33 Personal Blogs of Startup Marketers We Love

I like to think that reading the blog of a marketer I admire is like having a coffee with them and getting a chance to learn all about their approach to marketing. 

Personally, I have benefited a lot from reading these blogs, especially blogs published by startup marketers. Here are a couple of reasons why I love them:

1. When they write about their work, I get to learn about how they approach growth and marketing at their company and what tactics, techniques, and channels they use.
2. When they write about their personal life, I get a peek into what they do outside work to make them such great.

Here at Buffer, we’ve shared our favorite content marketing blogs and advanced marketing blogs. We’ve also asked you about your favorite blogs. And today, I’d love to take you on a deep-dive into personal blogs of startup marketers.

Here’s the list of my favorite personal blogs of startup marketers, recommendations from fellow marketers on Inbound.org, and great blogs I found from my research.

33 Blogs to Follow, Written by Some of the Very Best Startup Marketers

It’s amazing how many great blogs there are! For this article, I’ve set some loose criteria to narrow down the list a little:

• She/he works in a startup
• She/he writes fairly regularly (at least a few times a year) and has published content on their blog during 2016

If your favorite blogs are not mentioned here, it might be that I have just not come across them in my research. I’d love to know about them if that’s the case (please feel free to share your favorites in the comments).

To make it easier for you to learn from these marketers, I have put together:

1. A Feedly collection of their blogs (except for Dave Gerhardt’s blog as I can’t seem to add LinkedIn feeds to Feedly – sorry!)
2. A Twitter list of these marketers

—

Here’s the full list of blogs, in no particular order:

1. Hiten Shah

Co-founder of Quick Sprout

Hiten Shah is one of Buffer’s amazing advisors and is very knowledgeable about SaaS, marketing, and startups. Apart from writing on his personal blog, he also has a weekly newsletter, Hiten’s SaaS Weekly, filled with great articles for people interested in SaaS businesses.

Topics: Marketing, SaaS, and entrepreneurship

URL: https://hitenism.com/

Twitter: @hnshah

Recommended reading: 

• Set Your Company Up for Marketing Success by Working Backwards from 15 Million Blog Visits
• The First Law of Content Marketing

2. Belle Beth Cooper

Co-founder of Hello Code

Belle Beth Cooper was one of Buffer’s first content crafters. And if you’ve been following the Buffer blog for a while, you will know how talented she is. Belle is now running her own app development startup, Hello Code, and shares some of her experiences and learnings on her personal blog.

Topics: Writing, freelancing, and productivity

URL: http://blog.bellebethcooper.com/

Twitter: @BelleBCooper

Recommended reading: 

• How to read a lot
• How I built a habit of learning French that lasted 132 days

3. Dave Gerhardt

Director of Marketing at Drift

Dave Gerhardt has more than five years of experience working at SaaS marketing companies. Alongside publishing his ideas on LinkedIn, he also hosts two podcasts, Seeking Wisdom andTech in Boston.

Topics: Marketing, management, and personal growth

URL: https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/0_3FcqobhwbJ3bDC5DBkHOAW

Twitter: @davegerhardt

Recommended reading:

• How We Grew Our Blog Traffic From 200 To 27,000 In 8 Months Without A Budget
• How A Side Project Helped Jumpstart My Career

4. Gregory Ciotti

Editorial strategy at Help Scout

If you have been reading Help Scout’s blog, you might be familiar with one of their top writers, Gregory Ciotti. Alongside his work at Help Scout, Gregory also runs two personal blogs:GregoryCiotti.com and SparringMind.com.

Topics: Gregory’s personal blog covers topics such as writing, publishing, and content marketing, whereas Sparing Mind focuses on management and clear communication, collaboration, and doing better work.

URL: http://www.gregoryciotti.com/ and http://www.sparringmind.com/

Twitter: @gregoryciotti

Recommended reading:

• Simple SEO Wins for Startups with One Page, One Term
• Writing Your Personal Style Guide

5. Ali Mese

Marketing Lead at Crew

Ali Mese’s story on quitting his corporate job and chasing his startup dream blew up on Medium and has been was viewed more than 4 million times! Now, Ali leads marketing at Crew, an online marketplace for creative talent.

Topics: Marketing, with a focus on startup marketing

URL:  https://medium.com/@meseali/ and http://growth.supply/blog/

Twitter: @meseali

Recommended reading: 

• Side Project Marketing Is the New King
• The Future of Growing Startups

6. Neil Patel

Founder of Quick Sprout

Neil is a prolific writer and often pubishes multiple new pieces per week. You might be familiar with Neil Patel’s online marketing blog, Quick Sprout, or read one of his many articles on Forbes, Inc, Entrepreneur, Huffington Post, and more.

