Explore best practice in digital marketing
Choose from over 150+ free Quick Guides to improve your online marketing categorised in our RACE digital marketing planning framework.
Welcome Get more from today's marketing
Email marketing audit Improve your response
This week Key developments in digital marketing
Expert membership In-depth guides and online training
Map, plan and manage your digital marketing strategy using our Ebooks, online training and templates.
View guidesUse our new spreadsheet to review your customer contact strategies.
Get Health checkWe give in-depth advice and alert you to the developments that matter each week in marketing.
View latest updatesImprove your skills and marketing. Act as your own consultant using our workbooks and videos.
Learn moreChoose from over 150+ free Quick Guides to improve your online marketing categorised in our RACE digital marketing planning framework.
Effective content needs managing, easy to say, less easy to do. Content has always been King, but in the real-time, social sharing world it’s about lot more than achieving conversion. Quality content is essential across the RACE customer lifecycle.
In the beginning, the web was just flat text and images accessed through desktop computers. In this section we cover emerging technologies and innovation.
Our recommended links:
Your digital strategy provides a foundation for all of your tactical marketing to engage customers across the lifecycle of Reach-Act-Convert-Engage summarised in our RACE digital marketing planning framework.
Our recommended links:
Some say Email marketing is dead. We’re sure there’s a lot of life in yet; it’s still a primary way of engaging customers and one of the most popular topics on Smart Insights.
Our recommended links:
If you don’t know where you’re heading, you’ll never know when you get there or whether you’re on track. Setting the right goals for digital marketing isn’t so easy, but our RACE framework should help you select the right goals.
Our recommended links:
Google Analytics is a fantastic tool, but to get the most from it and so get more commercial value from your Internet marketing needs careful setup. Our guides take you through the steps to customise it for your business.
Our recommended links:
Managing digital marketing will often need new skills, new staff, new technologies and new processes for marketing. It’s a big change! We look at digital marketing governance the – best way to structure teams and update processes in larger organisation. If you’re a team of one you can ignore this section! The bigger the organisation, the bigger the challenge!
Our recommended links:
Understanding your customers online is the first step to improving your results from online channels. Next, it’s benchmarking competitors and looking for partners to work with. We’ll show you how to audit your capabilities and identify the best commercial opportunities.
Our recommended links:
Mobile marketing is massive already and forecast to exceed desktop Internet access in many developing countries. So every marketer needs to keep tabs on the opportunities of reaching their audiences via mobile and how to make their mobile sites and presences visible and accessible.
Our recommended links:
We think Online PR is one of the most cost-effective marketing approaches for all types of business. But it’s difficult to get right since it is often managed by different people and there’s the overlap with SEO and social media marketing.
Our recommended links:
The Internet and digital technologies give fantastic opportunities to engage companies with your brand in new ways.
You may have heard of this! It’s transforming marketing, for the better most would say. We’ll help you navigate social media with a strategic approach sharing approaches from the leading commentators and companies.
Our recommended links:
Effective content needs managing, easy to say, less easy to do. Content has always been King, but in the real-time, social sharing world it’s about lot more than achieving conversion. Quality content is essential across the RACE customer lifecycle.
Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) isn’t only important for Ecommerce and transactional sites. Every site should have conversion paths to marketing outcomes which contribute to the business.
We’ll show you how to increase your conversion, no matter what your type of site through using the right measures and applying the right best practices.
Our recommended links:
In the beginning, the web was just flat text and images accessed through desktop computers. In this section we cover emerging technologies and innovation.
Our recommended links:
Some say Email marketing is dead. We’re sure there’s a lot of life in yet; it’s still a primary way of engaging customers and one of the most popular topics on Smart Insights.
Our recommended links:
If you don’t know where you’re heading, you’ll never know when you get there or whether you’re on track. Setting the right goals for digital marketing isn’t so easy, but our RACE framework should help you select the right goals.
Our recommended links:
Google Analytics is a fantastic tool, but to get the most from it and so get more commercial value from your Internet marketing needs careful setup. Our guides take you through the steps to customise it for your business.
Our recommended links:
Online lead generation creates new selling opportunities by converting site visitors to prospects. Prospects are classically qualified through completing a profile form and then tailored communications delivered.
Our recommended links:
Understanding your customers online is the first step to improving your results from online channels. Next, it’s benchmarking competitors and looking for partners to work with. We’ll show you how to audit your capabilities and identify the best commercial opportunities.
Our recommended links:
Mobile marketing is massive already and forecast to exceed desktop Internet access in many developing countries. So every marketer needs to keep tabs on the opportunities of reaching their audiences via mobile and how to make their mobile sites and presences visible and accessible.
Our recommended links:
Creating usable sites is important, but an effective marketing site overlays persuasion to encourage visitors to engage and follow a journey to conversion. So understanding user psychology and knowing the persuasion principles we describe here is helpful.
