Depending on the type of industry you are in, and the average age of your team members, teaching the fundamentals of digital marketing to your team may take up quite a bit of your time. However, if you get it right, everyone in your organization will focus on broadcasting your company’s message through a signal capable of reaching every corner of the world.
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The tools used for digital marketing are constantly changing and evolving. So as you lead your team of intrepid digital marketers to new frontiers, keep in mind that they can always learn the latest tools for getting the job done. Your job is to help them attain a mindset, an overview of the landscape that will help them to instinctively know which tools to use and how to best craft the message to reach the desired audience.
1. Lead a Digital Marketing Book Club
One of the best ways to learn digital marketing is to take a deep dive into well-written digital marketing books. Unfortunately, many people tend to procrastinate reading since many other pressing issues can seem to take priority. Adding some accountability with weekly reading assignments can usually fix the problem and help motivate your employees to stay up with the group.
Start your book club by assigning good-quality digital marketing books for the group to read. Lively discussions about putting digital marketing principles learned from books into practice can help your participants adopt industry best practices. In addition, getting into the minds of some of digital marketing’s most successful practitioners can help your team fully understand how digital marketing works.
2. Assign a Free Online Digital Marketing Learning Platform
The Internet is full of free learning opportunities to help your team members master the intricacies of digital marketing. Entirely free platforms cover a variety of subjects like content marketing, email marketing, advertising on websites, search engine optimization (SEO), and much more.
Learning the concepts taught in numerous free online digital marketing courses could help your new employees grasp the basic concepts and start mastering the advanced skills necessary to run a successful digital marketing campaign. For example, they would learn how to research specific markets, down to one particular radio station, like 90.9 FM, and determine how to best mix traditional, digital, and hybrid digital-traditional advertising mediums.
3. Send Team Members to Digital Marketing Conferences
One of the best ways for your new employees to learn how to be digital marketers is to be around other digital marketers. The best place to find large groups of digital marketers ready to share their experiences with newcomers to the field is at digital marketing conferences.
Digital marketing has matured to the point that large organizations promote industry standards and practices. In addition, these organizations hold annual meetings to present the latest industry techniques and tools and share what is working for other digital marketing teams.
Not only will your team get to see the latest digital marketing leaders have to offer, but they will come back to work inspired and full of new ideas. They will likely begin to take your company’s marketing to the next level.
Lead a Culture of Digital Exploration
When you make digital marketing an exciting priority for your new hires, your business will benefit from it. In addition, getting the newcomers excited about digital marketing will help ensure that they will latch on to the latest ideas as soon as they emerge. Finally, by prioritizing a culture of learning centered around digital marketing, you will eventually develop a team of experts who will become their respective generation’s thought leaders.
You will be responsible for moving the ball forward, changing the game by raising the bar. Your digital marketing achievements will help motivate and inspire the next generation. Meanwhile, your organization will be the benefactor of organically grown marketing campaigns that become a part of the company’s DNA and ring true with your audience of customers.