There are countless resources online for marketers, some good, some bad. But regardless of what kind of marketing you do, or what type of industry you’re in, there are some websites that get it right consistently. These are the ones you want to pay attention to. Of course, everyone has their own favorites, so please use the comments section below to tell us about yours!
1. MarketingSherpa is a marketing research firm that conducts their own studies and publishes their research. They are not an agency or consultants, they just focus on marketing research. They have premium memberships that grant access to countless studies and guides. However, there is a lot of information available for free on the website. You can download guides on landing page design, or email marketing, or segmentation strategies. The website is well organized and easy to navigate, though the general design leaves a bit to be desired, but that really doesn’t matter considering the quality of the content. The pro memberships will run you $379 a year, but it’s well worth the investment.
2. MarketingProfs is very similar to MarketingSherpa but offers a different variety of reports, studies, guides and even webinars. Most of the webinars, studies and reports require a pro membership, as the free content tends to be “sponsored.” There’s great content and user forums that you can access for free, but to get the most out of it, you’ll need to shell out $279 per year.
3. Seth Godin is an entrepreneur, blogger, best-selling author, speaker and all around smart guy. In his popular blog he takes a common sense approach to every day marketing, business and branding issues. All of his website content is free, and subscribing to his blog updates is simple, but if you want one of his 13 books you’ll need to go to Amazon.
4. Avinash Kaushik is widely recognized as the leader in web analytics and data-driven strategy. He is an author of two books on web analytics, consultant, blogger and “The Digital Marketing Evangelist” for Google. On his blog he offers up a light-hearted mix of commentary and in-depth strategies for web analytics. His website also has links to presentations he has made and articles he has written for magazines like Inc Magazine, Search Marketing Standards and IT World. You can’t beat the price; all content is provided at no charge.
5. WebDesignLedger.com is a great blog that’s written primarily by web professionals and graphic designers. Though a lot of the content is centered around web design, you don’t need to know what a pixel is to enjoy the content. They have a terrific “Inspiration” section that provides a wonderful collection of beautiful websites, font treatments and logo designs. For designers, you’ll find great tips, tutorials and free downloads.
Please, tell us about your favorites!