Discover the Best Digital Marketing Classes in Chicago
Simply put, digital marketing is using digital channels (like websites, social media, search engine optimization, and email) to market products and services to customers. Developed right after the inception of the internet, digital marketing relies on several of the same principles of traditional marketing and is often used in tandem with old-school marketing campaigns like direct mail and billboards.
There are eight types of digital marketing – search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click, social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, mobile marketing, marketing analytics, and affiliate marketing – and each of these has become vitally important for consumer engagement and sales.
What sets digital marketing apart from traditional marketing is its ever-changing, dynamic process. Customers can’t interact with a business through a billboard or print ad, while digital marketing creates two-way communication between a business and its actual or prospective customers. Think of how many businesses you engage with in your inbox or on social media platforms. Liking posts, leaving comments, and clicking links can only be done through digital marketing tactics.
Digital marketing leverages the amount of time people spend on screens (like phones and laptops) to promote business products and services across the internet and is now an essential part of any business’s marketing strategy.
Best Digital Marketing Classes & Schools in Chicago
If you’re looking for courses in digital marketing in the Chicago area, CourseHorse has them. With a variety of courses to choose from, many of which are suitable for beginners, you’re sure to find the right class for you.
SEO’s main goal is to improve a website’s ranking within major search engines to increase online traffic. You can study the fundamentals of SEO strategy in the SEO Introduction that’s offered by Computer Training Source Inc. Located in the Near North Side, this class will train you in keyword research, on-page search engine optimization (SEO), and link building. You’ll also learn to use analytics, research your competitors’ links, and keep your website search engine friendly.
The Startup Institute in River North hosts Intro to Digital Marketing which will teach the basics of creating a marketing plan and working with analytics. You’ll also study the more technical aspects of marketing like SEO, A/B testing, email marketing, Google Adwords, and social media advertising.
Noble Desktop, a live online tech education provider, offers a Digital Marketing Certificate program for students looking to learn all of the major concepts associated with online advertising. In addition to learning how to make sense of things like SEO and paid search advertising, students will learn how to devise and execute online marketing strategies, utilize data collection and business intelligence applications, and take advantage of social media platforms. Since this is a career-focused training program, all of the lessons are practical examples of real-world marketing problems and the exercises are hands-on lessons designed to give students access to applicable real-world skills. In addition, all students will receive one-on-one career mentorship assistance to help them be prepared for going onto the job market.
Similarly, Sprintzeal Americas Inc offers a digital marketing specialist course that’s ideal for sales and marketing professionals, or those looking to begin careers in these fields. This course will begin with an introduction to web analytics and then move on to topics like Google Tag Manager, social media analytics, and Google Analytics techniques and reports. Sprintzeal Americas Inc also offers other courses in sales, operations, management, and consulting to assist with all your business needs.
The Digital Professional Institute is located in downtown Chicago and offers a wide array of marketing courses. Driving Conversion Through Content Marketing explores tactics that will persuade customers to make that final click. Students will learn to create a content marketing strategy that aligns their overall conversion objectives with the content being created by conducting keyword, market, and audience research. This class will also cover building and executing a multichannel content distribution strategy and how to track and measure content marketing ROI and its overall impact.
Website Strategy and Growth, also hosted by the Digital Professional Institute, teaches students to develop a strategy for making thoughtful and effective website optimizations. The class will cover how to utilize A/B testing components for your calls to action, user navigation flow, and lead generation forms. Students will also learn to interpret analytics data in order to make the right strategic choices.
Chicago Industries That Use Digital Marketing
The four main industries in Chicago are manufacturing, transportation, information technology, and health services and technology. Each of these industries can benefit from (and most likely does already utilize) digital marketing.
Health and healthcare services, in particular, are undergoing a digital evolution to keep up with current consumer demands. Healthcare digital marketing consists of strategies and practices that drive patient attraction, acquisition, and retention. These strategies can include standard digital outreach and messaging across various channels like email, SMS, social, and search.
Information technology has become the fastest-growing sector in Chicago. Whether an IT company is business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C), it will need a team of digital marketers to help drive brand awareness and generate sales leads. Digital marketers create and post content, update content, and oversee social interactions and campaigns, like those you see on Facebook or Instagram.
