Top 22 Marketing Speakers to Book for Your Event in 2026
The right marketing speakers can make or break your event. A great pick drives real conversation, shifts thinking, and sends attendees home with strategies they'll actually use. I've pulled together my top picks—covering growth, brand, demand gen, and beyond—so you can book with confidence and deliver an experience your audience won't forget.
Top 22 Marketing Speakers
Below are the profiles of the top marketing speakers, covering who they are and the impact they've made in this space.
Ann Handley
Ann Handley is Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs, a marketing educator and author whose books include Everybody Writes and Content Rules, with decades of experience in digital publishing.
Handley teaches marketers…
Ann Handley is Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs, a marketing educator and author whose books include Everybody Writes and Content Rules, with decades of experience in digital publishing.
Handley teaches marketers to make writing clearer, more useful, and more human. Her books, newsletter, and keynotes connect content strategy with voice, storytelling, customer empathy, and the changing role of creativity as AI reshapes marketing.
Rory Sutherland
Rory Sutherland is Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK, founder of its behavioral science practice, an author and speaker whose work connects advertising, psychology, creativity, and human decision-making.
Sutherland challenges the idea that…
Rory Sutherland is Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK, founder of its behavioral science practice, an author and speaker whose work connects advertising, psychology, creativity, and human decision-making.
Sutherland challenges the idea that customers always behave rationally. Through Alchemy, his talks, and his work at Ogilvy, he shows marketers how context, perception, testing, and unconventional ideas can influence behavior and create value.
Andy Crestodina
Andy Crestodina is co-founder and CMO of Chicago agency Orbit Media Studios. He has spent more than two decades teaching digital marketing, analytics, SEO, content strategy, and web design.
Crestodina turns digital…
Andy Crestodina is co-founder and CMO of Chicago agency Orbit Media Studios. He has spent more than two decades teaching digital marketing, analytics, SEO, content strategy, and web design.
Crestodina turns digital marketing data into practical lessons for marketers. His writing, Content Chemistry, and frequent presentations cover content performance, search, AI, analytics, conversion, and audience research, pairing strategic thinking with tactics teams can use.
Pam Didner
Pam Didner is founder of Relentless Pursuit, a B2B marketing strategist, author, and keynote speaker who spent roughly two decades in global marketing and sales enablement roles at Intel.
Didner works where…
Pam Didner is founder of Relentless Pursuit, a B2B marketing strategist, author, and keynote speaker who spent roughly two decades in global marketing and sales enablement roles at Intel.
Didner works where marketing strategy, sales enablement, and AI meet. Her consulting, books, workshops, and keynotes help B2B leaders align sales and marketing, build workable plans, and translate emerging AI capabilities into practical changes for teams and operations.
Zontee Hou
Zontee Hou is President and Chief Strategist of Media Volery, a digital marketing and brand strategist, speaker, and author. She has a deep experience in content, personalization, and customer strategy.
Hou helps…
Zontee Hou is President and Chief Strategist of Media Volery, a digital marketing and brand strategist, speaker, and author. She has a deep experience in content, personalization, and customer strategy.
Hou helps marketers turn customer insights into action. Her work covers content strategy, research, behavioral economics, and data-driven personalization. Her book, Data-Driven Personalization, offers a practical framework for creating more relevant messages and experiences.
Shama Hyder
Shama Hyder is a keynote speaker, author, Professor of Practice at the Link School of Business, and founder of Zen Media, the global marketing firm she built and led for 17 years…
Shama Hyder is a keynote speaker, author, Professor of Practice at the Link School of Business, and founder of Zen Media, the global marketing firm she built and led for 17 years before selling it.
Hyder turns changes in AI, customer behavior, and technology into practical advice for leaders. Through her books, consulting, and speaking, she helps marketers act quickly, adapt to digital change, build influence, and focus on trends that matter.
Melanie Deziel
Melanie Deziel is a Creative Systems Architect, author, and keynote speaker. She applies her journalism background to help teams build repeatable systems for stronger creative work and content.
Deziel makes creativity less…
Melanie Deziel is a Creative Systems Architect, author, and keynote speaker. She applies her journalism background to help teams build repeatable systems for stronger creative work and content.
Deziel makes creativity less dependent on flashes of inspiration. Through The Content Fuel Framework, training, and keynotes, she gives marketers structured ways to generate ideas, tell better stories, and create consistently without turning the creative process into a formula.
Nancy Harhut
Nancy Harhut is co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of HBT Marketing, where combines creative strategy with behavioral science after senior agency roles at Digitas, Mullen, and Hill Holliday.
