Digital Marketing Courses?

[Christian Walker]

I was wondering if anyone knew of any Social Media Marketing courses out there that would teach how to market on those platforms from scratch.

[Jerryll Noorden]

Honestly, most people got marketing completely wrong. Even/especially the experts.

I seriously wouldn't invest money in their methods. You need to learn the absolute basics. The engine of things and then develop your strategies yourself.

People always tell me, they have no time to learn this. 

My reply is... you are an investor. Thus you are a marketer. If it is ONE thing you learn it is Marketing. Period!

[Christian Walker]

@Jerryll Noorden

Thank you. But where do I start learning how to run Facebook, Instagram, etc. ads? I can figure out what works and what doesn’t after I learn how to use them. I just have no idea where to even start.

[Kevin Phu]

@Christian Walker you'll find a lot of great free content on Youtube if you search social media marketing. I learned most of what I know about running FB/IG ads and PPC for my eCommerce business. i.e Kevin David, Tanner J Fox. These might be more geared towards eCommerce but the fundamentals of digital marketing and how to use the platforms are relevant. 

[Mark Sewell]

@Christian Walker you can take a $10 udemy course which will get you a least a good basis.  Other courses are Cris Chico and Fritz Joseph, those are good (from what I hear) and they both offer a lot of free how-to on their YT channels.

As I agree with @Kevin Phu in that you can learn most of what you need just by searching YT.  I get some good nuggets on podcasts from time to time as well.

But this is going to require a ton of testing and experimenting to figure out what works.  I haven't achieved that yet myself (but I have made progress).

[Carly M.]

@Christian Walker when you're building your team build in a marketer. It's a key component of any business. You can learn it, and you can do it, but what is your time worth? What are YOU good at? Focus on that.

I see so many business owners try to do their own marketing and they get it wrong. Not only are they wasting their time but their money. Get a professional that can get you results and a good ROI on marketing and you focus on what you're great at. That's my advice for any business person: Focus on what you're good at and surround yourself with the best people who are great at what you're not.

Best of Luck! :) 

[Lori Webb]

Hey Christian! I offer a couple of things!  I can handle your marketing for you, or I can set it all up for you and then give you the reigns and teach you what I did. I do it this way cause it’s way more customized rather than a general class. Connect with me if you want to chat more about it. I own a RE marketing firm but I love helping entrepreneurs and RE moguls- cause that’s my career path as well!!

[Jerryll Noorden]

Originally posted by @Christian Walker:

@Jerryll Noorden

Thank you. But where do I start learning how to run Facebook, Instagram, etc. ads? I can figure out what works and what doesn’t after I learn how to use them. I just have no idea where to even start.

 DO NOT GO TO YOUTUBE.

This is what people do not get. It is like stock.

If you have a healthy pure breed, you want to keep the bloodline pure.

You are not going to produce offspring with a lesser quality breed. The closer to the source you stay, the better quality you will have.

EVERYONE and their dog is on youtube being self-proclaimed experts. Learning from youtube means learning from people that most likely do it wrong.

See why does NO "expert show their actual results? Why the frog am I the absolute ONLY one that dares show the results I am getting?

The way you learn it is by going to Facebooks channel, and learn how the algorithm works. I am seriously telling you that most experts got it wrong. When you read how the facebook algorithm works it will blow your mind.

For poopsngiggles I started running Facebook ads for my other business. Look at this. After 4 days of running my ads:

150 leads, I spent less than 500 dollars, 150 leads, and 25 strategy session, and this 500 dollars has made me $23K (in 4 days)

Look at my cost per lead. ($3.00)

Look at the cost per strategy session ($17). (anyone else in my space has between $100 dollars and $200 dollars.

Obviously I am not kidding when I say ALL these damn marketers don't know ANYTHING about friggin FB marketing.

The ONLY way to be the best at something is when you do not follow other people. Figure it out, be better.

[Steven C Hazel]

Originally posted by @Christian Walker:

I was wondering if anyone knew of any Social Media Marketing courses out there that would teach how to market on those platforms from scratch.

I've faced this same problem in other industries.  Marketing has become a finely tuned career path its own metrics and standards, and it's a broad and ever developing field that requires familiarity with SEO, coding, and various platforms, each with their own learning curve.  I've been advertising on Facebook for years and just keeping up with their changes alone requires a good amount of attention.  This is the technical aspect of marketing before you even get to the parts we normally think of as marketing: copy, style, delivery, etc. 

I also realize that although I have experience in sales and I can put a FB ad together, my own marketing efforts will often be sub par to a professional marketer.  There's just a lot that I don't know that I don't know.

My advice to anyone who insists on doing their own marketing would be to learn the metrics of marketing (PPC, CAC, ROI), then venture out to see if you can meet the industry standards with a little testing money, but hire an agency also, and you can determine if the difference in returns is justified by the higher cost of the agency.

Unfortunately, lead vendors and ad agencies can be difficult to deal with, and even harder to find a good one. 

[James Hamling]

@Christian Walker It's very important to understand that marketing is no longer any 1 or few things, Marketing is a SYSTEM comprising or many many actions, items, processes and even other systems. This is called the Lead Funnel. 

