If you’d want to build a career as a lawyer, physician, or engineer, you’d have to go to college, right?

In fact, most companies would rather hire a person who has a college degree than a person who has not.

The problem is: college degrees are expensive. On average, students paid $31,231 for the 2014-2015 school year, according to the College Board (ouch!)

Now, what if I tell you that you can learn Digital Marketing even if you don’t have a college degree?

Because you can.

Digital Marketing is a results-driven industry – for the most part, companies won’t care if you didn’t go to college as long as you give them what they want:

More money! Greater revenue.

But before getting into digital marketing fundamentals, there are a few things you need to know.

Are you ready?

Two Skills You Need to Develop in Order to Learn Digital Marketing

Before we jump into the nitty-gritty of things, I want to talk about the skills you need to develop if you want to become a marketing superstar.

Most people will tell you that you need to develop a dozen different skills in order to be good at marketing, but that’s not always the case.

If you’re able to develop the following two, you’re all set:

1. You Should Think Creatively

As a Digital Marketer, you should be able to think outside-the-box. People change over time, and you need to be creative enough to design effective product launches, marketing material, and constantly find new channels to promote your content and products.

2. You Have to Be Strong in Analytical Reasoning

Digital Marketers should know how to interpret data in order to make savvy decisions - if you don’t know what the numbers and figures on your sheet mean, you could end up wasting a lot of money and time.

Those are the most important skills a Digital Marketer should possess. As long as you develop critical thinking and habits that allow you to be more creative, you’ll become good at marketing.

Do you want to master the essential disciplines in Digital Marketing? Check out the Digital Marketing Specialist course now.

Tips to Learn Digital Marketing

Tip 1: Learn From The Pros

The best way to master something is by watching how professionals do it, and then model what they’re doing. By taking this approach, you’re able to bypass a huge learning curve and start getting results faster.

When it comes to learning digital marketing, you can apply the same philosophy.

That’s why it’s very important that you know who the chief influencers in your industry are. This way, you can study the principles they apply in their business, so you can start applying them, too.

Here’s how:

1. Create a list of 20 Digital Marketing experts.

Two ways to do it:

A) Head over to BuzzSumo and type in a keyword related to your industry - i.e, Gardening, Affiliate Marketing, Sports.

Then, click on the button called “Influencers”.

And Buzzsumo will show you people who are very successful in your space (based on the number of Twitter followers and other factors).

Add any person who seems relevant to your list.

B) Head over to Google and type in the following search string:

Top [your keyword] experts to follow on social media

For example, Top SEO Experts to Follow on Social Media.

Again, analyze results and add any expert who seems relevant to your list.

2. Follow Them on Social Media

Once you have a list of experts, start following each of them over social media.

Remember, you’ll study everything they do. Start analyzing the kind of language they use when talking to their audience, the kind of content they share, how often they share it, what colors they use in their branding, and so on.

You’ll learn a lot by watching.

3. Subscribe to Their Newsletter

Digital Marketers who master email marketing are able to drive the most results.

As a matter of fact, on average, companies are able to get $44.25 for every $1 spent on email marketing, according to Experian.

Awesome, right?

When you subscribe to other Digital marketers’ newsletters, you’re able to learn the tactics and principles he or she uses to get the most out of email.

Bottom line:

Analyze what experts in your industry are doing and then start implementing the same thing in your business.

Not all the strategies your competitors are usin will work for you, but you’ll have a better idea about what works in your industry and, more importantly, what doesn’t!

Tip 2: Relationships Are Everything

Irrespective of which industry you’re in, relationships are everything.

Think about it:

The more the number of influential people you know, the more likely you are to be successful.

When it comes to marketing, the same equation applies. The more people you know, the more chances you have to get a high-paying job.

For instance, let’s say you know two Digital Marketers:

The first one is a friend of one of the heads of Microsoft, so Microsoft hires him for $10,000/month.

The second one works for a small local business and earns $2,000 per month.

What’s the difference between these two Digital Marketers?

Answer: Relationships

Both marketers may have the same abilities and be equally able, but the marketer who knows more influential people would always get the better job.

Now, the million-dollar question is:

How can you build relationships with influential people?

Here’s how:

1. Help Other People in Your Industry for Free

It’s like Zig Ziglar puts it:

“You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want”

The more people you help, the more relationships you’ll build and, therefore, your chances to know an influential person increases significantly.

How to help other people online, you ask?

Start by:

  1. Commenting on their blogs
  2. Following them on social media
  3. Sharing their content
  4. Giving them good ideas

2. Contribute to Other People’s Blogs

Most people guest blog just for the sake of SEO, but you can go farther than that. Focus on guest blogging to build stronger relationships.

3. Assist with Industry Events

Industry events are one of the best ways to meet influential people.

Depending on your industry, there is a range of different events you can assist in, over a year. Make sure to assist at people with at least one of them, especially to the parties - informal places work best to connect with people on a deeper level.

Tip 3: Build Credibility

Last but not least, credibility.

Every successful career is built with credibility - when people don’t trust you, all your business success would be of no use.

Worst yet:

Trust is one of the hardest things to recover - if you lose people’s trust, you’re basically screwed.

Odd, right?

That’s why you need to be careful and treat your career very seriously.

Here are some things to consider in order to build (and maintain) credibility in your career as a digital marketer:

1. Be a Results-driven Person

As I said earlier, results are the lifeblood of your career in Digital Marketing. If you manage to always provide results to your clients, you’ll never be short of work.

2. Never Accept a Dog Project (Don’t Matter How Much You Need the Money)

You might be wondering:

What do you mean by “dog project”?

Let me explain:

There are clients who truly believe in their products or services - they claim they’re selling the best “solution” for X, Y or Z problem, but the truth of the matter is no one wants their products.

It wouldn’t matter how good you are at marketing: if the product sucks, there’s very little you can do to market it convincingly.

If you take these kinds of projects, you’re very likely to fail, and your reputation will be hurt.

Make sense?

3. Always Meet Your Deadlines

One of the biggest mistakes Digital Marketers make is to not meet deadlines. Punctuality is one of the most valuable traits to possess.

Remember, when it comes to business, time is money, so the less time you make your clients waste, the more credibility you’ll have.

4. Don’t Lie

This might sound obvious, but it’s surprising how many Digital Marketers promise things they can’t do.

There’s nothing that can hurt your credibility more than lies. Take this into account when working with clients.

Are you a professional who is aspiring to make a career a Digital Marketing? Check out Simplilearn's Digital Marketing Program now.

Conclusion

Remember: Digital Marketing is driven by results. If you can prove to a company that you can use your knowledge to increase their revenue, that company is much more likely to hire you. They won’t even ask if you have a college degree or not.

A Digital Marketing Savvy is the amalgamation of varied roles and skillsets into one multi-tasker. This Infographic details the characteristics of a Digital Marketing Savvy, things they generally do as part of their job, the skills excellency they possess, and how they think and execute different cross-platform strategies.

Our Digital Marketing Courses Duration And Fees

Digital Marketing Courses typically range from a few weeks to several months, with fees varying based on program and institution.

Program NameDurationFees
Post Graduate Program in Digital Marketing

Cohort Starts: 18 Apr, 2024

8 Months$ 3,000
Digital Marketing Specialist

Cohort Starts: 24 Apr, 2024

8 Months$ 1,649

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