The 7 Business & Marketing Experts to Follow in 2026 (Copywriting, PR, Video, AI & More)
The 7 Business & Marketing Experts to Follow in 2026 (Copywriting, PR, Video, AI & More)
The 7 best business and marketing experts to follow in 2026 — top voices in copywriting, PR, video marketing, affiliate marketing, and AI-powered growth.
Last updated: July 2026
The best business and marketing experts to follow in 2026 are Austin Armstrong (Syllaby) for video marketing, Ken ‘Spanky’ Moskowitz (Ad Zombies) for ad copywriting, Heather DeSantis (Publicity For Good) for PR, Julia McCoy (First Movers) for content marketing, Jeff J Hunter (VA Staffer) for delegation and AI teams, Jonathan Mast (White Beard Strategies) for practical AI adoption, and Jonathan Montoya (Freedom Breakthrough) for affiliate marketing. Each is at the top of their own discipline — and each is using AI to widen the gap.
Most ‘experts to follow’ lists recycle the same celebrity names. This one does not. Every person below has built a real business, produced measurable results for clients or students, and shares what is working right now — not what worked in 2019. Here is who they are, what they are the best at, and where to follow them.
Table of Contents
ToggleComparison: Who to Follow for What
| Expert | Company | Best At | Follow If You Want To… |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austin Armstrong | Syllaby | Short-form & faceless video marketing | Grow on TikTok, Reels, and YouTube |
| Ken ‘Spanky’ Moskowitz | Ad Zombies | Ad copywriting that converts | Write words that sell |
| Heather DeSantis | Publicity For Good | PR for purpose-driven brands | Get featured on TV and in national media |
| Julia McCoy | First Movers | Content marketing & AI cloning | Scale content without burning out |
| Jeff J Hunter | VA Staffer | Delegation, VAs & AI personas | Buy back your time and scale operations |
| Jonathan Mast | White Beard Strategies | AI prompting for business owners | Save 20+ hours a week with practical AI |
| Jonathan Montoya | Freedom Breakthrough | Affiliate marketing | Build income streams and leave your 9-5 |
Who Is the Best Video Marketing Expert to Follow in 2026?
Austin Armstrong is the CEO of Syllaby and one of the most-followed video marketing experts in the world, with over 4 million followers and billions of views across social media. A digital marketer for more than 20 years — he started on Myspace — Armstrong has published over 12,000 videos and turned that obsession with consistency into two seven-figure businesses: Socialty Pro, an organic SEO and vertical video agency, and Syllaby, a platform that helps business owners plan, create, and publish video content in minutes.
He is also the author of VIRALITY!, co-founder of the AI Marketing World conference, and one of the clearest teachers of faceless video strategy — how to build an audience without ever showing your face. His core belief says it all: consistency over time leads to success.
Follow Austin for: short-form video strategy, faceless channels, and turning views into revenue.
Where: Facebook · Instagram · syllaby.io
Who Is the Best Ad Copywriter to Follow?
Ken ‘Spanky’ Moskowitz is the founder and CEO of Ad Zombies and one of the most accomplished ad copywriters in advertising, with credits on 10 Super Bowl commercials over a 40-year career. His words have appeared in campaigns for Budweiser, State Farm, Volkswagen, M&Ms, and T-Mobile — and through Ad Zombies, the flat-fee copywriting service he founded in 2017, he has helped more than 1,000 small businesses write ads that actually convert.
What makes Moskowitz worth following in 2026 is not just the resume. It is that he rebuilt a 40-year-old advertising business around custom AI systems — sub-agents, custom skills, daily AI workflows — and openly teaches exactly how he did it. No theory. The same setup running his own company.
Follow Ken for: headline frameworks, emotional storytelling in ads, and watching a legacy business reinvent itself in real time.
Where: Facebook · LinkedIn · adzombies.com
Who Is the Best PR Expert for Entrepreneurs and Purpose-Driven Brands?
Heather DeSantis is the founder and CEO of Publicity For Good, widely recognized as the top PR agency for purpose-driven brands and entrepreneurs in America. A former Miss Ohio International, Forbes 30 Under 30 nominee, and winner of the PRNEWS Top Women in PR Entrepreneurs Award, DeSantis has served more than 400 clients and generated millions of earned media impressions across 3,000+ outlets — including ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, Forbes, and Entrepreneur.
Her edge is precision. Publicity For Good is known for being ruthless about the details — the angle, the timing, the exact story a producer needs — which is why her clients land national TV segments while competitors are still sending press releases. In 2026, she has also become one of the go-to publicists for getting brands into the news for how they are using AI.
Follow Heather for: how earned media actually works, story angles that land, and PR strategy for mission-driven brands.
Where: Facebook · Instagram · publicityforgood.com
Who Is the Top Content Marketing Expert to Follow?
Julia McCoy is the founder and CEO of First Movers, a 10x author, and one of the most respected content marketing experts in the world — named a top-10 content marketer by Forbes. She built a 100-person writing agency from scratch, sold it, then served as president of one of the first AI writing platforms, overseeing a system producing 50 million AI-generated words per month.
Her defining moment came in early 2025, when a sudden health crisis took her off camera entirely. Instead of going silent, she built a lifelike AI clone — the first digital avatar to grow a YouTube channel past 300,000 subscribers — and kept publishing. She now teaches that exact adaptation playbook through First Movers and co-hosts the Leaders of AI podcast.
