Ever wondered what it takes to develop digital marketing skills?
We work with a lot of people expanding their skillset to support their organisation. They might be qualified in air conditioning, early learning education, or hospitality, and are now investing more of themselves in their new role or business which may involve aspects of marketing and advertising. We’re often asked, “what courses should I complete to develop my marketing and/or advertising skills?”
While we have some incredibly talented people here at Threesides that specialise in these fields, it is helpful when a client is familiar with marketing and advertising tactics so we can work together to grow their business.
There are all sorts of different skills to explore within the world of marketing. Here, we recommend some of the most useful skills to get you started, and suggest some of the best training options out there.
Copywriting
Copywritten material with the purpose of promoting something or prompting action, and the process of copywriting itself, is highly valuable to your organisation. Copywriting is essential for social media, product descriptions, email marketing, advertising, websites, and anything that is intended to promote or inspire action. An essential element of copywriting is a call to action: what you want your audience to do now that they have the information you’ve provided – for example, to buy a product or subscribe to your newsletter.
CopyHackers offers free and paid courses in copywriting, blogging, email, and more. Check out CopyHackers’ Conversion Copywriting 101, a free course on how to write high-converting copy.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is designed to increase the quality and quantity of your website traffic organically (without paying for search placement, which is search engine marketing). SEO can be complex with technical and creative elements in the mix, and writing content that ranks well with search engines like Google is a great place to start. High ranking content includes relevant keywords your target audiences are using to search for your product or service.
Check out Udemy’s free SEO Training course to get you started. SEMRush, a live SEO and data analysis tool that we regularly use here at Threesides, can connect to your website or analyse uploaded content to improve your SEO as you edit, and also offers free courses on how to use their software, copywriting and content marketing fundamentals, and loads more in the SEMRush Academy.
Digital Advertising
Digital advertising incorporates advertising on websites, social media platforms, email, mobile apps, and basically everything in the online sphere. Effective digital advertising is targeted, where your ad is reaching people likely to engage with your business. Digital advertising can seem overwhelmingly complex at the beginning, but there are a range of online courses that break down how to advertise on different platforms.
For Facebook, we recommend Facebook Blueprint to learn about Facebook and Instagram as platforms as well as how to deliver effective advertising campaigns. The courses are free to complete but if you want to get Facebook-certified, you will need to pay a fee to complete the exam.
As Google is a digital conglomerate with countless products, we recommend heading to Google Skillshop first, which outlines all the free online training options for their products. There are Google Ads courses to help you deliver effective search and display Google campaigns, Google Analytics to read, analyse, and use web data, a Fundamentals of Digital Marketing course, and loads more.
Email Marketing
We’re big fans of email marketing at Threesides because it remains an incredibly effective strategy. Email can convert leads to sales, build brand loyalty, engage inactive customers, and provide valuable insights about your audience. Many businesses don’t realise the value of their contact database and the opportunities available to engage those people and grow their business.
HubSpot Academy offers a free email marketing course on the fundamentals of email marketing, and there are a lot of other options online.
Don’t forget that you need to ensure your email recipients have opted in to receive your emails. This article from Campaign Monitor offers 6 best practices for email list management to ensure you maintain a loyal list of subscribers.
Photography and Videography
Our online experiences are becoming increasingly visual, which makes sense considering we process visual content 60,000 times faster than text. Creating engaging, consistent, and purposeful photo and video content is essential for digital marketing and with the quality of cameras in mobile phones improving dramatically, anyone can capture and share engaging visuals with a little know-how.
Udemy offers a range of courses for mobile photography and photography, and videography at a range of prices, or even check out your local CIT or TAFE/learning centre for short courses in photography for a more hands-on learning experience. Searching for photography and videography tutorials on YouTube can also uncover unique approaches, styles, and methods that inspire how you capture visual content.
Getting started can be overwhelming, but set yourself some achievable goals and schedule time to learn and grow. If you’re interested in some marketing or advertising training or need assistance for the more technical aspects, get in touch with us.