Our recommended links:
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is arguably THE most cost-effective digital marketing technique, but also the most challenging to get right. Here’s how.
Our recommended links:
Here is a selection of the most useful articles on SEO on Smart Insights followed by a listing of the most recent articles.
You may have heard of this! It’s transforming marketing, for the better most would say. We’ll help you navigate social media with a strategic approach sharing approaches from the leading commentators and companies.
Our recommended links:
The tools and techniques for creating a compelling user experience are constantly changing. With today’s websites and social networks offering interactivity and rich media we couldn’t have dreamt of a few years ago, there are great opportunities to produce an effective experience.
Our recommended links:
Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) isn’t only important for Ecommerce and transactional sites. Every site should have conversion paths to marketing outcomes which contribute to the business.
We’ll show you how to increase your conversion, no matter what your type of site through using the right measures and applying the right best practices.
Our recommended links:
In the beginning, the web was just flat text and images accessed through desktop computers. In this section we cover emerging technologies and innovation.
Our recommended links:
Your digital strategy provides a foundation for all of your tactical marketing to engage customers across the lifecycle of Reach-Act-Convert-Engage summarised in our RACE digital marketing planning framework.
Our recommended links:
Our content on Ecommerce focuses on techniques to increased sales from a range of transactional Ecommerce sites including retail (of course), travel and financial services.
Our recommended links:
Some say Email marketing is dead. We’re sure there’s a lot of life in yet; it’s still a primary way of engaging customers and one of the most popular topics on Smart Insights.
Our recommended links:
If you don’t know where you’re heading, you’ll never know when you get there or whether you’re on track. Setting the right goals for digital marketing isn’t so easy, but our RACE framework should help you select the right goals.
Our recommended links:
Google Analytics is a fantastic tool, but to get the most from it and so get more commercial value from your Internet marketing needs careful setup. Our guides take you through the steps to customise it for your business.
Our recommended links:
Understanding your customers online is the first step to improving your results from online channels. Next, it’s benchmarking competitors and looking for partners to work with. We’ll show you how to audit your capabilities and identify the best commercial opportunities.
Our recommended links:
Mobile marketing is massive already and forecast to exceed desktop Internet access in many developing countries. So every marketer needs to keep tabs on the opportunities of reaching their audiences via mobile and how to make their mobile sites and presences visible and accessible.
Our recommended links:
Creating usable sites is important, but an effective marketing site overlays persuasion to encourage visitors to engage and follow a journey to conversion. So understanding user psychology and knowing the persuasion principles we describe here is helpful.
Our recommended links:
You may have heard of this! It’s transforming marketing, for the better most would say. We’ll help you navigate social media with a strategic approach sharing approaches from the leading commentators and companies.
Our recommended links:
The tools and techniques for creating a compelling user experience are constantly changing. With today’s websites and social networks offering interactivity and rich media we couldn’t have dreamt of a few years ago, there are great opportunities to produce an effective experience.
Our recommended links:
Effective content needs managing, easy to say, less easy to do. Content has always been King, but in the real-time, social sharing world it’s about lot more than achieving conversion. Quality content is essential across the RACE customer lifecycle.
Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) isn’t only important for Ecommerce and transactional sites. Every site should have conversion paths to marketing outcomes which contribute to the business.
We’ll show you how to increase your conversion, no matter what your type of site through using the right measures and applying the right best practices.
Our recommended links:
Of all the areas of digital marketing we cover on Smart Insights, Customer engagement is arguably THE most important and THE most challenging for a brand. It’s crucial to repeat business, but with the choice available online difficult to achieve.
Our recommended links:
Customer relationship management or CRM is a well established approach. Although some argue it’s impossible to achieve and customer managed relationships is more appropriate! Digital media provides new opportunities to tailor customer communications integrated with traditional channels. We also review this for our email marketing tactic.
In the beginning, the web was just flat text and images accessed through desktop computers. In this section we cover emerging technologies and innovation.
Our recommended links:
Some say Email marketing is dead. We’re sure there’s a lot of life in yet; it’s still a primary way of engaging customers and one of the most popular topics on Smart Insights.
Our recommended links:
If you don’t know where you’re heading, you’ll never know when you get there or whether you’re on track. Setting the right goals for digital marketing isn’t so easy, but our RACE framework should help you select the right goals.
Our recommended links:
Mobile marketing is massive already and forecast to exceed desktop Internet access in many developing countries. So every marketer needs to keep tabs on the opportunities of reaching their audiences via mobile and how to make their mobile sites and presences visible and accessible.
Our recommended links:
We think Online PR is one of the most cost-effective marketing approaches for all types of business. But it’s difficult to get right since it is often managed by different people and there’s the overlap with SEO and social media marketing.
