You know what I think is a weird Thanksgiving tradition? The official pardoning of the turkey.
I mean, good for that turkey (actually, there are two who won’t get the axe—a winner and a first runner-up who happened to be named Virgil and Homer), but what about the rest of them? Did they have names? Does anyone even care?
OK, OK… I won’t continue on my turkey reprieve rant—there’s a lot I love about Thanksgiving. My favorite tradition? As my family gathers around the table to eat Thanksgiving dinner, we take time before eating to share one or two of the things we’re each thankful for. Everybody, at every age, gets a turn to share, so the answers range from meaningful to silly to moving. It’s my favorite part of the whole day.
In that spirit, since our team won’t be dining around one table this year, we thought we’d share a few things we’re thankful for. Maybe you will find them helpful! So, with no further ado, the 11 best marketing blogs we’re thankful for.
1. Jeff Bullas
In the bio, Bullas states that his blog’s focus is to “assist business in ‘getting found online’ in a digital world and making your company visible and successful on a crowded web.” His team’s thoughts on and suggestions for content marketing and social media marketing are actionable and fun to read.
“He has a lot of good content and tips, and his titles always get me on Twitter.” -Henry
2. Contently
At Nectafy, we also love to find out about what’s up-and-coming in the marketing world. Contently does a great job of sharing ideas about how we can do things we’re already doing better, and also gives us an idea of how we can grow better.
“I appreciate this blog because it gives me insight into what some of the larger corporations are doing to tell their story through content.” -Lance
3. Copyblogger
The Copyblogger team stays true to its promise to provide anti-“bland corporate crap created to fill up a company webpage,” and several of our team members mentioned them as a must-read.
“They have all kinds of marketing advice, but I especially love their writing tips.” -Tiffany
“Demain Farnworth’s a great teacher. He explains things very well and frequently gives examples of what he is talking about. I've learned a lot from even the simple tips he has shared in his articles. And he is pretty straight forward—almost blunt some of the time—which is one thing that I really like about his style." -Marisa
4. Dan Zarrella
HubSpot’s Social Media Scientist is one smart guy. Just check out his posts and see how his insight into all aspects of social media can help you do your job better. Whether you’re looking for an immediate, actionable step or you're more interested in the theories of how people connect, brand, and sell on social media, his blog is a must-read.
“He doesn’t post often, but all of his posts have data-packed studies about online marketing/social media.” -Henry
5. Feldman Creative
Anyone who doesn’t know me and opens a sentence by telling me I have a serious problem has my attention. He grabs my attention with his style, but keeps me loyal by actually giving me content that helps me do my job well. What more can I ask for?
“Barry Feldman has a wonderful approach to marketing and words, two of my favorite things.” -Lance
6. HubSpot
We’re a year into our HubSpot experiment, and we’re even more motivated than we were 11 months ago to keep on keepin’ on. HubSpot has a good thing going on, and they’ve built something we like because it helps us help other people. Their blog is an extension of that helpfulness.
“This may seem like a pretty obvious one, but they've built up my trust! They put out really good stuff. (I like that they make me chuckle every once in a while, too.)” -Tiffany
7. Impact Branding & Design
“Traffic Is Up, But Conversions Are Down (What Gives?)”
"Does Passive Aggressive Marketing Messaging Actually Work?"
Don’t those titles just make you want to click over? (It’s OK if you say yes and then click... just come back and finish this article). This agency gets that helping people answer their questions and solve their problems is powerful.
“These guys are an inbound marketing agency that knows how to do inbound. I like their simple approach.” -Lance
8. KISSmetrics
“Whenever I'm doing research on a topic, they always seem to pop up... they obviously have a very extensive library of posts and have established themselves as thought leaders in the industry.” -Tiffany
“I've seen a lot of cool infographics on KISSmetrics when I'm doing research, which I really like because I'm a visual learner.” -Traci
9. Kuno Creative
Kuno Creative is an inbound marketing agency whose blog gives anyone who reads it a lot to chew on. Their no-nonsense approach is valuable to those of us who want to do inbound better and are eager to learn from those who’ve done well with it.
“Their articles have great titles that make me want to click-through to read, and they always offer great tips with takeaway points.” -Marisa
10. Moz
Moz is about “making the web a better place and loving every second of it.” As an inbound agency ourselves, we can get behind that. Moz offers several white papers and guides for marketing managers who are interested in learning more about topics like SEO and social media—their “learn” page is a great resource.
“Moz has many really well-written, in-depth analyses of SEO from a number of different contributors.” -Henry
11. Seth Godin
Even if I don’t agree with all of Godin’s ideas, they always make me think harder about why I do things the way I do. It also pushes me to ask more questions and not be so hesitant to do something differently (even if it doesn’t work out). -Emily
Each blog on this list is a cornucopia (I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist) of experience. We actually read and respect what these people have to say about marketing, and we think you’ll come away from their blogs just as enlightened/refreshed/recharged as we do.
Happy Thanksgiving!
