Digital marketing is a marketing style that relies on digital technologies to advertise to consumers. Brands use digital marketing to reach new consumers, engage with current consumers, inform the general public, and establish a positive brand image. Digital marketing professionals generally work in teams to execute marketing campaigns and usually work with other departments, like sales and design teams.
As technology has advanced, more and more people around the world have turned to the internet to shop, find out about services in their area, and read reviews about products and services. Companies know that many consumers turn to the internet to inform themselves of their choices and they have responded by developing digital marketing campaigns that can help attract and retain customers. Learning digital marketing can provide you with the opportunity to work as part of a marketing team across various industries and sectors, depending on your interests and specialties.
What Can You Do with Digital Marketing Training?
Digital marketing training can help you begin a new career. All industries that rely on consumers—from healthcare to ecommerce to education—need marketing professionals to help them advertise to those consumers. In a digital marketing class, you’ll learn about the principles of marketing as well as digital marketing strategies, like search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, and content marketing.
Digital marketing classes can help small business owners learn how to advertise their business online and establish a brand identity. Beginners with no prior experience will learn how to create content for a variety of social media platforms and can even expect to gather data on consumers and page viewers to then figure out what audiences they need to cater to. As online trends shift and technology advances, digital marketing will continue to play a major role in consumer preferences.
What Will I Learn in a Digital Marketing Class?
A beginner-level digital marketing class will teach you the basics of digital marketing, including marketing principles and how to plan and execute a digital marketing strategy. Lessons in digital marketing become more specialized as they go, so you can expect to master several digital marketing strategies if you pursue advanced-level training. When you first start training, however, you can expect to learn the basics of SEO, social media marketing, email marketing, and data analytics. Digital marketing classes also stress the importance of collaboration because many marketing professionals work in team environments.
Search Engine Optimization
An SEO strategy focuses on website optimization to rank a website well on search engine results pages, like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. When a company wants to improve its organic website traffic, the marketing team will use SEO tools. Digital marketing professionals often work on SEO as part of their marketing campaigns. Some positions such as Search Engine Specialists, focus primarily on SEO. Search Engine Specialists and Digital Marketers may work on-page SEO, which focuses on optimizing elements on a webpage to make it search engine-friendly, and off-page SEO, which attempts to improve SEO through outside channels, like social media and link building. These professionals, along with Web Developers, can also improve a website’s SEO through technical SEO strategies. Technical SEO methods depend on the technical aspects of websites to improve SEO. These methods include site speed optimization and schema markup.
Enroll in a digital marketing class or an SEO program to learn more about optimizing websites.
Social Media Marketing
X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok—all of these social media platforms provide companies with unique ways to reach out to consumers. Social media campaigns that want to build brand awareness and real-time engagement might utilize X, while a campaign that wants to encourage user-generated content and aim for a younger viewer base might utilize TikTok. A digital marketing campaign that utilizes social media will reach more people than traditional marketing methods and increase online brand visibility thanks to the ability to share social media content.
You can enroll in a social media marketing class or a digital marketing class with lessons on social media to learn how to develop a marketing campaign tailored to specific social media platforms.
Email Marketing
A good email marketing campaign can help you figure out how to send customers tailored content that they’re likely to engage with. Email marketing establishes a form of contact between the company and the customer and works on relationship building. Your email marketing campaign should use opt-in email lists, send relevant and engaging content, comply with email marketing guidelines and regulations, and optimize emails for mobile devices since many people use their phones to check their email daily. Email marketing lessons will teach you how to create an email list, plan an email campaign, design and draft emails, set up automated emails, and use analytics to look for areas of your campaign that need improvement.
Data Analytics
With more and more people using the internet, it’s important for companies executing digital marketing campaigns to collect and analyze consumer data. Data analytics helps marketing teams figure out whether they’re reaching their intended audience and if the company’s marketing campaigns persuade that audience. Tools like Google Analytics make this process simple by giving marketers access to key website metrics like page views and session duration. Digital Analysts can also access basic demographic information when using analytics tools to see what audiences the campaign is reaching. Beginner-level digital marketing classes will cover the basics of using analytics as part of a digital marketing campaign. You can further study analytics for marketing and tools like Google Ads, Google Analytics, and HubSpot.
