I asked entrepreneurs in my network what are their goals for 2021. Some said learn how to delegate, others said boost revenue from online sales, some want to prioritize their health so they can avoid burnout, whereas others are focusing on increasing their visibility. I was not surprised by the diversity of answers, what did take me aback was learning how many of them were basing their goals on “on something they’ve heard it works”.
This got me thinking. Most of the business owners I know are investing a lot of time and effort into becoming better managers, better leaders. What they’re not spending just as much time on is understanding digital marketing. In my opinion a digital marketing course should be a top must have for any business owner.
Sure, as a business owner, you have so many different things to consider and so many different elements of your business to juggle. Because of this, it can feel virtually impossible to keep on top of everything. So if you’re reading this and thinking “I don’t have time to focus on this, I am paying freelancers or my team to handle marketing for me” I’m sorry to break it to you, but you are a making a costly mistake.
Enhancing your digital marketing skills is going to help you understand what strategies are going to work for your brand short term, and long term. Getting digital marketing training, whether for yourself, or for your staff, is a great way to facilitate brand innovation and nurture a way of thinking that is focused on growth.
Still on the fence about this? Well, I have three very good reasons why you should consider a digital marketing course in 2021:
Digital marketing levels the online playing field
Here’s the fact: digital marketing gives small and medium-sized companies the opportunity to compete against the bigger businesses in their industries. You can attract your share of targeted traffic by using digital marketing wisely, and expert coaching will assist with this. Thanks to the training courses that are available, you will be able to access resources to perform marketing and sales processes that only big companies could access previously.
A course will help you understand concepts that will give you a competitive edge. For instance, one of the most important ways to optimize your business in the near future is to create a highly intuitive, user-friendly design and journey (UX + CX) to make your customers feel welcomed, understood and in awe when they visit your website or interact with your digital products.
Even if you’re going to work with a company to deliver on a quick design iteration that will build your UX journey, you still need to take it from there and understand how to amplify your experience with marketing.
You will prepare your team to cater to a DIGITAL audience
Another reason why digital marketing education comes highly recommended is that you will ensure your company is ready to communicate with a digital audience. Marketing has changed, the tactics that used to work 10 yrs ago are more complicated than ever, the algorithms are harder to “beat” and if you don’t understand what your audience is doing online, you’re going to have a hard time to survive and thrive in the years to come.
A digital marketing course will introduce you to concepts such as data management and data driven, psychographics, audience targeting, remarketing, custom audiences, even tracking and more. All of these are essential if you’re running an online business and you are committed to make it grow.
Digital marketing is the cost-effective approach
Last but not least, the final benefit associated with digital marketing training is that it will give your employees the tools that are needed to unlock a form of marketing that is exceptionally cost-effective when compared with traditional advertising. There are stats to back this up.
According to the Gartner’s Digital Marketing Spend Report, 40 per cent of those interviewed stated that they had made significant cost savings by utilizing digital marketing methods for promoting their services and products.
As you can see, there are many different benefits that are associated with digital marketing training. As a business owner, no matter what field your business is based in, the aim is always to move forward and grow. This is something that digital marketing helps you to achieve. Taking a digital marketing course will give you and your employees the tools you need to move forward.