Topics: Online marketing, ranging from traffic building to social media to sales

URL: http://neilpatel.com/blog/

Twitter: @neilpatel

Recommended reading:

• A Quick Look at Content Marketing in the B2C Niche – Why it’s Easier Than You Think
• The Beginner’s Guide to Crafting Interactive Content

7. Matthew Barby

Global Head of Growth & SEO at HubSpot

While being the Global Head of Growth & SEO at HubSpot, Matthew Barby has found the time to share his knowledge and insights into all the great things he does at HubSpot on his personal blog. Matthew writes long-form, super in-depth and actionable posts on all things growth and SEO.

Topics: Inbound marketing, ranging from SEO to email list building to content marketing

URL: https://www.matthewbarby.com/blog/

Twitter: @matthewbarby

Recommended reading:

• An Advanced Guide to Building an Email List
• 19 Actionable SEO Tips to Increase Organic Traffic

8. Avinash Kaushik

Digital Marketing Evangelist, Google

Avinash Kaushik has been writing on his personal blog, Occam’s Razor, for more than a decade! At that time, he was the Director of Research & Analytics at Intuit, Web Analytics. Since then, he has published two best-selling books on web analytics as well as founding an online marketing education company.

Topics: Marketing with a heavy focus on analytics

URL: http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/

Twitter: @avinash

Recommended reading:

• Be Real-World Smart: A Beginner’s Advanced Google Analytics Guide
• A Great Analyst’s Best Friends: Skepticism & Wisdom!

9. Sam Mallikarjunan

Head of Growth at HubSpot Labs

In addition to being the head of growth at HubSpot Labs, Sam Mallikarjunan is also an advanced marketing instructor at Harvard Division of Continuing Education and author of How To Sell Better Than Amazon. He writes and manages one of the top Medium publications, ReadThink.

Topics: Marketing, business, and, personal growth

URL: https://medium.com/@Mallikarjunan

Twitter: @Mallikarjunan

Recommended reading:

• It’s Time to Rethink the Content Business
• The Hard Choices Behind How inbound.org Grew 5X

10. Ed Fry

Growth at Hull

If you frequent Inbound.org, you might be familiar with Ed Fry. Ed is the former General Manager at Inbound.org and is now working on growth at Hull.

Topics: Marketing, community, and traveling

URL: http://edfryed.com/blog/

Twitter: @edfryed

Recommended reading:

• Quantified Content Strategy: Building a Predictive Growth Model for inbound.org
• How We Found The Most Engaging Content on inbound.org (And New Feature Preview!)

11. Noah Kagan

Chief Sumo at AppSumo

Noah Kagan is probably one of the biggest names in the field of marketing. Previously, Noah was employee #30 at Facebook and #4 at Mint. Since then, he started 2 multi-million dollar businesses and grew a 700,000+ email list.

Topics: Startups, marketing, self-exploration, and book reviews

URL: http://okdork.com/blog/

Twitter: @noahkagan

Recommended reading:

• Create Your First Marketing Plan
• My organization system

12. Casey Winters

Former Product Lead on Growth Team at Pinterest

Casey Winters has a great mix of expertise in both marketing and product, and he brings that to his readers through his blog posts. Casey also writes in-depth answers on Quora.

Topics: Growth, marketing, and startups

URL: http://caseyaccidental.com/

Twitter: @onecaseman

Recommended reading: 

• The Right Way To Set Goals for Growth
• Branding Gives Your Company the Benefit of the Doubt

13. John Egan

Engineering Manager for the Engagement team at Pinterest

John Egan has been working in growth for more than 5 years. At Pinterest, John has spearheaded several projects that cumulatively have helped add millions of weekly active users!

Topics: Growth

URL: http://jwegan.com/

Twitter: @jwegan_com

Recommended reading: 

• How Pinterest, Dropbox, and Yelp Drive Growth @ Scale
• How Pinterest increased MAUs with one simple trick

14. Brittany Berger

Head of Content and PR at Mention

Besides being the Head of Content and PR at Mention, Brittany Berger also writes on her personal blog, Blog Bolder, to help solopreneurs grow their business and blog.

Topics: Inbound marketing and automation

URL: http://www.brittanyberger.com/blog/

Twitter: @bberg1010

Recommended reading: 

• 7 Steps I Took to Make a Blog Post “Go Viral”
• The Ultimate Guide to Time Management Systems for Creative Entrepreneurs

15. Simo Ahava

Senior Data Advocate at Reaktor

Simo Ahava has been a Google Developer Expert for Google Analytics since 2014. If you want to go much deeper into Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager, I’d recommend reading Simo’s blog.