It's very true, most investors are clueless on this, they think marketing is doing some mailers, or radio spot, maybe a website, no no no, those are for most part just campaigns, calling those marketing is like considering a car is the sum of a tire, it's just 1 part of the whole system. 

And I can second the results @Jerryll Noorden speaks of as I have done the same with clients who had horrific marketing systems. Recently for a client I was able to boost their brand presence more than 1,000% in 72hrs and it cost $0.00 in advertising, just some digital adjustments. That is just 1 snowflake on the tip of the iceberg. Effective marketing does not require tens of thousands per week or month, inefficiency does. 

Marketing in the digital and social age is a serious business in and of itself that requires multiple skill-sets. Follow the golden rule, hire your weaknesses. 

[Jerryll Noorden]

Originally posted by @James Hamling:

@Christian Walker It's very important to understand that marketing is no longer any 1 or few things, Marketing is a SYSTEM comprising or many many actions, items, processes and even other systems. This is called the Lead Funnel. 

It's very true, most investors are clueless on this, they think marketing is doing some mailers, or radio spot, maybe a website, no no no, those are for most part just campaigns, calling those marketing is like considering a car is the sum of a tire, it's just 1 part of the whole system. 

And I can second the results @Jerryll Noorden speaks of as I have done the same with clients who had horrific marketing systems. Recently for a client I was able to boost their brand presence more than 1,000% in 72hrs and it cost $0.00 in advertising, just some digital adjustments. That is just 1 snowflake on the tip of the iceberg. Effective marketing does not require tens of thousands per week or month, inefficiency does. 

Marketing in the digital and social age is a serious business in and of itself that requires multiple skill-sets. Follow the golden rule, hire your weaknesses. 

Totally agree.

The only thing I did different from what you are saying... 

I agree with hiring out your weakness. Don;t get me wrong. That is the single best advice ever. I just don't do that with marketing. MI knew nothing about marketing, but I did know that if I wanted to successful at this, I needed  an amazing marketer. I just didn't want to rely on someone  else to succeed. So Marketing is the one thing I wouldn't hire out. I needed to be better at it than anyone else. Glad I stepped up! Seriously! 

[Devon Artis]

@Christian Walker Hi Christian first I would say marketing is your business ... Do Not Outsource Your marketing until you understand marketing is your true business.

So how do you get started with Digital marketing well it depends on what platform you plan on using.

I will say go to the source and then test test and keep testing always trying to beat your conversion .. that’s called A/B split test.

Let’s start with Facebook marketing .. go into google and do a search for” Facebook blueprint” and then take action right away on what you learn in this free course.

Once you understand everything in that course and actually implemented those things in that course then go out and look for someone to help you with your digital marketing until then keep your money in your pockets.

Additional free courses is on Google called “Google Digital Garage”

Hope this help you get started after that then if you need to go get marketing help but now you are armed with enough knowledge to know if you are working with a charlatan!!

Take Massive Action !! And Test Test Test !!!

To your success !!!

[James Hamling]

@Jerryll Noorden @Devon Artis In a "perfect world" ABSOLUTELY everyone should start with mastery of marketing, just take the old playbooks of "start with wholesaling" and swap it to marketing. BUT (and yes, we all know what comes out of butt's right, here it comes) but, not everyone can do it (gasps heard nationwide). Yup, that's right, I said it, NOT everyone can do it. I can feel people nationwide cringing, yelling into their monitor "anyone can do anything"..... Yeah, not so much actually. See, I have crap vision, I could never be a fighter pilot, never, thats reality. I can't stand feet, sick people, and nasty body fluid so I could never be a doctor. Reality is not everyone can do anything, that age-old adage we tell kids "you can be anything you want" needs to be filled right next to Santa Clause, the Tooth Fairy and "the good guy always wins". They are things we say to motivate positive actions, not meant for literal translation. 

If being literal, we would say anyone can strive to be anything they want, and on that journey create their best most effective self. That's true and accurate. 

So I agree that if a person can, they most definitely should. And if they can't, they should try, then recognize their deficiency, and hire that aspect to an affective pro to crush it for them. 

I cheer all of you on who can "get it" in marketing and captained that ship, seriously you deserve a big pat on the back. But just because you can doesn't mean anyone can, give yourself more credit for a talent that not all possess. And it is very important for persons getting into business to learn how to recognize where they need to focus and where they need to hire, #1 reason businesses fail is due to an owner toiling away at actions they suck at and should have hired.

[Devon Artis]

@James Hamling Thanjs James maybe I missing something I thought forum post was asking for Digital marketing courses.

Would it have been better if I said hire out without having a clue of what he is doing.

As we sit in this forum and talk about learning Real estate investing and for many in here that is not their primary business but I don’t know any small business that thrive without having knowledge of marketing in fact they spend tons of money on marketing without getting results or pay someone to learn marketing but never use it.

I answered his questions I am a little lost.

[Devon Artis]

@James Hamling Thank you for the great dialog 😊 it is always good to see other people point but definitely was not telling him to be an expert but I tell you learning the basics would help ... To Success My friend