Types of Digital Marketing: Online course from ISB, scope of work

Digital innovation and application has revolutionised the way we communicate and receive information — it now takes just a second to browse through the latest news on your smartphone. And this technological breakthrough has paved the way for Digital Marketing, giving us a view of how the future would look .

What is Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing is a marketing method in which businesses or organisations utilise devices like laptops, desktops and mobile phones to promote their products or services. This form of marketing makes use of a variety of channels like emails, social media and search engines.

Essential skills for digital marketers:

• Innovative thinking
• Ability to upskill according to the situation
• Ability to adapt
• Flexibility
• Proficiency in English to target a larger audience
• Knowledge of local languages for communication
• Being tech-savvy

How to pursue a career Digital Marketing

The best thing about Digital Marketing is that you can come from any background and still make it big. You needn’t go for a specific degree at undergraduate or postgraduate levels to become successful in this field. However, a degree in Business Management, Mass Media, Journalism or Marketing is likely to help you gain a basic understanding of marketing, content and business.

Having practical field experience is more important in this field, although there are a few certification courses that can help you kickstart a career in digital marketing. Some of these courses integrate live projects, simulated learning, instructor videos, course material and other industry-recognised methods.

ISB Digital Marketing and Analytics Certification

The Centre for Executive Education at the Indian School of Business (ISB) will begin this course on December 29 as part of its Online Executive Certificate Programme. Entrepreneurs and startup builders can enrol in the certificate course to learn how digital marketing can improve marketing outcomes and lead to business expansion.

Here’re more details about the course:

• Mode: Online.

• Eligibility: Any graduate/diploma holder can do this course
• Duration: 12 weeks (four to six hours/week).
• Programme fee: Rs 1 lakh + GST.
• What you’ll learn: This programme will teach you digital customer behaviour, digital marketing strategies and how to identify in-demand metrics to effectively measure and optimise the return on investment (ROI).
• What you’ll get on completion of the programme: On completion of this programme with 70% aggregate, you’ll be awarded a certificate in Digital Marketing and Analytics from ISB.

Other Certification courses:

• Google Adwords Certification
• Google Analytics Certification
• Bings Ads Certification
• Inbound Marketing, Content Marketing and Email Marketing Certification by HubSpot
• Facebook Certified Digital Marketing Associate

Types of Digital Marketing:

• SEO: This refers to the optimisation of a site in such a way that it ranks high in search engines. For instance, Google considers a set of factors like site speed, backlinks, social media signal and site usability to determine where to rank a site. Link-building is an essential feature of SEO but it needs to be done with tact — that’s where an expert comes in.

• Content Marketing: This is usually done through paid media, which includes display ads, social ads, Google ads, earned media (relationships you build with others for promoting your content) and owned media (your website, social media channels and app). The content can take different forms like text, images and videos. Placement of the content depends upon its type. For instance, blog posts may work for a financial company, while a video on social media might work for an interior decorator solution. Understanding the client’s brand positioning and their target audience is crucial in this field.

• Social Media Marketing: This has two distinct types — paid and organic marketing. Paid marketing includes promoted posts and ads on Facebook (now Meta), Instagram and Twitter. It’s crucial to the success of a company’s marketing strategy. Organic marketing refers to catering to your existing social audience. You need a social media marketing strategy to determine your goals, select your target audience and know their demands. Building an engaging community, setting up goals and using tactics to achieve them are some of the most important points when devising a strategy. It’s also vital to know your competitors and do a competitive analysis. A new-age marketer needs to be social media-savvy to know what kind of content will work on which platform.

• Pay per click (PPC): This is a form of paid advertisement involving the online promotion of a website by placing paid advertisements at the top of search engine results pages, driving targeted traffic to the company website. Advertisers bid on keywords in search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN to hook users looking for products or services similar to those offered by their companies.
• Email Marketing: This is about sending emails to people and pitching for products and brands. Such emails are never randomly sent. The analytics team of a marketing company identifies potential customer classes and sends different emails that would be relevant to the group that receives it.

Job opportunities:

• Content writer/manager: Every business needs a large amount of content to upgrade its digital presence. A content writer/manager must have a strategy around the text, images, videos and advertisements required to build a brand.
• SEO manager: These professionals improve the position of a brand in the customer’s search algorithm. They employ a number of SEO strategies to ensure that a brand ranks higher in search results.
• Affiliate marketer: They manage partnerships with websites that are paid to promote a brand. These professionals could be in charge of all affiliated websites as well as individuals with whom the brand would tie up for promotions.

• Email marketer: They communicate with or send commercial content to targeted customers via email. Their job is to promote content and increase website traffic.

• Web analyst: A web analyst basically measures performance by analysing metrics, like how many people clicked on an ad or website and how much time they spent. They are essential for assessing campaign effectiveness and revising media options. Students from Accountancy, Statistics, Maths and Economics backgrounds are perfect for this role.

• Voice artist: Voice is the next big thing in the digital marketing space. As much as 30% of Google’s searching options in India are generated through voice. Companies like Amazon and Flipkart are employing these professionals as more and more people are using voice search to find products on these websites.
• Social media marketer: Social media accounts for a sizable portion of the digital space. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn receive the most digital traffic. A social media marketer plans how to best position their product on social media platforms to attract interested customers.