Collaboration
Companies hire marketing professionals to work in their marketing departments. This type of position requires employees to work in a team setting. Marketing departments often plan marketing campaigns together and work closely when executing that plan, even if individual team members are working on separate aspects of the campaign. To successfully work in a team like this, you’ll need to understand how to collaborate with your coworkers and members of other departments. Even marketing professionals who work for marketing agencies and offer their services to clients must understand how to collaborate with those clients. In a digital marketing class, you’ll get hands-on experience working with a group on real-world projects. Working on group projects will help you learn important collaboration skills like communication and conflict resolution.
How Hard is It to Learn Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing requires both technical skills and creativity. If you have background experience with data interpretation or using digital marketing tools, then you’ll likely find learning digital marketing easier than students with no prior experience. Digital marketing professionals use a range of tools and programs when executing a digital marketing campaign, so they need to understand how to use those tools and programs. Google Ads, Semrush, Mailchimp, and HubSpot are all commonly used by digital marketing professionals depending on what strategies they focus on. If you want to learn social media marketing, for example, you’ll need to know about social media platforms and tools used for content creation and analytics, while email marketing requires you to understand tools like Mailchimp and HubSpot.
Marketing professionals should possess creativity to help plan and execute digital marketing campaigns. Content creation is an important aspect of digital marketing. Some teams rely on designers to create visual content for them, but it’s still up to the team to plan the content. Digital marketing professionals should have creative minds to help them face challenges and come up with unique strategies.
Beginner-level digital marketing training covers the basics of digital marketing and strategies, but advanced-level training becomes more specialized. Most people will pick one or two areas of digital marketing to specialize in, whether it's social media, SEO, email marketing, or another strategy. Prior experience in any of these areas will make the learning process easier for you but is not necessary when you have access to formal and informal training options.
How Long Does It Take to Learn Digital Marketing?
Beginner-level digital marketing skills take about one to three months to develop. A class focused on beginner-level skills will cover the basics of SEO, social media marketing, paid ads, email marketing, and other basic principles. After training at the beginner level, you should understand how to brainstorm digital marketing campaigns and know how to work with various social media platforms.
In three to six months of training, you can develop intermediate-level digital marketing skills. Intermediate-level skills include technical and on-page SEO, pay-per-click advertising, and analytics. At this level of training, you’ll gain hands-on experience with tools like Google Ads and Facebook Insights and have the knowledge necessary to create and execute a basic digital marketing campaign.
Mastery-level digital marketing skills can take anywhere from six months to several years to develop. The time it takes to learn advanced-level digital marketing depends on the specializations you choose. The more strategies you decide to focus on, the more training you’ll need. Advanced-level digital marketing programs can teach you about advanced SEO techniques, paid advertising, and long-form content creation. Once you reach this level of training, you’ll have the skills and experience to create and execute complex digital marketing campaigns and optimize strategies for businesses and clients.
Digital marketing training is an ongoing task. Technology continues to advance and online trends shift. Both of these changes impact consumer behavior. If you want to stay up-to-date in the field, it’s recommended that you refresh digital marketing principles and strategies periodically.
Should I Learn Digital Marketing in Person or Online?
Digital marketing training comes in-person, live online, and on-demand modalities. Consider your schedule and the availability of classes in your area before enrolling in a digital marketing class.
For a scheduled, traditional-style class, enroll in-person digital marketing training. Schools and training centers host in-person classes during the week, in the evenings, and on weekends. It’s common to find digital marketing classes held in metropolitan cities, but not impossible to find them elsewhere around the country, especially in cities and towns with a university or college. This traditional-style class appeals to students who like learning face-to-face and can reliably commute to a scheduled class.
Live online classes provide a similar class experience for students who can’t or don’t want to attend an in-person class. Schools and training centers host live online classes at similar times as in-person classes, but they take place over a web conferencing platform, like Zoom or Microsoft Teams. In a live online class, students can receive feedback and direct instruction as they would in an in-person class without the need to commute.