Our recommended links:
The Internet and digital technologies give fantastic opportunities to engage companies with your brand in new ways.
You may have heard of this! It’s transforming marketing, for the better most would say. We’ll help you navigate social media with a strategic approach sharing approaches from the leading commentators and companies.
Our recommended links:
Affiliate marketing is still an essential digital media channel for many transactional Ecommerce sites for retailers, travel and financial services. Affiliate marketing is also a revenue model to consider for site owners, especially online publishers. Here’s the issues to think about it to manage it effectively.
Our recommended links:
Effective content needs managing, easy to say, less easy to do. Content has always been King, but in the real-time, social sharing world it’s about lot more than achieving conversion. Quality content is essential across the RACE customer lifecycle.
In the beginning, the web was just flat text and images accessed through desktop computers. In this section we cover emerging technologies and innovation.
Our recommended links:
Your digital strategy provides a foundation for all of your tactical marketing to engage customers across the lifecycle of Reach-Act-Convert-Engage summarised in our RACE digital marketing planning framework.
Our recommended links:
Some say Email marketing is dead. We’re sure there’s a lot of life in yet; it’s still a primary way of engaging customers and one of the most popular topics on Smart Insights.
Our recommended links:
In our coverage of Internet advertising we focus on display advertising, still more commonly known as banner ads. These get a bad rap because of low clickthrough rates, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t worthwhile. We have separate advice on paid search (PPC) marketing strategy.
Our recommended links:
Managing digital marketing will often need new skills, new staff, new technologies and new processes for marketing. It’s a big change! We look at digital marketing governance the – best way to structure teams and update processes in larger organisation. If you’re a team of one you can ignore this section! The bigger the organisation, the bigger the challenge!
Our recommended links:
Mobile marketing is massive already and forecast to exceed desktop Internet access in many developing countries. So every marketer needs to keep tabs on the opportunities of reaching their audiences via mobile and how to make their mobile sites and presences visible and accessible.
Our recommended links:
We think Online PR is one of the most cost-effective marketing approaches for all types of business. But it’s difficult to get right since it is often managed by different people and there’s the overlap with SEO and social media marketing.
Our recommended links:
Paid search marketing opportunities includes Pay Per Click Ads via Google and Bing plus ads on the display network – a third of Google’s revenue. The cost of pay search can be high, so we discuss how to make sure you’re getting the most value from PPC by maximising your Google Quality Score.
Our recommended links:
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is arguably THE most cost-effective digital marketing technique, but also the most challenging to get right. Here’s how.
Our recommended links:
Here is a selection of the most useful articles on SEO on Smart Insights followed by a listing of the most recent articles.
Search engine marketing is now a core marketing activities. We have a lot of details on the techniques for search marketing in our separate Quick Guides on SEO and PPC Adwords. Keyphrase analysis is important for both paid and natural search, so that’s covered here.
Our recommended links:
You may have heard of this! It’s transforming marketing, for the better most would say. We’ll help you navigate social media with a strategic approach sharing approaches from the leading commentators and companies.
Our recommended links:
Most site owners want more traffic, that’s quality traffic of course. In this section we show how a planned approach can help you build traffic. We also cover how to increase the reach of your brand through publisher sites and social networks.
Our recommended links:
Selecting the best revenue options for Internet startups I’m often contacted by site owners with an idea for a new site who are trying to work out how much revenue they’ll be able to raise depending on the number of visitors to their site. There’s no simple answer to this, but to help, several years ago I
Online business and revenue modelsUsing the RACE Planning System to get ahead in your digital marketing The first edition of my Internet, Marketing, Strategy and Planning book from 2000 contained a template for creating what we then called an Internet Marketing Plan. Ten long, but exciting years later, marketers are understandably even more hungry for guidance, given the importance of digital
Digital marketing strategyEfficiency and effectiveness definition & explanation I think many would think efficiency and effectiveness are similar terms for measures. If so, think again, since you really need both types of measures when identifying the most suitable goals and measures to assess your marketing or business effectiveness. It’s fine to say the difference doesn’t matter especially, but
Defining goals and KPIsLanding page examples and best practice advice Most discussion of web design in companies still naturally tends to focus on the home page. But, for companies who are running a lot of online marketing campaigns, the effectiveness of the different pages deeper within the site is vital to getting returns from these campaigns. So this prompts the
Landing page optimisationLead generation strategyA summary of Amazon’s business strategy and revenue model I’ve used Amazon in my books for over 10 years now since many companies, from startups and small businesses to large international businesses, can learn from their focus on the customer and the approach of using technology and analysis to improve results. It consistently outperforms other companies
Online business and revenue models12 digital marketing fundamentals to get right in 2012 At the turn of the year, it’s always worth reflecting on the opportunities and challenges ahead to help shape priorities for marketing. In a recent talk for AdTech London, I identified 12 marketing trends, available in the Slideshare embed at the end of the post. In this post I’ll highlight
Digital marketing strategyMarketing innovationMost useful free UK,European,US,Global statistics resources for digital marketing Online marketers love statistics about digital marketing. They allow us to review customer adoption of the latest digital platforms and allow us to compare our performance against competitors. But which are the best, most reliable free and paid sources? Everyone has their favourites, but I thought it
Customer research & analysisMichael has defined 7 different product categories for brand reputation management and social media monitoring software which you can see in the 7 colour coded sections of the table.
