How I would learn digital marketing - If I could start over

I started my career in digital marketing eight years ago and in this tenure I have worked with clients like Prime Minister's Office Dubai, Sky News Arabia, Nissan Abu Dhabi, Emirates Hospitals, Ithsalat and many many more. Some of these clients have an annual budget of 10 million dollars and above. I have trained Google support teams all across the globe for two and a half years. I worked on some training projects with some prestigious institutions like Amity University, Dubai, Manipal University, Astrolabs and a lot lot more. I had a smooth journey overall but when I look back I think that some of the things could have been even better and that's what I'm going to discuss in this video. How will I learn digital marketing if I could start over? The purpose of this video is not just to tell you what I think about my career path but it is actually about answering a lot of questions which I get through emails and messages. People generally ask me that how should they learn digital marketing. Now these questions generally come from people who have just started or want to pursue digital marketing as a career and want to start from the beginning. Now if you go to let's say YouTube or you go to Udemy or any other website to learn about digital marketing and search for digital marketing courses you will come across a lot of things like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, SEO, SMM, Programmatic Advertising, Email Marketing, Affiliate Marketing and it doesn't even stop here. Then there is Growth Marketing, Performance Marketing, Content Marketing, Account Based Marketing, Ad Tech, BI, Analytics and I don't know some people even come up with their own terminology like Drip Content Strategy and I don't know what. Now that being said let's get started. I have divided this roadmap in nine different steps. The first step is avoid shortcuts and have the right mindset. Trust me this is where most of the people who want to learn digital marketing get it wrong because when they go to YouTube, Google and all these resources to learn about digital marketing they enter this rabbit hole called how to make money using digital marketing. What happens is when you're looking for these resources you somehow end up on the flashy content which talks about how to make $100, $200 with digital marketing. You will end up on videos which talk about promises telling you to create blogs which will make you $2,000 per month. Within five days you can start your Upwork gigs and whatnot. It's even funny to watch some of these videos. Now if all this is wrong, if you have to avoid the shortcuts, what is the right mindset then? Now I would suggest to basically research at least five days to seven days on just what is marketing. Just understand what marketing is, the basics of it. You don't have to go through the academic books which they teach in MBA. Just understand the basics of marketing, probably what is a funnel in marketing and then you have to understand why you people use digital marketing. That is the most important thing. You have to just research on why do people use digital marketing, why do companies use digital marketing, what are the benefits of digital marketing. Without anything else just focus on these topics and at the same time you have to understand that this process of learning digital marketing and making a solid career out of it is going to take time, is going to take efforts. This path will have some moments where you'll be frustrated and this is what you have to kind of understand and expect from the beginning. Now once you are done with that, you have a fair understanding within a few days, two days, five days or a week, then you move to the next step which is you have to create a blog or a website. Now this is very important because when it comes to digital marketing, 90% of the digital marketing is focused on somehow taking people to the websites or any digital property, your YouTube channel, your Facebook page but at the end it is our website. Now you cannot learn digital marketing before you understand the basic building block of the internet which is our web page. Now what you have to do is you can spend like a few hours on a video in order to understand how to buy a domain from GoDaddy or any other platform and how to just use a theme and create a website. Now you can create a website as simple as mine which is SenatorVeeranAds.com where you create a homepage which talks about you, just create a contact page to try to add a form and have the basic idea. In this period you just have to focus on this, how to make your website live. For some people it can take a day, for some people it can take two days, for some people it might take even four days but this is what you have to do. You don't have to understand the web development or anything like that, you just have to be able to kind of buy a domain and create a website. Now if you don't have money to buy a website or a domain which doesn't cost a lot but still you can go to resources like Google sites, you can just create a Google site for yourself. Now in most cases if your friends and family have a business and they don't have a website yet, I'm sure if you just offer anyone that okay I'll buy a domain for you, create a website for free, you just pay for the domain, most of the people will agree. Even if it's a small business they'll be happy to have a website online with their business name. Now this leads us to 2.2. Now once you're done with the website what you have to learn is HTML, the basics of HTML. I'm not suggesting to learn