Discover the Best Digital Marketing Classes Near Me
Digital marketing, also known as online marketing, is the process of using the internet and digital forms of communication to connect with consumers. The term digital marketing was first coined in the 1990s when personal computers became popular, and businesses looked to utilize new digital marketing technology that developed as a result. The advent of the smartphone in the 2000s further dissolved the need to consult a salesperson by customers looking to search for a product.
Today, many companies and businesses use digital marketing to promote their products and services. They may use email, text message, or social media to directly contact and interact with consumers. Popular digital marketing strategies include search engine marketing (SEO), affiliate or influencer marketing, and social media marketing.
Digital marketing can be used to promote your products, determine the demographics of your primary consumers, and drive attention toward your business. As the digital economy continues to grow, businesses are looking for ways to grab the attention of new consumers and generate more revenue. Online advertising is one method of digital marketing that helps them do this. There are also web analytic services that can analyze your website’s traffic and provide you with information such as the gender breakdown and age ranges of your website’s visitors, which can then be used when making advertising decisions.
Understanding the basic principles of digital marketing can help you begin a career in digital marketing. You’ll also want some experience using digital marketing software and applications before looking to begin a career in the field. Knowing digital marketing principles translates well to several positions, however, many of them require a more in-depth understanding of digital marketing strategies and tools.
Common careers pursued by those with experience in digital marketing include Digital Analyst, Social Media Marketer, or Search Engine Optimization Specialist.
Best Digital Marketing Classes & Schools
There are digital marketing classes taught across the US that are beginner-friendly. There are also boot camps offered by schools and education centers that can provide in-depth instruction in digital marketing strategies. If you have some experience with digital marketing, you can also find classes taught at the intermediate and advanced levels.
In-person digital marketing classes are led by experts who are prepared to teach you a variety of digital marketing principles. Many classes cover digital marketing tools and software that are valuable in the industry. Whether you’re looking to brush up on social media so that you can run a social media campaign for your business, or if you’re interested in a well-rounded learning experience that covers a little bit of everything, there are digital marketing classes that can fit your needs listed on CourseHorse.
Social media marketing is a popular form of digital marketing that utilizes social media platforms to promote a product or service. Many social media platforms have built-in analytics tools which allow businesses to track their social media engagement. It’s projected that by 2027 nearly six billion people will be using social media. Understanding how to effectively use social media to market your product will therefore help your business reach more people than it would if you solely rely on traditional marketing methods. Luckily, you can sign up for digital marketing classes that will teach you the ins and outs of using social media as a marketing tool.
Noble Desktop, located in Manhattan, offers several digital marketing classes centered around popular social media platforms. Their Instagram Marketing Bootcamp will not only teach you about Instagram and its social impact but also how to develop a social media strategy using Instagram that can help drive sales. This one-day workshop is available for all skill levels; no prior experience with Instagram is necessary.
Similarly, Noble Desktop also offers a Facebook marketing bootcamp as well as a TikTok marketing class, and a YouTube marketing class. Each class can help you understand not just the basics of the platform the course is surveying, but also the general demographics of its users, which can help you determine which social media platform will allow you to reach the most consumers of your products and services.
If you work in social media marketing, your client or business will likely be expected to use several social media platforms to engage with consumers. These platforms can also be used to track the level of engagement that your advertisements see. It would therefore be beneficial to learn how to use several platforms. You’ll first want to determine which platforms your target customers are using before deciding which platform-focused class to take with Noble Desktop.
Noble Desktop also offers social media marketing training for people of all competency levels. Over the course of 12 sessions, you’ll receive hands-on training in Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram marketing. This class intends to help you determine what social media platform is right for your marketing goals and to help you develop a social media strategy. By the end of the 12 sessions, you’ll have received an introduction to social media marketing and understand how to use social media analytics to improve the results of your marketing efforts. The course syllabus and other class details can be found on the class page.
Columbia Business School in Manhattan offers a digital marketing strategy class for intermediate-level learners. This digital marketing program will teach you how to identify the digital marketing technologies and tools that are right for your business, how to target consumers through content, mobile, and influencer marketing, and how to integrate your digital marketing strategies with your offline marketing strategies. Guest speakers will also drop into the sessions to discuss digital marketing best practices across industries.
If you live in the LA area, you can check out new and returning digital marketing classes and programs on CourseHorse. Schools and education centers in the area have previously offered classes in digital marketing basics and how to market your products using social media platforms like YouTube.
New and returning digital marketing classes are frequently added to CourseHorse, so be sure to check back regularly to see if any classes offered in your area interest you.
