This is a sponsored post written by Simplilearn. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.
Digital marketing influences nearly every facet of today’s businesses – everything from sales to operations to customer service – making it one of the largest areas of CMO marketing spend.
New marketing technologies are speeding up the development and delivery of content, all the while creating incredibly relevant and personalized communications.
The demand for digital marketers is also growing: 59 percent of marketers with hiring influence confirm that digital marketing is the top area of demand for marketing talent.
It comes as little surprise, then, that marketing salaries went up an average of 19 percent from 2016 to 2017.
What’s it all mean?
The time for obtaining a digital marketing certification is now.
Why Do You Need a Digital Marketing Certification?
It’s true that many digital marketing professionals, including successful ones, don’t necessarily have a digital marketing certification.
Until recently, digital marketing was not a part of university curriculum. There were no recognized digital marketing programs or certifications, either.
In order to keep pace with developments in digital, marketers have leveraged everything from “help” articles, to digital marketing forums, to investing money to run experiments to figure out what worked when it came to digital promotions.
There’s a lot of risk and willpower at play to keep pace without assistance.
That’s why online training programs, such as Simplilearn’s Digital Marketing Specialist Course, have become such in-demand resources for modern marketers.
This digital marketing program, and others like it, have a profound impact on the effectiveness and earning power of today’s marketers – veterans or not.
Here are seven benefits to earning a digital marketing certification to excel in your career.
1. Validate Your Skills
Imagine there’s a really meaty digital marketing role you are gunning for, either in your own company or at another one. Your challenge is to convince the recruiting manager that you are right for the role.
It isn’t enough for you to say you are a good digital marketer or that you have experience.
Even the assignments they provide typically can’t cover the 360-degree range of areas needed to excel in a digital marketing job.
Employers understand this, so they’re looking at other credentials.
When you have a well-recognized digital marketing certification to support your claims, it indicates to the employer you have undergone all the training and projects needed to earn the certification.
Even more importantly, it significantly reduces the risk to a potential employer, should they decide to hire you.
2. Networking Opportunities
Career growth is not just about getting a new job or getting a promotion; it’s also about widening your professional network, and interacting and learning from other experts in the field.
A recognized digital marketing certification helps you connect with peers and experts far more easily by both attracting valuable connections and validating your own credibility when you’re the one trying to make the connection.
It signals that you have achieved a certain level of proficiency in digital marketing and can be a valuable contributor to discussions.
3. Broaden Your Freelancing Prospects
If you’re a digital marketing freelancer, or are planning to be one, you know that it can be an uphill task to convince prospective clients to hire you.
A respected digital marketing certification is likely to gain their trust, especially when competing freelancers can only offer writing samples.
Clients don’t have to worry whether you know the various digital marketing tools or platforms they want you to work on. Instead, they can get straight to discussing strategy and implementation.
For example, consider the confidence instilled when a customer who wants to pursue paid advertising comes across a digital marketer certified in Google Ads.
Your certification in digital marketing communicates professionalism and expertise, an especially attractive skill among freelancers.
As a bonus, a certification can allow you to price your services higher than those freelancers who are not certified.
4. Understand a Common Language
The digital marketing landscape changes quickly. By its nature, it is a global industry.
Marketers can (and do) manage campaigns for a business halfway across the world. That also means that you need to interact with global digital marketing professionals.
Certification familiarizes you with the core skills and terms that the greater marketing population uses, such as PPC, Performance, SEM, SERP, CTRs, etc.
When you consider training at scale, your entire team, or company, gets on the same page with jargon, best practices, and much more.
When you choose a training option that aligns with an accredited certification body, you can rest assured you’re receiving a standardized education.
In other words, you won’t waste precious time and money, going back and forth to sort out miscommunication.
5. Structured Learning Approach
By undergoing structured, advanced digital marketing certification courses from Simplilearn in SEO, PPC, Social Media, and Content Marketing, you learn each of the major fields of digital marketing in an organized, logical manner.
Given how dynamic the industry is, this structure is very important. Otherwise, if you just learn by reading a blog here or watch a video there, you only get some pieces of information.
You don’t have the opportunity to build a deep understanding of the domain, or understand how the different fields link to and leverage each other.
6. No Prerequisites for Taking the Training
Almost anyone can learn and complete a digital marketing certification training course. It does not require any prerequisites.
You can be fresh out of college looking for a break in digital marketing, or a seasoned sales professional looking to add digital marketing skills to your resume.
As long as you invest the time and effort in going through the digital marketing programs, clarifying your doubts, and working diligently on projects or simulations; you can secure a certification.
More importantly, you’ll be ready to build the skills necessary for becoming an effective digital marketing professional.
7. Keep up with the Pace of Change
The industry is frequently disrupted by new technologies, new channels, and new devices.
For instance, consider how artificial intelligence challenges marketers to learn new systems and rearrange priorities, helping them to be more efficient and effective.
Think about the adoption of augmented reality into marketing, or the urgency of digital professionals to integrate voice search into their strategies.
There are many opportunities for digital marketers today, yet keeping up with the changes is challenging.
With a certification in digital marketing, you’ll understand how all the devices, channels, and technologies work together, and you’ll be able to anticipate the evolution of digital marketing in the future.
Get Certified Now!
Securing a digital marketing certification is critical for marketers, whether you’re just entering the field or you’re an industry veteran in need of sharpening your skills.
The industry demands professionals who have their fingers on the pulse of what’s going on now, and what’s next.
Employers that are increasing their marketing spend also expect digital marketers to be ready to execute on strategy, as well as understand the importance of remaining agile in a constantly changing environment.
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