the whole HTML language because it's a world and a career in its own but to be a solid digital marketer from my experience you need to be familiar with HTML. Now even if you are a non-technical person I don't think it's very difficult to understand the basics of HTML which you can do from websites like W3Schools. Now for example I will even link the chapters in W3Schools HTML course which you have to go through which shouldn't take you more than a day or two and you just have to understand the basic functionality because later in your career when you will come across technologies like ad tags and stuff like that, conversion tags, it will really give you an edge then. Most of the people at that point don't know how what this is. In my experience early in my career the company actually asked me to do HTML course and later it was very very beneficial for me in a lot of ways. Now if you have made it to the end of the second point then you have come a long way. Now some people might finish it in a week or some people might take few weeks but trust me you have come a long way and you have created a strong basis. So now it leads us to our third point which is be an expert and avoid the noise. Why I'm saying avoid the noise is because this is where most of the people have faced problem because they go and they try some people tell them okay learn social media marketing, Facebook advertising is booming, some people tell them learn app marketing, some people tell them no affiliate marketing is the thing you can start making money from the first day but if you are here to learn how to actually be a strong digital marketer where you can compete with people, where you can have a strong career, where you can even become a freelance consultant then what you have to do is you have to avoid all this noise and become expert in one of the platform. It can be Facebook ads but I would suggest to go with Google ads because from my opinion Google ads is mother and gateway of all paid media advertising and why I'm suggesting any of the paid media platforms is because if you understand paid media then affiliate marketing and all those SEO and other things will be way way easier for you. I'm telling you this. People might have different opinions but I'm telling you this. So that's why you have to choose one paid media platform. I would suggest Google ads. For example in my case early in my career I worked on one platform which is DFP for two years. I didn't work on anything else but I became so strong in DFP then later it was easy for me to learn any other platform and I think that this is the way to go. For example if you want to be able to be a driver who can drive any car you just become an expert in one car probably a Toyota probably a Mercedes but once you know you become an expert driver in driving Mercedes or Toyota then even if I give you a Volkswagen you just look at the switches for five minutes okay the wiper is on the other side the lights are on the left side but you won't face any challenges driving a Volkswagen but in the beginning if you just focus on okay Volkswagens have the lights on left side Mercedes have it on the right side the parking button is on the panel the parking button is on the steering wheel in some brand you will be overwhelmed and you will lose the track to actually what you wanted to learn which is driving a car. Okay so how do we learn Google ads? Now to learn Google ads you have to start a course on Udemy. You can start a playlist on YouTube. There are numerous like I have a Google ads playlist some people I know from YouTube like Umar Tazkir he has a Google ads playlist you can learn from anywhere but in this duration where you are learning Google ads you have to just learn Google ads do not focus on anything else just avoid the noise so invest some time an hour or two watch the first video of three playlists or three YouTube channels you want to try so watch their introduction video in their Google ads playlist or the course whichever you like start with it and parallelly go to Google free resources like Google skill shop and help center you cannot just learn from help center and Google skill shop but while you are doing a course or watching a playlist from someone on YouTube parallelly going to Google skill shop as well as different Google help center articles will be much much more beneficial for you. While you're just learning Google ads don't feel that you're missing out on so much information you have to always keep in mind that this is part of a bigger plan. Now while learning Google ads obviously if you watch any course or any playlist they will start with Google ads search then they will start with display video remarketing campaigns and probably app marketing now the good thing is while you're doing that you can also create a free Google ads account and practice the campaigns try to implement different kind of strategies try to create display campaigns search campaigns without even making them live or using your own money now in certain cases some of you might be able to when you create a website for someone you'll be able to tell them okay can you give me some budget I want to run a campaign for you to get you traffic leads sales whatever and you might get an opportunity even if you don't get an opportunity just try to structure campaigns create campaigns come up with innovative ideas and use your Google ads free account to create these demo campaigns you just have to do it because even when you go for an interview they'll ask you okay what have you done you can tell them I have worked for a client like this these are the strategies