This blog post will be dedicated to reviewing what gains have been made from the digital marketing course and the blog posts on this website.
Course Overview
This digital marketing course was focused on providing information about how marketing works through digital means and in the digital world. This course was structured in a way of reading course content, taking quizzes, and creating blog posts for our personal website for assignments. Along with blog posts, we were required to create a business profile on LinkedIn and add summarized posts promoting our blog posts there as well.
Theoretical Knowledge Gained
Understanding the digital marketing environment and digital consumer behavior will greatly impact how you interact online. The digital marketing environment consists of platforms and devices that allow people to connect and interact online. Digital consumer behavior is concerned with how people interact with online content and platforms. A part of this may be what social media platforms they use, what websites they visit and how long they stay on the website, and online shopping behavior to name a few. Some other knowledge gained was email marketing, social media marketing, and SEO. Email marketing is when promotional ads get sent to subscribed customers via email. Social media marketing is using social media platforms for business promotion. Different social media platforms are better for different audiences or different forms of content. Finally, SEO is search engine optimization is when a business includes certain keywords or information that makes their website appear higher in search engine results.
Practical Project Summary
The first step to this class was building our own website. I created this website through WordPress and chose a template I felt would be the most fitting for posting blog posts. My goal was to have a simple and easy to navigate website. One of the first blog posts I published was about creating customer personas for both Scheels and The HomeSlice Media Group. It focused on analyzing the typical customers for both of these business. By doing this, it will help Scheels and The HomeSlice Media Group to better understand who their target markets are. Another early blog post I posted was about SEO keyword research. This was used to find common keywords used for both Scheels and The HomeSlice Media Group to show which words would optimize search results for both these businesses. Another interesting blog post was about using Ai for content creation for both my blog post and for LinkedIn. This showed just how much Ai can be of benefit to those working with digital marketing.
Key Skills Acquired
Throughout this class, I learned how to upload and manage a website. I was able to edit and updated page content as well as continue to add new blog posts. I also added a contact form plug in for visitors of my website to have a place to reach out with any comments or concerns. I did not have any experience with automated emails this semester but I did have an email list of subscribers who were willing to receive emails announcing a new blog post with some information with what the blog post was about. I also used both Google Search Console and Google Analytics to be able to measure the success of my website by seeing how much interaction my website was getting. I mainly used Google Analytics and even created a blog post covering the analysis of some of the metrics collected.
Ai Tool Utilization Experience
I got to experience using Ai to help with creating content for the blog posts as well as for image creation. I got to use two different Ai chatbots to achieve both of these tasks. I use ChatGPT to assist in any Ai analysis as well as for all of the content creation. In order to get my desired outcomes, I used specific prompts as well as providing relevant information to make it an easier process for ChatGPT to properly analyze the information and return the right responses. The other Ai chatbot I got to use was Leonardo.AI. I used this platform for image creation. I asked ChatGPT to produce a prompt that could be used to create an image and then copied and pasted that prompt into Leonardo.AI and chose from a variety of Ai produced images which one I felt best represented what I was looking for. Ai had an interesting and useful part in the content creation and image creation of some of these blog posts.
Data Analysis Capabilities
A couple of data analysis that took place this semester was in the Google review analysis and the web analytics using GA4. The Google review analysis used Google Maps to search for both Scheels and The HomeSlice Media Group’s positive and negative reviews. I entered those into ChatGPT with specific prompts to analyze the responses to help both of these business keep good reviews or improve bad reviews. Web analytics using GA4 looked at specific areas and of the websites performance and I took that information and entered it into ChatGPT with specific prompts again to further analyze what the information meant for the website and its performance and how it was performing good and where it needed improvements.
Real Company Analysis Experience
Through the use of Ai chatbots like ChatGPT, I was able to analyze Scheels and The HomeSlice Media Group in more detail. This made it possible for me to understand where they both are succeeding in things like SEO and meeting customer needs by analyzing their reviews. I asked ChatGPT to examine what improvements or suggestions could be made regarding the situation.
Social Media Utilization
In this course, I got to experience using LinkedIn for posting about content regarding my blog posts on my website. I learned how to make posts that include the link to my blog posts and also used hashtags to help make my post more relevant for my desired audience. I received some feedback on posts through likes from people I was not already connected with.
Key Achievements and Insights
Some of my achievements I made as a result of this course through LinkedIn was 4 new connections. I also had interactions on two separate posts of mine, each getting one like from a user on LinkedIn. The engagement I received was not from anyone from the two companies I studied this semester but any engagement on LinkedIn is improvement on visibility for my content.
I also can see some key achievements in the total visits I have had to my website over the course of this semester from August 26, 2024 – December 5, 2024. Below is a snapshot of the summarized information from Google Analytics.
Future Application Plans
The way I plan to apply this content in the future is to help myself and others take advantage of the online platform to share their products or services. I have gained skills in understanding how to market through email, social media, and mobile devices. I plan to continue to use and understand these platforms to have knowledge of how they work and what platforms to use and when.
Contribution Plans for Target Companies
I can contribute to companies with the skills I gained in this course because I have an understanding of ways to make relevant content through digital means. I have learned how to avoid problems like when it comes to email marketing to limit the chance the message ends up filtered as spam and is in junk folders. I also know what social media platforms are better for what content as well as what specific audience. I will be able to help a company to reach their target market easier with the knowledge I have gained. I can also help companies to appear higher in search ranking through search engines because of SEO. Ranking higher will ultimately lead to higher profits overall.
Personal Growth
I have experience a lot of growth and better understanding of how the digital world around me works. I now know new ways to use these digital means as well as what purpose they are used for. Some future goals would be to either help friends and family market their products, services, or organizations better or to help me market myself or own personal offerings. I have enjoyed the blogging process in this class and think it would be interesting to have my own blog some day that I can write about something I am passionate about and know how to promote the content to reach my desired audiences. I also think having this digital knowledge to work as a digital marketer for a company would be fun as well.
Portfolio Links
Here are all the links for the work I have done over the course of this semester. These include the link to my website, links to my blog posts, and my LinkedIn if you would like to check them out if you haven’t already.
https://angelagdigitalmarketing.com/
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for The Homeslice Media Group
https://www.linkedin.com/company/104972278/admin/page-posts/published/
Acknowledgements
I would like to take a minute and say thank you to all of those who have supported and helped me during this class. Any engagement with my website, blog posts, and LinkedIn account have been helpful and greatly appreciated. I also appreciate any comments or feedback I have received. It has helped me see how I am doing and what you guys have liked or feedback on what needed fixed. I could not have completed this class without the help, thank you all so much for all you have done for me.