Why you should learn digital marketing even if you don't want to be a digital marketer
Digital marketing forms the backbone of today’s economy. It is a skill that everyone should have irrespective of their job profile.
Are you thinking "Should I learn digital marketing?"
Do you think that digital marketing is just another profession or area of study?
Sometimes it is natural to feel that digital marketing is one of the many professions in the world. Just like data science, programming, finance, etc., digital marketing may look like just another profession that you can choose from a wide array of career options.
But the reality is different.
You cannot ignore digital marketing.
In this article, I want to tell you why you should learn digital marketing even if you do not plan to have a career in core digital marketing.
In today’s world, digital marketing has become like language. It is a medium of communication.
Do you think you have an option to learn English? No! English forms the backbone of today's global economy and there is really no debate on whether you should choose to learn English.
Though digital marketing may look like just one more subject and one more career option, it forms the backbone of today's economy.
Digital marketing is a skill that everyone should have irrespective of their job profile.
A 16-year-old teenage girl posting a selfie on Instagram is doing digital marketing.
A 20-year-old guy posting pictures of his first motorcycle on Facebook is also doing digital marketing.
A social activist trying to get signatures on Change.org for a petition is doing digital marketing.
Once you start observing how the behavioural of the people around us has changed because of the internet, you will see that digital marketing is everywhere and everyone is a digital marketer.
Previously, TV, newspaper, and radio companies had the power to publish and since they had the power to spread ideas and information, they were the only ones creating information.
The other type of content creator is the person who writes in his/her journal every day but not many of us were motivated to do that because no one would read it—because there was no way to spread that content easily.
For the first time in the history of mankind, a single individual has the power to publish something that the whole world can see. We've never had this power before. We were always consumers of information and never the creators of content or information.
The need to express ourselves and communicate information to others has been there with us since we started carving figures on cave walls. Today all of us spread information through digital channels. We publish text, photos, and videos. It could be for personal, business, or non-profit initiatives.
The only non-digital marketers are people who do not use mobile phones and laptops. Either they are very old to learn this, or they do not have access to the internet. Apart from them, everyone else is a digital marketer.
Digital marketing skills have become as necessary as knowing the English language to communicate. People who have started learning digital marketing have realised that digital marketing skills can be applied to any type of job.
Digital marketing activities should never be constrained to the digital marketing team alone. Digital marketing runs through the entire organisation.
Marketing involves understanding what the customer wants and digital marketing helps with that. Marketing and communication is inbuilt in the product creation process. If someone makes a product that no one understands how to use, the product will fail.
Marketing is also the responsibility of the support team because if the support team does a good job, they get appreciated. This increases brand affinity, word of mouth referrals, and ultimately more customers for the business.
And on the other side of the coin, if the support team is bad, then someone could tweet negatively about the company and that would affect the brand image of the company and reverse all the progress done by marketing and branding activities.
So, it doesn't matter where you fit in the organisation, your digital marketing skills is going to help the business grow. Both self-employed professionals and employees need digital marketing skills.
Most of the concepts that you learn in marketing and digital marketing will also help you in other areas of your life. For example, marketers can influence their friends and family easily because they understand human psychology and how humans react to things.
So that's why even if you do not plan to become a core digital marketer you should learn digital marketing and marketing fundamentals.
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)
