Newsstand

August 3, 2011
The Importance of Digital Marketing Classes in Today’s Constantly Changing Environment [DMA11]

In case you weren’t aware, the marketing industry is in the midst of a major transformation, and social media is the reason. Whether or not you think that social media should be “at fault” here or “given thanks” doesn’t matter. Facts are facts. The landscape has been forever altered and anyone who wants to stay on the winning side of the changes should strongly consider taking digital marketing classes in order to learn marketing principles to maximize profit.

This isn’t to say that traditional marketing methods are going away. Customers are always going to be able to be reached through TV, radio, and print advertisements. But developing a digital marketing strategy that includes going after social media channels, and integrating it with traditional methods, is what all the experts are telling us will have the most significant impact on overall marketing campaign success.

Traditional Marketing vs. Digital Marketing and Social Media
One of the main challenges is the fact that a digital marketing strategy is a lot different from traditional methods, where potential customers are essentially faced with non-interactive advertising. You can’t go about a social media campaign in the same way that you would a radio commercial, for example. Sure, the entertainment value has to be there for both – but social media relies on the involvement and engagement of customers in order to really take flight. Successful social media marketing thrives on customer engagement, therefore traditional advertisement methods don’t work. This fact stresses the importance of enrolling in digital marketing classes as a way of learning the sometimes not-so-subtle differences between methods.

Giving Your Audience a Voice
An effective digital marketing strategy uses the audience to help formulate and spread the message. This is in stark contrast to more “old school” methods of advertising that have been, for the most part, one-dimensional. With social media, email marketing, and mobile marketing, the audience becomes both target and decision driver. By engaging your customer base through social media, you can alter and even entirely re-shape your marketing campaign through the feedback that you receive. Giving your customers a voice in the shaping of a marketing campaign has an incredibly powerful impact, in that they’ll become emotionally and intellectually invested – and this is what really drives the all-important buzz factor that can push an online marketing strategy to reach previously unrealized heights.

Where to Take Digital Marketing Classes
Digital marketing classes can be found just about anywhere. There are enough books, blogs, and online courses to keep even the most discriminating student busy for years soaking up all that useful information. But if you really want an impactful experience that can help you learn marketing principles that you can put to use growing your company’s social media campaign, getting involved with seminars and attending industry events is the most effective method. Not only will you get face time with the experts, but you’ll also have access to the latest and most pertinent data that you can’t simply get by reading a two-year-old blog laced with irrelevant information. One of the most high profile and important events in digital marketing is the DMA2011 Conference & Exhibition, which is taking place this October in Boston. To get more information about the various workshops, labs, and lectures you can take part in, visit www.dma11.org.

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