- What's up ninjas, it is Tim from Exposure Ninja here.
And in this video, we're gonna look at the best ways
for busy business owners to learn about digital marketing.
(upbeat music)
So first up,
why do you need to learn about digital marketing?
Well, many businesses these days understand
the importance of digital marketing
really, it can make or break a business.
And we've seen client sites that have completely taken off
because the owners have baked digital marketing
into the very core of the business.
Meanwhile, other businesses have seen
their market share decline as traditional marketing methods
that they rely on have kind of fallen by the wayside,
and they've been disrupted by new businesses
that understand digital marketing.
So really, it's a very important skill to have these days.
What we like to say to people is even if you're not planning
on doing your own digital marketing,
you're considering working
with an agency like Exposure Ninja,
which for most small or medium sized businesses
is really the only sensible choice,
you still need to learn enough to know
that you're getting good quality work.
Back when Exposure Ninja started, one of the reasons
that we exist is because so many business owners
had had such a horrific experience
with digital marketing agencies previously,
because they just didn't know what they were buying.
So as soon as somebody phoned them up,
trying to sell them SEO, they'd just hand the card over,
without knowing anything about what was good quality work,
and what was bad quality work.
So we wrote how to get to the top of Google
to help educate people and then we started an agency
on the back of that,
to actually do good quality work for people.
It's really important that you know enough
about whatever you're buying
to know whether it's good or bad.
So what are the best digital marketing skills to learn?
Well, it's really important that you've got actually
a fairly good overview of a range
of digital marketing skills.
So the sorts of things which can have a massive impact
on your business include websites,
mostly conversion rate optimization,
not necessarily the kind of technical behind the scenes
of a website, you don't really need to know that too much,
but you need to know about what turns a visitor
into a lead or sale because that's so fundamental
to your business.
So having a good understanding
of conversion rate optimization is important.
Also knowing about how to drive traffic to a website.
So typically it'll be SEO and some sorts
of paid traffic as well,
whether that's Google ads, Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads,
Twitter ads, that will really depends on your business.
I mean, I'm joking,
there are very few businesses getting anything
from Twitter ads. (Tim laughs)
Our most successful clients tend to have
what we call a T-shaped knowledge of digital marketing.
So they'll have a broad understanding of everything,
but they might have one particular area
where they're most switched on.
And those are exactly the sorts of people that we hire
at Exposure Ninja,
because the reality is that nobody can have a broad
and deep knowledge across all of digital marketing,
it's simply not possible things move too fast.
So whilst we'll have a ninja who's very good at SEO,
they might have a bit of an understanding of content,
but they typically won't have much of an understanding
of Google ads and vice versa
because each of these topics is so specific
and potentially so technical,
that to understand all of them would mean your brain
would just simply explode.
Okay, so what are the six steps
to learning digital marketing from home
Step one is to find the very best courses
and training available.
There's tonnes of great stuff on YouTube, hmmh,
and there's loads of great blogs as well, hmmh
There are even fantastic books.
(upbeat music)
There's a lot that you can learn through study.
And actually, when we onboard new ninjas,
we pile them through a whole load of video training.
So it's a great way to actually show them on the screen
what they need to do.
We also have our own training programme marketingu.ninja,
where we show you behind the scenes and take you through
the tasks that we do for our clients here at Exposure Ninja.
The second tip is to practise in every free hour
that you have available,
there's really no substitute for actually applying
what you've learned in the real world.
The third step is to check out some certifications
and qualifications.
Now these are great way to give you confidence
that you know what you're talking about,
but really, they're not actually that necessary
in the outside world.
If you come to work at an agency like Exposure Ninja,
for example, we won't require that you're certified
but we'll actually put you through the certification,
when you join.
Step four is to start your own blog or website.
This really is the absolute best way
to learn digital marketing,
because you'll actually see every element for yourself.
So what I would do if I were you
is either start your own website
or find someone that you can build a website for.
So when I first started,
I built a website for my next door neighbour
who was a plaster and that website changed his life
and actually resulted in the Exposure Ninja
that you see today, that never would have happened
if I just stayed watching YouTube videos
and trying to improve my theory and my knowledge,
you've actually got to apply yourself.
When we're hiring or recruiting,
one of the things that we'll ask people is,
do you have a website that you've worked on?
And if they have their own project website,
and they've got it to rank or they've got it to convert?
Well, that's a really easy way for us to say,
this person, clearly knows what they're talking about.
Step five is to make connections with your peers.
You can find some fantastic digital marketing groups
on places like Facebook or LinkedIn,
make sure that you're spending time with people
that are actually doing it though
you get a whole load of people in these groups
that are just talking complete useless theory
to each other and never actually do anything
with their lives.
So you can spend all your time on Facebook and LinkedIn
and these groups and you can either become a super beast
or you can become a complete loser
that spends all your time in Facebook and LinkedIn groups.
Step six is to never stopped practising and learning.
Because digital marketing changes so much,
we recommend checking out blogs and magazines sites
that cover digital marketing.