Industries That Use Digital Marketing
Digital marketing helps expose consumers to your product or service. Digital marketing can thus be used in essentially any industry looking to interact with consumers. As opposed to traditional marketing, digital marketing takes advantage of the internet to measure the success of their marketing campaigns. This can be especially useful in several industries.
Healthcare
The healthcare industry relies on digital marketing to promote its services to those in need of them. Medical practitioners use marketing strategies to answer healthcare-related questions and create communication portals for their patients.
Digital marketing is also a key component to healthcare providers building their brand, maximizing their audience reach, and maintaining a positive reputation. Digital marketing can ultimately help providers determine consumer satisfaction and can keep consumers engaged in their healthcare journey.
Food
49% of surveyed online adults reported that they learn about food through social media and 40% reported that they find out about food through websites, ads, or blogs. The food industry has realized that the creation of digital content can help market their products. Influencers are used to promote them on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. By connecting to an audience through a social media personality whose content they enjoy watching, food and beverage companies can promote their ingredients and products in a way that feels authentic to consumers.
Fast food and restaurant chains also utilize social media to advertise to consumers. Companies have used X (formerly known as Twitter) to build their brand reputation among younger users. They do this by creating trendy or viral tweets and by supplying customer service through their account. This has helped brands establish a trendy image among younger consumers and provided consumers with a form of contact for their questions and concerns.
Retail
Digital marketing allows retailers to market to consumers around the globe and receive insight into the needs of domestic and global consumers. As ecommerce continues to grow, so too will competition between retailers. Digital marketing can help brands overcome their competition and proactively respond to the needs and concerns of consumers.
Through the use of digital marketing campaigns and analytic tools, retailers can provide better service to consumers. Digital marketing is also used by retailers to improve brand metrics, expand within the market, and retain customers.
Digital Marketing Jobs & Salaries
An understanding of digital marketing principles and experience with digital marketing tools and software is beneficial to several digital marketing-related careers. You can choose to work in a general marketing position, or you can specialize in an area like social media, digital analytics, or search engine optimization (SEO). Below are some of the career choices available to you in digital marketing.
Social Media Manager
A Social Media Manager, or Social Media Specialist, oversees a business’ social media accounts. Some Social Media Managers work for one business, while others take on several clients. Social media has become integral to marketing these days. Social media helps you capture the attention of your target audience and measure their reception to your content, products, and services.
Maintaining an effective social media presence takes a lot of work. The workload of a Social Media Manager will depend on the size of the company or companies they work for. Social media managers are typically expected to run multiple social media accounts per client such as a Facebook page, an Instagram account, and a X account.
To be successful at social media management, you need to understand how social media platforms work and how to engage with consumers through them. Social Media Managers will have several key tasks, including increasing followers and driving engagement, analyzing data, strategizing content and campaigns, and posting and monitoring social media platforms.
Successful Social Media Managers should be proficient writers, editors, and designers. They must understand not only how social media works but must be able to keep up with social media trends.
In 2015, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the average salary for Social Media Specialists in the US was $57,000. This salary will vary depending on where you’re located, your skill level, and your experience managing social media accounts. Positions in areas with a higher cost of living are also likely to have higher starting salaries than positions in areas with a lower-cost area.
The salary of a Social Media Manager in Los Angeles, for example, where this career may be in high demand, typically falls between $50,000 and $63,000. According to Glassdoor, the average salary of a Social Media Manager in Atlanta, a city with a lower cost of living than LA, typically starts around $43,000.
Digital Analyst
Digital Analysts use analytic tools to provide companies with analytical support. They aggregate data, conduct analysis, and prepare reports on a company’s digital platforms, including data derived from online advertising, website analytics, and social media engagement.
Key responsibilities of a Digital Analyst include simplifying complex data, finding and communicating insights into digital marketing performance to upper management and other departments, and modifying digital marketing campaigns to optimize key performance indicators.
To be a successful Digital Analyst, you need to have good communication skills, be proficient in data visualization, think analytically, and be highly organized. Digital Analysts should have strong technical skills. Many clients will expect Digital Analysts to know how to use Google Analytics, Microsoft Excel, and Power BI, as well as a programming language that helps visualize data, like R and Python.
Digital Analysts may work for a retail or tech company, a marketing agency, or provide freelance work. Salary expectations will be dependent on the location of the position and the client’s needs. The cost of living of the company’s location will also impact the salary. According to Glassdoor, the average salary of a Digital Analyst in the US is $71,000. Digital Analysts with years of experience, however, can see salaries upwards of $80,000.
