How To Leverage Informal eLearning To Become A Digital Marketing Expert
The digital marketing industry is unique because it is one of the only industries where you can become an expert, generate a large income, and have a successful career where all you need is a laptop and broadband connection. If you want to become a doctor, you need a university degree which takes years, if you want to become a pilot you need flying lessons which are costly, and so on. All of these careers require much more outlay and expensive training, yet with digital marketing within 12 months, any ambitious budding entrepreneur can become proficient in just about all aspects of digital marketing.
7 Steps To Improve In Digital Marketing
The following 6 step guide has been created to help you to get started on your informal eLearning journey to becoming a digital marketing professional.
Step 1: Become A Blogger
The first step in becoming a digital marketer is being able to produce good quality content that can grab the attention of your target audience. A great way to develop your content creation knowledge and skills is to become a blogger. There is a multitude of benefits that come with being a blogger, such as it enables you to improve your writing ability, learning new skills such as WordPress, SEO best practices, etc., and it is a useful method of building your own brand. On top of these benefits, becoming a blogger is free, therefore a great place to get started on your journey to becoming a digital marketer.
Step 2: Teach Yourself Search Engine Optimization
The next step in delving into the digital marketing world is to teach yourself search engine optimization skills (SEO). This is the foundation of any successful digital marketing campaign, which is why it is the second step in our guide. Some effective SEO training tools include Moz, which provides software and data to help you increase visibility, rankings, and traffic to websites in search engine results.
Step 3: Improve Your Social Media Presence
Another step in developing your digital marketing skills is to improve your social media presence and understanding of how to utilize social media as a way of amplifying your webpage. Social media is an essential part of marketing because it allows you to connect with customers and create a two-way method of communication whereby customers can respond to your activity immediately, meaning you can gain instant feedback. Understanding the use of social media as a retargeting method is an effective way of boosting leads and sales by encouraging them to return to the site to purchase products they were already interested in.
Step 4: Learn About Online Advertising
Online advertising plays a large role in internet marketing, therefore it is a fundamental part of becoming a successful digital marketer. Some of the basic and most common online advertising tactics include pay-per-click advertising and display ads. Pay per click is a cost-effective method because you do not have to pay unless a customer clicks on your ad, which is one of the reasons it is so commonly used.
Online advertising is important to understand as a digital marketer as it is a sure-fire way of producing fast results that are measurable, cost and time-effective, directed specifically to your desired audience, and enable quick, convenient delivery, making it a short-term digital strategy.
Step 5: Investigate Email Marketing
The next step in your journey to becoming an informal eLearning digital marketer is to investigate email marketing and expand your knowledge of how it is used as a digital marketing strategy.
Some statistics that support the importance of email marketing are from a report by HubSpot showing that 99% of consumers report checking their email every day and 59% of those consumers say that emails can influence their purchase decisions. Therefore, email marketing, like social media, is a great method of retargeting. It is important to remember that hardly anyone converts on the first visit to a site, which is what makes retargeting such a critical element of any marketing strategy as it encourages customers to return to a site by reminding them of a product they are interested in. This makes it an effective digital marketing tool for improving conversion rates and increasing return on investment (ROI).
Step 6: Develop Your Understanding Of Analytics
Finally, the last key skill of any successful digital marketer is having a good understanding of analytics and analytical tools. The reason analytics are so important is because they allow marketers to be more efficient at their job, and they are a source of constructive feedback that shows you facts and figures to better understand the success, or lack thereof in your marketing practices. Analytics also provides a good insight into ever-changing customer trends and wants and needs, allowing you to keep up with competitors and meet the expectations of your target market.
If you apply all of the steps mentioned above, within 6 months you can have a CV to match anyone else wanting to get their foot in the door of the digital marketing industry, making it a great opportunity to demonstrate your skills and develop a ready-made case study for digital marketing success.
Benefits Of Learning Digital Marketing Through Online Training
After expanding your skills by using eLearning to maximize your understanding of each step listed in our guide to get into the digital marketing industry, you will be proficient with the tools used by any successful marketer, such as Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Moz, and Ahrefs. It will also give you the confidence in applying the skills and the relevant experience in the industry, meaning you will have a big advantage over any other digital marketing recruit in the marketplace.
As a digital marketeer, I applied these 6 steps to develop my existing digital marketing knowledge in a bid to increase my employability, and it has proved successful.
Another notable benefit is that with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, eLearning is more popular than ever which has led to an increase in great quality online training sources. Some of my personal favorite eLearning tools include Moz, Google Academy, and HubSpot.
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, you could not use informal eLearning to become a self-taught doctor or pilot as it is simply not possible, which is what makes the digital marketing industry so unique and on the cusp of entrepreneurialism.
