Can I Learn Digital Marketing On My Own?

Yes, you can learn digital marketing on your own. You can scroll through YouTube tutorials, listen to podcasts, and follow blogs by Digital Marketers. You can sign up for self-paced digital marketing classes and watch the videos at your leisure. But how will you know where to start? What if you have questions? Teaching yourself digital marketing takes longer than signing up for an in-person or live online class, and it is difficult to know if you are getting the most up-to-date information. Also, many people find they need the structure of a class with a live instructor to hold them accountable for finishing their work.

Advantages to Self-Teaching Digital Marketing

One advantage to teaching yourself digital marketing is convenience. You determine your own schedule. You can watch self-paced materials whenever and wherever you want. If you have a full-time job, you can watch videos at home after work and on the weekends. If you need to take a break for a few days, you can do that because you set your own schedule.

You can teach yourself digital marketing for free. You can watch YouTube videos and find tutorials on tools like Google Analytics without paying. If you need something more in-depth, self-paced classes are generally less expensive than courses that have a live instructor. While this may save you money, it will cost you in terms of time. An experienced instructor has been working in digital and social media marketing for a number of years and will steer you in the direction you need to go.

Digital Marketing Self-Teaching Tools

If you are interested in learning more about digital marketing, video tutorials are a great way to get started. You can pull up a video on social media marketing while you eat lunch or learn about analytics tools in the evening after you get home. You can go at your own speed and watch the video as many times as you need to grasp the information. 

Noble Desktop offers many free digital marketing videos on its website, including Intro to a Career in Digital Marketing or Intro to Social Media Marketing. The content is updated regularly to present the most up-to-date information in the rapidly changing world of digital marketing. The videos are each about an hour long and include graphics, images, and explanations by digital marketing instructors. 

You can also find free tutorials on Google Analytics, SEMRush, Canva, Hootsuite, and other productivity tools to help you learn that specific tool. These are prerecorded sessions of varying lengths and some companies offer certifications after you complete an exam.

On-demand classes are self-paced like free tutorials, but you have to pay for them.

You can watch these prerecorded video sessions anytime and anywhere. They are usually accessed through a subscription platform, some of which offer a limited free trial period. 

If you are highly motivated, you can learn digital marketing this way, according to your own schedule. 

On-demand subscription courses tend to be less expensive than in-person and live online sessions. The business social media platform LinkedIn offers LinkedIn Learning with thousands of classes on many different topics for $29.99 a month or $239.88 a year for an individual. The subscription becomes active after a one-month free trial. Coursera costs $59 per month or $399 per year with a one-week free trial. Skillshare also offers a one-month free trial and a monthly membership for $32 or an annual membership for $168. 

Drawbacks to Learning Digital Marketing on Your Own

One drawback of teaching yourself digital marketing is that you don't have a live instructor to answer questions, which can slow down the process. Also, it can be difficult to tell how up-to-date the information is. Social media platforms and data analytics tools change frequently, and old information can slow down your learning process. An experienced instructor will teach you the best way to design and run campaigns and warn you of the common pitfalls.

Another possible issue with learning digital marketing on your own is that you don't have anyone to hold you accountable. You are entirely responsible for watching the videos and completing the assignments. Some on-demand classes have asynchronous teaching assistants you can contact via email, but this takes more time than simply asking a question in class. Learning on your own can feel isolating.

Alternatives to Learning Digital Marketing on Your Own

Some colleges and universities offer degrees in digital marketing, often in the school of business. Digital marketing majors take classes in art and photography, artificial intelligence, business, communications, data analysis, and marketing. Many people also choose a minor in areas like social media, public relations, media production, graphic design, business analytics, and entrepreneurship. Some community colleges offer digital marketing certifications in areas like Google Analytics, social media platforms, Hootsuite, and HubSpot.

