Learn Digital Marketing
Learn Digital Marketing

How to Learn Digital Marketing Online?

How to Learn Digital Marketing Online? Customers today are more aware than they were just a few years ago. They have lots of alternatives and the opportunities to explore them all. This phenomenon has become the basis of change in marketing dynamics. The field has become so lucrative that many individuals and organizations have taken the path of learning and offering digital marketing services.
So, what is digital marketing? Why has it become such a big deal? How is one to learn digital marketing with the least amount of investment and lots of conveniences? Here’s the answer to all these questions.

An Introduction to Digital Marketing:

With the advancement in technology, ways of marketing a product or service have gone through a process of evolution too. New avenues for marketers are opening up to allow them to reach their target market. It also helps them convert leads into customers and retain them. One of the main reasons for the need for digital marketing is the increasing usage of the internet over time as at its heart, digital marketing revolves around the internet.
Apart from this, with increasing competition and a rise in globalization, it has become

Digital Marketing

a necessity for brands to market themselves effectively in order to survive in the market. Some of the digital marketing activities include search engine optimization, content marketing, e-commerce marketing, email direct marketing, and influencer marketing, etc.
Furthermore, research shows that the term? digital marketing’ was first used in the 1990s and in the year 2012-2013 it has remained a thriving field and an area of interest for the marketers. A study shows that worldwide, billions of dollars that were being spent on traditional channels of marketing are being invested in various digital marketing campaigns and this will continue to increase as time goes on. Digital Marketing is often known as? web marketing’ or? online marketing’.

Select your area of interest for Digital Marketing

There may be several mediums, tools, and resources available online to learn digital marketing but where to start is a question that confuses most people. Before the learning process can begin, there are a few elements that must be taken into consideration. They serve as stepping stones for the rest of the journey. It determines the overall path which you will eventually take in learning digital marketing.
There are several options when it comes to areas of interest in digital marketing. As a developing professional, you can analyze where your core interests lie. Once this is done, you can move on. Here are some of the fields you can choose from:

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO

Search Engine Optimization is one of the most widely known fields in the world of digital marketing. It is a practice to increase the quantity and quality of organic traffic to your website through search engine results. SEO is divided into 3 important propositions that define the overall functioning of this tool. The first and foremost is:

a. Quality of Traffic: As the tool is capable to optimize the search results in such a way that you can attract all the visitors in the world, but if they are coming to the website because Google tells them to do so, it is not quality traffic. Instead of it, you want to attract visitors who are genuinely interested in the products or services you have to offer.
b. Quantity of Traffic: As soon as you have the right people clicking through from those search engine results pages (SERPs), more traffic is even better.
c. Organic Results: Ads make up a significant portion of many SERPs. Organic traffic is any traffic that you don’t have to pay for.

PPC

PPC (Pay Per Click marketing), also known as paid search advertising (PSA), is the other component of search engine marketing. The added advantage that PPC has over SEO is that the ads you post can reach your target customers faster than SEO but you pay every time someone clicks on your ads. There are lots of companies that operate these PPC networks but currently, the biggest PPC network is Google Ads.

Pay Per Click
Pay Per Click

The service allows you to show your ads in Google Search Results, on Google properties such as Gmail and YouTube and on websites that participate in Google AdSense. Google itself offers a number of resources through which users can learn about these tools and how to effectively use them. Some of these include Google Academy for Ads, Google Digital Garage, Google Ads Guide and Bing Ads Guide, etc.

Content Marketing

Content is the key to everything. Every digital marketing campaign is based around

Content Marketing
Content Marketing

content. Whether it’s SEO, PPC, social media marketing or any other marketing tool, you need content to reach and engage your target audience with the different channels. It is known as the backbone for every digital marketing effort. In a deeper context, content marketing is the process to identify, create and promote the right type of content to the right audience. To become a good content marketer, you need to have great writing skills, SEO copywriting and analytical abilities too. Although most of the things with respect to content marketing come from practice, there are online resources to learn more and understand about this field too.

Social Media Marketing

Social media, like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, etc. has become an essential element of our lives. These platforms dictate our lives and our approach to digital marketing. The goal of advertising through these channels is to connect with your potential customers in the space which favors them the most. This need has given birth to a new form of marketing known as social media marketing.

Social Marketing
Social Marketing

Social media advertising is what the name implies; marketing on the various social networks for the purpose of finding and engaging with your customers. Having said that, Facebook is by far the most widely used network with more than 2.3 billion active monthly users. A great place to start learning social media marketing is to follow the Facebook online courses. They will teach you everything you need to know about Facebook Paid Campaigns.
Once you feel comfortable with running social media campaigns on Facebook, you can enhance your skills by learning more about Pinterest, LinkedIn and twitter marketing.

i. Set goals for Digital Marketing

One of the best ways to start any course or any activity with a certain timeline is to set a goal. These objectives should be SMART, i.e. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound. In our context, as you are looking forward to acquiring experience and knowledge about digital marketing.
First & foremost is to set up a timeline that whether you will complete the training in a

Set Goal
Set Goal

month, week or any other marker you would like to place for yourself. It can be other than time. Anything that you feel as worth achieving in terms of learning digital marketing.

