Search engines are a significant source of traffic for brands and organizations. This is no longer a secret, seeing how businesses seek out SEO specialists. Becoming an SEO expert requires experience, but the first step is to know all there is to know about the subject. 

In this introductory guide, we’ll answer the question: what is SEO? We will give you a brief rundown of what SEO means and how it works. Use this clickable menu to skip to the section that interests you the most.

1. What is SEO?
2. Why is SEO important?
3. How does SEO work?
4. How can I learn SEO?
5. What is SEO? Key takeaways

Ready to learn all about search engine optimization? Let’s get started!

1. What is SEO?

Search engine optimization, as the name implies, is the process of improving a website to make it easier to find via search engines like Google and Bing. It makes it more likely for the search engine to recommend it for relevant search words so that users can find you when it matters most.

SEO is a long game marketing channel that requires cumulative action to be successful. There are three main types of SEO:

What is SEO? On-page SEO

On-page SEO involves optimizing elements on your webpage to improve its search engine rankings. These elements include blog post headers and images, web copy, and internal links. On-page optimization includes actions like including keywords in your headings and subheadings to help the search engine recognize what your page is about.

What is SEO? Off-page SEO

This involves elements outside your website that help it rank for users’ search queries, such as backlinks and social media shares. For example, creating buzz about your website content on social media will increase the number of social shares and writing high-quality content with unique insights and engaging visuals will increase the chances of people linking to their content.

What is SEO? Technical SEO

These are the technical elements of the website that affect its ranking, such as the site loading time, search engine indexing, mobile friendliness, website structure or architecture, and the presence of sitemaps.

Want to learn more about the basics of SEO? We’ve got a complete beginner’s guide to SEO in this article.

2. Why is SEO important?

SEO is an integral part of digital marketing for the following reasons:

Increased visibility 

With 29% of web traffic generated via search engines (second only to direct web traffic) it is an important channel for increasing visibility. 

The role of SEO is to increase your chance of ranking highly on search engine result pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords. If your site is optimized correctly, it can be the first organic search result and have an average click-through rate (CTR) of 27.6%. 

Most people don’t go past the first page of search engines like Google, so pages ranking on the first page see the highest increase in traffic and a greater chance of conversion. 

Quality traffic

Organic search traffic tends to be high quality because content ranks for relevant search queries. As a result, conversion rates are higher, especially for bottom-of-the-funnel content that directs customers to convert—whether that means a sale of a product or signing up for a service. 

For example, if a blog post about a list of shoes for wide feet ranks highly in a search for shoes for wide feet, it will appeal most to readers who are ready to buy.  

Cost-effective

SEO can be laborious and time-consuming, but it is a cost-effective marketing method. Good SEO may require upfront costs like paying for keyword research tools, but once you get your site to rank, additional traffic comes at no cost. 

Cost is a key difference between search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM). Although they use search engines as marketing channels, SEM is paid advertising.

Find out more about the differences between SEO and SEM in this article.

3. How does SEO work?

SERPs typically show paid search results and organic search results on the same page (you can tell the difference easily by formatting, and paid search will often include an Ad tag). The focus of SEO is for your site to rank organically. These organic results are chosen based on the search engine assessment of their relevance to the search query and the quality of their content. 

SEO works by optimizing your site to provide a good user search experience and provide content that matches the search intent. You need to understand the search needs of your audience and how search engines work. The job of a search engine is to produce relevant results for its users quickly, and it does so in the following way: 

Crawling

Crawling is when a search engine sends its bot, called a crawler or spider, to read the content of the pages of a website to find out what it is about. These crawlers use parameters like keywords and associated digital content and links to determine whether a page contains valuable information to be in its index.

The generic name of Google’s web crawler is Googlebot, while the name of Bing’s web crawler is Bingbot. 

Indexing

Indexing is the next process, where information from crawling is stored in the search index. An index is a digital library of information about web pages. When a web page is added to the search index, it can come up on SERPs.

Ranking

Ranking is the position the search engine gives a website page on its SERPs for a particular keyword. The way search engines rank pages remains undisclosed, but we know some factors that affect the user’s experience and appeal to the bots. They include:

• Backlinks
• Freshness
• Usability of site
• Quality of content
• Mobile-friendliness
• Website loading time
• Fulfilling search intent
• Technical SEO

The search engine algorithm is constantly changing because of the changes in user behavior and demands. Therefore, understanding how the algorithm works and ranks pages and creating strategies to please the users and search engine is how to win in SEO.  

To get started, read this article on SEO tips for beginners.

4. How can I learn SEO?

SEO is both an art and a science. While there are things you’ll get to do instinctively, there are techniques you must learn.

