Digital Marketing Q&A

Thought you might be interested in this question @Mick Winnie @Mark Reiken @Vanja Stace @Kaylene Grieve @Daniel Martin @Steele Walster 

There are lots of options for online marketing.  Using SEO and SEM together is ideal as main search engines are constantly changing their algorithms  for rankings so stop thinking of SEO and SEM as rival forces. When used together they are complementary services that help boost your marketing strategy and increase brand exposure.  The key is to build brand awareness and trust in your brand or business which begins by getting your business name to appear in prospect’s searches.  Seeing your brand name appear twice, both on organic and on paid results, creates more brand awareness and intensifies your businesses’ trustworthiness.  Research shows that if there are two brands that have apparently the same products, people will be more likely to choose the one they are familiar with. When a brand is shown in organic results alone it only gets 60% of clicks, whereas a brand that appeared in both organic and paid search results, attracts 92% of total clicks.  When paid listings are shown beside organic, the click-through rate of paid ads increases. This means that clicks increase for both organic and paid listings when they are both featured and do not detract from each other.

Hi @Opal Daniels 

As ​​​@Jennifer Lancaster  and Uttam have mentioned, you can read all of the books and articles and do all of the courses, but the only way to properly learn digital marketing is to get stuck in and learn by doing. You’ll find that once you start working across different online channels and platforms, the things you learn in books and online will solidify.

That said, there are many great and free resources available to start learning about the different areas within digital marketing - many of which are free! Below is a list of some of the top picks:

1. Google Ads certification: A professional certificate awarded to those who demonstrate proficiency in Google Ads (from basic to advanced).

2. Google Analytics for Beginners: Google has a free video course created specifically for newbies to Analytics. It has 17 lessons and teaches you how the platform works, menus, reporting, dashboard functions and more.

3. SEMrush Academy: SEMrush is an all-in-one platform for digital marketing with over 40 tools in content marketing, reporting,SEO, social media and more. They have an awesome set of free courses and resources, AKA the SEMrush Academy which teaches you how to work the platform.

4. Moz Academy: MOZ offers courses in Keyword research, SEO and site auditing. At the moment the courses are free due to COVID-19, so it’s definitely worth taking advantage of!

5. SavvySME: We have some great articles written by our community members - many of which are experts in their field. It’s definitely worth browsing through various topics within digital marketing. If you get stuck, the community is also here to clarify any questions you might have. 

Good luck!

As Cate noted, choosing the right digital marketing course really depends on what you’re looking for. For example, do you want to gain a thorough understanding of a particular area of digital marketing? Or do you want to learn the basics so you can start rolling out different marketing strategies for your business?

That being said, some of the best digital marketing courses for small businesses today are:

• Australian Academy of Digital Marketing 

• Google Skillshop

• HubSpot Academy

• Udemy

• Coursera

• WordStream’s Growth Academy

If you’re looking for more bitesize learning, podcasts are a great option as you can learn on the go. Some of my personal favourites are:

• Marketing Over Coffee

• Social Media Marketing Podcast

• Marketing School Podcast

• The Hustle & Flowchart Podcast