Today we are going to find out about 26 modules that will skyrocket your digital marketing knowledge.
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For those of you who are following my journey on this blog you will know that I am trying to get to a position of financial freedom. This is a multi-faceted journey. That been said, there is one fundamental underpinning to every action that I undertake: the process of learning.
It should be taken as a given that you are not going to enrich your knowledge without undertaking any learning but I feel that it is an area that we take massively for granted. The advent of the internet has paved the way for new and illustrious means of sharing and gaining knowledge. The concept of Massive Open Online Courses has brought the field of learning to areas that it was previously unable to penetrate. Armed with little more than an internet connection we can now access resources that will help us build a learning pathway like never before.
Today I am going to talk about one very particular learning pathway that I have undertaken but the principles can be applied to a whole host of areas. I am going to endeavour to share these learnings on my blog as much as possible and hopefully inspire you to pick up some new skills.
Quick Recap
If any of these terms/phrases are confusing then please revert back to my article: Affiliate Marketing – What Is It And Should I Be Doing It?
What do I want to learn?
The first question I had to ask myself was what do I actually want to learn? I am very interested in affiliate marketing but that is a very large attack vector. A quick google search compounds the confusion as the offerings are wide and varied. I had to drill down into the details.
What am I looking to achieve?
I had to take a step back and also assume a level of realism. I am relatively fortunate in so far as I enjoy learning. I enjoy the thrill of amassing knowledge and I never find it tiring. But, and this is a very big but, I have to be realistic about the time investment I have available. While a Graduate Certificate in Marketing sounds incredibly enticing it also sounds incredibly exhausting. Furthermore, I don’t think it would actually satisfy what I am trying to achieve.
I am at the very start of this journey and somewhat of a novice. I am really looking to keep the journey moving forward and validate the knowledge I have to date. So this means that I am looking for a learning opportunity that is sufficiently in depth to gain some knowledge but also not too onerous a time imposition. I need to find that sweet spot.
Take a step back
Now that I know what my goals are I can resume my research with some fresh criteria:
- A short course that should take between 4 & 8 weeks
- The learning pathway should contain a sliding scale of complexity
- Be relevant
I hit up the usual suspects of Pluralsight, Udemy and UDX to see what is on offer and found lots of potential candidates. These courses ranged massively between a couple of hours learning to something that would be closer to the criteria I have established above.
Some further research turned up something else though: Google certifications.
Google Digital Garage
Given that Google is the biggest name in any marketing effort it is not surprising that they have invested effort in building a learning pathway that includes digital marketing.
Furthermore, they have gone one step further and included an industry recognised certification upon successful completion of the course and meeting the relevant pass mark on a final test.
Looks like we have struck gold.
Fundamentals of Digital Marketing
This little gem is 26 modules of packed information that will give you a sufficient grounding in digital marketing to establish a very firm foundation.
What do you learn?
Google has taken the approach of using business anecdotes to really bring the learning to life. The topics follow a pseudo journey from the viewpoint of several business. They look at the actual business critical problem they faced as part of a digital transformation and then expand on that to how you can resolve it.
I actually really like this style of learning. It removes you from the stuffy academia of the subject and brings a real life perspective. By following the journey of a business and seeing that path they have taken in a digital transformation provides context to the detail. I give Google a massive thumbs up in this regard.
The 26 modules seemed to fly by and they did offer that sliding scale of complexity. I must say that I found some of the modules slightly dull. This is very particular to my level of knowledge in other areas – as a software engineer I am already fully aware of some of the principles that Google espouse in this course. Areas such as website and mobile app optimisation, analytics and push marketing are already incredibly familiar to me so I found myself testing out of that module (there is the option to take a one time test at the start of the module – if you pass you can skip the learning content).
The final certification was relatively straightforward having undertaken the entire course. What is impressive though is that the certification is accredited by Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe and The Open University. This adds a little more weight to the achievement and certainly acts as a barometer to your progress.
Best of all? This is all free!
Did the course satisfy the criteria?
Yes….and no. While this course is undoubtedly fantastic, there is a very obvious inclination towards Google products. I know this is to be expected and they have done a great job of including some foundational knowledge but there is still a distinct leaning towards Google solutions.
I don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing but there has to be a consideration that Google is not always the answer even if this course would have you believe so.
There were some very interesting steps into the psychology of marketing that I would have loved to have seen expanded one. My particular expertise in technology also means I would have loved to have learn more around how Google is using AI to drive marketing decisions. I do understand that these are more niche areas but I would still like to hear more.
What is next?
As mentioned above, the greatest outcome from this course is a thirst to learn more. I certainly feel more knowledgeable on what Google has to offer and how their products can answer some of the burning questions in digital marketing. More importantly though is that I have come away with more questions and topics to research. I found the psychology of marketing massively interesting and I think this sounds like an area on which I will focus on going forwards.
For now, I have my Google certification in the Fundamentals of Digital Marketing. Yay to me!