The largest content marketing conference in the world brings together an incredible cornucopia of talent, curiosity, knowledge and aspirations for success. Marketers from all over the world come to Cleveland, Ohio for this event of epic proportions.

Readers of our blog know we have a long history with the conference starting at the beginning with 8 years of speaking and attending plus 6 years of partnering with Content Marketing Institute to develop speaker/influencer content marketing campaigns, aka “conference ebooks”, to help promote the event.

Another tradition that has recently been imitated but hardly duplicated, is something we started several years ago: sort through the 200 or more speakers and publish a ranked list of content marketing experts according to their social influence.

List Methodology: For this list we use the Traackr influencer marketing platform to filter the content marketing experts who are speaking at the current year’s Content Marketing World conference using a number of criteria including the relevance of the individuals to the topic, the degree to which their networks engage, and the size of their networks. Online data is pulled from blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, SlideShare, Flickr and several other platforms.

Of course the topic in question is: “content marketing”. Everyone included on this list is a) a speaker at CMWorld 2018, b) ranked in the top 50 for “content marketing” according to relevance, resonance, reach and audience metrics.

People always thank me for including them in these lists and there’s no thanks to be given other than to the people who worked hard sharing useful content about content marketing to their social channels, in blogs, in videos and online in general.

Thanks goes to ALL of the people who are actively sharing knowledge about content marketing by engaging and helping others with opinions, insights and expertise on the social web. This list is just the beginning of understanding all of the top experts and influencers around the topic of content marketing.

In this year’s list there are many familiar faces and some that are new. I hope you find new and inspiring content marketing experts to follow through the rest of this year and into 2019.

50 Content Marketing Influencers Speaking at CMWorld 2018

BIG congratulations to Erika Heald for the top spot and to the other 3 women in the top spots: Pam Didner, Carla Johnson and Kelly Hungerford.

Congrats AGAIN to Ann Handley for being the Most Engaging Content Marketing Influencer out of this year’s group of speakers, based on Traackr’s analysis.

Carla Johnson @CarlaJohnson
Chief Innovator, Type A Communications
Presenting: The Innovation Factory

Kelly Hungerford @KDHungerford
Digital Strategy & Marketing Operations Consultant, Sunstar Europe SA
Presenting: Transforming Teams: How to Transition Traditional Marketers into Content Marketers

Lee Odden @leeodden
CEO, TopRank Marketing
Presenting: Rocket Science Simplified: How to Optimize, Socialize and Publicize B2B Content
Presenting: The Confluence Equation: How Content and Influencers Drive B2B Marketing Success

Bernie Borges @bernieborges
Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer, Vengreso
Presenting: 3 LinkedIn Content Marketing Strategies that will Drive Visibility, Credibility and Traffic

Andrew Pickering @AndrewAndPete
Pete Gartland @AndrewAndPete
Co-Founders, Andrew and Pete
Presenting: The Competitive Edge: How to Create a Unique Content Spin in a World of Copycats

Robert Rose @Robert_Rose
Chief Troublemaker, The Content Advisory
Presenting: Welcome to Content Marketing World 2018

Andrew Davis @DrewDavisHere
Keynote Speaker & Best-selling Author, Monumental Shift
Presenting: Video Marketing Makeover – Transforming boring case studies and testimonials into stories that inspire action
Presenting: Curiosity Factor: The psychological phenomenon creative content marketers employ to earn and own attention in a noisy world

John Hall @johnhall
Keynote Speaker, www.johnhallspeaking.com
Presenting: Influencer Marketing and PR Workshop
Presenting: Relationship Building That’s Vital to Make Your Content Marketing Thrive

Berrak Sarikaya @BerrakBiz
Sr. Social Media Manager, Yesler
Presenting: Lean Content Marketing for Startups

Garrett Moon @garrett_moon
CEO & Co-Founder, CoSchedule
Presenting: Got Leads? How To Find Your Content Core And Actually Drive Revenue From Content

Stephanie Stahl @EditorStahl
General Manager, Content Marketing Institute, UBM
Presenting: Welcome to Content Marketing World 2018

Zontee Hou @ZonteeHou
President and Founder, Media Volery LLC
Presenting: Let’s Chat: How Messaging Apps, Chatbots, and Voice Assistants Will Impact Your Business in the Next 3-5 Years

Tim Washer @timwasher
Keynote Speaker, Event Emcee, PowerPoint Comedian, Ridiculous Media
Presenting: CMWorld Chatter

Tamsen Webster @tamadear
Founder and Chief Message Strategist, Find The Red Thread
Presenting: How to Make Your Ideas Irresistible

Leslie Carruthers @TheSearchGuru
President and Founder, The Search Guru
Presenting: A-Z Conversion tracking issues for B2B and how to solve them.
Presenting: Retail & eCommerce Lab

Amanda Todorovich @amandatodo
Senior Director, Content & Creative Services, Cleveland Clinic
Presenting: Building a “Media Company” inside a Marketing Department
Presenting: CMWorld Cleveland Clinic Health Summit

Now it’s your turn. As with any lists, there are many people that I would love to see included that were not. I’m sure you’re thinking the same thing (Joe Pulizzi for example). If the person that influences YOU most isn’t on this list, please share their name and Twitter handle in the comments.

In the spirit of content marketing and in sharing our own expertise, I’ve assembled a list of our top 10 posts about content marketing from the past 12 months:

The Ultimate Guide to Conquering Content Marketing that we developed in partnership with CMI and CMWorld is a great example of influencer driven content. This approach has been successful enough for Content Marketing Institute that they’ve run the program over 6 years.

If you would like to learn more about how to create successful influencer content collaborations, you’re in luck! Both Ashley Zeckman and I will be presenting at Content Marketing World on the topic. Here are more details:

September 5th – 1:45pm – 2:30pm
Solo Presentation with Lee Odden
The Confluence Equation: How Content and Influencers Drive B2B Marketing Success

September 6th – 12:05pm – 12:50pm
Solo Presentation with Ashley Zeckman
Influencer Marketing is only for B2C Brands (& Other Lies Your Parents Told You)

Along with our TopRank Marketing teammates Jane, Nick and Annie, we hope to see you at the Content Marketing World conference. Check out what we’re looking forward to most at CMWorld and be sure to follow us on Twitter at @toprank for real time updates during the conference and this blog for liveblogging coverage of select presentations.