As marketing communications strategists who work with a variety of business professionals, it’s important for us to stay current with digital resources to help us learn and grow in order to exceed our clients’ expectations. To accomplish that goal, we participate in industry webinars, listen to podcasts, attend industry trade shows and read a variety of books, magazine articles and internet stories. We believe some of the digital resources we’ve discovered and use can help you expand your marketing horizons and achieve your business goals. Here’s our digital resources list broken down by categories.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

1. Search Engine Land is a resource on all kinds of SEO broken down by type (such as mobile or social) or even by specific platform (such as Google or Bing.) Search Engine Land has been a long-standing online resource and a great place for marketers to stay on top of the ongoing changes to search engines and algorithms.
2. The Moz Blog compiles blogs from a rotating lineup of industry experts on SEO and other site-optimization methods. This blog focuses on expert methodology that taps into new studies, trials and statistics.

Sales Performance

1. Sales and Marketing Management (SMM) is a web resource, print magazine and webinar producer that covers a variety of sales and marketing subjects with a focus in the B2B arena. SMM is a useful resource for salespeople, sales managers and business leaders to help them better understand the customer experience and ensure repeat business.
2. Autoklose is a sales-engagement platform and maintains a highly informative blog with a wide array of topics. The writers of this blog share insights about business trends, sales techniques, scientific-based data and user experiences.
3. Vengreso is another sales-enablement program that publishes compelling blogs about sales techniques that increase revenue. Vengreso includes B2B and B2C subjects and they produce powerful ebooks, infographics and podcasts with which to share their sales and marketing expertise.

Technology Advancements

1. The blog at ILand gives regular insights about technology, internet trends, cybersecurity and changes in the Cloud. This is our favorite place to check when it comes to tech updates, but they also create fun, timely and entertaining posts on a regular basis.
2. TechCrunch is our go-to resource when it comes to citing statistics about major IT influences and news. This blog focuses less on strategies and advice like many other popular blogs. Instead, TechCruch attempts to comprehensively compile tech news in relation to businesses and startups.

Media

1. Cision is a paid database of publications, journals, newsletters and news sites. In addition, the company maintains a blog on all types of media, writing best practices, executive insights and more that is available to clients and non-users alike.
2. Google Alerts is our go-to platform for tracking media mentions of clients, important topics and industry trends.    

Content Development

1. Content Marketing Institute (CMI) is another major resource we visit often for its engaging and frequent digital content as well as industry research. With new articles published nearly every day, CMI has an extensive library of useful and informative content. They pull from experts across the business world and discuss topics ranging from social media content stats to productivity hacks to general marketing best practices.
2. The blog at Influence and Co. earns a spot in our list as a comprehensive content marketing resource that takes a look at content from every angle. Highly specialized, Influence and Co. doesn’t dabble in a wide array of marketing initiatives. Instead, they focus deeply on content and explore best practices of content marketing, writing and creativity habits, and a number of content development methodologies and strategies.

Data and Analytics

1. Trust Insights maintains a blog and newsletter that shares frequent content about data analytics and how to incorporate data into your marketing tactics. Using this resource, we’ve learned a lot about data science, analytics, machine learning and AI for marketers.
2. Funnel offers a blog and other resources that provide helpful insights for building a data-driving marketing program.

Thought Leadership

1. Vickie Sullivan is a well-established, experienced and trusted thought leader. Her expertise ranges from PR and branding to speaking and sponsorship to general life advice. We enjoy the wide range and playful tone of her content in combination with practical guidance.
2. No list of resources would be complete without the marketing insights of thought leader Neil Patel. The founder of multiple companies, he has also helped organizations like Amazon, NBC, General Motors, Hewlett Packard and Viacom grow their revenue.

Social Media

1. Social Media Examiner (SME) is a well-known resource for many social media users and is popular for its industry reports and guides. Since SME is such a long-standing resource, it has an extensive array of articles, tools, interviews and research. SME’s specialization is mainly in social media expertise, but its articles include a wide range of subjects.
2. While Hubspot is a producer of broad-based marketing content, we rank them particularly high as a social media resource. Hubspot conducts new studies and reports on updates on algorithms and trends for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and other platforms. They also provide a number of useful resources such as social media calendars, tools and templates that are a great asset to a marketer’s toolkit.

Lifelong Learning Using Digital Resources

If you’ve heard the phrase “the more you know, the more you know you don’t know,” you’ll understand how staying informed in business can feel. It’s vital for entrepreneurs, executives and business professionals to stay educated and on top of industry trends. However, sometimes it can feel like there’s too much to keep track of. Following a number of specialized resources in particular sectors of business can help keep ongoing education manageable and easy to consume. Explore some of our suggestions and discover your own go-to digital resources for the areas of business that affect you most.