Becoming a better marketer isn’t rocket science. If you have access to the right resources to support and structure your learning, you can easily develop your skills, knowledge and career.
The world of marketing is fast-paced and ever-changing. You can’t scroll through LinkedIn without finding out something new about the industry. It seems that every day a new theory, acronym or feature has emerged that you need to get up to speed on (mainly before your boss or colleagues ask you what it is).
But how do you stay on top of all of these updates and new features, and how do you apply them? Smart Insights is definitely a great place to start.
Perhaps you want to grow your knowledge and skills within your current position or work toward getting a promotion, or even progress to your dream role. We’ve got resources that can help make all of these goals achievable by building on your existing knowledge and help you get your career on the right track.
How can Free Membership help me?
Our Free Membership is designed to give you a leg-up and provide a solid base of knowledge that will help you in everyday marketing tasks. It provides you with access to over 25 expert, actionable Guides and Templates that will inform your marketing strategy.
This membership option means you can access our hugely popular Digital marketing plan template, find out more about key types of marketing – such as content marketing – and even improve your reporting with our Fast start guide on Google Analytics.
One place that’s a great start for Free Members, and marketers in general, though, is marketing models.
Our guide to digital marketing models
Understanding the core concepts of marketing can be a challenge, especially with so many different sources of “expert information” online. It can be hard to know where to go, who to trust and what information is the most up-to-date.
This is why our very own Dr. Dave Chaffey created a free downloadable guide to 10 Digital Marketing Models, giving you a go-to, reliable source of foundational knowledge for creating marketing strategies and plans.
Dave’s knowledge is trusted by marketing professionals worldwide. He has lectured at many leading universities including Cranfield School of Management. Dave has also tutored professionals on the Charted Institute of Marketing and Institute of Data & Marketing courses – so you know you’re in safe hands with all of the resources on our site.
The guide explains the fundamentals of key digital marketing models, how they work and gives practical working examples, including:
- Audit models
- Planning models
- Strategy models
You’ll also find various exercises to complete to enable you to create robust marketing plans that stand the test of time and learn higher strategic marketing planning. All of this will help you make the most of other resources available and provide a great base for you to work from.
Benchmark your skills
As well as a great range of guides and templates, Free Members also have access to our Capability Grader. There are ten graders in total, each of which focuses on a specific area, such as digital experience management, email marketing and automation, and search engine optimization.
Going through the capability grader and scoring your or your organization’s performance in these areas will allow you to see where you need to improve, how you compare to other Smart Insights members and what content could help you develop your skills further.
This can help you plan your learning, giving you a structure to follow based on our recommendations and your current goals.
On top of this, you can also use our Personalized Learning Plan to further pinpoint skills gaps. The plan will help you identify your strongest digital skills and highlight the areas that you need to improve on in order to be a more successful marketer.
The simple three-step process provides you with tailored recommendations to provide a structure that will see your skills improve. The learning plan allows you to:
- Assess yourself against 25 key skills across the RACE Planning Framework.
- Rate yourself low, medium or high capability.
- Benchmark these against importance to your current role.
- Get your score out of 100.
- Identify your skills gaps to start focusing on weaker areas.
Regular updates
As well as on-site content and resources, Free Members also get regular email updates. These emails are designed to fill you in on anything you may have missed, including the latest blogs and resource updates.
You’ll receive the following emails that could further help you in your online learning:
- E-news: A rundown of the latest blogs, news, tools and tips.
- Spotlight: Channel-focused resources to help you in specific areas.
- Partner emails: Relevant information and resources from trusted partners.
Our email communications will keep you on top of the latest trends and tips in marketing, so you remain ahead of the learning curve at all times.
How can paid membership help me?
Our Individual Membership is a paid-for membership that helps you enhance your marketing skills and develop your professional career with a complete system of over 160 information-packed Guides, Templates, Quick Win online learning modules, and a Personalized Learning Plan.
These are designed to offer more in-depth information that can help you build on the skills you gain from Free Membership. All of the information included in Individual Membership resources is designed to be practical and actionable, offering step-by-step guidance that allows you to achieve growth systematically and consistently – taking your marketing to the next level.
You also still get access to the Capability Grader, although unlike Free Membership, you can use it as often as you like. This means you can regularly grade yourself to see how you’re improving and what areas still need a bit of focus.
On top of this, Individual Membership also comes with the Personalized Learning Plan, as well as a greater level of access to recommended resources. This means you really can structure your learning and align it with your goals.
Actionable toolkits
All of the resources are organized into different toolkits, which help you focus your learning on areas that are key to your current role or organization.
Our toolkits are designed to help you develop your skills – and results – whether you want to develop your skills in strategy, analytics, design or digital channels like organic search, social media or email marketing.
We have three strategy toolkits designed to help you excel in higher level, strategic marketing roles:
Plus, for channel-specific knowledge, these seven toolkits cover today’s key digital marketing activities:
Each toolkit has in-depth Guides, plus our unique Templates that help you audit your current use of digital marketing and prioritize improvements. As well as gaining practical, actionable knowledge, you’ll soon become the go-to person for your expertise in all things digital.
Download our Individual Member Resource – Digital marketing strategy guide
Our guide is packed with practical, actionable, step-by-step guidance so you can join thousands of others and create a marketing strategy that works.
Access the Digital marketing strategy guide
Don’t just take our word for it – we have over 165,000 active members from more than 170 countries worldwide using our Toolkits to improve their digital marketing skills. We’ve helped global brands like 3M, GlaxoSmithKline, HSBC, HP, Microsoft, Vodafone and more.
Individual Membership payment options
Not only does Individual Membership give you a fantastic range of actionable Guides, Templates and Quick Wins, you have options when it comes to paying for your membership. This means it’s even more accessible because you can choose an option that best suits your budget.
Monthly payments
You can opt to pay monthly for Individual Membership, providing you with a rolling subscription. With this option, you get access to five resources each month, which can be Guides, Templates or Quick Wins.
If you don’t use all of your resource credits within a month, these can roll over to the next month, allowing you to bank credits to use at a later date. This means you never miss out on your monthly resource allowance.
You can cancel your membership at any time, so there is no obligation. Although it’s worth noting that your units won’t be available following cancellation, so we recommend using them all before taking a break from your membership.
Annual payments
If you want unlimited access to Individual Membership resources for the year ahead, annual membership is definitely the option for you.
Our Individual Annual Membership allows you to access as many of the 160+ included resources in a month as you need to, meaning the advice is always there to help you get a job done. This invaluable source of knowledge can then help you with everyday tasks, new campaigns and career development.
You simply make one payment for the year, which will automatically recur the following year, ensuring you still get the same great price for the life of your membership and that you are never left without access to the resources you need.
To make this membership option even better, you can currently save 50% with our Black Friday Flash Sale! This means that you pay just half of what you would for a year of monthly payments AND this offer price will be yours for as long as you continue to renew your membership each year.
Hurry, this offer ends at 11:59pm GMT on December 2nd – don’t miss out on paying less to become a better marketer.