FAQ about Digital Marketing Career in India in 2020
Included: In-depth Answers, Useful Links & Resources
I started my career in 1996 after completing my Hotel Management, worked as a lecturer, and as a Chef in a Cruise Lines in Miami, In 1999 I was exposed to the Internet, WWW since then I always wanted to learn this thing called the Internet.
In 2002, I had an opportunity to get into this amazing field of Digital Marketing, those days it used to be Online Marketing. For the next 9 years, I gained experience in all the aspects of Digital Marketing including:
- Website design
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Google Ads (Formerly Google Adwords)
- Blogging
- Content Marketing
- Affiliate Marketing
- Adsense
- Social Media Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Mobile Marketing
- Google Analytics
In 2011, I realized the need for proper Digital Marketing Training in India, so I quit my job and started Web Marketing Academy in Bangalore Since then we graduated more than 3000 students.
My name is Suresh Babu and I am the Founder & CEO of Web Marketing Academy. Here are some of the FAQ we often get from our students before taking up this course:
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Question 1: What Qualifications do I need for a career in Digital Marketing?
If you know how to browse The Internet, Basic Communication skills, Read, Write, Speak English you are eligible. Can I do Digital Marketing after my 12th? Yes you can. We had students who have completed their 12th standard, who dropped out of school take up this course. See some of the success stories here
Pro Tips: If you know the basic word, excel, Creativity and Writing Skills it is going to add value
It’s 2020 and most of the companies are ready to accept anyone who has a passion, willingness to learn, and shows their interest. A few years back most of the companies might look for a basic degree or MBA in Marketing. However today it’s not necessary to have a degree or master. If you have one its great if not you can always do an online degree. 15 More Companies That No Longer Require a Degree. https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/no-degree-required/
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Question 2: Do I need to know Coding to get into Digital Marketing Course?
No, you don’t have to, however, basic HTML, coding can make your life as digital marketing easier. Today you have an easy drag and drop option in most of the platforms We had students who are homemakers, hotel management students who don’t have any idea, and still able to design a WordPress website after the course. See some of the student’s experience here
Here are some of the websites built by our students who had no idea about the website or WordPress before the course
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Problem-solution Consultancy Services: https://vura.in/
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Custom Phone Case for Every Pet: https://www.PetProject.in
Pro Tips: Want to learn to code for Free? Code Academy over 45 million people have learned to code for free
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Question 3: Is Digital Marketing Course a Good Career in 2020?
Absolutely. In fact, after this COVID19 pandemic, we saw almost every company want to go online. This is the absolute time to get into Digital Marketing. We all have experienced that from Groceries to Education to Health Care to almost every other industry went online. WFH options almost all employees of Twitter can work from home. Google, Facebook all the big MNC’s have given the option to Work from home and completely online. Even in Rural India.
Is it worth doing a digital marketing course?
Here are some of the interesting stats and reports on How more and more companies are going Digital
1. With half a billion active users, the Indian internet is more rural, local, mobile-first than ever. India has 504 million active internet users. For the first time in 2019, rural users (277 million) outnumbered urban areas (227 million) by 10 percent, thereby eliminating the digital divide that had existed earlier. Source: Your Story
2. Google has published a Report What is #India searching for? “ration dukaan” (+300%) & other interesting stats
Queries like
“pharmacy near me” (+58%)
️“grocery delivery near me” (+550%)
“ration dukaan” (+300%)
“vet doctor near me” (+60%) have become increasingly common
Upskilling #trends
“gym at home” (+93%)
“5-minute recipes” (+56%)
“machine learning” (3X)
“data science” (3X)
High growth in queries like
“learn online” (+85%)
“teach online” (+148%)
“at-home learning” (78%) read the complete report here: What is India Searching for
Inc42 has published a playbook: The Great Lockdown Drives Digital Media Into A Golden Age
Attention Economy 2.0. “In this playbook, we delve into the new attention economy – new models, emerging players and trends in the world of social media, news apps, audio, and video streaming, online games, and more.” Source: Inc 42
There are some interesting stats and behavior shifts especially during #covid19
I shared a friend’s post on LinkedIn about Job Openings in Bangalore for May 2020, It has over 2,75,000 views. See the post here
Pro Tips: I have written a detailed guide on how to start your career in Digital Marketing in 2020
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Question 4: What to study to become a Digital Marketer?
