Smart Insights Review: Tap Into The Marketing Brain Of Dr Dave Chaffey

Smart Insights is the marketing resource website founded and run by Dave Chaffey, who we profiled a few months ago. He is originally from Derby, and started life as an e-marketing consultant in 1997. He has written several bestselling books, and Smart Insights helps thousands of businesses to manage and optimize their marketing.

Smart Insights Review

Smart Insights: Where to start?

Freebies: Starting with what you can get for free is always a good place to begin, as it will help you gauge the usefulness of the resources. Smart Insights has many e-books as part of their expert membership, but you can get their Digital Marketing Planning template with the free basic membership. This is a 14 page ebook, written by Dave Chaffey and Dan Bosomworth and regularly updated – as recently as April 2014.

Using the template, you can create a simple structure for your digital marketing following the Smart Insights RACE system (Reach, Act, Convert, Engage). Guided by the infographics and following the checklists, this freebie will give you a great start and leave you wanting more of the Smart Insights tools.

Other free tools include planning infographics, a digital marketing health check, and an introduction into RACE planning.

What next?

Once you’ve got to grips with the basics, it’s time to look at the wider range of resources available. It’s probably best to assess what you currently do within your digital marketing and what you want to branch out into.

The Smart Insights digital marketing library has a wealth of information, from strategy for social media marketing, to content marketing planning, to Google analytics audits. Starting with the plan you’ve created, find the ebook to match your goals and get going.

Short on time? Check out the hub pages which give you a fast track to expertise in whichever form of digital marketing you’ve decided to use. Need to brush up on Google AdWords? No problem. Check out the articles and some video tutorials to help you get a feel for PPC.

How much?

Free basic membership will give you a little bit of access for absolutely no cash. Simples.

There are then three levels of Expert Membership. They are based on price and how often you’re willing to pay for the resources.

Level one is £25 a month, but billed annually, and gives you unlimited access to the resources as well as online training and a digital toolkit. Level two is £50 a month, and gives you access to five resources a month. Finally, you can get the team membership at £550 which adds all of the same goodies as the £25 a month plan but with tailored advice too.

What do we think?

Smart Insights is about as close as you can get to tapping into Dr Dave Chaffey’s brain and releasing all that digital marketing knowledge. Set yourself up a basic membership and see for yourself how you can optimise your marketing with just the free resources. It’s safe to say the expert level will be a bargain!