On-demand classes eliminate the need to commute and the need to show up to class at a scheduled time. Students enrolled in an on-demand class receive instant access to course material that they’re then expected to work through by themselves. Nobody teaches an on-demand class—students enroll with the expectation that they’ll self-teach and work through problems without the guidance of a live instructor. This learning style works best for motivated students who don’t have the time to commit to a live class.
Can I Learn Digital Marketing Free Online?
Not ready for formal training yet? No worries; you can learn the basics of digital marketing online for free. Udemy, Coursera, and other online learning platforms offer free training in digital marketing, including digital marketing strategies like SEO. Enrolling in a free on-demand class will give you a basic idea of what digital marketing training is like before you decide to commit to formal training. You can also learn the basics of digital marketing strategies via YouTube. Noble Desktop and other training centers and schools upload tutorials to YouTube to help beginners learn the foundations of digital marketing. Finally, you can browse for online communities where professionals and novices gather to ask and answer industry-related and technical questions if you’re struggling with a specific concept or tool. After learning the basics of digital marketing for free online, consider the benefits of formal training.
What Should I Learn Alongside Digital Marketing?
In a digital marketing class, you’ll learn about digital marketing principles and a range of digital marketing strategies to help you start a career as a Digital Marketer, Social Media Strategist, Content Creator, or other digital marketing professional. You can supplement your digital marketing training with sales training and consumer behavior classes.
One of the main aims of digital marketing is to improve a company’s online presence to sell products and services. Understanding sales tactics can help you better align your marketing campaigns to sales goals. A marketing campaign that takes sales goals into account is better equipped to tailor strategies to targeted audiences and can plan and execute projects more efficiently. Sales topics and strategies to consider learning include sales funnels, lead nurturing, and customer relationship management tools.
Consumer behavior, also referred to as consumer psychology, is the study of consumer behavior or actions when they decide to purchase a product or service. Marketing professionals who study consumer behavior can better understand what drives their decision-making. Knowledge of consumer behavior can positively influence digital marketing campaigns. Campaigns designed with consumer behavior in mind will include tailored content that resonates with consumers and pushes them to act. Classes focused on consumer behavior will cover topics like consumer behavior theories, behavioral psychology in marketing, and decision-making processes.
Industries That Use Digital Marketing
Several major industries across Connecticut hire digital marketing professionals to help develop marketing campaigns that can engage their audience and attract new consumers. Check out these industries in Connecticut looking to hire someone with your skills and experience.
Aerospace and Defense
Connecticut’s long-standing reputation as a hub for aerospace and defense is thanks to its history of development and production in aviation and military technologies. Companies like Pratt & Whitney, United Technologies, and General Electric Aviation have operated in the state for some time now. The industry also maintains strong ties with the US Department of Defense thanks to the presence of contractors that produce aircraft engines, helicopters, submarines, and advanced technologies for the US military. Marketing efforts in this industry largely intend to distribute informational content and create a positive brand image in the eyes of the general public and government agencies. A marketing professional working in this industry may find themselves performing market research, working on strategies to create a strong and trusted brand identity, and creating targeted advertisements for traditional and digital media.
Bioscience
Connecticut’s diverse bioscience industry is home to leading pharmaceutical companies, biopharma startups, and medical device companies. Talented workers and researchers in the bioscience field can look for positions with industry-leading companies like Pfizer and Medtronic, or they can expand their expertise as part of a research program at Yale or the University of Connecticut. Connecticut’s bioscience industry needs marketing professionals to conduct market research, create informative content to educate stakeholders about products, and provide sales teams with brochures, customer case studies, and other relevant content to help them sell products and treatments.
Financial Services
People call Hartford, Connecticut the “Insurance Capital of the World” because of its dominance in the global insurance industry. Hartford and other areas of Connecticut have attracted some of the largest and most influential insurance companies in the country to the state. Alongside insurance, banking institutions, wealth management and investment firms, and FinTech startups have found their footing in Connecticut. You can put your digital marketing skills to use in Connecticut’s financial services industry by developing educational content, managing a company’s website and social media, or working on customer retention strategies like loyalty programs and exclusive services.
