During that special work shift, I watched Adam Erhart’s video on starting a career in digital marketing. I started taking notes. He reassured my belief that I don’t need to worry about not being a business major in order to get into marketing. He said that in order to learn to be a digital marketer, you need to BE A DIGITAL MARKETER. It’s a practical career. Try to grow an Instagram account, start a YouTube channel and try to optimize it for S.E.O., or try building a website and getting it to rank by learning keywords. He also talked about being what’s called a “T-Shaped Marketer.” Which is a marketer that knows a bit about the many subcategories of marketing, and then having a deep knowledge in one area, forming a “T.”
After watching that video, I searched ‘’how to become a T Shaped Marketer’’ and took notes on that. I learned that I need to know the basics of marketing, and some other skills such as Search Engine Optimization, Paid Ads, Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing, and so much more. At this point, I was somewhat overwhelmed because there were so many required skills that were being presented that I didn’t know how to start.
So how do I know where to start? Luckily for me, I am a good researcher. So, my plan was to look up the most important digital marketing skills to learn on YouTube. I watched five videos and wrote down every skill that they listened to. I then made a note on the most repeated skills to learn.
Those HARD SKILLS were;
-Marketing Fundamentals (The Marketing Mix, Funnel, and the Core Four)
-SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
-PPC (Pay Per Click) & Media Buying
-Email Marketing
-Social Media Marketing
-Data Analytics
-Market Research
-Web Design with WordPress
And the SOFT SKILLS were;
– Sales
-Copywriting & Persuasion
-Behavior Psychology
-Storytelling
I knew what skills I was supposed to learn. Next, I needed to know what order to learn them in. I needed a roadmap. That was a little hard for me to research, but I remembered, when I first heard about digital marketing from the Improvement Pill YouTube channel, he promoted a course. I found the video and thus found the course. It was Seth Hymes’ “Digital Marketing Career Blueprint.” I was actually interested in it, so I signed up for and watched his promotion webinar. Seth seems very reputable and I would’ve signed up, but the course is $797! I bet it may be worth it, but 1: I am a broke college student, and 2: I want to prove that “YouTube University” is a thing. I believe that you can learn almost everything online for free. You just need to learn how to navigate the fluff and do correct research.
I then watched a review on Seth’s course, and luckily for me, that video had an outline of it. It contained all of the topics in order that Seth teaches. I wrote this outline down – and I got blessed by the YouTube algorithm! I got a recommended video by Senator We Run Ads called “how I would learn digital marketing (If I could start over)” and he gave a step by step on how to learn it. I then crossed the two outlines and created my own learning path;
—My Digital Marketing Roadmap—
Digital Marketing Crash Course
What is marketing? What are the fundamentals? What is a marketing funnel? Why do people use it, what are the benefits of it?
Web Design & WordPress
Create a website by learning WordPress, buy a domain (or use google sites), and learn the basics of HTML on w3schools.com
PPC & SEM Training: Google Ads
Watch a Google Ads Playlist, while using Google Skillshop to get Google Ads certified. Also create a Google Ads account and practice the campaigns. Create a Google Ads Account Structure Spreadsheet and Checklist to help build your portfolio as well.
***At this point you could potentially get a freelance client, entry level PPC job, or an internship
Customer Journey
Learn how to design landing pages with design tools such as Canva.
Reporting and Analytical Tools
Watch an in-depth video on Google Analytics, while using Google Skillshop to get Google Analytics for Beginners certified. Also run Google Ads on your website. If you’re comfortable with this, you can delve deeper into SEO.
SEO Basics
Learn keyword research, link building, & content creation
***At this point you probably don’t even need the roadmap anymore and could get your own job
Ecosystem and Marketing Stack
Learn more about the Google ecosystem – Google data studio & Google Tag manager or another ecosystem.
Learn Other Marketing Channels of Interest
Learn Social media marketing, email marketing, affiliate marketing, etc
I’ll repeat it – “YouTube University” is definitely a thing. I believe that you can learn almost everything online for free. You just need to learn how to navigate the fluff and do correct research. I’ll prove it by teaching myself digital marketing. After all, I made it this far. The blog that you’re reading right now, is the result of this. But before going into learning these skills, I needed to make sure I knew how to properly learn new skills. After this step, I dove headfirst into learning!