I implemented this is the how I structured the campaigns you actually have to do that and you will learn a lot lot more than watching theoretical videos and doing the courses now once you're done with this step and you have probably done a certification from Google skill shop as well which I mentioned before now at this point you will have a chance to get a freelance client from Upwork or your friends and family or even get an internship somewhere but even if you don't we anyways in either case are moving to the next step now once you create all these campaigns you learned how to create campaigns in Google ads you obviously most of it will be to create traffic to the website now you have to start thinking about okay when this these users go to the landing page what should the landing page look like you obviously would have learned about keywords and the quality score so for one of your hypothetical clients I'll be like okay for this automotive brand I will start a campaign and you actually design a landing page for that campaign if you have a domain and you have already purchased and do it otherwise you can again do it on Google sites for free of cost and all of these links I have put down in the description so you can thinking about your Google ads knowledge you can design a landing page because a normal website and a landing page are way different this is where you will experience that and apart from that you also have to basically learn some tools design tools like Canva. Canva is probably one of the best and it has a free plan as well because once you are doing search campaigns it's okay but if you are actually doing the display campaigns or video campaigns you need to know the basics of design you have to understand you know Google ads but you have to know a little bit of design or if you are very good at Canva as well it's even better but you had it it works as a combination now if you have reached this far you probably will figure out a way on your own but if you still need my opinion I would say now is the time we move to the next stage which is learning reporting and analytical tool now when it comes to analytical tools the best of the resources is probably Google Analytics it's free for everyone if you already have created a website put the tags on your website and start looking at the data now for Google Analytics you can initially start with a one hour course from someone to just be familiar with how Google Analytics works what are the different kind of reports even I have a video one hour video on getting familiar with Google Analytics and then you can play around and learn on your own and if you have time you can also do a course an extensive course of 5 hours or 10 hours to learn more about Google Analytics now if you don't have a website where you can integrate your Google Analytics account Google Analytics account has a demo account once you sign up for create a new account you can get access to a demo account which is actually connected to a live Google merchandise website and you can check all the reports in real time and you don't have a problem there but the thing you have to understand is even if you learn Google Ads or social media advertising or any kind of paid media advertising learning Google Analytics is inevitable every digital marketer no matter which channel you are expert in you have to understand Google Analytics now apart from Google Analytics you can learn tools like Microsoft Clarity I even have a video on Microsoft Clarity which will give you an idea what Microsoft Clarity is it's pretty straightforward with one hour you can be an expert in Microsoft Clarity as well now if you have come this far now most probably you will get a job you will be able to crack a job interview get a freelance project from Upwork or friends and family but in either case we will be moving to the next stage even if you get a job at this point I'll still tell you what your next steps should be remember we have to become a solid digital marketer now I know that you are an expert in one of the fields you know how things work you know how Canva works you know how Google Analytics works briefly and Microsoft Clarity but now you have to move to the next stage which is learning the ecosystem or marketing stack now all the companies like Google, Adobe, Facebook they have their own analytics tools creative platforms which form a kind of marketing stack or ad stack which connect to each other all these tools connect to each other so in this stage you will be learning extensively Google Ad, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager and Data Studio these are like the minimum bare minimum to do now at this stage you will be able to visualize the bigger picture not just a platform like Google Ads you will have an overview of the whole ecosystem and you will have an overview of the whole of one marketing stack or ad tech stack whether it's Google, Adobe or anything else everything works in the same way if you know how to how Google Analytics works you probably will be able to find your way in Adobe Analytics if you know how Google Tag Manager works you will be able to figure out your way in any tag management platform now again the good thing is all of these platforms are again free and you can connect it with Data Studio and start using the templates create some basic reports here and there but you should have hands-on experience as well now all these things will be game changer because if you go to an interview and you tell them these are the things I know and I am expert in Google Ads this will be a game changer anybody can hire you