Meet 7 of the Most Influential Women in Digital Marketing Today
With online courses, digital apprenticeships, and a plethora of remote work, the barrier to entry for digital marketing has never been lower. Women in digital marketing are shown to be more skilled in the field when compared to their male counterparts. Despite this, less than one-third of the digital marketing workforce is female.
It’s no surprise that the achievements of women in the digital marketing space might fall on deaf ears. Even still, there are countless examples we can point to of female digital marketers who are changing the game every day with their innovation and creativity. From mastering influencer marketing to pioneering voice search PPC, women are having a major impact on shaping the future of the field.
Today, the expert marketers at GenM take a look at some of the female digital marketers that we draw inspiration from on a daily basis.
Amy Vernon
Described as a ‘digital Swiss Army Knife’, Amy Vernon came to the digital marketing field as a 20-year veteran of newspaper journalism. Vernon now uses her mastery of the English language to generate millions of page views for clients, and share her knowledge through her personal blog.
Vernon has positioned herself as one of the go-to's for teaching brands how to engage their community and harness the power of social web. Working with companies ranging from tech startups to international media organizations, Vernon is known for her ability to teach businesses how to develop shareable content and overhaul their digital marketing strategies with cutting edge best practices.
Vernon has been a speaker at SMX London, Social Media Week, SXSW Interactive, and Inbound. She has also earned herself the prestigious title of the inaugural inductee into the New Jersey Social Media Hall of Fame.
Twitter — Instagram — LinkedIn
Samantha Barry
The now Editor In Chief for Glamour Magazine, Samatha Barry made her mark working for CNN as the Executive Producer for Social and Emerging media. Barry was able to take the outlet, with deep roots in traditional media, and overhaul them for the digital age. With her leading the charge, CNN’s online coverage of the 2016 presidential election earned them a Webby Award and the first-ever Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in social media.
Since taking the helm at Glamour Magazine, Barry has grown monthly unique viewers by 12% to 6.3 million, while subscribers to Glamour’s YouTube channel have increased more than 110% to about 1.6 million.
“Sam is fearless like so many leaders of the moment and has both a reverence for Glamour’s history and a crystal clear view of its future in the digital environment.” — Anna Wintour, Artistic Director of Conde Nast.
Twitter — Instagram — LinkedIn
Pamela Vaughan
If you subscribe to GenM’s newsletter, then you already know how much we love the HubSpot blog. It comes as no surprise then that we have to give a nod to Pamela Vaugn, the one spearheading the whole operation.
For Vaugn, conversions are king. In her role as Principal Marketing Manager on HubSpot’s Web Strategy Team, Vaughan is laser-focused on conversion rate optimization and an expert at tailoring copy for conversions.
Some of her best-known work has been introducing the concept of historical optimization to the HubSpot blog, which lead to an increase in organic traffic of over 200%.
Ann Handley
Ann Handley understands content. Heck, she even published one of the most popular books on the subject. Given her expertise, there’s no wondering why Handley’s book Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and more) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business has become the go-to handbook for many content marketers.
With over 15 years of experience in digital marketing, Handley has climbed her way to being the Chief Content Officer for Marketing Profs, a prolific digital marketing agency specializing in content.
For some insightful (and often hilarious) content, you can subscribe to her newsletter.
Nisha Chittal
If you’re a YouTube junky like myself, you’ve probably fallen down the rabbit hole of endlessly watching Vox video essays. With engaging and informative content, Vox has solidified themselves as a top news source in the digital realm. Much of the credit for this can go to Vox’s Engagement Editor, Nisha Chittal.
Chittal has lead social media strategy for Travel Channel, MSNBC, NBC News and has written for Huffington Post.
“I often find it more effective to focus on serving the audience on the core platforms where they already are, rather than to try to chase the shiny new things.”
Purna Virji
The field if digital marketing changes every day. If you can’t keep up then you’re doomed to get left behind. Few people know this better than Microsoft’s Senior Manager of Global Engagement Purna Virji.
An expert in PPC, you can oftentimes find Virja giving keynote speeches to digital marketers across the globe. An evangelist for the power of voice search, Virji was named one of the top 50 women in digital marketing, and the world’s most influential personality in PPC according to PPCHero.
Rani Mani
Influencers are huge in today’s marketing world and it doesn’t look like that’s changing anytime soon. Being able to leverage the influencers to drive growth for your company can set you apart from other marketers in today’s market. For those looking for someone to look up to when it comes to influencer marketing, look no further than Rani Mani, Head of Social Influencer Enablement at Adobe.
Mani is an expert at marketing influencers in the B2B space, an area of influencer marketing that oftentimes gets overlooked for its flasher B2C counterpart.
Mani works across Adobe teams to drive understanding, excitement, and advocacy among the global workforce in order to enable and empower all employees to be the company’s biggest brand ambassadors.
“The main benefit (of B2B influencer collaboration) is that influencers humanize a brand and capture the personality behind the logo.”
