How I Taught Myself Digital Marketing During the Pandemic

In late March 2020, my country was put into lock-down. Inter-county and international travel were halted. A 6 PM to 6 AM curfew was instituted. This, coupled with the order for non-essential companies to close down, made life difficult for many people. I was amongst those who were gravely affected. The company I was working for closed down and sent us packing without any pay or communication as to when we would resume work.

The first few weeks were somewhat okay. It felt like a vacation until it did not. Soon the days seemed longer and stressful. Watching TV, browsing social sites, and taking naps ran out of fashion fast. I was bored to the core. I didn’t know what to do. So I made a schedule to keep myself busy.

It went something like;

• 6 AM – get out of bed and read a book online or paperback

• 8 AM - have breakfast and spend some time with family

• 10 AM – work out for about an hour and a half

• Noon – spend some time with family and have lunch

• 2 PM – continue reading my book

• 4.30 PM – time for family – play some games with my kids, do homework, check their online classes’ progress.

• 7 PM – have supper and watch some TV with the family

• 9 PM – get ready for bed

Rinse and repeat.

I had planned to read, but I did not know what to read until I came across a post on the Quora platform, talking about the importance of learning new skills. It hit me that during the pandemic, the internet usage in my country had risen, and most businesses globally and locally had turned to online marketing to reach their customers and stay afloat. Cliché, I know, but boom – I got an epiphany. How about studying digital marketing?

Of course, my journey started with a Google search “how to learn digital marketing for free.” The results were overwhelming. I got so many resources but eventually settled on the “Fundamentals of Digital Marketing Course” taught by Google. After all, what better way is there to learn digital marketing than directly from the world's biggest search engine?

The course is very well planned in small bite-sized classes, progressively taking you from one idea to the next. There are also tests at the end of each module. When you pass the test, you get a progress badge to keep you motivated. But that is not all. At the end of the course, you get a certificate to boost your resume. That is cool, right?

The course is comprehensive and covers a lot of important content on how to get a business online and rank it highly on search engines. All the main aspects of digital marketing are covered in the course, including search engine marketing, search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, and social media. Google also offers courses on Analytics and Google Ads.

What did this do for me?

It has changed my perspective on education and life in general. It also helped me get past the pandemic without overthinking it or getting emotionally disturbed. Those months when I was committed to the course flew by so quickly.

The internet has taught me so many things before. I can actually say that I learn something new every day. I had recently learned how to paint, and I redid the paint in my house. It looks awesome, by the way. I have learned how to sew jeans, slim my trousers and shirts, and do many cool things I didn’t have an idea of how I could do them before.

However, I had never committed to learning a whole comprehensive course that could boost my resume. This was the beginning of something new in my life. I finished the course in June and got certified. Immediately I enrolled for analytics and Google Adwords certifications, which I am currently pursuing concurrently.

I have decided to use these certificates to boost my career and use it to start a side hustle offering freelance digital marketing services. I have created profiles on peopleperhour.com and freelancer.com. My first gig on peopleperhour.com earned me $350. I have not landed another gig yet, but I am not giving up on it.

I intend to continue learning and growing my freelancing business, maybe to a full blown digital marketing agency in the near future. I have a plan laid out for this already and executing in phases.

You can also start

The time is now. Do not wait to do tomorrow what you have time to do today. Tomorrow is not promised to any of us. This is one of the lessons this pandemic has taught me. You can also start learning new skills every day, whether to improve your resume or just for your personal development.

You only need to spare a little time each day to learn. The internet has made it really easy to learn. There are so many free resources you can use to teach yourself. If you are studying marketing on your own, maybe to grow your business or even boost your resume, you can get professional marketing help in areas where you feel stuck. Conventional education is evolving now, and you can evolve with it too.

Start by creating a plan. It doesn’t matter how simple it is. If I didn’t organize my day in the simple way I did above, I couldn’t have gotten the time to read. Start simple and small with what you have. You don't need to change everything or set everything aside. Also, just start. I know, this is the hardest step for many people. We like to visualize things in our minds but we never start. Take that first step to register to learn a skill that interests you and sit through the first session. Everything else will fall into place.

Also, be consistent. Do it daily or every other day and by the end of one week you will have made a lot of progress that you will be motivated to go further. I got my first badge on the digital marketing course on the first day when I finished the introduction module and passed the simple test. All the other badges appeared to be within reach and soon I had acquired all of them. It didn’t mean there weren’t any obstacles. There are days I didn’t feel like it, but I still had to do it.

Learning digital marketing helped me to get through the pandemic and start a new side hustle i never envisioned starting. I am now back to my full-time job in the security sector with a side hustle I intend to continue working on.

I hope this has given you the motivation to get through something you might be going through today or to start something you have been procrastinating.