Ann Handley – Marketing and Content Creation Pioneer

Actionable. Inspirational. Real.

Ann draws on 25 years of experience as a marketer, educator, entrepreneur, and best-selling author to inspire and motivate you to shed marketing mediocrity and ignite real business results.

Ann Handley is a writer, digital marketing pioneer, and Wall Street Journal best-selling author who inspires and empowers you to create marketing that your customers will love, igniting real results for your business.

Ann is a writer and the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content and Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business (co-authored with C.C. Chapman).

Her company, MarketingProfs, is a marketing training and education company with more than 600,000 subscribers.

MarketingProfs trains marketers worldwide through its online and in-person education programs.
The MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum is the premier global marketing event for business-to-business marketers.

Her previous company, ClickZ, is one of the first sources of digital marketing information in the world. She sold it in 2000, a lifetime ago in Internet years.

Ann is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content and Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business (co-authored with C.C. Chapman).

Her books have been translated into 19 languages, including Turkish, Korean, Italian, Chinese, and Japanese.

A LinkedIn Influencer, she has more than 420,000 followers on Twitter. She is consistently named one of the most influential marketers on social media.

She has contributed commentary and bylines to Entrepreneur magazine, IBM’s Think Marketing, Inc. magazine, Mashable, Huffington Post, American Express, NPR, and the Wall Street Journal.

Ann was cited in Forbes as a top thought leader.

She was named by IBM as one of the 7 people shaping modern marketing.

Ann is the world’s first Chief Content Officer and an acclaimed writer and communicator.

RECENT MARKETING KEYNOTE PRESENTATIONS

The Big, Bold, Brave New World of Content & Storytelling

Time: 45-60 minutes


How Marketing can embrace the clear opportunity of content and social media.

Suited to: Marketing strategists and practitioners, creatives, entrepreneurs

Content marketing and storytelling offer a vast opportunity for all businesses.
Even yours.

But too many of us aren’t embracing the opportunity.

Our own marketing seems puny and underdeveloped, when it should be strong and buff.

So the question is: How do we inspire our teams to create more robust, effective marketing? Or, how do we up the quality of what we are producing? (And how do you define “quality,” anyway?)

In this fun, inspiring session, Ann will counsel you on how your organization can create marketing that’s engaging—because your audience demands it, and your organization deserves it.

Challenge Your Marketing Assumptions: An Intervention

Time: 45-60 minutes

A clear-eyed, fresh look at the state of marketing.
Suited to: C-suite, business leaders, marketing and business strategists, decision-makers, entrepreneurs

A new year is always a good time to reflect on the year that was: what worked and what didn’t. That’s especially true now.

Because if 2017 taught us anything, it’s that we need to challenge our own biases and assumptions. And we need to separate the fake facts from the truth.

Now is the time to challenge what we think we know about our marketing, with an eye toward challenging ourselves to do better.

In this highly engaging talk (and politics-free, don’t worry!), Ann uncovers the three specific places where most companies are relying on fake news and hunches instead of data, research, and honest empathy.

She’ll challenge you to rethink your content and your marketing to make it truly drive business for your company.

Storytelling in a Chaotic World

Time: 45-60 minutes

Suited to: Marketers, leaders, and storytellers

These are weird times to be in Marketing, aren’t they? It’s business as usual at exactly ZERO companies. That’s true no matter what you do or what you sell — B2B, B2C, SMB… all of us. Everything is suddenly, confusingly different. So, what’s the path forward? What do the current times mean for you, your business, and your customers?

In this presentation, you’ll learn:

• How the notion of brand storytelling has shifted
• 7 non-negotiable things your storytelling MUST do
• The best tactics for connecting with customers right now

ASAP: As Slow as Possible

Time: 20-45 minutes


Suited to: C-suite, business leaders, marketing and business strategists, decision-makers, entrepreneurs, change-makers, ass-kickers

In our always-on, speedy, tech-connected 21st century… why should your business think about marketing more slowly? Conventional wisdom holds that when you’re slow, you’re a slacker. When you slow down, you’re road kill.

But, just maybe, the opposite could also be true?

Come to this fun and entertaining session to hear Ann describe how slow is indeed the new fast.

“Completely relevant. Ann made me laugh… and reminded me of the power inherent in my profession to connect with people.. and sometimes, even change their perspectives along the way.”
Hideo Esaka – Chief Marketing Officer, Thomson Reuters Tax + Accounting Professionals Division