Digital Analysts in Los Angeles, a city with a cost of living higher than 51% of the country, can expect a salary range between $62,000 and $76,000. Digital Analysts might be interested in starting their career in Houston, a city known to attract tech companies. Houston has a cost of living that is roughly 28% lower than Los Angeles and Data Analyst salaries range from $62,000 to $82,000.
SEO Specialist
An SEO specialist works to improve a company’s rank in search engine result pages (SERPs). The SEO Specialist tries to make the company’s website and online content appear at or near the top of the results page when someone searches for them, or keywords used in their web content by researching the keywords people search for and analyzing the existing content produced by competitors.
In addition to researching common keywords and analyzing the content of competitors, SEO Specialists must examine other key analytics. Other tasks performed by SEO Specialists include researching web traffic numbers, tracking the average amount of time browsers spend on a page, and monitoring and reporting search trends.
To be a successful SEO Specialist, you’ll want to improve your written and verbal communication as well as your problem-solving skills. SEO Specialists are also expected to have technical skills. This includes the ability to use data storage software and content management system software. Like other digital marketing roles, SEO Specialists will also need to understand consumer trends.
The skills required to become an SEO Specialist are not difficult to acquire. Training is available for the required technical skills at schools and education centers. Training is also widely available online. Having SEO experience and skills can also translate well to other digital marketing positions, including leadership positions.
The national average salary for SEO Specialists, according to Indeed, is $56,397. New York City, which has a high cost of living compared to the national average, has a higher average salary for SEO Specialists, at $84,000. Conversely, SEO Specialists in San Antonio, which has a cost of living 91.2% lower than New York City’s, can expect a salary range between $43,000 and $52,000.
Many of the interpersonal and technical skills involved in digital marketing translate well to a variety of career paths. You can gain experience with digital marketing through an internship. Typically, digital marketing interns assist with digital marketing campaigns. If you already have some practical experience with digital marketing or have a degree focused on digital marketing, look for open positions that interest you and align with your skill set.
If you have no experience with digital marketing but are eager to learn, there are plenty of resources available to you. Training is available in-person and online. Classes are taught by experts who can provide you with knowledge of digital marketing, including how to run a successful digital marketing campaign, how to reach more consumers, and how to run a social media account. Some classes will also teach you how to use important applications and software like Google Analytics, Microsoft Excel, and Semrush.
What Will I Need to Learn Digital Marketing?
There are resources online that you can use to learn digital marketing. If you’re a self-learner, you can look for guides to common software and tools used in digital marketing. There are also self-paced classes available on demand for free. These classes are not led by an instructor, however, so you won’t be able to ask anyone questions if you need to.
You can also find books and e-books at your local library or bookstore on digital marketing. Books are a great resource for learning digital marketing theory. They can help you familiarize yourself with digital marketing principles and terminology. They can’t, however, offer you any practical experience.
The most thorough way to learn digital marketing is to sign up for an in-person class or bootcamp. If you choose this learning option, you’ll be led by an expert instructor through the principles of digital marketing. You can opt to take a class that focuses on something specific, like social media campaigns, or one that focuses on a broader topic, like an introductory course to digital marketing.
You’ll need a few basic materials to learn about digital marketing. First and foremost, you’ll need internet access. It’s preferable that you have a computer, but you can also use some software and applications on a tablet.
The software and applications that you choose to learn how to use will depend on what category of digital marketing you’re interested in, like SEO, pay-per-click, social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, mobile marketing, marketing analytics, or affiliate marketing. Many software and applications are used in multiple areas. For example, Google Analytics is useful for both SEO and marketing analytics. It’s best to diversify your skill set by learning how to use the most common software and applications, as well as the ones specific to your career.
Typically, in-person digital marketing classes will provide you with access to all necessary materials, although you will be expected to bring your computer or tablet to your class.
Is It Difficult to Learn Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is not difficult to learn, but it does take time. The basic principles of digital marketing can be learned online or through books. If you take a beginner-level digital marketing class or enroll in a bootcamp, your instructor will introduce you to these principles. More advanced courses will build upon your knowledge of the foundations of digital marketing.
You may have some difficulty when first learning how to use software and applications that are common in digital marketing. This may include Microsoft Excel, Power BI, and Google Analytics. A career in social media marketing also comes with the expectation that you understand and know how to use several social media platforms.
If you don’t already have experience using these tools and you don’t feel comfortable trying to learn them on your own, you can take a digital marketing class that is focused on a particular category of digital marketing, like SEO, or focused on a specific social media platform.
Marketing is a part of your everyday life. You likely come across forms of digital marketing several times a day. This knowledge alone can help you get started with your journey to learn about digital marketing. Overall, it’s an accessible field to anyone with internet access and a passion to learn.