anyone will hire you and not just this once you know all these platforms and probably if you get a job as a PPC analyst or specialist these things learning these things in the beginning they will take you a long way trust me on that I mean I know a lot of people who have been working as PPC specialists for a very long time but they don't know how Google Tag Manager works they don't know how Google Studio works but these things make a huge difference in your career progression and you have to trust me on that now this leads us to our next stage which is taking a step back so until now you were moving forward you were learning one platform after the other and you kind of understood stack and you understood all these concepts now is the time you take a step back into the noise which you avoided in the beginning what I mean by that is now you are expert in one channel you have to now understand the basics of other channels you cannot be an expert in everything but you have to understand what affiliate marketing is now you can watch videos and you will understand because if you are an expert in let's say Google Ads learning Facebook Ads should be a cakewalk for you if you know Google Ads Google Tag Manager analytics learning affiliate marketing should be a cakewalk for you now at this stage you have to focus on other channels what is how do we run campaigns in Facebook Ads it's the same thing but the formats are different you have to understand at this stage what are the different formats which we we use in Facebook Ads Snapchat LinkedIn Twitter what is some differences between running campaigns on Google Ads and Twitter why do how does it help us to increase reach what are the increment incrementality factors that come into play why we along with Google Ads use other channels and you have to get a brief overview of the market and landscape you have to understand what are the different formats if I open an app I see an ad what is it if I go to Facebook I sometimes see ads what are those formats on YouTube I watch skippable non-skippable you have to understand basically the whole ecosystem and it should not be very difficult for you now is that time when you already know how to drive a Mercedes and Volkswagen and now you get to try your hands on different cars like Toyota or Nissan once you're done with this as well you have this perspective as well even if you have been working for a year now now is the time that you focus on some advanced topics and you learn things like app marketing in detail you learn programmatic advertising you learn affiliate marketing you learn email marketing you learn different EDM solutions you understand what DMPs are you understand what CDPs are you understand what all these things do and once you have the brief overview you focus on these things you are well aware you are familiar with all these technologies you understand the basics of DMPs CDPs this will make you among top probably five to ten percent talents in the market and you will realize you'll feel it because when you will talk to people in the industry when you will watch videos from other people you'll realize that okay you know a lot you are among top when you talk to clients when you talk to your colleagues you will understand you realize that you have come a long way and you will get that confidence in you and only at this stage you will be able to do what all those fake gurus were promising in the beginning that using your skills in different innovative ways to make money you will one be able to reject that okay this guy is just and at the same time you will be able to come up with your own ways how to how I can make money with my skills whether I should do freelancing I should create an affiliate network I should probably work as a consultant I should be working in a company where you'll be valuable and probably you will also thank me at this stage and understand that if you had gone to those fake gurus in the beginning how you would have lost the track of learning digital marketing and making a career out of it and at this stage you will understand that if you want to switch your field probably you started with PPC but you will realize that I you know what I love affiliate marketing more you know what I love creative strategy more you know what I love programmatic advertising more and you will be able to focus that but that basics and fundamentals which you have learned they will even help you at this stage and you can become specialized in programmatic advertising or any other technology like CDPs implementing CDPs and all that now once you are you have chosen your path probably you're working in a company for two or three years you have become a specialist you have become a consultant for now but then this is the stage where you go to the ninth stage of this video which is learn strategic skills like media planning you have to learn strategies how you should be able to kind of create a strategy there is let's say a startup or a medium-sized business that comes to you and tells you okay you know what this is that this is these are the objectives for our next year this is the budget can you tell us how we can use it and you should be able to provide them a proper strategy from start to end that includes media buying reporting for example this particular strategy I created for one of the clients you will be able to create this kind of strategy for any clients at this point onwards you probably don't even need my advice because you will be able to figure out your way from now on and that's where me and you part ways thank you so much I will see you in the next one