Of course, by now you should know we are in the digital age, and everyone and every business seems to be doing everything possible to catch up with the pace.
And so whether you’re an individual or a business entity, learning digital marketing with prove invaluable for you in the long run.
There is an ever-growing market for digital marketers, and many businesses are turning to digital marketing to gain better visibility, increase brand awareness and drive sales. And so, digital marketing skills for business are in high demand.
Of course, several online courses teach digital marketing, but not all deal extensively and give you the depth of knowledge needed to become good at the job.
This article talks extensively about the high demand for digital marketers and how to get your hands on the best courses to become a professional digital marketer
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is the use and combination of digital space to improve your market output. It is the use of websites, blogs, social media handles and other digital means to sell goods and services.
Notably, digital marketing uses the same principles as most traditional forms of marketing to increase awareness and drive sales.
However, since a larger demographic of the world is beginning to get occupied in the digital space, companies and firms have been on the lookout to adjust their sales strategies to reflect this new reality. This means as more and more people are getting involved in the digital space, companies believe that by positioning themselves well on different digital media, they will be able to create more awareness for themselves and drive more sales.
It should be noted however that gradually digital marketing is taking over the place of traditional marketing, as digital platforms like Facebook and Google offer cost-effective advertisement, with predictable and measurable metrics compared to television advertisement, and other methods.
According to statistics, by 2033, the global market value for digital marketing will be around 1.3 billion dollars. This means most companies are allocating more of their budgets to digital marketing than ever before.
Type of digital marketing
The term digital marketing is quite a broad one. Without explicitly making a vivid distinction between the many forms of this advertisement, one may not know the very scope of this digital marketing.
Below are some of the types of digital marketing.
1. Email marketing
Email marketing is simply creating brand awareness and selling through emails.
The process is quite complex, but when executed well, it has a great potential of driving sales. The first process in email marketing is to get the email list of your target audience. With the help of an opt-in list, you create personalized content both in the body and in the subject line.
2. Content marketing
The aim of content marketing is primarily to create brand awareness through valuable and helpful information or content. But notwithstanding, as the content continues to generate traffic, one can now decide to monetize the platform. A very core aspect of content marketing especially for blogs and websites is the use of SEO.
3. Social media marketing
Social media marketing is simply driving brand awareness through the use of social media. This is achieved by creating content on social media and creating groups and forums where you can interact with potential customers.
With billions of people spending their time on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, it becomes important to engage these people to see how you can get their attention to know, like and trust your brand.
4. Pay-per-click marketing
Pay-per-click is a type of digital marketing where you as a business entity pay a fee every time someone clicks on your paid ads. One of the most popular forms of this PPC is search engine advertising. And since Google is the most used search engine, most advertising businesses use their ads for this purpose.
5. Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is when you employ the service of an online influencer to help promote your brand, goods or services.
Interest influencers popularly called social media influencers have large followings on their social media. These people have a great influence and sway on those following them. As such, a business pays them to help advertise their services, goods or brands among their followers. And since the influencer has developed this trust and authority among his followers, they tend to believe what he says to be true, and therefore buy into whatever he tells them.
6. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is another type of digital marketing that is quite encompassing. As an affiliate marketer, you help businesses promote their services online and get a percentage of the sale as a commission.
Most affiliate marketers employ different types of digital marketing to help sell products.
10 Recommended free courses to learn digital marketing
1. Facebook Blueprint’s social media marketing courses
It’s currently known as Meta Blueprint. You can familiarise yourself with marketing tactics on Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp by taking any one of these free online courses. Depending on the goals you have in mind, the lessons are broken down into tracks that cover both paid and organic social media marketing strategies.
2. Udemy
Udemy is an online learning platform. Though most of the courses are paid, they nevertheless offer a free version. Most of the free version contains everything as the paid version except for personal mentorship and certificate. But if you’re starting and you’re serious about learning, you can start with them too.
3. LocaliQ’s Marketing Lab
LocaliQ has a series of easy-to-follow courses on digital marketing geared for local business owners and beginners. The course is free and very intuitive.
4. Coursera
Coursera also offers free courses as an online learning platform.
And like Udemy these free courses don’t come with certification at the end of the training. But it’s worth attempting.
5. HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing Training
You may become an expert in inbound marketing by using HubSpot’s free marketing courses and resources. A specialist in inbound marketing makes use of the majority of digital marketing tools in order to increase sales and brand exposure. This covers social networking, blogging, email marketing, calls to action, SEO, and keyword research. Hubspot offers tests following the course to further validate your expertise.
6. Alison’s digital marketing courses
Alison provides a tonne of free online business courses as well as free virtual certificates for newcomers. To find what you’re looking for, just browse and filter by learning level, duration, and course contents.
7. SkillShare
Short online courses for practical scenarios are offered by Skillshare. The learners are the focus of these courses’ design. They provide several free digital marketing courses, including Instagram Engagement Secrets and SEO Fundamentals.
8. LinkedIn Learning
You can get free digital marketing training and access to excellent tools on LinkedIn. A wide range of free online learning options for digital marketing are available to users, providing them with the fundamental marketing resources they need to launch a successful career in the field.
You will become a marketing manager by learning how to use marketing analytics to interpret data and create a social media strategy that works in this course.
9. Google digital garage
The Google Digital Garage is a complete and free course for all digital education. It teaches the fundamentals of digital marketing and you can create a personalized learning curve. With its 26 modules, you can become well-rounded as a digital marketer and this can land you a job also.
10. CopyBlogger’s Internet Marketing for Smart People course
CopyBlogger Internet Marketing Course is a free twenty module course that will give you the low down on content marketing, copywriting, SEO, keyword research, and more.
Conclusion
As many businesses begin to adopt digital advertising, there will be ever-increasing demands for digital marketers. And this is where we’re headed today, where every business not only has an online presence but is engaged in one form of digital marketing or the other.
In the light of these facts, digital marketers will become highly sought after. And so learning someone these skills now will put you in a vantage position soon or later.
