Deciding on your first career or a radical career change is a big decision. It can be difficult to know where to start and how best to go about developing skills and getting into a job ? 

A good place to start if you’re looking to break into digital marketing or move up the career ladder within the field is studying for a digital marketing qualification.

At MMC Learning we’ve been educating marketers for over 20 years and we know the value of undertaking a high-quality training course to help give learners the skills they need to achieve their goals and impress employers. But there are many worthwhile options when it comes to digital marketing courses, so here’s our guide to choosing the right digital marketing qualification for you.

Digital marketing is an ever-growing industry with plenty of exciting opportunities, but if you’re interested in studying for a digital marketing qualification, make sure to consider these important factors when choosing a course.

1. What area of digital marketing do you want to learn most? Is there an area where you could improve or even become a specialist? There are many different specialisms within digital marketing, for example people might be experts in search engine optimization (SEO), or online advertising, or even social media marketing. 
2.  Are you interested enough in/ prepared to learn about different technologies used in digital marketing? Digital marketers need to be able to understand the mechanics of web pages, email campaigns, search engine optimization techniques, and social media management tools. There might end up being a lot of coding and data analysis involved, is this something that would interest you/ you feel you are capable of?
3. Do you have a strong grasp of English? Digital marketers need to be skilled in both written and verbal communication. Being able to produce well-written clear and concise content, in order to create effective email campaigns and blog posts etc is essential.

There are many good reasons to study for a digital marketing qualification. 

• Maybe you are looking to improve your confidence in your current markting role by building on your existing skillset and developing more up to date digital marketing knowledge
• Perhaps you want to break into the industry as a newcomer and are looking for a course which will introduce you to and give you a good grounding in the field.
• You could be looking to change jobs and work for a new organisation and you want to develop up-to date knowledge to help you transition
• Maybe you want to seek out new opportunities and you’re hoping getting qualified will open new doors.
• You might be hoping having a qualification on your CV will put you ahead of the competition when it comes to potential promotions.
• Perhaps you’re looking to take advantage of the many extra resources such as e-books and webinars and powerful alumni networks that can be gained from undertaking a digital marketing qualification

Digital marketing is an industry which is constantly growing meaning there’s a lot of study options for learners looking to build their skills. There are many different programs out there aimed at different learners’ needs, for example some might be designed for beginners, some for people who are already marketing professionals.

Flexible distance learning courses in digital marketing can be a perfect solution for busy working marketers who want to pursue a qualification while keeping up with work commitments.

Online courses can also vary depending on the provider, different learning centres may teach slightly different course content and deliver learning in a slightly different way. 

Before you decide on a course, it’s important to consider whether the course will be right for you and which study centre will provide you with the best education and opportunities depending on where you are in your career. 

Some of the key factors to consider include:

• Quality Of Teaching/ teachers: This is an important factor to consider when looking for a course. The best courses will probably have the best teachers, tutors who are experts in the field and have worked in digital marketing themselves or who are academic experts in the field. Take a look at who’s teaching on your course and their years of experience and reputation in marketing.
• Reputation and years of experience: It’s important to look for a study centre with proven experience of providing world-class digital marketing education. The best study centres will be able to demonstrate their track record through excellent results and reviews from past students. As mentioned it’s also important to decide what type of digital marketing you want to pursue.  Some course providers will offer a range of courses tailored to specific aspects of digital marketing, for example some study centres offer specific courses in social media marketing, search marketing or digital marketing strategy,  meaning you can take a course that suits your specific interests and targets the areas you want to develop. This can be a sign of an excellent learning provider if they have identified the differing needs of students and offer a small range of different courses so there is a qualification to address each one.
• Accreditation: Some learning centres will have a powerful accreditation behind them. For example at MMC our digital marketing courses are accredited by the Digital Marketing Institute one of the world’s foremost awarding bodies of digital marketing qualifications. The DMI’s global advisory council brings together the world experts in digital marketing to develop their course content meaning you can be sure you’re getting the best training. Choosing an accredited study centre can also bring you great benefits in the form of membership to the accreditor which will give you access to all sorts of extra resources plus often links to powerful alumni networks.
• Learning content and delivery style: Different study centres will cover slightly different elements of digital marketing in their courses and deliver the course content in different ways. It’s important to sample course brochures and read up on what exactly you’ll be learning and take a look at some of the course content beforehand to get a sense of whether a particular course will suit you, as different people learn in different ways and it might be you’re not suited to a course that’s more self-directed for example.

If you choose the right course for you, studying digital marketing can be a rewarding experiene, but it’s important to select a program that will fit your needs and goals if you want to get the ebay out of your marketing education.

Digital marketing is a fast-growing and constantly evolving industry. Despite this, while digital marketing has now arguably become a far larger part of today’s general ‘marketing’ than traditional non-digital methods, many traditional ‘marketing’ programs still don’t always accommodate students with a digital marketing focus. It can be hard to find a high-quality, robust ‘digital marketing’ qualification with a focus purely on digital skills. So, where’s best if you want to study digital marketing?

The first step is to make sure you are targeting the right program, as mentioned There are more and more centres offering digital marketing training, but it’s important to select one that will best align with your goals and career aspirations. 

If you know you want to go with the prestige of an accredited study centre then a way to make your decision easier could be to first decide on the accreditor or awarding body you want to go with before deciding on who you want to study for that qualification with.

The two most well known and well respected awarding bodies of digital marketing qualifications in the UK are the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and the Digital Marketing Insititute (DMI).

Both do offer training for their qualifications directly themselves, but it can pay to study through one of their approved study centre and reap the reward of extra benefits such as live webinars and question and answer sessions with tutors and even more resources and support, especially if you’re not someone who always wants to be self directed in their learning.

The CIM has been around since 1911 and is well established as a top authority in marketing training. They also have a royal charter for the marketing profession, meaning they are the only awarding body who can award chartered marketer status, a highly sought after accolade. CIM is well respected amongst marketing employers. CIM courses are more theory heavy, making them effective if you’re looking to really delve in to and understand the ins and outs of digital marketing.

DMI is a relatively new kid on the block having been established in 2009. However over the past decade they have quickly become one of the world’s most respected awarding bodies of digital marketing qualifications. They offer training in over 150 countries and are on a mission to educate digital marketers globally. Unlike the CIM who offer both marketing and digital marketing courses, the DMI have a purely digital focus. They favour more practical based learning and give a broad overview of a wider range of digital knowledge, aiming to equip digital marketers with transferable skills they can draw on straight away within the workplace.

Both CIM and DMI will provide an excellent foundation in digital skills and put you in the best possible place to impress employers.

As discussed, which digital marketing course will give you the best possible start in the industry depends on you as an individual and your learning preferences and existing knowledge and skillset.

However, many beginners will find that a course which gives a broad overview of digital marketing skills and knowledge will be beneficial to them.

The DMI professional diploma in Digital marketing is an in-depth all-round course in digital marketing, well respected amongst employers.

It covers modules including:

• Introduction to Digital Marketing
• Content Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
• Paid Search (PPC) using Google Ads
• Display and Video Advertising
• Email Marketing
• Website Optimisation
• Analytics with Google Analytics
• Digital Marketing Strategy