Curiosity, Open mind, and dedicated time is something you need to allocate before any topics. Digital Marketing is a vast subject, some of the components of Digital Marketing. Start a free blog to practice, start to write, learn how to create simple images using free tools like Canva.com start a free YouTube Channel, Learn to write, Creativity,
- Website design
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Google Ads (Formerly Google Adwords)
- Blogging
- Content Marketing
- Affiliate Marketing
- Adsense
- Social Media Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Mobile Marketing
- Google Analytics
Pro Tips: Soft skills. A recent article on Forbes titled: 3 Reasons Why This Soft Skill Is Still The Most Important For Your Career
I always tell my students that subject is easy anyone can learn but skills like soft skills, creativity, storytelling skills are more important than subject and that’s one of the reason we at Web Marketing Academy encourage activities like Socializing, Pot luck and lots more
In my ebook The Modern Marketers Guide to #DigitalMarketing, I talk about all these with links and resources
Volume 2: https://lnkd.in/gySY7wM
Volume 1: https://lnkd.in/gM3m_v9
BONUS: I have a complete Digital Marketing Guide for Beginners here. Download the PDF
Resources to Get started in Digital Marketing:
- What is Digital Marketing?: http://bit.ly/2qE1IMb
- How to create a website using WordPress: (VIDEO): http://bit.ly/2q8PQy9
- Content for website: http://bit.ly/2pYuLvb
- Google search tips: (VIDEO): http://bit.ly/2rFEzqr
- Blogs/books to follow – Bookmark these blogs: http://bit.ly/2qEcWAf
- Basic Excel Skills: (VIDEO): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtGMoQ5di1i0yswzxVbQujw
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Question 5: What is the starting salary of digital marketing?
The opportunities & scope for a Digital Marketing professional is huge in India right now. A fresh graduate can easily obtain a Digital Marketing Analyst role with a salary close to 25K per month to 6 Lacs per annum, while experienced professionals can command remunerations in the range of 8 lakhs – 40 lakhs per annum. Read the entire blog post on Scope of Digital Marketing in India
Pro Tips: Do a quick search for Digital Marketing Jobs on Naukri and LinkedIn. There are almost 23,000 Digital Marketing Job openings in India: Source: Naukri
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Question 6: What are the fees for Digital Marketing Course?
The Cost for a Digital Marketing Course in India might depend on various institutes, duration, topic, and the list keeps going but the question to ask you is What are your objectives and goals? how much time you want to invest. Digital marketing like any other learning comes with dedication, time, and patience.
My suggestion if you are serious would be not to go for the cheap ones, instead, you can learn on your own (Resources to learn on your own included) rather something that is worth your time, effort. Good product or services comes with the cost. This might be your ideal option if you are looking for a decent career option. Keep in mind the fees alone will not take you where you want to go, Practice, perseverance, patience, willingness to test, making mistakes and learning from mistakes should be accompanied
Cost | Options |
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Free | Resources included below |
Rs 5000 — Rs 10,000 | Coursera, Lynda, Upgrade. Online Courses |
Rs 15,000 — Rs 25,000 | 1,2-day Workshops. Ideal to get an Idea |
Rs 50,000 — Rs 75,000 | Ideal for YOU |
Rs, 1,00,000 | IIMB. Ideal for C Levels |
Read the entire blog post on: Here’s How much it costs to Learn #DigitalMarketing in India
Pro Tips: Quora Answer: What the best free online certificate course. My answer with links and resources
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Question 7: Who should do a Digital Marketing Course?
Today especially post-pandemic, Digital Marketing skills are for everyone. It is a necessity today, so Digital Marketing skillset is for all. Today employers, the market, your customers everyone expect to be online because of the convenience, anytime, anywhere. Here are a few scenarios
- Students & Freshers: This could be one of the biggest opportunity for anyone starting fresh, you could be a marketing student or HR or Commerce or Science. Irrespective of any field, Digital comes in handy. A good hang of digital and social media skills can take you a long way. After COVID19, companies are looking to hire freshers because of various reasons. One it is cost-effective and saves the company a lot of money, instead of paying for a few years of experience candidate. So if you are a fresher this would be the right time to learn and add digital to your skillset
- Marketing & Sales Professionals: You might be in traditional sales and marketing with a few years of experience, today companies are expecting you to know how to sell online and marketing online. When every other company is going online, adding this skill is going to keep you up to date and helps you stand out from others. Take a look at the job requirements on Naukri or LinkedIn, almost 80% of those who are hiring for marketing and sales professionals are looking for digital as an added skill set.