So things like Search Engine Journal,
podcasts like the Exposure Ninja Digital Marketing Podcast,
are fantastic ways to keep up with what's new
and what's changing in digital marketing.
The things that we were talking about five years ago
aren't always the same today,
although I have to say a lot of the most fundamental truths
in fact, all of the most fundamental truth
in digital marketing really haven't changed at all.
But it's the kind of particular tactics
and particular tweaks and hacks and stuff,
that's the stuff that changes most often.
So what are the best
digital marketing certifications to get?
Well, the best ones are typically
the ones that are most recognised.
So for example, the Google Ad Certification
is widely recognised as a way of judging
that you are good at Google Ads.
Although I have to be honest,
you can just take the exam, research your answers
and then put them in as you're doing the exam.
So it doesn't really prove anything at all.
You can get certifications
from the Digital Marketing Institute.
And there's also Google Digital Garage Certifications
that you can pick up as well.
Like I said previously,
the certifications are one thing
but you really can't be real world experience
and actually doing stuff on real websites,
really, there's no substitute for that.
So go and have a play by all means get the certifications,
but they are not a replacement
for doing the real actual work and practising
and honing your craft in the real world,
they are definitely just an extra nice thing to have.
So what about some free digital marketing online courses?
Well, there are some great courses
which we'll link up in the descriptions
of this video including the Google Ads Course.
There's a good Unbounce, course HubSpot has a course
in its academy,
you got the Google Digital Garage Course as well.
And all of these will give you a particular insight
usually into one main area of digital marketing,
whether it's HubSpot and content marketing
and inbound marketing, or Google Ads, and obviously,
how Google Ads works.
So it's good to check out a range of these courses
to help you become that T-shaped marketer.
Another great skill to have
is understanding Google Analytics
because Analytics is really the kind of diagnosis point
that you do for any website or marketing campaign.
It's a little bit like taking a patient's vital signs
by having a look at any website's analytics
if you're skilled with analytics,
you can figure out exactly what's going on,
how that website is getting its traffic
and what it needs to do to improve things.
So you can check out the Google Analytics Certification too.
Although spoiler alert, the certification's pretty worthless
and actually the training is so theoretical,
it might not be that useful.
Check out instead
the Exposure Ninja Google Analytics training
at exposure ninja.com/google-analytics.
If you wanna learn about content marketing then HubSpot,
Neil Patel and Optinmonster all have some good guides
and if you wanna learn how to write like an absolute beast
you might wanna check out CopyBlogger,
QuickSprout and Eduonix.
You also wanna check out a fantastic book
by Dan Kennedy called "The Ultimate Sales Letter."
If you wanna learn about Google Ads
then WordStream, Bing Ads
and SEMrush all have some good guides.
There are also some paid courses out there as well.
Now whether these are worth it really depends
on what your goals are.
If you're gonna take any paid course,
I would make sure that the person giving the paid course
has a proven track record in doing what
they're actually teaching you how to do
and there not just a theory professor.
There is so much digital marketing training out there
which is just regurgitated stuff from forums
and blog posts and it's focused on best practise,
rather than what actually works in the real world.
So make sure that there are plenty of practical examples
and demonstrations to show you real life applications
of what you're learning.
We've also compiled a fantastic list of books as well.
So some of these are free, some of these are paid.
But check out the Exposure Ninja blog posts
which we'll link in the video description
to read about these.
Recap, so to recap,
digital marketing skills are absolutely vital
in today's world,
if you're gonna be growing a business online,
even if you're not planning on doing the work yourself,
it's a good idea to have a good, broad understanding
of digital marketing so that when you're contacting people
and bringing them on to do your digital for you,
you know that they're doing a good job.
Most of the most successful digital marketers we know
have a T-shaped skill set.
In other words, they have a broad understanding across all
of digital marketing and then they have one specific area
that they are truly expert in.
The best way to learn digital marketing
is study everything that you can
but you've got to try it out on some real websites
and get yourself out there in the real world,
doing some of this for yourself.
Plenty of courses and certifications available
and all sorts of companies will tell you
that you need to learn this and that and that.
But the reality is, if you can apply yourself
by actually ranking or improving a website,
whether it's your own or whether it's for a client,
that is the very best test of your skills,
if you're looking for a job in digital marketing
it is that type of thing that your employer should want over
the latest certification,
which at the end of the day is pretty easy to gain.
So I hope you found that useful,
that kind of honest take on how to learn digital marketing.
Don't forget to like this video if you enjoyed it,
subscribe if you want more videos from us
and if you have any comments or suggestions
for fantastic digital marketing resources,
then leave them in the comments section on this video.
Don't forget if you want help
with your own digital marketing
then you can request a free website and marketing review
from Exposure Ninja.
Head over to exposureninja.com/review,
we'll ask you a few questions about your business
and your goals and we'll then record you a 15-minute video
which shows you how to improve the leads and sales
that your website gets for you.
Totally free, no obligation and absolutely awesome.
Until the next video, see you soon.