As consumers spend more time using the internet and less time in other channels, advertisers also follow this trend. Unfortunately, digital marketing is not simple as traditional marketing. Digital marketing is best done in-house and is not preferred to be outsourced to other digital marketing agency. Digital marketing expert is in demand worldwide, and their preference will only increase in the future.
If you have a marketing background and want to learn digital marketing and become an expert in it, you might be wondering how to go about it. Various digital marketing courses are offered as workshops, online courses or one-on-one coaching programs.
Many MBA programs specialize in digital marketing and certification exams, such as Google Adwords certification and Hubspot Inbound Marketing certification program. But does attending these courses and earning a certificate makes you a digital marketing expert? The answer is a big NO. It may help you learn the fundamentals or even some advanced digital marketing concepts, but it would not make you suitable for a role like Digital Marketing Manager. Digital marketing expertise only comes from experience in Digital Marketing.
The best way of becoming a digital marketing expert is to start practising it from today. You can start doing it on a very small scale. You just need to have a computer, a small amount of money and an internet connection. There are things you can do right now.
Applying Digital Marketing in a small scale
• Pick a topic you are passionate about and try to start a blog about it. The cost is $50 per year for domain and hosting.
• Learn a bit about SEO and try to write SEO optimized articles in your blog.
• Install google analytics tracking code and look if you are getting some traffic to your blog. Try to learn Google Analytics.
• Open an Adwords account and do the keyword research to look at what people are searching for in google and find information about the topic you are blogging about.
• Write more articles and publish them in your blog.
• Open a Facebook page of your blog and share the articles on that Facebook page.
• Promote your page with Facebook advertising. The promotion Budget can be lower than $20.
• Execute a Facebook like box in your blog.
• Set social sharing buttons in your blog articles. It is free, and you can do this using the WordPress plugin.
• Join an email marketing service such as Aweber. Cost $20 per month. Also, try Mailchimp.
• Embed email signups forms in your blog and collect subscribers. Email subscribers when you publish something in your blog.
• Promote your Facebook page via email marketing and, in turn, also get email subscribers from your Facebook page.
• Promote your blog via Adwords. Get started with very low CPC bids. Most new Adwords account gets a free $100 credit for advertising.
• Sign up for Google Adsense and post advertising codes in your blog.
• Change your blog into a mobile-friendly blog and generate mobile ads in Adwords.
All the steps mentioned can be done in 30 days if you spend at least one hour daily. After completing the steps above, you must have gained hands-on experience in the following areas, bringing you to the following components of Digital Marketing.
Components of Digital Marketing
• Search Engine Optimization
• Content Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Paid Search
• Mobile Marketing
• Digital Display Marketing (Ad Ops)
• Web Analytics and Reporting
• Social Media Marketing
Thirty hours of experience do not make you a digital marketing expert. Still, you will be a much better digital marketing professional than most people out there in the market. After this, you can scale up your mini-project and add even new things to it.
The Job of a Digital Marketing Manager
The first-hand experience of applying digital marketing principles and gaining certification and qualifications makes you a perfect candidate for a job profile such as Digital Marketing Manager of a company or a brand.
You will be heading a team or the whole wing of Digital Marketing in a company by being a Digital Marketing Manager. You will also be required to manage a group of people who executes specific digital marketing actions. Digital Marketing is effective when all the components of Digital Marketing are used in such a way that they complement each other. This is also called Integrated Digital Marketing. If the company is large enough, the position could also be VP of digital marketing, where several managers report to him. This kind of jobs are coming up fast and can be very profitable.
Don’t wait now, and get started becoming a Digital Marketing Expert today.
