How To Start Learning Digital Marketing

With the digital economy growing at ten times the speed of the rest of the world, now is a great time to get involved in digital marketing. The field – essentially marketing, but using ever-changing digital tools – is perfect for millennials, who are already always sharing ideas and information and staying on top of trends. Below are a few important tips so you can figure out how to learn digital marketing and find a career that, to many, hardly seems like working at all.

6. Learn regular marketing

It may sound obvious to learn the “marketing” part of digital marketing, but many people skip that very important step. Digital marketing is, at its root, just regular marketing with digital tools, so make sure to have a solid background in the discipline.

5. Take a course

A convenient and quick way to figure out how to learn digital marketing is to take one of the many, many courses available. Did we mention there were a lot of them? Google, Facebook, Twitter, Coursera, and countless other places have comprehensive – and often free – classes online. Some places, like New York City’s General Assembly, even offer them in person. To help get you started, here’s a list of “5 Online Digital Marketing Courses Worth Taking.”

4. Know how to write

In a field like digital marketing where things are changing all the time, perhaps the sole constant is the ability to write clean, interesting copy. If you can get your ideas across in a way that is clear, intriguing, and doesn’t make your word processing program use any squiggly lines, you should be in good shape.

3. Get some experience

Yes, we know that this particular piece of advice is applicable to every field ever. But it’s especially true in digital marketing. Because the field is so new, educational credentials are less important than practical experience. Launch a blog, create a website about marketing, volunteer to run social media for a small business or a friend’s project – basically, get something under your belt that you can show to prospective employers.

2. Build relationships

The key to becoming a successful digital marketer is to put in a lot of work at first, so that things down the line become easier. You should spend a whole lot of time up front getting to know important and influential people in your particular sphere. It will take a while, and you will likely have to attend a lot of not-so-fun seminars, lunches, and coffees. But once you have those people in your corner, they will in turn share the things you’re promoting, and your audience grows by leaps and bounds.

1. Keep up to date

It’s not enough just to take a course, read a book or two, and call it a day. You need to keep on top of policies and trends, which are changing pretty much daily. The best way to do this is to find a handful of reputable blogs in the field, and read them regularly. This article from Mashable has links to a handful of the best ones.