Top 15 Growth Marketing Speakers

There are many amazing marketing speakers that can help shed light on the intricacies of marketing. However, only a select few understand what growth marketing entails. Growth marketing is a specialized segment of digital marketing, and it focuses specifically on online customer acquisition.

To learn how to incorporate this marketing segment in your business, it helps to get firsthand guidance from growth marketing thought leaders who present at marketing conferences across the country and around the world. Here are 15 exceptional growth marketing experts you’ll want to speak at your next industry event.

• Eli Schwartz

Eli Schwartz is the former director of growth at SurveyMonkey, building organic search from the ground up. During his stint with High Gear Media, he led user acquisition and grew new monthly users from 500,000 to six million in three years. Eli now works with large-scale growth companies on building products poised for hypergrowth. As an SEO expert and digital marketing consultant, Eli has assisted world-renowned B2B and B2C companies like Quora, BlueNile, and Shutterstock with strategies designed to grow organically.

Eli is a regular speaker at marketing events throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia, as well as serving as a guest lecturer at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, Singapore’s Civil Service College, and the Founder’s Institute. In 2019, Eli Schwartz’s speaking engagements included the Internet Marketing Summit, Content Marketing World, Digital Summit, GrowthHackers Conference, and the Growth Marketing Conference.

• Ann Handley

Ann Handley is Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs and Founder of ClickZ. Considered to be a digital marketing pioneer, she has also been cited in Forbes as the most influential woman in social media and recognized by ForbesWoman as one of the top 20 women bloggers. Ann has also been named as one of just seven key people shaping the modern marketing environment.

Besides her ongoing stint as a best-selling author, Ann also is a regular speaker who delivers memorable presentations on a wide range of digital marketing topics. Ann Handley’s recent keynote topics included “How to Level-Up Your Writing and Make it Ludicrously Spectacular,” “ASAP: As Slow as Possible,” and “The Big, Bold, Brave New World of Content & Storytelling.”

• Sean Ellis

Sean Ellis is the Founder and CEO of Growth Hackers, the first marketer at Dropbox, and the guy who coined the growth hacking methodology. He developed growth initiatives for other companies, including Eventbrite, LogMeIn, and Lookout, which helped shape his growth marketing model.

Sean is the author of a book on growth marketing and has a blog that helps startup founders unlock business growth. He is a regular speaker at his company’s own event, GrowthHackers Conference, as well as presents at organizational workshops and conferences. At these events, he shares stories, use cases, and results from implementing growth marketing initiatives. Sean Ellis has also been a guest lecturer at Harvard Business School and the Haas Business School at UC Berkeley.

• Gareth Everard

Gareth Everard is co-founder and CMO of Keyto, a technology and wellness company funded by Craft Ventures and Floodgate Fund. He previously founded Rockwell Razors, an award-winning zero-waste consumer goods company that sells online and in over 6000 retail locations around the world. In addition to managing millions of dollars of growth marketing budget over his young career, Gareth raised over 2.5 million dollars through crowdfunding campaigns to launch products from patented razor designs to keto diet breathalyzers.

An experienced speaker, Gareth’s candid, and engaging storytelling combines tactical advice and fresh perspectives, leaving attendees always learning something cutting-edge and exceptionally valuable. His topics include leveraging communities to drive memberships, consumer product launches, and how to dial in your digital marketing funnel. Gareth Everard has been featured as a speaker at marketing conferences, universities, and intimate masterminds around the world.

• Lee Odden

Lee Odden is co-founder and CEO of TopRank Marketing, a U.S.-based digital marketing agency that serves major B2B brands, including GE Digital, Oracle, Virgin Pulse, LinkedIn, Dell, Microsoft, Staples, General Mills, State Farm, Slack, and more. Lee is a recognized content creator and influencer marketer as well as an all-around marketing expert.

In addition to his role as a book author and content contributor to multiple media leaders, he is a prolific public speaker often called upon for keynote presentations in digital marketing industry conferences. In the last decade, Lee Odden has given close to 200 presentations in 13 different countries. His engaging stories and stage presence, combined with deep thought leadership across multiple digital marketing segments, make him a not-to-miss speaker.

• Carla Johnson

Carla Johnson is known as a world-renowned storyteller, entertaining speaker, and prolific author. Consistently named as one of the top influencers in B2B, digital, and content marketing, she works with entrepreneurs and companies like Amazon, Dell, and Intel to define themselves through their strengths.

From global conferences to company events, Carla shares her marketing and branding wisdom in fun, memorable ways that feel less like formal presentations and more like engaging conversations. Carla Johnson shares entertaining stories and thought-provoking ideas about marketing and customer experiences.

• Dorie Clark

Dorie Clark is a coach, content program creator, author and professional speaker, specializing in reinvention. Her books include  “Entrepreneurial You,” “Reinventing You,” and “Stand Out.” In addition to serving as an adjunct professor of business administration at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, she guest lectures at universities, such as Harvard Business School, Harvard’s Kennedy School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, MIT School of Management, and more. Dorie has worked with a who’s who of brands, including Boeing, Goodyear, FedEx, and Google.

Besides reinvention, speaking topics include personal branding, leadership, networking, and social media. Catch Dorie Clark at an upcoming global speaking event like numerous Deloitte University CORE Leadership Program dates through 2021, HMZ University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration, University of Dayton Center for Leadership, British Columbia Institute of Technology, and Moscow School of Management.

• Andy Crestodina

Andy Crestodina is the co-founder of Orbit Media, an award-winning web design company in Chicago. For nearly two decades, he has been involved in the evolution of digital marketing through web design and interactive marketing. Andy has helped thousands of companies develop and implement their growth marketing strategies.

