How to Learn Digital Marketing – A Step by Step Guide

Marketing is an essential part of every business whether it’s a B2B business or B2C business. Regardless of business type, marketing is the most important activity to run, grow and sustain any business. With the innovation of the Internet, Mobile Phones, Social Networks and Search Engines, Digital Marketing became a life skill for the humans of the 21^st century. In this article, you will read a step by step guide on how to learn digital marketing? 

Step 1: Set Your Direction & Goal

There is an old saying that “The most important thing about goals is having one”. Means one should have only one & a clear goal to achieve success. So, define your ultimate objective before starting with your digital marketing course.

Some common examples of goals behind learning digital marketing: 

• I aim to Get My 1st Job in the Digital Marketing Industry 
• I aim to Change my Job Profile to Digital Marketing 
• I aim to Sharpen My Skills to get Hike in my DM Career 
• I aim to take my traditional business Online 
• I aim to start an Online Business
• I aim to work as an International Freelancer 
• I aim to become a Digital Influencer  

You can also set up your own goal using the below mentioned formula. 

Goal Setups Formula: 

Example: 

• Increase (verb) sales (noun) from Rs. 5 lakh to Rs. 10 lakh (outcome) by December 31^st, 2021 (date). 
• Improve (verb) website organic traffic (noun) from 500 visitors to 10,000 visitors (outcome) by December 31^st, 2021 (date).

Having a clear and single goal will help you during learning and/or implementing concepts of digital marketing.

Step 2: Start Your Blog / Website

Have you ever tried bicycling without owning one? I suppose your answer is No. Because if you don’t have your own device then how will you practice on it? Right, that’s why I would suggest to each beginner that before starting your digital marketing journey develop a blog or a website so that later you can implement your learnings on it. 

Thanks to Content Management Systems like WordPress, you can easily develop a business website, e-commerce website or a personal blog without writing any code. Once your blog or website is ready, you can start optimizing it for SEO. And even you can create some landing pages to run PPC campaigns. 

Step 3: Create Your Social Presence

Social media has become a significant part of digital marketing. Every digital marketer needs to learn how to use social media in the best possible way. In order to learn social media marketing one should have a personal account on various social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Quora etc. 

Another reason behind owning a social media account is that you will not be able to create business pages, run advertisements and track insights, if you don’t have a personal account. So, I would like to suggest to every newbie that you must have your own personal accounts on different social networks. 

Step 4: Content Creation

There are four basic types of content – textual content, image based content, videos and podcasts. If you want to learn and master the art of digital marketing then you need to have knowledge of each type of content creation. Try your hand on all kinds of content creation such as writing blog articles, website content, stories, ad copies punchlines, social media creative & captions and also make some videos and podcasts. 

Once you learn the art of content creation then practice it regularly to get better each day. As a digital marketer you will need to create content on various occasions like you’ll need to write for Ad copies, for SEO title/meta tags, for backlink creation, for email marketing etc. In short, content creation is a must have skill for every digital marketer. 

Step 5: Learn & Understand Different Terminologies

As a digital marketer you need to be aware of the terminologies used in the Industry. There are various terms in the digital marketing sector such as Keywords, Traffic, Sessions, Bounce Rate, Metrics, Display Network, Engagement, Impressions, Open rate etc. You must know the meaning of most of these terms. 

There are some abbreviations also such as PPC, CPC, CPI, CPM, SEM, CTR, CTA. This may sound very complicated for a beginner to understand and differentiate between such abbreviations. But, it is highly recommended to learn and understand these terms for a better career in the digital marketing field. 

Step 6: Start Networking

There is a famous saying, “You’re the average of the five people spend the most time with”. Therefore encircle yourself with individuals who are more capable than yourself. That way you will stay motivated and learn new things from your circle. 

Also, do attend industry meetups and events regularly. You can join social media groups related to your domain. Always try to be interactive with the group members and don’t hesitate to initiate the conversation. Apart from that you can also join digital marketing classes near you to learn digital marketing and to network with the people. 

Step 7: Stay Up-to-date

Digital marketing sector is a rapidly growing and changing industry. The trend here changes every single day. One needs to stay updated with the latest trends of the digital marketing industry. In case if you don’t update yourself then sooner your skills will be deficient. 

To update your knowledge and to stay tuned with the industry trends, follow digital influencers on social media, subscribe to newsletters, keep an eye on big companies updates, regularly use all the possible digital tools. 

Conclusion: 

I am sure that you’ve realized by now that learning digital marketing is not an easy job. Having a right mentor and professionally updated digital marketing course curriculum can help you to learn and master digital marketing easily.