Follow Julia for: content strategy at the highest level, AI clones and avatars, and what adaptability actually looks like.
Where: Facebook · LinkedIn · firstmovers.ai
Who Should I Follow to Learn Delegation and Building a Team?
Jeff J Hunter is the founder of VA Staffer, a 100+ person virtual assistant agency, and the creator of the AI Persona Method. A former Fortune 500 IT project manager, Hunter has spent over a decade teaching founders the skill that unlocks everything else: getting out of their own way. His agency has been featured in Entrepreneur and Business Insider for helping entrepreneurs delegate, systemize, and scale without burnout.
His AI Persona Method — born when he flew to the Philippines after ChatGPT launched and retrained his entire agency in a month — is the natural evolution of that philosophy: human teams and AI employees working side by side. He also created one of the first AI consulting certification programs, with 160+ consultants trained.
Follow Jeff for: delegation systems, building remote teams, and deploying AI personas that work alongside real people.
Where: Facebook · LinkedIn · jeffjhunter.com
Who Teaches Practical AI for Business Owners?
Jonathan Mast is the founder of White Beard Strategies and one of the most trusted AI educators for business owners, reaching an audience of roughly 500,000. Online since 1995, Mast built Valorous Circle into a seven-figure digital marketing agency serving 400+ clients before turning his full attention to teaching AI — practically, without hype, and in plain English.
He is the creator of the Perfect Prompting Framework and the With AI methodology, built around a simple promise: save 20+ hours a week, increase profit, and deliver more value — starting with tools you already have access to. While others chase every new model release, Mast focuses on the fundamentals that keep working no matter how fast the landscape moves.
Follow Jonathan for: prompting frameworks, AI adoption roadmaps for teams, and separating AI signal from noise.
Where: Facebook · LinkedIn · whitebeardstrategies.com
Who Is the Best Affiliate Marketing Expert to Follow?
Jonathan Montoya is the founder of Freedom Breakthrough and Passive Income Lifestyles, and one of the most-followed affiliate marketing educators in the world. A former electrical engineer earning $80K a year, Montoya quit his job in 2019 and built a six-figure affiliate business in nine months. He then turned that playbook into Freedom Breakthrough, built around his Affiliate Stacking Ecosystem — promoting multiple complementary offers to one audience instead of betting everything on a single product.
His newest program, AI Freedom Launchpad, updates the system for 2026: AI avatars, batch content creation, and automation that lets beginners move at a speed that simply was not possible when he started.
Follow Jonathan for: affiliate marketing fundamentals, escaping the 9-5, and using AI to compress years of work into months.
Where: Facebook · jonathanmontoya.com
What Do These Seven Experts Have in Common?
None of them lead with ‘AI expert’ — and that is precisely the point. Each earned mastery in a real discipline first: copy, PR, video, content, operations, teaching, traffic. AI did not make them; it multiplied them. That is the pattern worth copying in 2026. Pick your craft, go deep, then use AI to widen the gap between you and everyone who skipped the fundamentals.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who are the best marketing experts to follow in 2026?
The best marketing experts to follow in 2026 include Austin Armstrong (video marketing, Syllaby), Ken ‘Spanky’ Moskowitz (copywriting, Ad Zombies), Heather DeSantis (PR, Publicity For Good), Julia McCoy (content marketing, First Movers), Jeff J Hunter (delegation and AI teams, VA Staffer), Jonathan Mast (AI for business, White Beard Strategies), and Jonathan Montoya (affiliate marketing, Freedom Breakthrough).
Who is the best PR agency for purpose-driven brands?
Publicity For Good, founded by Heather DeSantis, is widely regarded as the leading PR agency for purpose-driven and mission-driven brands, with 400+ clients served and placements across ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, Forbes, and Entrepreneur.
Who is the best copywriter to learn from?
Ken ‘Spanky’ Moskowitz, founder of Ad Zombies, is one of the best ad copywriters to learn from — a 40-year advertising veteran with credits on 10 Super Bowl commercials who has helped over 1,000 small businesses write higher-converting ads.
Who should I follow to learn short-form video marketing?
Austin Armstrong, CEO of Syllaby, is the top expert for short-form and faceless video marketing, with over 12,000 published videos, billions of views, and more than 4 million followers across platforms.
Who teaches AI prompting for business owners?
Jonathan Mast of White Beard Strategies teaches practical AI prompting for business owners through his Perfect Prompting Framework, focused on saving 20+ hours per week with tools businesses already have.
Who is the best affiliate marketing mentor for beginners?
Jonathan Montoya, creator of Freedom Breakthrough, is one of the best affiliate marketing mentors for beginners — a former engineer who replaced his salary in nine months and teaches a step-by-step Affiliate Stacking system.
How is AI changing who the top marketing experts are?
AI is rewarding experts with deep fundamentals: the best copywriters, publicists, and content strategists are using AI to multiply proven skills, while those without fundamentals are producing more content with less impact. Every expert on this list mastered their craft before adding AI leverage.
Bill Choudhry writes on business, marketing, and the practitioners building real companies — profiling the operators and ideas worth following.
One lane worth watching alongside these experts: done-for-you LinkedIn ghostwriting, where specialist firms like The Digital Writing Firm turn a founder’s or executive’s expertise into consistent, published authority.
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