– Prioritize.

Once you have an idea of what you really want to achieve, you’ll need to prioritize these areas. There will be certain coursework to study, quizzes to attempt and an end-term exam after which you’ll get the certification. So prioritize your coursework to study, keeping in mind your daily life activities so that you don’t have to compromise either of them. Select the topics before and align quizzes for the weekends so that you have ample amount of time to revisit the concepts before attempting the quiz.

– Be realistic.

Setting the concrete, specific goal to complete a certain certification in a realistic timeline is the key to achieve it without any hassle or in a haphazard way. So it is quite imperative that timelines should set in a much more realistic and optimal way.
– Write out your goals. Be detailed, be clear, and include your deadlines. Writing them down tend to make them feel a little more real. You should keep your list in a place where you can reference them frequently.
– Identify possible obstacles. Nobody really wants to think about what could go wrong when they’re planning for success. However, identifying potential obstacles and how you’ll deal with them is crucial to achieving your goals. If you don’t do this, you won’t have a game-plan when challenges inevitably present themselves.

ii. Invest in the necessary education

Knowledge and learning make up for a solid foundation for experiences. We all know that even one stone put wrong in the base can ruin the integrity of the entire structure. There are a lot of avenues that can help you learn digital marketing online. There are platforms like Coursera and SkillShare. They range from being free to having a minimal subscription fee. These charges are much less than what you would pay for a certificate course or Bootcamp in digital marketing. Moreover, there are professors from Ivy League colleges like Stanford and Yale teaching these courses. You have the ability to benefit from them at a fraction of the cost. This can serve as a great place to begin.

iii. Research the tools you will need

The next step is to find out what tools industry experts are using these days. You can use your chosen area of interest to help pinpoint these. Content Management Systems like WordPress are great for content marketing. Similarly, Google Search Console and Ahrefs are great for facilitating social media. Together these channels form a great support mechanism for digital marketing. You can learn digital marketing online.
Understanding and mastering these tools have become an essential component of Digital Marketing. If you are looking to learn about them, there are courses available to aid with this too. The curriculum in these is a great way to learn why marketers prefer to use these tools in their operations. It is also a great boost to your own skill base.

Build a practice ground

Knowledge alone won’t take you through the learning phase of digital marketing. Although there are case studies and practical examples to take note from, real-life scenarios change rapidly. Consumers evolve, markets change and everything else around them shifts too. Unless you have planned and executed a digital marketing campaign, theoretical know-how alone won’t help you make the cut.
This is why you have to build experiences based on learning. The same internet which allows consumers to become more aware also gives professionals and students of digital marketing to learn and implement what they know effectively. Here are a few ways in which you can polish your on-field experiences when it comes to digital marketing.

i. Create a portfolio

A portfolio is any digital or physical place that holds evidence of your experiences. How do I build a digital marketing portfolio, you may ask. Well, the answer is simple. Once again take the area of interest you choose before the whole process began. If it was content marketing, start up a blog. If you went for social media marketing, create Facebook pages, Instagram handles or YouTube channels. Whatever medium you think you love, show everyone else that you’re good at it.
There are online platforms like PeopleperHour etc. where you can create and showcase your portfolio for potential buyers of your services. This offers the ability to expand it beyond what you already know. When you have documentary proof that you know something, people will automatically give you opportunities to grow.

ii. Start small

There is no need to go big right from the start. You don’t necessarily have to work with an international brand on their digital marketing campaign right in the beginning. You can aim for that but don’t focus all your efforts on it. Start small. If you can take a new business venture and help expand their Facebook page substantially, this is a great first effort. You can learn digital marketing online
Over time you can grow bigger. Some people are fortunate enough to land huge chances right in the beginning, but even if you don’t, there is no reason to give up. Keeping doing what you know, learn from your surroundings and change. Follow brands and individuals who are doing a good job of promoting themselves through digital mediums. Study their strategies and content. Learn from it.

iii. Stay current and relevant

This is by far the most important of all. Throughout our discussion, there have several instances where we’ve emphasized how marketing is a constantly evolving field due to the consumers. If you fail to change with the times, no matter how good you are, the future will become bleak for you. Follow news feeds, tech blogs, and marketing journals to keep yourselves up to date with what’s happening.

Final word

Digital marketing has taken over advertising and the way consumers are introduced to products or services. The trends and analysis of markets show that it is something that will stay for a long time. If you are looking to begin the process to gain digital marketing skills, there won’t be a better opportunity than right now. You can learn digital marketing online
It is easy to learn and even implement digital marketing strategies and campaigns. It is difficult to create distinguishing factors for yourself. Even today, there are hundreds of agencies and people providing digital marketing services to other businesses. The only way to become something and sustain yourself is to do things differently. This is bound to get you the experiences you are looking for.