In November I once again became a student, enrolling on a twelve week Digital Marketing boot camp with We Are Digital. I attended school before the internet revolution, learning to type on a manual computer and while I think I have kept up quite well with technological developments, I was increasingly finding there was much I did not know too. And I am not the only one, millions of people are digitally excluded. 11.9 million people do not have the essential digital skills needed for day to day life in the UK, 1.9 million households in the UK lack any kind of internet access and 9 million people struggle to use the internet independently.
What is digital marketing
Digital Marketing is any type of marketing activity that uses electronic devices or the internet and is different to traditional marketing which uses magazine adverts, billboards and direct mail such as flyers and catalogues. You can learn more about digital marketing in the short animation below.
What does the boot camp involve
The boot camp took place online via Zoom, three hours a day, four days a week, for twelve weeks, with students benefiting from industry respected trainers and professionals from the world of digital marketing. It has been designed to be focused on commercial aims, so real world practical skills are taught and regular assessments are built into the timetable, with a final assessment – a group project to write and present a marketing strategy. Topics covered include:
- Market research: understanding customers needs and problems to then develop solutions
- Social media: Learning to plan, test, implement and measure social media campaigns
- Search engine optimisation (SEO): How to plan, design, and implement an SEO strategy
- Paid search: Learning to design and implement a paid search strategy
- Analytics: understanding how to implement, test and measure results using analytics packages.
- Tools: Learning about the tools that can be used to support digital marketing
- Conversion optimisation: how to plan test and improve conversion rates on a website.
- Competitor analysis: learning how to conduct competitor Analysis
- Content marketing: learning how to plan and develop a content marketing strategy
- Display and media: display advertising
- Trends: understand trends in digital marketing, how it’s evolved and what is on the horizon.
- Strategy: to take all the learnings from the course and develop into an overall digital marketing strategy
You can learn about these topics in more depth on the We Are Digital website below.
Lifelong learning
The boot camp is one of many free flexible training opportunities provided by the UK government Plan for Jobs programme, which aims to protect, support and create jobs across the country, whether you are a business owner, self-employed or a job seeker. To be eligible to study on the boot camp, students need to be aged 19+, recently made unemployed, self-employed, or working part-time and seeking a new career. Other training is available in construction, engineering and manufacturing, green skills and HGV driving.
If like me you would enjoy the opportunity to learn some new skills you can find out more about initiatives and the help available below.
Sources
- We Are Digital: Five key ingredients that will help your customers with digital access
- Mailchimp: Digital Marketing
- ReliableSoft Academy
Further information
- Plan for Jobs
- Free courses for jobs
- Hundreds of free qualifications on offer to boost skills and jobs
- Major expansion of post-18 education and training to level up and prepare workers for post-COVID economy
- National Skills Fund
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