Harhut uses behavioral science…
Nancy Harhut is co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of HBT Marketing, where combines creative strategy with behavioral science after senior agency roles at Digitas, Mullen, and Hill Holliday.
Harhut uses behavioral science to understand how customers make decisions. Through her speaking and agency work, she shows marketers how cognitive biases, messaging, and creative techniques can make campaigns more persuasive.
Robert Rose
Robert Rose is Chief Strategy Advisor at Content Marketing Institute and a marketing strategist, author, and advisor who helped build CMI into a major content marketing education platform.
Rose works on the…
Robert Rose is Chief Strategy Advisor at Content Marketing Institute and a marketing strategist, author, and advisor who helped build CMI into a major content marketing education platform.
Rose works on the strategic systems behind effective content rather than treating content as a production problem. Through CMI, Seventh Bear, books, consulting, and speaking, he helps marketing leaders connect differentiated stories, operating models, and content strategy to wider business goals.
Mitch Joel
Mitch Joel is Executive Director of Next Era Institute, an author, speaker, and business thinker. His work explores the intersection of technology, culture, marketing, leadership, and change.
Joel explores what new technology…
Mitch Joel is Executive Director of Next Era Institute, an author, speaker, and business thinker. His work explores the intersection of technology, culture, marketing, leadership, and change.
Joel explores what new technology means for leaders, not just marketers. His writing and talks connect AI, digital platforms, customer behavior, media, and workplace change, helping marketing executives prepare for what comes next.
Jay Acunzo
Jay Acunzo is a speaking and storytelling advisor, author of Break the Wheel, and marketing leader at Google and HubSpot who built a keynote business around ideas, stories, and differentiation.
Acunzo…
Jay Acunzo is a speaking and storytelling advisor, author of Break the Wheel, and marketing leader at Google and HubSpot who built a keynote business around ideas, stories, and differentiation.
Acunzo argues that marketers and business leaders win through resonance, not sheer reach. His coaching, keynotes, and creative work focus on sharpening original ideas, building memorable stories, and turning expertise into a distinctive point of view people can recognize and repeat.
Dale Bertrand
Dale Bertrand is founder of Fire&Spark, a Boston-area marketing agency, and a speaker and strategist focused on how AI search is reshaping SEO, content strategy, visibility, and acquisition.
Bertrand explores how AI…
Dale Bertrand is founder of Fire&Spark, a Boston-area marketing agency, and a speaker and strategist focused on how AI search is reshaping SEO, content strategy, visibility, and acquisition.
Bertrand explores how AI is changing online search and brand discovery. He helps marketers rethink content, authority, and customer acquisition as people increasingly use AI tools to research brands.
Bozoma Saint John
Bozoma Saint John is Creator and CEO of Eve by Boz, an author and marketing executive. His career includes senior brand leadership roles at Netflix, Uber, Apple, PepsiCo, and Endeavor.
Saint John’s…
Bozoma Saint John is Creator and CEO of Eve by Boz, an author and marketing executive. His career includes senior brand leadership roles at Netflix, Uber, Apple, PepsiCo, and Endeavor.
Saint John’s career shows marketing leadership across entertainment, technology, consumer brands, and entrepreneurship. Her work focuses on bold branding, cultural relevance, authentic leadership, and how a unique executive voice can help organizations connect with their audiences.
Tamsen Webster
Tamsen Webster is a keynote speaker, message strategist, and author of Find Your Red Thread. He helps experts build clearer, more compelling cases for ideas designed to earn attention and action.
…
Tamsen Webster is a keynote speaker, message strategist, and author of Find Your Red Thread. He helps experts build clearer, more compelling cases for ideas designed to earn attention and action.
Webster focuses on the logic beneath persuasive stories: why an idea matters, how audiences make sense of it, and what makes them act. Her Red Thread approach gives marketers and leaders a structured way to turn complex thinking into messages people can understand, remember, and support.
Michael Stelzner
Michael Stelzner is founder and CEO of Social Media Examiner, the media and education company he built around practical guidance, original research, events, podcasts, and programming for marketers.
Stelzner has built an…
Michael Stelzner is founder and CEO of Social Media Examiner, the media and education company he built around practical guidance, original research, events, podcasts, and programming for marketers.
Stelzner has built an education system around changes in social platforms and digital marketing. Through research, editorial content, podcasts, and events, he helps marketers interpret emerging channels and tactics, including the growing impact of AI on marketing work.
Liza Adams
Liza Adams is an AI advisor and go-to-market strategist at GrowthPath Partners. She helps marketing teams redesign strategy, workflows, and customer engagement for an AI-shaped market.