Digital Marketing Job Titles and Salaries
Are you ready to apply for your digital marketing training? Digital marketing experience and skills can help you start a position as a Digital Marketer, a Social Media Strategist, or a Digital Analyst.
Digital Marketer
Digital Marketers use their knowledge of digital marketing principles and strategies to design, create, manage, and review digital marketing campaigns. A Digital Marketer may work as part of a company’s marketing department or they may work for a marketing agency and provide their services to clients. Most employers expect Digital Marketers to know how to perform SEO, social media marketing, email marketing, and paid advertising. Aside from technical skills, Digital Marketers need to know how to collaborate with their team and clients. Digital Marketers in Connecticut make an average annual salary of $62,000.
Social Media Strategist
Do you know the ins and outs of social media? You might have the qualifications needed to apply for a Social Media Strategist role. Social Media Strategists create and maintain a company’s social media presence. They typically have to plan and execute a social media strategy and manage accounts on a variety of platforms. To succeed in this role, you need to understand how to boost engagement, increase followers, engage with followers on each platform, and understand how to tell a brand’s story through social media posts. Social Media Strategists in Connecticut make an average annual salary of $52,000.
Digital Analyst
Companies hire Digital Analysts to evaluate digital marketing campaigns to determine if they’re effective. Digital Analysts collaborate with digital marketing teams during campaigns, helping them review and identify areas for improvement. They then advise on updates for the current campaign or suggest changes to be implemented in future campaigns. Digital Analysts need to know how to use data analytic and visualization software like Google Analytics, Tableau, Power BI, and Excel. In Connecticut, a Digital Analyst makes $64,000 per year.
Digital Marketing Classes Near Me
You can find digital marketing training offered in-person across cities in Connecticut and live online open for enrollment today. Consider the type of class you’d like to enroll in before checking out the classes below.
Noble Desktop offers a beginner-friendly live online ||CPN446||. In this program, you’ll learn about several key digital marketing strategies, including SEO, social media, and paid search. The program stresses hands-on learning to prepare students for a career in digital marketing. If you’re struggling with course concepts or want professional advice, you can take advantage of six 1-on-1 mentoring sessions included in the cost of tuition. During these sessions, you can ask for help polishing your portfolio, LinkedIn profile, or resume.
Noble’s live online AI for Marketing class will teach you how to incorporate AI tools into your marketing strategy, including SEO, SEM, social media marketing, and analytics tracking. Before enrolling, students should have a basic understanding of marketing, including traditional marketing techniques, SEO, social media marketing, and analytics. The class will begin with foundational lessons in AI, machine learning, and deep learning, before transitioning to lessons on the applications of AI in marketing.
General Assembly’s Digital Marketing Short Course intends to help students learn the foundations of digital marketing in a part-time, 10-week format, or a full-time, one-week accelerated format. The curriculum covers digital marketing campaign execution, customer acquisition strategies, agency collaboration, social media and search strategy, conversion optimization, and Google Analytics. At the end of the short course, students will feel confident enough in their knowledge and skills to pursue a career in digital marketing as a Digital Marketing Manager, Social Media Specialist, or Content Strategist.
Students enrolled in Certstaffix Training’s Search Engine Optimization class will spend two days learning the essentials of SEO. Lessons cover the basics of keyword search, on-page SEO, link building, pay-per-click advertising, and other SEO fundamentals. After completing the course, students will receive a certificate of completion, a digital badge, and a six-month free retake.
Digital Marketing Corporate Training
Do you want your team to learn digital marketing principles and strategies? Noble Desktop can provide your organization with digital marketing training that meets your employees’ learning objectives and scheduling needs. When enrolling in corporate training, you have the option of selecting live online or onsite training options. Teams interested in corporate training can purchase group vouchers in bulk at a discount from Noble Desktop. When purchasing group vouchers, you can select the courses available to your team to choose from. They can then schedule their training at a time that fits their schedules.
Reach out to corporate@nobledesktop.com to learn more about Noble Desktop’s corporate training services and receive help in determining which options best fit your team’s needs and goals.