Reputation managementSocial media listeningOur guide to creating a SWOT to improve your Internet marketing A SWOT analysis is an essential part of any business or marketing plan. It allows you to create a plan of action based not on what you’re interested in doing or on your gut-feel, but what you need to do given the situation in the marketplace.
SWOT analysisNew detailed guidance for marketers released by the Information Commissioner Value/Importance: ★★★★★ Recommended link: 13th Dec 2012 update from ICO Our summary of the new cookie guidance Through 2011 we have written updates on this new privacy law, specifically how it affects cookie use on websites and how it affects analytics – that post showed an alarming drop in
Digital marketing lawsNew European Facebook marketing pages launched Value/Importance: Recommended link: Facebook UK Marketing page We’ve found the global / US Facebook Marketing Page useful for ideas on Facebook Marketing – it seems others do too – there are nearly 900,000 Likes for this …..
Facebook Marketing Read moreA review of the main web crowdsourcing services for marketing, design and development These service sound scarier than than the title suggests. I’m sure many consultants, agencies and companies are using services such as oDesk and 99Designs already. But I …..
Resourcing digital marketing Read moreHow to use Facebook for a friendly B2C ‘webinar’ alternatives Facebook is ‘the’ social media platform for communicating with consumers in 2012 and looks set to continue well into the future. Many brands have moved away from microsites and instead …..
Facebook Marketing Read moreWhy it pays to review your subject line length and purpose What we think influences what we say, and what we say influences what we think. Now what has that got to do with subject lines? Well, it starts with …..
Email creative and copywriting Read moreA call-to-action at the wrong time in the wrong place? How do you feel when a pushy shop assistant approaches you the minute you enter a shop? When an email consisting of nothing but a hard-sell call-to-action lands in your …..
Email communications strategy Read more5 types of tools for a more customer-centred website and brand Web analytics tools such as Google Analytics are used by nearly every company since they provide valuable quantitative data on site visitor behaviour. No surprise there. But web analytics …..
Customer feedbackFacebook releases new marketing advice for businesses Value: Recommended link: http://www.facebook.com/business Our commentary: In the first week of August, Facebook announced “Facebook for Business”. While this sounds like an attempt to compete with LinkedIn or Google+, in fact it’s just …..
Facebook MarketingCreating a mobile marketing roadmap Launching mobile commerce within an organization requires a sound Mobile Strategy and a well-defined roadmap to ensure the right items are prioritized and that actionable results can be quickly obtained. There are so many options …..
Mobile marketing strategyCore skills for non-media companies Not long ago, everyone was talking about the power of “Like” and nothing seemed easier for a brand than building a tribe of followers; people who declared they liked your company, its brand or product. …..
Content marketing strategyAre you a Creator, Critic, Collector, Joiner or Spectator? If you’ve not seen Forrester Technographics tool before you are missing a treat. Showcased in the book Groundswell, Technographics is Forrester Research’s methodology for surveying customers. Its similar to segmenting by demographics …..
Customer segmentation/targeting Social media strategyHow do you build long-term relationships with customers using online media? “Open conversations generate loyalty, sales and most of all, learning… for both sides”. Seth Godin Achieving engagement with a customer or fan base is not so much about tactics …..
Customer retention strategyHow BBC Worldwide grew traffic to the Good Food website 60% + in 12 months I recently caught up with BBC Worldwide Digital Marketing Manager, Selina Holliday, to talk through what’s involved with managing a popular online publication. I’d heard about their …..
SEO content strategyWhat are the implications for marketing priorities? I was recently listening to an interesting talk by Dave Wieneke where he looked at the way brands need to change how they engage with consumers. One of the nuggets he shared, looked …..
Marketing innovationHow we built SEO into a launch campaign for a new service In this post I’ll share the steps we went through to integrate SEO into a campaign to support the launch of a new product offering. I think the …..
SEO content strategyAn introduction to mobile marketing strategy Mobile marketing has an exciting future shown by its rate of growth – you’ve almost certainly seen the statistics to support the claims for an exciting future for mobile… Did you know that there …..
Mobile marketing strategy