Be sure to catch Andy at one or more of the national content marketing conferences where he shares his deep expertise in search, analytics, and content strategy development. One of the most exciting perspectives he provides is how companies can improve results from their existing websites rather than focusing on web design leads. Andy Crestodina is also the founder of Content Jam, considered to be Chicago’s largest content marketing event.

• John Rampton

John Rampton is Co-Founder of Calendar, a time management and productivity app, as well as a serial entrepreneur with multiple other startup successes. He also leads Adogy, an interactive marketing engagement agency that leverages his expansive and proven digital marketing tactics to help clients achieve their own strategic growth objectives. John has leveraged what he has learned to create viral content with thousands of views, likes, and shares in a matter of 48 hours as well as generate and convert B2B leads into long-term customers.

As a regular on the speaking circuit, John shares numerous stories and examples of growth marketing in action, leveraging his knowledge, personal demeanor, humor, and love of helping people to interact with audiences. His topics include how to use influencer marketing, how to build and scale a solution people want, and how to make digital marketing tactics and tools work on a lean budget. John Rampton continues to be featured as a keynote speaker and panelist at marketing and content conferences all over the world.

• Jay Baer

Jay Baer is the Founder of Convince & Convert. He is a well-respected business strategist, keynote speaker, and New York Times best-selling author of five books, including “Hug Your Haters.” Jay has also advised more than 700 companies since 1994, including Caterpillar, Nike, Allstate, The United Nations, and 32 of the Fortune 500.

Jay applies nearly three decades’ worth of knowledge, practical experience, and stories to his keynote presentations. Recent keynotes illustrated the wide range of digital marketing and customer experience topics he understands, such as “Talk Triggers: Turn Your Customers Into Volunteer Marketers,” “Youtility: Why Helping Always Beats Selling,” and “Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your Customers.”

• Scott Monty

Scott Monty is the CEO and Founder of Scott Monty Strategies, a strategic communications consultancy. After serving as global head of digital and multimedia communications at Ford Motor Company for six years, he now focuses on serving as one of the best marketing speakers for large groups as well as on advising brands and agencies about how to leverage digital marketing and communications effectively.

His engaging presentations combine real-world stories from his experiences, helping companies with digital marketing with historical and literary references, analogies, and humor. Scott Monty’s speaking topics run the gamut from transformational storytelling and personal interaction to how to have patience and endurance and understand how to leverage timeless business guidance.

• Mark Schaefer

Mark Schaefer is a keynote speaker, educator, podcaster, business consultant, blogger, and author of seven books, leveraging over 30 years in marketing, communications, and public relations as the basis for his marketing insights and actionable advice. Mark has the unique perspective of having been at the forefront of the migration from traditional marketing to digital and growth marketing models.

His global keynote speaking events cover topics around branding, social media, analytics, content strategy, email marketing, and related growth marketing tactics. Mark Schaefer is a fixture at large conferences, such as Social Media Marketing World, Growth Acceleration Summit, SXSW, AMA events, and Content Marketing World.

• Alisa Meredith

Alisa Meredith is Content Marketing Manager at Tailwind as well as a blogger, author, speaker, and self-professed Pinterest inbound marketing “nerd.” Areas of specialty include Pinterest marketing and promoted pins, social business development, inbound marketing, lead generation, and social media strategies.

Alisa’s vast experience in these niche growth marketing areas makes her an in-demand speaker. Alisa Meredith’s past speaking engagements include Agents of Change Digital Marketing Conference, Social Media Marketing World, and Social Media Success Summit.

• Andrew Davis

Andrew Davis leads his own digital marketing agency and is a best-selling author and renowned keynote speaker. Previously he was a producer for NBC and worked on The Muppets show. His focus is now on helping startup founder and Fortune 500 business leaders learn how to use growth marketing to build and expand their companies.

Andrew delivers some of the most enthusiastic keynote presentations, pulling stories from his stints on NBC and the BBC, as well as using real-world examples from the brands he’s helped. Find Andrew Davis at some of the world’s largest marketing conferences like the Content Marketing Conference, Influence 2020, Elevate 2020, and the Super Niche Media event, just to name a few.

• Heidi Cohen

Heidi Cohen Is Chief Content Officer for Heidi Cohen’s Actionable Marketing Guide and President of Riverside Marketing Strategies. She is also an author, consultant, blogger, and influencer, as well as a keynote speaker, panelist, and moderator. Before striking out on her own to help other companies, Heidi had results-driven marketing careers with Citibank, Bertelsmann, and The Economist.

In the complex world of digital marketing, she specializes in helping simplify and untangle the seemingly endless number of tools, strategies, and processes available for companies to execute their marketing programs. Heidi Cohen’s speaking topics include business growth, research, social media marketing, branding, and content strategy and production. This past year, she was a featured speaker at Social Media Marketing World.

• Will Critchlow

Will Critchlow is Founder and CEO of Distilled, an online marketing agency that specializes in SEO and technical consulting, digital public relations, and content creation. He and his team are the driving forces behind many of the digital transformations of known globally recognized brands.

Besides speaking at other conferences about his digital marketing experiences, it’s also worth checking out Distilled’s own events known as the SearchLove Conference where Will also participates. Will Critchlow’s speaking topics focus on what he knows best, like conference design, web app development, SEO, and search marketing.

Hear What These Growth Marketing Leaders Have to Say

In 2020 and beyond, find these speakers, follow them on social media and on their blogs, and travel to conferences, seminars, and workshops where they have been chosen to present.