- Entrepreneurs & Start-Ups: If you are a start-up or an entrepreneur, chances are your product/services might be great, unless and until people know about your product/services no one is going to buy. Be it brand awareness or a sale/lead everyone is spending time online be it social media, Google, YouTube, Blogs, News website. In order to reach out to more people, convert them you will have to know how to attract and convert online. Adding Digital Marketing skills to your business/startup will save a lot of money. There are so many free/cost-effective tools online that you don’t need to spend a lot. For example Google My Business is free, tools to create content like canva, QuikApp and several apps are free. For a startup knowing how to use the tools will decrease cost, increase efficiency
- Small Business Owners: Just like a startup, every business wants to maximize revenue, increase brand awareness, reduce cost, improve efficiency and that is what exactly Digital Marketing can provide if done right, and in order to do that you need to know the tools, techniques and how to use them effectively. So digital & social media can help any small business owners as well. Here are a few success stories from our Alumni
- Home Makers & Stay at Home Moms/Who is on a Sabbatical/Who took a break: How many of them you know personally have who is either on a break or a homemaker or stay at home mom who is successful, a Lot. Every day we see or come across someone like this. And this is a great time and opportunity for them to get started. We had so many of them who successfully either started their own business or helped their spouses business or family business. So if you are one of them, what are you waiting for. Digital Marketing can be learned by anyone and after all its fun, challenging, and most in-demand career. Last year one of our students asked me if she can write a blog post for WMA, and that blog post was about her friend’s story. How Facebook Memories triggered her to start a career
- HR Professionals: 88% of HR Professionals Use Social Media for Employer Branding: Source: Social Media Today. Your potential employees are spending most of the time on Social Media. Are you using the right tools to identify, reach out to them, and build relationships? If you are into HR/Recruitment Digital & Social Media is where you find the candidates, vendors, partners, and more.
- Media, PR & Communications Professionals: Today Digital & Social Media is not the New Media, It is the Media today. Journalist, PR: For them, Digital & Social Media is a source and Channels to Communicate, interact.
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- NGO’s: 71% of NGO’s worldwide agree that Social Media is effective for online fundraising. Source: Technoreport If you are an NGO, either you or your team should be able to use these channels properly. Are you?
- Independent Artist
- Bloggers/Vloggers
- Influencers
- Freelancers
- Fashion Designers
- Developers/Designers
- FMGC
- eCommerce
- Marketing Agency
- Local businesses
You name it any Industry, any field, Digital & Social Media is a value add. So to sum it up, almost everyone can benefit by adding this skillset
Pro Tip: A 360-degree Digital Marketing Strategy is also applicable to any other business. Here is the link
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Question 8: How much time it takes to master Digital Marketing?
It totally depends upon your objectives, goals, purpose, how much time are you willing to dedicate to practice. There might be several situations. Are you a beginner or are you an experienced professional, the answer is why did you choose to learn digital marketing. It could be to change your career or start a career or upskill or just to get an understanding or manage the team.
I started in 2002 and every day I am learning, Digital Marketing is dynamic, every day the platforms get updated, however for you to start my suggestion is at least 300 hours (If you are looking for the whole digital marketing) + your day to day practice. Just like any other workout or learning a new skill, this requires time, practice, experimentation, and learning from mistakes.
If you are new, 300 hours, for example, could be the course which you are learning plus your practice at least one hour daily for the next six months, you will get a pretty good hang of it, and then it depends upon what you are going to work on.
(This can’t make you an expert, however, this would be good enough to start a career)
If you are learning to manage a team or working with an agency, then you might just get the concepts and work with them. In this case, you might not require that much time maybe 20-40 hours might help
Pro Tip: Here is a video.The first 20 hours — how to learn anything
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Now it’s your time to Get Started in Digital Marketing. We would love to guide you mentor you and take you to the next level.
Digital Marketing Course Details at Web Marketing Academy
“Best Digital Marketing Courses in Bangalore”
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