Transportation has seen an incredible boom in the private sector in recent years through the development of ride-share apps, but these companies are only a small portion of this industry. Airlines, rail, trucking, shipping, and logistics are all a part of the transportation industry. All of these businesses are both B2B and B2C, meaning they require the correct positioning of marketing content to gain exposure.
Perhaps the largest of all Chicago industries, the manufacturing sector includes companies that transform materials, substances, or components into new products through the use of mechanical, physical, or chemical processes. This can include everything from building supplies to food to clothing. Manufacturing companies partner with various brands to develop their products, so a strong brand identity that communicates their efficiency and trustworthiness is key to their success.
Digital Marketing Jobs & Salaries in Chicago
Social media manager is an essential position for any fashion, fitness, or lifestyle company, as these industries are commonly marketed on social platforms. These roles can range in salary from $37,000-84,000, with a median salary of around $56,000.
A content marketing manager develops, plans, and implements the company’s overall content strategy. This can include online content (emails, articles, paid ads) and offline content (direct mail, billboards, paper ads). According to the Content Marketing Institute, 73 percent of B2B marketers and 70 percent of B2C marketers use content marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy, so there is a healthy job market for these roles. You can expect to earn around $77,000 initially, with the potential to make six figures in a more senior role.
An email marketing manager is a slightly more specific role than that of a content marketing manager. You’ll focus solely on email touchpoints and can earn around $80,000 in this role. Email marketing managers plan and implement all email content while also managing subscriber databases, improving retention, and analyzing campaign performance.
A paid search manager is in charge of implementing a pay-per-click campaign for an organization or company. The average salary in this role is just under $90,000, making it a profitable career choice. A paid search manager does more than just make ads; they are responsible for updating bids, adding or removing keywords, and monitoring profitability. They also run tests to improve performance and often partner with other stakeholders in digital marketing, content development, and sales.
An SEO manager is essential for any digitally-minded company. Their goal is to convert visitors into customers and increase click-through rates by considering all aspects of a web search. They also provide strategies to find visitors who will need a particular service. These positions gross around $84,000 a year but can make substantially more with years of experience.
Discover the Best Digital Marketing Classes in Boston
Digital marketing is the strategic use of digital channels (like websites, social media, search engine optimization, and email) to market products and services to customers. Developed right after the inception of the internet, digital marketing relies on several of the same principles of traditional marketing and is focused on the conversion of potential customers into consumers.
There are eight types of digital marketing: search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click, social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, mobile marketing, marketing analytics, and affiliate marketing. Each of these has become vitally important for consumer engagement and sales across a wide range of industries.
Digital marketing is unique in its ever-changing, dynamic process. Customers can’t interact with a business through a billboard or print ad, but digital marketing can create two-way communication between a business and its actual or prospective customers. Think of how many businesses you interact with in your inbox or on social media platforms. Liking posts, leaving comments, and clicking links can only be done through digital marketing tactics.
A way to leverage the amount of time people spend on screens (like phones and laptops) to promote business products and services across the internet, digital marketing is now an essential part of any business’s marketing strategy.
Best Digital Marketing Classes & Schools in Boston
Content Strategy Bootcamp is located in downtown Boston and teaches students the basics of content strategy in the context of digital strategy and content marketing. You’ll explore strategy methodologies including content auditing, curation, governance, testing, and optimization that will make you a valuable asset to digital agencies, publishers, and content creators. This class is great for those with a background or interest in digital media, including UX, information organization, copywriting, journalism, data science, or design. Make sure to bring your laptop with you to class!
Sprintzeal Americas Inc offers a digital marketing specialist course in Back Bay that’s ideal for sales and marketing professionals, or those looking to begin careers in these fields. This course will begin with an introduction to web analytics and then move on to topics like Google Tag Manager, social media analytics, and Google Analytics techniques and reports. Sprintzeal Americas Inc also offers other courses in sales, operations, management, and consulting to assist with all your business needs.