Topics: Web analytics, digital marketing, SEO, and web development

URL: http://www.simoahava.com/

Twitter: @SimoAhava

Recommended reading:

• Track Content Engagement Via GTM
• From Project To Process

16. Nadya Khoja

Director of Marketing at Venngage

As the Director of Marketing at Venngage, Nadya Khoja works on many areas including outreach, content marketing, SEO, and design. She also has a side-project called Chez Lisgar, a trade-based dinner party.

Topics: Leadership and marketing, ranging from content marketing to SEO

URL: http://thisisnadya.com/

Twitter: @NadyaKhoja

Recommended reading: 

• What Does it Take Get Your Slide Deck Featured on SlideShare?
• How You Can Make A Great Infographic Without A Designer

17. Mikael Cho

Founder of Crew

Mikael Cho and his team created Unsplash five years ago as a side project, which saved Crew. It resulted in more than 5 million unique visitors and is the number one referral source to Crew.

Topics: Startups, growth, product, and personal growth

URL: https://medium.com/@mikaelcho

Twitter: @mikaelcho

Recommended reading: 

• Don’t leave growth to chance
• A magic business model: Help someone sell leftovers

18. Rand Fishkin

Co-founder of Moz and Inbound.org

We were lucky to have Rand Fishkin on the Buffer podcast recently. Rand is the go-to person on all things SEO, and he hosts Moz’s Whiteboard Friday, a weekly video series about SEO and marketing.

Topics: Marketing, SEO, startups, and Moz

URL: https://moz.com/rand/

Twitter: @randfish

Recommended reading: 

• What I’d Change, Keep the Same, & Don’t Yet Know
• Does Making a Website Mobile-Friendly Have a Universally Positive Impact on Mobile Traffic?

19. Kayla Lewkowicz

Marketing Coordinator at Litmus

Apart from content marketing and social media, Kayla Lewkowicz also helps connect the Litmus community and plan amazing events like The Email Design Conference.

Topics: Marketing, Litmus, and personal development

URL: http://www.kaylalewkowicz.com/blog/

Twitter: @kllewkow

Recommended reading: 

• How To Add SEO Into Content (Without Becoming A Robot)
• The Art of Conversation Marketing

20. Brian Balfour

Founder/CEO at Reforge

Brian Balfour’s Coelevate is one of my favorite blogs. He writes long and in-depth essays on growth. Before starting Reforge, Brian was the VP of Growth at HubSpot and had been a co-founder of 4 companies in the past 10 years.

Topics: Growth and customer acquisition

URL: http://www.coelevate.com/essays/

Twitter: @bbalfour

Recommended reading: 

• 7 Principles To Mastering Growth Marketing
• Growth Is Optional: 10 Reasons Why Companies Fail At Growth

21. Andrew Chen

Growth at Uber

Andrew Chen has written over 650+ essays and been quoted in huge publications like The New York Times, Fortune, Wired, and WSJ. He also co-hosts the Reforge Growth Series, a selective 8-week program on growth, with Brian Balfour.

Topics: Mobile, metrics, and growth

URL: http://andrewchen.co/recent/

Twitter: @andrewchen

Recommended reading: 

• A Practitioner’s Guide to Net Promoter Score
• The most common mistake when forecasting growth for new products (and how to fix it)

22. Joanna Lord

Chief Marketing Officer at ClassPass

Joanna Lord has more than 12 years of digital marketing experience in almost every marketing channel. Some of her past roles include VP of Growth Marketing at Moz, CMO of BigDoor, and VP of Marketing at Porch.

Topics: Marketing, startups, and lifestyle

URL: http://joannalord.com/

Twitter: @JoannaLord

Recommended reading:

• What Does It Mean to Invest in Brand?
• What is Product Marketing & Where Should It Live?

23. Mike Volpe

Chief Marketing Officer at Cybereason

Before his role at Cybereason, Mike Volpe was HubSpot’s fifth employee and CMO where he helped the company grow from about a dozen beta customers to over 15,000 customers, 1,000 employees, $150m in revenue, and an IPO leading to a $1.7B market cap.

Topics: Marketing and startups

URL: http://www.mikevolpe.com/blog

Twitter: @mvolpe

Recommended reading:

• 12 Great Growth Marketing Presentations from Growth Camp
• Using NPS at a Startup – Tips and Tricks from Experience

24. Scott Britton

Co-founder, Sales & Growth at Troops

Before working on his current startup, Scott Britton grew his personal blog, Life-LongLearner.com, to a top 40 trafficked personal development blog on the Internet. He used to host a business podcast, The Competitive Edge, too.

