Being right where your customers are is a marketing fundamental, and these days, most, if not all of your customers are on digital, which is to say, online. Whether it’s a website, a social media platform, a video game or messaging app, online is where your customers want to be, and where you want to be if you want to be able to sell to them.
Digital Marketing is an umbrella term which covers everything involved in reaching customers online. If you’re reading this article, you may be on the lookout for a digital marketing training course in Singapore. You may not have any digital marketing experience and would now like to pursue it, or you may have dabbled in one or more of its forms and now desire formal training.
Digital Marketing is an Interdisciplinary System
To become a certified digital marketing professional, you need to have a good grasp of how the digital marketing ecosystem works. As in any ecosystem, it comprises several members or components which must work together in order to be effective in reaching, and converting your potential customers or target market. Let’s discuss each of these components in turn.
● Display Content. The process of converting your customers begins with their awareness of their own needs or the problem they want to solve. Your customers know they need a solution, but they may not know what exactly that solution is. Display Content is what, in turn, makes them aware of the solutions offered by your business.
This content takes the form of display ads on the websites frequented by your target audience. In creating and placing these ads, you will need to understand the different media buying tools and formats such as text ads, image ads and rich media ads which include video.
● Video Content. As more people continue to spend more time watching videos online, Video Content has become indispensable to both awareness of your products and services, as well as educating potential customers about them. Not only must you master media placement and strategy, but the creative side of video production as well.
This creative aspect involves the preparation and editing of visuals and sound which in turn, requires some proficiency in photography or videography and graphics. These processes must, of course, be aligned with the overall marketing strategy and carried out in accordance with a well-written script.
● Copywriting. Scriptwriting, copywriting, blogging and other forms of written communication used in digital marketing revolves around the creative use of persuasive language. Now that your target market is aware of your products and services, the right words will be able to explain why potential customers should choose your business, and persuade them to buy.
Mastery of writing basics notwithstanding, the written component of digital marketing must never lose sight of its true purpose, which is to provide copy or content which serves the target market. No matter what form that copy takes, whether it’s an ad, a post, an infographic, or a website write-up, your customers must be able to find your written work helpful or useful.
● Website Development. As its “online storefront”, a business’ website is crucial to its survival as well as its success. As with its brick-and-mortar counterparts, a website must not only be visually appealing but must make customers feel welcome and make it easy for them to find and get what they need.
A website, however, cannot be developed in a vacuum without considering the other aspects of digital marketing. On top of being relevant and well-written, a website needs to be able to work in conjunction with display and video content as well as social media, and to be found easily on search engines.
● Social Media Marketing. Digital marketers know that the ever-increasing amounts of time most people spend on social media make it imperative to reach out to their target markets in this sphere. Apart from creating awareness and educating potential customers on the merits of your products and services, social media marketing likewise fosters brand advocacy.
The efficacy of reviews and word-of-mouth endorsements from family and friends is especially potent on social media, and digital marketing professionals will know the appropriate strategies and methods for leveraging both paid and organic social media content.
● Search Engine Marketing. Having been convinced by what they’ve seen on social media, your target market will most likely turn to search engines to look for the solutions that your business provides. This is why website development and Search Engine Optimisation or SEO have to work hand-in-hand, to make sure that your business is readily found.
Search Engine Marketing also involves paid search ads or Pay-Per-Click or PPC, which come out along with organic search results whenever your target market comes looking. As a digital marketing professional, you’ll need to have a firm grasp of the bidding process involved in placing these ads.
The Professional Certificate in Digital Marketing
Even if you decide to master just one component of Digital Marketing, you’ll still have to understand how all of them complement each other in your efforts to reach out to your target market. This comprehension is essential to planning your overall marketing strategy, and making sure that all of your efforts are aligned and optimised.
The Professional Certificate in Digital Marketing programme at SMU Academy is made up of six modules covering all of the components above:
Module 1: Creating and Curating Display Content in Your Digital Strategy
Module 2: Creating and Curating Video Content in Your Digital Strategy
Module 3: Persuasive Copywriting in Your Digital Strategy
Module 4: Building A WordPress Site For Conversion
Module 5: Social Media Marketing
Module 6: Search Engine Marketing
You may choose to enrol in one or more modules, or take them all to earn your Certificate, which will enable you to become better prepared for the challenges that are part and parcel of a Digital Marketing career. Because the one thing to remember about becoming a Digital Marketing Professional is that the learning never actually stops.
Algorithms, regulations and the technology itself are constantly changing, and you will need to keep up and adapt to these changes if you want to succeed in this field for the long term. What you learn during the programme should serve as a foundation for you to build on, and it will be up to you to grow and evolve alongside the changes as they take place.
