The digital marketing landscape changes fast, really fast. In fact, it can be difficult to keep track of the popular trends. As soon as one influencer posts an article about how short content is back with a vengeance, another will respond with “Long-live long content: why short content is finally dead”.

But that’s why we love digital marketing! Marketing jobs are fast-paced and there’s so much information available online (for obvious reasons). Having said this, sifting through the noise for the gems of wisdom can be a problem. That’s why we’ve put together this list of the top five digital marketing influencers you should be following so you can stay ahead of the game.

1. Neil Patel

Neil Patel is such an influential figure in digital marketing he advises the likes of eBay and Google. It doesn’t get much more influential than that! His own marketing strategies are now taught in marketing degrees at top universities. You’re probably familiar with the excellent Kissmetrics blog, that’s only one of Neil’s breakthrough digital marketing companies.

Twitter: @neilpatel

2. Ann Handley

Ann is the founder of clickz, the definitive source of digital marketing news and she’s the heaviest hitting female influencer in the digital marketing world. Ann writes columns on digital marketing for Entrepreneur and the Huffington Post that get millions of views.

Twitter: @annhandley

3. Rand Fishkin

No list about digital marketing influencers would be complete without mentioning Rand Fiskin, founder of Moz. Moz is the go-to site for SEO and inbound marketing and Fiskin is still at the cutting-edge despite a long career. If you haven’t already read Inbound Marketing And SEO: Insights From The Moz Blog, read it now.

Twitter: @randfish

4. Joe Pulizzi

Founder of the Content Marketing Institute, Pulizzi is the most sought-after speaker on content marketing at digital marketing conferences across the world. He wrote what is now known as the bible of content marketing, Get Content, Get Customers.

Twitter: @joepulizzi

5. Jay Baer

Jay is the most re-tweeted digital marketer on Twitter, which is no minor accolade. He advises 30 Fortune 500 companies on content marketing and his wisdom is applicable to big business and small business alike. He runs one of the top content marketing blogs in world, Convince And Convert.

Twitter: @jaybaer

There’s not a lot of trends that emerge in the digital marketing arena that these guys haven’t already written an article about. The chances are that if they haven’t written about it, they probably started the trend themselves! Keep an eye on the list to stay one step ahead of the competition.