Professional training centers offer bootcamp and certificate-granting programs for people who want to build technical skills. Classes meet in person or live online, on a part-time or full-time schedule. These classes are geared toward entrepreneurs who want to promote their own businesses or people who are starting new careers as Digital Marketers. Digital marketing classes include training in tools, social media platforms, content management, website optimization, and SEO. Some schools allow students to retake a class for free to review for up to a year and offer help putting together a marketing portfolio.

You will also need to decide which learning environment works best for you. If you prefer in-person classes, you can usually find those in larger cities or at community colleges. These are traditional classroom sessions with an instructor and students in a classroom or computer lab. If you can't find a class that meets in person, you can choose a live online class. These courses run at the same time as an in-person session with some students logging on through a video conferencing platform. Online students can ask questions and talk to other students during breaks, work together on group assignments, and get help from the instructor if they need it. You can access a live online class from anywhere that has internet access.

The length of digital marketing courses depends on the focus of the course. Bootcamps are intensive classes focused on one topic, like Google Analytics or SEO. These classes usually last two to three days. Certificate courses include classes on several different topics and are designed to get you ready to change to a career in digital marketing. These courses last several weeks to months.

The cost of In-person and live online classes from professional development or training programs, like Noble Desktop, vary widely from school to school. A one-day introductory Digital Marketing Strategy and Web Fundamentals class includes six hours of instruction for $325. Noble's 72-hour Social Media Marketing Certificate course costs $2,495 and the Digital Marketing Certificate with 120 hours of instruction is $3,995. General Assembly offers a 40-hour digital marketing course for $4,500 and Brain Station has one for $3,250. A general rule of thumb is the longer the course, the more it costs. These are either in-person or live online classes with a live instructor in the classroom or remote over a platform like Zoom. 

Learn Digital Marketing Skills With Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop offers both bootcamp classes and certificate programs on digital marketing topics. The Digital Marketing Certificate offers120 hours of hands-on instruction on digital marketing strategy and web fundamentals, SEO, content marketing, email marketing, Google Analytics, Google Ads, and bootcamps on individual platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and TikTok. The certificate includes additional courses in social media content marketing, streaming for social media, and a portfolio course.

If you are looking for a course that focuses on social media platforms, Noble's Social Media Marketing Certificate will boost your skills. This course includes 72 hours of instruction on different platforms and how to choose the ones that are right for your campaign. You will also learn about creating content for social media and how to use the analytics tools offered by the platforms. The course concludes with a class on the social media industry and portfolio preparation.

Noble's Google Analytics Bootcamp provides a deep dive into this important marketing tool. Understand key terms, find out what to track, how to understand reports, and how to assess the success of a campaign. The 6-hour course will also look at the differences between GA4 and the new Universal Analytics.

Learn all about keywords and searching with SEO Bootcamp from Noble Desktop. This 12-hour class introduces search engine optimization and how search rankings work. You will learn how to use keyword research tools, techniques for writing SEO content, link building strategies, and optimization techniques.

Google Ads Bootcamp will teach you how to plan a paid advertising campaign for Google searches. This 12-hour class from Noble will teach you how to set up an account, how auctions work, and how to create ads that convert. The course will also cover best practices for landing pages, how to set up call and conversion tracking, how display ads work, and automating your campaign. 

Noble's Digital Marketing Strategy & Web Fundamentals is an introductory class for anyone who wants to find out what digital marketing is all about. This 6-hour class covers the key skills you need to increase traffic to a website, generate leads, and close sales. You will learn how to develop a digital marketing strategy and analyze your campaign to improve your return on investment. The course also covers techniques for optimizing your website to increase conversions.

High-quality content is the best way to market a product or service and Noble's Content Marketing Bootcamp will teach you how to do it. Learn about strategies and solutions for content marketing, develop an understanding of content creation and best practices, and create a plan to promote, track, and optimize your content in this 6-hour course.

Learn how to build an effective email list, create compelling emails, and optimize your campaign for success in Noble's Email Marketing Bootcamp. This 6-hour course covers the important role of email in a marketing strategy, the qualities of a successful campaign, and how to get the most out of your email marketing.