Adams approaches AI as an operating-model…
Liza Adams is an AI advisor and go-to-market strategist at GrowthPath Partners. She helps marketing teams redesign strategy, workflows, and customer engagement for an AI-shaped market.
Adams approaches AI as an operating-model change, not just a new set of tools. Her work helps GTM leaders rethink workflows, brand visibility, data, and human-plus-AI collaboration, giving marketing teams practical ways to redesign work rather than simply automate old processes.
Mark Schaefer
Mark Schaefer is Executive Director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, a keynote speaker, educator, consultant, and author. His work spans marketing strategy, AI, community, and personal branding.
Schaefer explores how marketers can stand…
Mark Schaefer is Executive Director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, a keynote speaker, educator, consultant, and author. His work spans marketing strategy, AI, community, and personal branding.
Schaefer explores how marketers can stand out as technology changes how people create and consume content. Through his books, consulting, teaching, and talks, he covers AI, community, influence, personal branding, and the human qualities that help brands rise above automated content.
Christopher Penn
Christopher Penn is co-founder and Chief Data Scientist of Trust Insights, a keynote speaker and author. His work spans analytics, AI, machine learning, marketing technology, and strategy.
Penn translates technical developments into…
Christopher Penn is co-founder and Chief Data Scientist of Trust Insights, a keynote speaker and author. His work spans analytics, AI, machine learning, marketing technology, and strategy.
Penn translates technical developments into marketing applications, from analytics and measurement to generative AI and machine learning. His research, teaching, speaking, and writing give marketing leaders a data-oriented framework for understanding new technology and using it more deliberately.
Mike Allton
Mike Allton is the founder of The AI Hat and Director of Partner-Led Growth at Agorapulse. He combines hands-on revenue leadership with keynotes, training, and a podcast on practical AI adoption.
Allton…
Mike Allton is the founder of The AI Hat and Director of Partner-Led Growth at Agorapulse. He combines hands-on revenue leadership with keynotes, training, and a podcast on practical AI adoption.
Allton helps sales and marketing leaders improve how they work before adopting AI. Through his Digital Crew concept, talks, workshops, and The AI Hat Podcast, he explains how AI agents can reduce administrative tasks while keeping proper safeguards and protecting the human relationships that drive revenue.
Amanda Natividad
Amanda Natividad is Chief Evangelist at SparkToro and founder of Zero Click Marketing, a consultancy and media company built around audience-first content and marketing for a clickless web.
Natividad’s Zero Click approach…
Amanda Natividad is Chief Evangelist at SparkToro and founder of Zero Click Marketing, a consultancy and media company built around audience-first content and marketing for a clickless web.
Natividad’s Zero Click approach challenges marketers to create value where audiences already spend time instead of making every interaction depend on a website visit. Her speaking and teaching connect content distribution, audience research, algorithms, trust, and changing attribution models.
Ashley Zeckman
Ashley Zeckman is VP of Influencer Relations at Spotlight, where she leads B2B influencer programs and research focused on expert collaboration, creator relationships, and measurable marketing impact.
Zeckman sees B2B influence as…
Ashley Zeckman is VP of Influencer Relations at Spotlight, where she leads B2B influencer programs and research focused on expert collaboration, creator relationships, and measurable marketing impact.
Zeckman sees B2B influence as building long-term relationships, not simply promoting content once. She helps brands find trusted experts, create useful content together, strengthen partnerships, and measure influence as AI makes credible outside voices more valuable.
Joe Pulizzi
Joe Pulizzi is founder of The Tilt, an entrepreneur, speaker, and author whose books include Content Inc., Epic Content Marketing, and Burn the Playbook.
Pulizzi helped turn content marketing…
Joe Pulizzi is founder of The Tilt, an entrepreneur, speaker, and author whose books include Content Inc., Epic Content Marketing, and Burn the Playbook.
Pulizzi helped turn content marketing into a defined business discipline through CMI, Content Marketing World, and his writing. His work now extends into content entrepreneurship, audience ownership, publishing, and building durable businesses around differentiated expertise and trusted media.
Selection Methodology
We selected the leaders on this list based on their relevance, demonstrated expertise and impact, professional credibility, and ongoing contributions to the field.
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We look for evidence such as leading meaningful initiatives or delivering notable results within their organizations, developing influential ideas or practices, publishing research or educational resources, speaking or teaching, and other contributions that demonstrate impact within their work or the broader field.
Further Reading
Are you seeking more insights? Check out this list of digital marketing influencers with industry expertise. Let's explore who these experts are and how they can help you and your team thrive.
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