From the chaos of the dotcom boom to its bust and the resulting e-commerce shake-ups a new term was born - digital marketing. It was obvious that the landscape was changing and that having a presence online wasn't just optional anymore for a business - it was going to become a critical part of your business - whether you liked it or not.
So schools and colleges all over the world scratched their heads and tried to formulate a catch-up program for everyone with traditional qualifications in marketing. The first step towards that was to introduce aspects of digital marketing into multimedia courses in colleges. But because the marketing aspect was bolted on and based on outdated online marketing methods it faded into obscurity.
Getting The Competitive Advantage
Finally schools and colleges have embraced the fact that having a qualified digital marketing person as part of your business is something that can give you quite a significant advantage over your competition - who are probably still outsourcing their marketing requirements to people who are probably as clueless as they are about it.
There are now a variety of online marketing courses available in both initial diploma and in post-graduate formats also. Traditional marketing execs really just need an intensive introduction to it so they can level the playing field whereas people new to the marketing world will be getting their degrees and diplomas fully aware of how SEO, PPC and social media marketing are so important to the online success of any business.
And because so many people need to do this as a post-graduate option there's been a huge demand for online marketing courses to accommodate people who can't go back into full time education but need to update their skills accordingly.
A Solution That Fits All
Most colleges and institutes who are providing digital marketing courses are going for the blended approach to delivering this type of educational material. A purely online format works well but for participants to truly benefit from the information being shared some actual class time with real people and a tutor or lecturer is generally very beneficial for everyone involved.
Another way of looking at these newly popular courses is that the jobs market is now more competitive than it ever has been before. If your company hasn't already established a properly structured online presence that day is coming very soon. And what better position to be in than to be a fully trained digital marketer who's ready and willing to help the company take their online presence to new heights.
For those of you reading this who are entrepreneurs and are either already running or will be running your own business then a marketing course might be of benefit to you too. Just check the syllabus and curriculum in advance - you might be surprised at how much of this you already know!
Digital marketing and the associated courses is an indication of just how massive online business has become - if you'd told anyone during the dot com implosion that there would be marketing courses at diploma level available in just a few years they'd probably have laughed in your face.
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