A jargon-free, practical introduction to digital marketing

This course is built for anyone who has no-to-some idea of digital, and wants to make sense of the whole thing, especially if they see their careers potentially moving in that direction. Marketers, entrepreneurs, product managers, mainline advertising professionals, design studio heads and even marketing students have enrolled in this course in the past and have found it useful.

Since it’s a course updated for 2022, it’s also a good refresher for those already familiar with the medium (even age-old aspects like social media). I would not recommend it for those who are already comfortable with the medium, as some of the concepts might seem basic. That being said, I’d like to know what you think of this and how much of this you will find useful.

• I don’t use ‘theory’ as such. Instead, I give you frameworks to think about digital as a whole, and various platforms. This will help insulate you from changes in various platforms and think more holistically.

• To make my point, I use several examples. These are not case studies for the sake of it, but specific instances of what has been done in the digital space - be it brands, or even non-marketing work (if I can use something from pop culture to help you understand a marketing concept, that often works well, I’ve seen).

• I will be giving you several case studies, examples and things that brands have done over the years - both international and Indian. Many other “non-marketing” examples from the many things I’ve seen and done over the internet, too.

• Students of the recorded course get everything that was done in the live sessions - The videos, key slides, references, case studies - available for ever. This is a future-oriented course. Because of the nature of technology, platforms keep evolving. So does marketing itself. While I cannot predict the future, I can help you prepare so that when the next shift happens, you have the right mindset to adapt.

Module 1: An introduction to digital marketing

• The evolution of the internet and how usage has changed

• Fundamental differences between digital and traditional mediums

• An introduction to the only tool you’ll need: The customer journey

• Mapping everything in digital marketing back to business objectives

Duration: 1 hour

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Module 2: The basics of Content Marketing

• Examples and differences from advertising

• Understanding content creation, content distribution and native advertising options

• Several recent examples of content marketing across platforms, geographies and industries.

• The importance of relevance in content marketing

• A framework for developing content marketing ideas of all types

• Several more examples.

Duration: 3 hours

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Module 3: Marketing using Social Media

• The various things you can do with social media

• What kind of content to post

• Promotion and the power of targeting, and why that is inescapable now (including the death of organic reach and what we can do about that)

• A dive into targeting - with a deep dive into Facebook’s targeting parameters

• Campaigns - big and small

• Customer service, and social media intelligence

• Community management and why that matters and is so darn tough to get right.

• Latching onto opportunities

• A few truths about social media, and a practical approach to getting started

Duration: 4 hours

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Module 4: How the mobile phone can be used for marketing

• The importance of mobiles for marketing

• Making existing content mobile-friendly

• Making mobile-specific content

• Using mobile technologies like AR, VR, gaming and others

• Using and building apps

• And finally… Whatsapp. What is it good for?

Duration: 2 hours

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Module 5: Videos for for marketing

• Digital video advertising (and pre-rolls)

• Using video as a form of content

• Videos for non-marketing uses

• Leveraging existing content creators & influencers

• New, interactive forms of video

Duration: 2 hours

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Module 6: Our Paid Pals: Search, Display, Emails and more

• First, a little bit about websites and why they’re still relevant in 2020

• The basics of SEO - on-page, off-page, developing content

• The basics of SEM

• Creative usage of search marketing

• A look at display advertising - what it is, programmatic, basics of media buying / selling, display networks.

• CRM & Email marketing

Duration: 2 hours

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Module 7: New-age platforms

• A look at TikTok and other new platforms along with some success stories

• A look at new emerging technologies (not covered previously) such as voice and IOT.

• And of course… eSports and gaming. Watch this space!

• How to think about and prepare for new platforms that might come up

• How to innovatively use features on existing platforms

• Other digital tools and technologies - voice, “phygital”, blogs & more

Estimated time: 2-3 hours

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Module 8: Stitching everything together

• Summarizing everything we spoke about

• Revisiting the customer journey we started these sessions with

• How to use it to determine what mediums to use where, and how to evaluate them

• This acts as a good way to summarize everything we spoke about

Estimated time: 3 hours

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PS: If this seems basic, I might offer an advanced offering.

• A lifetime (!) subscription to Things of Internet - a paid weekly newsletter that I run, where I share some interesting digital stuff that I see. This could be something a brand did, or just something I’ve seen around the internet. Ideal for those in marketing or those just generally curious about the internet and stuff. This is otherwise priced at ₹300 a year / ₹2000 for life. A sample issue is here.

• For the live sessions, the fees are ₹6000 + 18% GST = ₹7020.

• For the recorded version, the fees are ₹4000 + 18% GST = ₹4720.

• If you'd like to do a private session, that's ₹500 / half hour extra.

• You can choose to pay half now, half later. No other terms and conditions and stuff. Promise.

• I want to ensure these sessions work for you! So if you join, you can choose to pay only half upfront, and the rest halfway. This way you have minimal risk, and can drop off if you don’t see them being useful to you.

• If you would like something else covered, mail me. It’s more likely that it will be a private session, though - and I’ll charge @ ₹1000 per hour for that.

• Have any other questions? Mail me! chuck@chuckofalltrades.in.

• Media buying & selling (never worked hands-on in the industry, though I will be covering the basics)

• Attribution & analytics (I’ve not worked on performance-oriented marketing). That being said, my sessions will broadly cover metrics for individual platforms.

• Creativity itself: This is not a session to help you make ads, or create content. This is more strategy itself, and while aspects of this creativity will be touched upon and you’re likely to have several ideas by the time you’re done, please do not look at this as a ‘how can I think of ideas’ session.

• ‘Digital transformation’: If you’re in a company looking to transition to digital, my sessions will give you some ideas, and I can certainly give you my perspective, but I am not a business strategy consultant formally. That being said, I would love to chat with you about it to see if I can help you out separately, this is something I am personally interested in.

• I’ve worked in digital strategy, planning, content and business development for 10 years: Including stints at Ogilvy, Indigo Consulting (of Leo Burnett), OML Entertainment and Insider.in, since 2009. I’ve worked on multiple categories across stages of ‘lifecycle’. I’ve seen what works and what the common mistakes are. My colleagues seemed to have a positive opinion of me and my work.

• As a (now) content and marketing freelancer, I’m exposed to a lot of what the target audience of this course needs and thinks - what to do with their brand, how to transition to digital, and all that. It’s built keeping this audience in mind and constantly evolves.

• I myself have experimented with content creation - writing, cartoons, podcasts, newsletter, live web sessions, and more. I’ve been active on Twitter and can see how real people use it. All this helps add a personal perspective as well. ‘Skin in the game’, as Taleb might put it.

• I’ve taught digital marketing formally in a bunch of places, including MICA, SIMC, TAPMI, NMIMS, GIM, FLAME and taken workshops in a couple of IIMs as well. Feedback overall has been positive. Promise.

• I’m also a voracious internet consumer and like to draw examples and learnings from things that everyday people would have seen, not dig up esoteric academic case studies. For example, there’s enough digital marketing to be learnt from music alone.

• I just finished delivering this to ~300 students across 3 separate batches, and the feedback has been quite encouraging. Yay!

As of Jan 2022, I don't have plans to do a live batch for various reasons (mostly around time and other projects on weekends). So I'm afraid at least till mid-2022 I don't have plans to do a live-weekend-Zoom thing. That being said, the recordings from the last batch I did are available and are still very much relevant - in fact, if I were to do a batch today, the content would be almost exactly the same.

If you're interested in this course, I'd recommend opting for the recorded sessions. My guarantee to you is that if I ever do a live batch again, you're welcome to join by just paying the differential amount of ₹2000.