How I Would Learn Digital Marketing If I Were To Do It All Over Again

I am not a marketing manager with a 6 figure salary or a CEO of a marketing agency. I marketing intern with no degree. But I’ve learned way more from the internet than I think I would have learned in college.

With that said, being self-taught was not easy. There is so much information that was thrown at me that I didn’t know what to spend time on, and keep. For that reason, I’m writing this to help anyone who is trying to go through this process.

Marketing Basics

Right now I’m learning CRMs and email marketing. And after going through countless beginner tutorials I noticed a pattern. Even when I learned a new subject of marketing, they kept coming back to these basics.

Customer Avatar

The customer avatar is a fictional character that you make up. This character would represent your ideal customer. They would find your products useful, and your brand would resonate with them.

For example, let’s look at a company like Redbull. Their ideal customer would be a male in their 20s, who likes extreme sports and needs a quick pick up. It’s an oversimplified version of people who would more likely shop at Zumiez.

This is important because Redbull can focus their time and money on attracting these people. They have a higher likelihood of buying their products.

If they started to market towards 25-year-old women with 2 kids, who like playing golf on the weekends. They would lose so much money.

Here is another example.

There is a company named TDMI Imports. They sell customized car parts for Subarus, Nissans, and other import cars.

a lot of you will think “Ummm, ok, and?” Some of you will say “Oh nice! I have a Nissan that needs coil-overs, I’ll check that out!” and very little to no people(because this is a marketing blog) will say “That’s great I had a look, and bought a set of coil overs!”

Marketing Funnel

The marketing funnel is the stages you take before you become a customer. There are 3 stages, the awareness stage, consideration stage, and conversion stage.

The reason it’s shaped like a funnel is because not everyone who knows about your product is going to buy it. There are going to be more people who know about your product, fewer people who think they might need it, and even fewer that are going to buy.

Research

The thing with marketing is that you will have to do a lot of research. Customer research, competitor research, content research, and research to get better at marketing. So, you need to have the mindset of “There is always something new to learn”.

Last week, we were having trouble getting engagement on our social media platforms. We took notice of the rise of video content and decided to switch our strategy. Knowing that TikTok was dominating, we took the jump to a completely different platform. I researched and learned as much as I can about the platform. by the end of the week, I learned how to plan, create scripts, schedule, and create a strategy for TikTok.

You have to be willing to take initiative and find ways to make it work. because marketing, especially social media is always changing.

Execute

My biggest problem with learning is exactly that. I would learn, but I wouldn’t implement anything I have learned.

As soon as I started implementing and executing, I got rid of fear and learned 2x faster.

If you want to learn social media, create a brand new account, schedule, plan, analyze, and grow your account.

You want to do SEO. You can start a blog like I am right now. Learn WordPress(CMS), create SEO content, and strategy.

Not only does this show your passion for your work but, once you can do it for yourself you can do it for someone else.

Getting Digital Marketing Experience

Trust me there are a lot of projects, and experience that you can get even with no past experience.

One way I did it was by interning. Many people don’t like the idea or think it might take too much time out of their day. which is fine. here are some more examples of things I would do if I didn’t pick this route

Run a small influencer’s, or local shop’s social media.

Build a personal blog or portfolio website.

E-mail agencies to see if you can help out doing small tasks.

Build a website for a small shop near you.

Final Words

Hopefully, this helps! You can follow my social media and see the weekly progress I make.

And at the end of the day always remember…

no one knows what they are doing.