Why YOU need to do a digital marketing course

The barriers to entry to the world of business are becoming less and less by the day. Where, previously, if you wanted to open up a retail outlet, you would have had to have a massive budget to spend on stock and retail space in a mall, now you can set up a shop online with only having to spend a fraction of the cost.

And don’t think that people aren’t buying online. In fact, many people prefer this type of shopping as we can see by the stats. In 2019, revenue from online shopping amount to US$3.3billion. (In rand terms, that’s about R48 billion.)

This means that you need to be marketing your products where your customers choose to be and with almost 21% of the South African population using the Internet, the answer is that your customers will be spending a lot of time online.

Marketing  is a different ballgame online

While the traditional marketing principles of, for example, the 4Ps and other such theories still hold true in the digital marketing world, the manner in which you enact them is totally different.

Take, for example, one of the Ps (promotion) in the marketing mix. Before the dawn of the online marketplace, there were only a limited number of places that you could promote your brand and messaging. However, online there are so many other tools, at your disposal, that you can use in order to encourage your product. These are, for example:

• Social media,
• Advertising on social media,
• Search Engine Optimisation,
• Google PPC Adverts, as well as
• Digital Public Relations.

Thus, in order to adequately promote your business, you need to know how to make use of these different platforms in order to disseminate the right message that will draw people in.

Digital marketing gives you bang for your buck

In traditional marketing, you needed to shell out some serious cash so that your marketing campaigns made an impact. This made really spectacular campaigns only available to more prominent companies who had the capital to afford big marketing budgets.

However, now even smaller companies can make a big splash on the digital scene – in the same manner as big companies can – at a fraction of the cost. This is thanks to technology and the like which has made delivering a superior product much more affordable.

Think about recording video. Cellphone cameras have become so advanced these days that it’s very doable to shoot a highly professional video without the necessity of expensive videography equipment.

Digital marketing is more effective

In the good old days, if you had the money you could shell out thousands on a glossy double-page spread in a high-end magazine.

What you didn’t know was whether the money that you spend on this spread translated into sales for your business. This means that marketing became quite a hit-and-miss situation with marketers not being able to accurately quantify the return on investment for the money that they spent.

As digital marketing leads customers (both potential and current) to your website – and you’re able to see where they come from – you’re ready to see which channels people who are interested in your company like to frequent. Armed with this information, you’re able to know where you should be dedicating your budget.

As you can see, if you own a business – be it large or small – or if you are part of a company’s marketing department and are not that savvy yet when it comes to digital marketing, you need to get there – and fast. Digital is not just a fad. It’s here to stay, so you need to get on board.

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing

We’ve made it much easier for you to get to grips with digital marketing because, for this week only, we’re offering a whopping 50% discount on all our courses if you pay upfront. To learn more about our digital marketing course and qualifications, please follow this link.