5 Benefits of Investing in Digital Marketing Training for you and your Business

A number of employees / employers are currently finding themselves with a lot more time on their hands than they probably expected. It’s not ideal from a work point of view.

Some of that time could be put to good use by taking part in some Digital Marketing Training, improving your own individual knowledge in various areas, while improving your companies overall potential to gain more success through digital platforms long term.

It doesn’t even have to cost you money. There are currently loads of free training webinars and free to digitally attend digital conferences you can signup for.

Here are just 5 reasons we think you should consider upskilling now:

1. Budget Control

It sets you up to potentially bring some outsourced work back in house. That could see your monthly outgoings reduced, in turn allowing you to reinvest or save.

As part of improving your digital marketing skillet, you’ll also get a better idea of the various costs involved, from costs per click and ROI, to paying software subscriptions and buying equipment (tripods etc).

It doesn’t have to be expensive, but it’s not always as low cost as people think!

This improved understanding of potential costs allows you and your company to better prioritise budgets, focusing on what works, and better balancing the need for growth with realistic planning and expectations.

2. Time Allocation

The time required to navigate digital marketing is often seriously underestimated. That underestimation can often lead to a couple of unwanted situations:

• If outsourcing, it can lead to unrealistic expectations on time frames for delivery.
• If internal, it can lead to a gradual “I’ll get it next week” ad-hoc approach, where tasks aren’t given any real time specific priority, and progress slows.

Isn’t there just a button to press to make it all work? Sadly not!

Whether you’re trying to drive more traffic through paid advertising, grow brand awareness through social media or improve conversions on your website, you’re going to need to brainstorm, plan, create, schedule, launch, monitor and refine … and you’re going to have to do it over and over.

Investing in some Digital Marketing training will help you and your team better understand the time involved in various aspects of digital, and how to become more efficient with them.

That, in turn, can help you better allocate and prioritise staff hours to ensure it’s not

3. Colleague Contribution

“It’s just me dealing with digital marketing” is a statement we hear a lot. Being the only person responsible for managing digital marketing can be tough, regardless of whether you’re in a big or small company.

Often you just want a wee bit of input from someone else in the business. In our experience this is often down to both a lack of confidence on the part of others and the above mentioned lack of understanding of just how much time can be involved in digital.

Digital Marketing training for colleagues, even just a little … and even if marketing isn’t their core job / role, could be enough to (at the very least!) allow you an extra person to chat to internally.

That small chat, and increased confidence in both parties, could lead to some great things … new ideas, content suggestions, and a realisation that others could be more involved in different ways.

4. Improved Supplier Relationships

This, for us, is a key benefit. As your business develops, you’re probably going to have to outsource some digital work, even if only a little. Longer term term that might also involve website rebuilds, Ad management and more.

While we assume all companies have the clients best interests at heart, we’ve experienced plenty of instances where relationships have broken down between clients and their digital suppliers.

All too often the relationship breakdown is due to either a lack of understanding by the supplier of what the client really wanted, or a client not being able to clearly articulate what they want, largely due to lack of knowledge on the subject.

It’s important to try and avoid disputes about costs, timescales, quality, support etc.

Digital Marketing Training should allow you to have a much more informed conversation with suppliers in future. You’ll be more able to describe your requirements and expectations (now with your improved knowledge of associated costs, time etc).

That should mean a more detailed brief, a clearer understanding of requirements, realistic expectations around budgets and timescales, and a healthier more open relationship with suppliers.

5. Business Development & Growth

Better control of budgets, greater understanding of time resources required, improved relationships with suppliers and increased contribution from colleagues … all because of a little digital marketing training … should start to see you gradually be more efficient with your digital marketing.

From finding it easier to plan and create content, to better understanding how different channels work and monitor success, you’ll be better placed to prioritise and focus your time on the areas of digital marketing that really work for you and your business.

Start using search engines, signining up to newsletters or monitoring your social media, and you’ll quickly find a range of training webinars, digital conferences and events to suite you!