Topics: Marketing, business, and personal growth

URL: http://life-longlearner.com/

Twitter: @britton

Recommended reading:

• How To Use SlideShare To Generate 1000’s Of Views And Rank On The First Page In Google
• 8 Unique Marketing Strategies To Grow A Podcast To the Top of iTunes

25. Demian Farnworth

Senior Content Writer, Lutheran Church Extension Fund

Before moving to his new role, Demian Farnworth was the chief content writer for Rainmaker Digital (formerly Copyblogger Media), and he has more than 14 years of writing experience.

Topics: Web writing

URL: http://thecopybot.com/blog/

Twitter: @demianfarnworth

Recommended reading:

• How to Write a Brilliant Long Sentence
• Blog Post Word Count: Is There a Magical Number?

26. Dmitry Dragilev

Founder of JustReachOut

Dmitry Dragilev has harnessed the power of content marketing and PR to accomplish many impressive achievements — grew his blog from 0 to $100,000 in revenue in just 9 months and scaled a startup, which was acquired by Google.

Topics: Public relations, email, and SEO

URL: http://www.criminallyprolific.com/blog/

Twitter: @dragilev

Recommended reading:

• 7 Proven Ways to Grow Your Email List by 3x Every Month
• 26 Amazing Cold Email Templates To Guarantee A Response

27. Jason Cohen

Founder of WP Engine & Smart Bear Software

Jason Cohen has started four companies including Smart Bear, which he grew to multiple millions in profit.

Topics: Marketing and startups

URL: http://blog.asmartbear.com/

Twitter: @asmartbear

Recommended reading:

• How to measure the accuracy of forecasts
• Should this startup exist? Converting 5W’s into existential justification

28. Sarah Peterson

Content Marketing Sumo at SumoMe

Sarah Petersons previously built 2 personal finance blogs, which earned her more than $20,000 per year each. She also launched an Etsy side business that was profitable within just days. She now writes very detailed and actionable guides on traffic, list building and marketing on SumoMe’s blog.

Topics: Marketing, blogging, and personal growth

URL: http://unsettle.org/blog/

Twitter: @petersonsar

Recommended reading:

• The 5 Simple Strategies to Boost Your Writing Productivity
• Is Your Life Crazy Right Now? Here’s How to Keep Moving Forward

Plus, 4 personal blogs of the Buffer marketing team

29. Hailley Griffis

Press Crafter at Buffer

Hailley Griffis is our amazing press crafter, who works with numerous publications and syndication partners. On top of that, she manages our email marketing efforts and hosts The Science of Social Media podcast.

Topics: Public relations for startups and personal branding

URL: http://www.hailleygriffis.com/articles/

Twitter: @hailleymari

Recommended reading:

• The Quick and Easy Guide To Creating a Media List
• 3 Things You Should Know About Personal Branding

30. Ash Read

Social blog editor at Buffer

Ash Read is the mastermind behind this blog. Besides all the awesome things he is doing for content and marketing, Ash is also building an analytics application for content marketers and bloggers, PostReach.

Topics: Marketing, personal growth, and startups

URL: https://frontcourt.media/

Twitter: @Ashread_

Recommended reading:

• The Winners and Losers of the Instagram Stories Launch
• Why habits are the only competitor you need to worry about

31. Brian Peters

Social Media Manager at Buffer

If you have been following us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, you have most likely seen Brian Peters, our talented social media manager, talking about all things social media and marketing. Go.Work.Life is his side project to help professionals find the sweet spot that harmoniously connects work and life.

Topics: Career development and work-life balance

URL: http://www.goworklife.com/

Twitter: @Brian_G_Peters

Recommended reading:

• 4 Fundamentals to Long Term Career Success
• How to Make Mornings the Best Part of Your Day

32. Kevan Lee

Director of Marketing at Buffer

If you have been following this blog, I’m sure you are familiar with this name! Kevan joined Buffer as a content crafter and is now our director of marketing.

Topics: Writing and content marketing

URL: http://www.kevanlee.com/category/writing/

Twitter: @kevanlee

Recommended reading:

• How to Get the Content Marketing Job You’ve Always Wanted
• Content Tips for Busy People: 30 Content Marketing Tips You Can Implement in an Afternoon

33. Alfred Lua

Community Champion at Buffer

I hope it’s alright for me to share my personal blog here, too! I’m currently working on both marketing and community building projects at Buffer. To improve my writing skills, I have started to post about once a week on my personal blog.

Topics: Personal growth

URL: http://alfredlua.com/

Twitter: @alfred_lua

Recommended reading:

• 2 Opportunities For Learning After Graduating
• Live Smarter, Not Harder

Over to you

Reading some of the blogs listed here has been both enriching and inspiring for me. In fact, many of the marketers are role models I constantly look up to in my role now. I hope this list would do the same for you and help you become a better marketer!

I’m sure this list isn’t comprehensive. If I might have missed some of your favorite personal blogs, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below! Thank you!

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