How lucky are to be living in the digital era! Ultimately, this doesn't mean traditional marketing is dead. It's still relevant to our everyday lives, from the TV we binge after a long day to the radio we consume during car trips. Nevertheless, digital marketing is making significant impacts in today's world, particularly during the lockdown, as many have lost their jobs and businesses forced to shut.
That’s why you see that there are many people in the industry, switching careers to digital marketing. If you decide to pursue digital, keep in mind that you’ll have to remain a life-long learner. This way, you’ll be able to stay on top of the latest trends in the industry. Let’s jump into the details!
The main difference between these two disciplines is the medium on which marketers share a message. While traditional marketers work with television, radio, and print; digital marketers use other platforms like social media and email marketing.
Traditional marketing is still essential in today’s world because there’s still a broad audience that uses traditional mediums. Most TV brands or newspapers have impacted our lives, which gives relevance to conventional advertising.
Traditional marketing is still relevant and impactful. That’s the main benefit of this discipline. However, other advantages make traditional marketing essential in today’s world.
This marketing type can be memorable, as people don’t tend to forget a functional and emotional TV ad, for example. Most of us carry at least one excellent traditional ad from a brand in our memory, whether it’s the jingle or compelling copy that's stuck with us. On the other hand, it can also be more permanent. Traditional advertising may stay active for months or years and cause ad fatigue.
Another disadvantage of traditional marketing is that it can be expensive and tough to measure. With digital marketing, people can track the performance of campaigns through Google Analytics or other programs. Yet, it's not so easy to measure results with traditional marketing.
There are many reasons to believe digital marketing is more superior. According to ClickZ, people spend six hours and 42 minutes online, while the average TV consumer spends three hours watching TV. In the same report, we can also see that 73% of all eCommerce sales will come from mobiles by 2021. Therefore, there is a large population that uses digital channels to communicate instead of traditional ones.
Digital marketing provides an interactive conversation with the audience. It’s not a one-sided communication, as the audience can participate too. This creates more brand engagement with customers and potential buyers.
On the other hand, digital marketing is also more measurable. It’s way easier to monitor a digital marketing campaign thanks to great platforms like HubSpot, Sprinklr or Google Analytics. This also provides more accuracy in marketing campaigns because marketers can spot the limitations and strengths to develop better strategies.
The most notable drawback of digital marketing is that it is ever-evolving. Therefore, you need to be on top of trends to create more efficient marketing strategies every time.
If you think digital marketing is for you, it’s time to dive into the industry. There are some things you need to know to become a digital marketer. Here’s how you can do it:
Now that you’ve decided to learn digital marketing, you can start by getting certified. There are two paths to learn digital marketing skills. You can study a bachelor’s degree in digital marketing, or you can take a boot camp.
This last option is shorter and perfect for those who don’t want to start a three or four year bachelor’s degree. Boot camps also offer up-to-date education, which is excellent if you’re going to have a successful career. Here are some of the best schools to get certified:
Google has provided a free training course to become a digital expert. Designed to help you grow your business or jump-start your career, their online marketing courses cover today’s most in-demand skills. From data and tech, career development and digital marketing, you can choose your journey and learn at your own pace. Once completed, your accreditation certificate could give your resume and LinkedIn that boost to get your next step.
You don’t need to invest big to learn. Alongside Google, Facebook also offers a great variety of free e-learning courses. With over 90 to choose from, Facebook Blueprint can teach you the skills to move forward in your career or business journey. Becoming Blueprint certified shows you are at the top of your game in the world of Facebook advertising, from building a strategy, implementing it and analysing the results.
Thinkful’s digital marketing boot camp is one of the most thorough in the market. You’ll learn basic marketing fundamentals like crowd segmentation, but you’ll also learn technical skills like SEO. Thinkful also has diverse payment methods like month-to-month instalments and loan financing.
If you’re looking for an immersive course to dive deep into digital marketing, General Assembly has a boot camp for you. With General Assembly’s digital marketing boot camp, you’ll learn everything about creating a digital marketing campaign, from SEO to data analysis and campaign optimisation.
One of the benefits of learning at this school is that you’ll be in touch with influential people in the industry. Besides, General Assembly’s one-to-one training is focused on practical knowledge instead of just theory.
Brain Station offers a 12-week program where you’ll learn all the digital marketing principles, from social media management, data analytics and monitoring to content development and SEO. This course is focused on practical education and provides career guidance so you can have a job soon after you graduate. This is an on-site New York boot camp, so if you’d like to apply, you’ll have to travel there (post-pandemic).