It has been over 3 decades since digital marketing was introduced to the world by Gugliemo Marconi in the late 1990s. It changed the way marketing was done from outbound marketing to inbound marketing thus allowing businesses to target a larger audience at the exact same time while spending less money.
However, living in digital world results in a lot of change and development over time Therefore, Digital marketers need to stay up to date and come up with innovative ways to educate themselves over the course of their career, which is called Lifelong learning or career development. A development process that occurs after formal education to stay up to date with what’s happening around the globe and in that particular field that you work in.
Lifelong learning is a skill that every Digital Marketer needs to master regardless of which department you work in, according to the Digital Marketing Institute (a trusted online education platform for digital marketing, it offers digital marketing courses and ways in which you can be a great digital marketer.) on a blog about the 7 seven essential skills every digital marketer needs to know - in order to be a great digital marketer you will need to learn the art of adapting quickly and self-learning even if it means you have to change into different digital careers because in marketing old skills and knowledge becomes less in-demand (Digital Marketing Institute, 2021). It’s important because they will be working in diverse teams, with different clients and using various types of tools and software. However, with new tools and software being introduced every day, Digital marketers have no other choice but to educate themselves on how to use these new platforms. They need to come up with different strategies on how they can market on each platform because marketing strategies or ideas that were used for one platform do not always work on the other. There is a global demand for marketers with agile skills and those who can adapt to change. According to DMI on a blog called “Talent and technology in 2020 and beyond” - it is talent and technology that reframes the future of digital marketing and most companies are interested in hiring marketers with digital know-how, and who are great at both hard and soft skills (Digital Marketing Institution, 2019). Digital marketing institute is a great platform for lifelong learning as a digital marketer, it teaches you new and innovative ways that will develop your career as a digital marketer, as for me I would proudly rate it 5/5 because it’s a great place to learn new ways of marketing every time and you can take the courses that will be beneficial to you career development.
4 Lifelong learning strategies for Digital Marketers
1. Taking risks
Many of us are afraid of taking risks because most of the time there is very little chance of us being successful in the end or maybe you are afraid that you will ruin everything. However, as a digital marketer part of your lifelong learning requires you to be able to take risks from time to time, this could be trying out new methods that you aren’t familiar with, working on projects that are outside of your career knowledge and skills, for example: If you are a web designer but have never worked with apps before, and now you have to work on a projects that involve applications in which you have never worked on before or have knowledge on (Glavin, 2018). Risk-taking is beneficial because it results in us learning new skills and enhancing the existing skills that we already possess. In a SPINSUCKS blog, Wendy Glavin (Who was a consultant designing websites for individuals and small businesses) wrote about the six ways in which digital marketers can still lifelong learn. The blog focuses on how she as a Digital marketer had lifelong learning throughout her career, and also how she had to take risks by working on projects that were outside her career boundary, and how she was able to gain more skills and knowledge by lifelong learning and taking risks.
2. Having a learning mindset
This is a skill that every digital marketer needs to have because it is a vital key when it comes to lifelong learning and your career as a marketer. Having a learning mindset enables marketers to overcome obstacles that they may encounter when they want to learn something new or develop new skills. According to GoPeer (a platform where people can find trusted college students to tutor them) in an article about the importance of having a growth mindset, a “ Growth mindset understands the importance of persistence and determination” (GoPeer, 2020). The blog focuses on why a growth mindset is important, and how to develop a growth mindset. I personally recommend reading the blog because it touches on some key and important points on how you can have a growth mindset. I would give it 4/5 in terms of the amount of information, however, I would give it a 5/5 for how helpful the information is regarding having a growth mindset. As a digital marketer who wants to start a journey of lifelong learning, having a learning mindset is the first step.
3. Identify the ways to learn and the tools available to assist you to learn
As a marketer, you need to be able to identify the skills and knowledge that you want to learn or master. This allows you to stay determined and committed to that particular goal that you want to achieve. It’s important as it enables you to focus on one thing at a time, thus resulting in a 100% success rate. After identifying what you want to improve or gain knowledge on, you need to find tools or ways that will help you achieve your desired goals. These could be doing an online digital marketing course on platforms like Hubspot Academy(An educational platform that offers digital marketing courses and educates marketers on ways they can become great digital marketers), using software to find out what are the new ways in which digital marketers are using in this modern age. There are so many tools and online tutorials that educate about Digital Marketing and what new skills you need to know. Here is a video of professor David Bell on digital marketing that I find interesting and will be very helpful when lifelong learning as a Digital Marketer. For me, this video is a 6/5 because it really goes into depth about how you can lifelong learn as a digital marketer, it's a long video and it explains ways in which you as a marketer can grow or develop your career as you lifelong learning.
4. Read and practice something every day.
To stay up to date with what’s happening in the marketing world around the globe you need to read newly and carefully curated news on digital marketing on websites such as Stacked Marketer. This enables you to stay informed and up to date with the latest digital marketing news, allowing you to find new skills that you may want to gain using the process of lifelong learning. These websites provide every marketer with a free daily dose of news, trends, tech, and actionable advice in a super-easy-to-digest format, with transparency and quality (Stacked Marketer). I would happily give Stacked Marketer a 5/5 rating because their content is relevant and keeps so many digital marketers informed on what’s happening in the marketing world. But mostly because it is most trusted by big Marketing companies such as shift one.
Why you should consider Lifelong learning as a Digital Marketer.
The digital world that we all know is forever changing, nothing is stationary because every day new ideas, strategies, and ways of marketing are being introduced, resulting in old marketing ways being in less demand and they are not working as they used to back then. Because the technology, software, trends, and tactics are constantly evolving, so does digital marketing hence marketers need to find new and innovative ways to stay up to date and learn the new ways of marketing. As a digital marketer, lifelong learning is a process that you will need to do each and every day, week, month, or every year because it’s a career that is constantly evolving and so should you as a marketer. In the world of Digital marketers, lifelong learning is part of the Digital Marketing career.
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