One line answer is to start blogging to learn Digital Marketing.
And if you want to be an expert and also want a good ROI (Return on Investment: Your Time). Take Blogging as serious and Treat Blogging as Business from day one.
i. Business Knowledge/Core Business Elements:
Any Digital Marketing Expert or a newbie must have business knowledge.
An overview of how Business is run and the key elements of Business you are working to promote online/digital:
- The problem the Business is trying to solve.
- The target customers.
- The competitors.
- The value offerings to customer.
Next:
You have to understand more details on:
- Who are Target Customers?
- What are their pain points and how do they feel about problems
- Where they hang out online [Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter etc.]
- What social channels they use on daily basis?
- How much time they spent and at what time?
- What is the customer behavior?
- How big is there a problem? Do they care about the solution [do they pay for solution]?
- Who are the competitors?
- What content [value added information related to the customer problems you can offer]?
- What keywords or what do they type in search engines related to the problem they face [Google and Bing]?
The skills you must have or learn to become Digital Marketer:
- Sales skills [How to sell?].
- Copy Writing [blog posts writing/email writing/ad copywriting on social media].
- Research skills [about customers/competitors].
- Analytical [ability to analyze the data and execute email and social campaigns better].
- Basic Design Skills [Photoshop or knowledge of Design Tools, HTML etc.]
- Content Development [develop Valuable content for customers].
- Creative and Storytelling skills [to engage customers].
You must have Sales Approach [Online sales flow]:
- How to Get Noticed on Search Engines [Google/Bing]?
- How to Make Brand awareness [social media]?
- Creates an Interest with the audience about product/service offerings [content development/blog posts etc.]
- Educate the Products/Services [webinars, videos and podcasts etc.]
- Nurture and shows a social proof to Consider the Products/Services.
- Lead the users to buying persona.
- Finally, Converts the users to buy the product or Services.
- Retain the customers by promoting more value-added products/services.
Once, you understand the core business elements, key skills, and online sales approach.
Next Step:
Start Experimenting and Learn these skills by Blogging:
- How to rank higher in Google/Bing Search Engines [Get noticed when user types about the product or service requirement on Google]?
- How to make a brand awareness in social channels [Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.]?
- How to write valuable content/information about product/services[ on websites/blog/video content on YouTube etc.] [For education or info about products/services]?
- How to communicate with the customer over an email?
- How to promote, re-target and retain the customers with social media and email marketing automation?
Some Great Free Tools that will help in your Digital Marketing Journey as a newbie are discussed here.