Designed for those with some industry experience, Intermediate/Advanced SEO will help you to construct a website configured with Google Analytics and Google Search Console while walking you through the design and measurement model for an SEO campaign. You’ll also study high-level strategy for implementing and measuring multiple SEO campaigns and master skills like 301 direct, canonical logic, traffic loss investigation, and measuring return on investment.
Facebook Advertising 101 teaches you how to utilize the most popular avenue for paid online advertising today. You’ll learn why Facebook advertising is so valuable and discover your most important Facebook audiences. This class will also teach you how to make sales, retarget customers, and utilize all the Facebook advertising secrets that will give you an upper hand.
Noble Desktop, a live online tech education provider, offers a Digital Marketing Certificate program for students looking to learn all of the major concepts associated with online advertising. In addition to learning how to make sense of things like SEO and paid search advertising, students will learn how to devise and execute online marketing strategies, utilize data collection and business intelligence applications, and take advantage of social media platforms. Since this is a career-focused training program, all of the lessons are practical examples of real-world marketing problems and the exercises are hands-on lessons designed to give students access to applicable real-world skills. In addition, all students will receive one-on-one career mentorship assistance to help them be prepared for going onto the job market.
Boston Industries That Use Digital Marketing
The city’s largest industry employers are health care; professional, scientific, and technical services; finance and insurance; government; and educational services. These five industries account for approximately 60% of Boston’s economy, based on data from the city of Boston in 2020.
Digital marketing within the healthcare industry consists of strategies and practices that drive patient attraction, acquisition, and retention. These strategies can include standard digital outreach and messaging across various channels like email, SMS, social, and search. This industry employs approximately 147,471 employees thanks to large teaching and research hospitals like Boston Medical Center, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
The professional, scientific, and technical services industry requires a higher degree of expertise and is made up of places like Cambridge’s strong biotech scene or the many tech startups around Boston. These tech-focused companies need a knowledgeable marketing professional to solidify core messages, generate attention, and create demand to help their organizations grow.
Finance and insurance saw substantial job growth prior to the pandemic and consist of companies like Fidelity Investments and State Street. Digital marketing strategy allows companies in this industry to reach millions of people cost-effectively. These companies can also access specific audiences by directing their marketing campaigns to a buyer persona, rather than the general public.
Educational services are made up of colleges like Boston University, Northeastern University, Boston College, and Tufts University. Boston boasts an employment share three times the national average in this industry and each of these colleges requires their own digital marketing campaigns both for the entire university and individual departments or schools. Your work in this industry would be focused on building a brand that people can trust and targeting new potential students for enrollment.
Digital Marketing Jobs & Salaries in Boston
There are a variety of job titles and career opportunities in the digital marketing field, each of which can provide varying levels of compensation. Below are the most common job titles within digital marketing, as well as the going rates for these roles in the city of Boston.
Social media manager is an essential position for any company that interacts directly with their consumers. The average base salary for this role is $56,810 in Boston, with top companies offering roles in the range of $70,000-115,000.
A content marketing manager develops, plans, and implements the company’s overall content strategy. This can include online content (emails, articles, paid ads) and offline content (direct mail, billboards, paper ads). According to the Content Marketing Institute, 73 percent of B2B marketers and 70 percent of B2C marketers use content marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy, so there is a healthy job market for these roles. You can expect to earn around $82,000, with the potential to make six figures in a more senior role.
An email marketing manager is a slightly more specific role than that of a content marketing manager. You’ll focus solely on email touchpoints and can earn around $95,000 in this role. Email marketing managers plan and implement all email content while also managing subscriber databases, improving retention, and analyzing campaign performance.
A paid search manager is in charge of implementing a pay-per-click campaign for an organization or company. Salaries in this role range from $70,000-$90,000, making it a profitable career choice. A paid search manager does more than just make ads; they are responsible for updating bids, adding or removing keywords, and monitoring profitability. They also run tests to improve performance and often partner with other stakeholders in digital marketing, content development, and sales.
An SEO manager is essential for any digitally-minded company. Their goal is to convert visitors into customers and increase click-through rates by considering all aspects of a web search. They also provide strategies to find visitors who will need a particular service. These positions range from $80,000-$100,000 per year but can make substantially more with several years of experience.