Learn the basics

The first step to learning SEO is to get a fundamental understanding of the theories. You will need to learn how search engines work and the skills needed to optimize sites for favorable ranking. These skills include keyword research, SEO copywriting, and link building.

Universities do not typically offer degrees in SEO because it is a constantly changing field. However, there are many online resources in the form of blog posts, free and paid online courses, and boot camps. We rounded up a list of the best free SEO courses you can take.

If you’re changing career paths, you can opt for self-paced courses to keep learning while you’re still at your current job. 

Learn by doing

With SEO, just like every other subject, the best way to learn is by doing. So, after you learn the basics, practice your new skills. 

You can start by experimenting with a blog and executing the SEO strategies you’ve learned. Try them out, measure their impact and analyze the results. The results will show you lapses in your skill and push you to improve. Your practice blog can be a portfolio to submit to employers or clients if you choose to freelance. 

You may also immediately intern in a digital marketing or SEO agency. You will learn on the job as you help them carry out their SEO strategies for various clients.

Keep learning

With SEO, you have to keep up with the trends or get left behind. So be aware of the new tools and techniques and stay abreast of the latest happenings and industry updates. You can do this by reading SEO blogs, listening to podcasts, or joining an active community of SEO experts. 

Read this comprehensive guide on how to become an SEO expert. 

5. What is SEO? Key takeaways

We hope you found this introduction to SEO helpful and that it has excited you to delve deeper into the field. 

Some people believe that SEO is difficult because it is a fast-paced field with constant changes. We agree that there are by far less challenging career paths, but if you love innovation and excitement, you’ll enjoy it. It’s also incredible how many different fields it intersects with, including UX design. 

It is also a financially rewarding path.

Some of our key takeaways:

• SEO is a field that requires you to keep learning as you go.
• Since all the search engine ranking factors are unknown, you must make multiple iterations and updates to get SEO right.
• In the end, SEO is about creating content and adjusting your site for humans and search engines.

To take a step further in your SEO learnings, check out this list of SEO courses you can take for free.

SEO is only one of many career paths in digital marketing. Find out more about  the different types of digital marketing in this free, 5-day intro to digital marketing course.

You may also be interested in the following articles:

• How to create a social media marketing strategy
• What is social media marketing?
• The beginner’s guide to digital marketing

Over 80% of industry experts are already integrating some form of AI into their marketing activities, with a particular focus on ad targeting.

So, if you’re considering a career in digital marketing, understanding and utilizing ChatGPT prompts for marketing is no longer optional—it’s a necessity.

To help you navigate this new frontier, we’ve compiled the 21 best ChatGPT prompts for various marketing activities.

This is what we’ll cover:

• Top 18 ChatGPT prompts for marketing
  1. ChatGPT prompts for email marketing
  2. ChatGPT prompts for social media campaigns
  3. ChatGPT prompts for video scripting
  4. ChatGPT prompts for content curation
  5. ChatGPT prompts for on-page SEO
  6. ChatGPT prompts for PPC campaigns
• Closing thoughts

1. Top 18 ChatGPT prompts for marketing

Wondering where ChatGPT can make the most impact in your digital marketing strategy? We’ll explore seven key channels, each with its own set of starter prompts.

We’ll also provide you with contextual cues and follow-up queries to consider when creating your own personalized AI instructions.

So, let’s dive in.

1. ChatGPT prompts for email marketing

With ChatGPT for marketing, crafting compelling emails goes from tedious to exhilarating. A marketer could use ChatGPT to address issues like cart abandonment by creating personalized emails tailored to each customer’s unique needs.

You do, however, need to collect data on the common reasons for cart abandonment, such as high shipping costs or complicated checkouts. Input this data as context when using ChatGPT to ensure the content assistant produces the most relevant solutions.

1. Prompt: “Create an email to address cart abandonment issues.”
   Follow-up: “What incentives can we offer, such as free shipping or a one-time discount?”
2. Prompt: “Generate personalized subject lines based on customer purchase history.”
   Follow-up: “How can these lines increase open rates?”
3. Prompt: “Analyze user interaction with our previous emails to suggest layout improvements.”
   Follow-up: “What are the click-through hotspots?”

2. ChatGPT prompts for social media campaigns

Social media campaigns are a dynamic chess game where every move counts, and the rules keep evolving. ChatGPT acts as your social media strategist, helping you maneuver skillfully.

Before utilizing AI, gather data on hashtags that have previously worked well, engagement patterns, and seasonal trends. This information helps ChatGPT generate highly relevant and engaging hashtags for your campaign.

1. Prompt: “Generate trending hashtags for our Christmas Twitter/X campaign.”
   Follow-up: “Which hashtags are most likely to go viral within our target demographics?”
2. Prompt: “Critique our last Facebook ad to suggest A/B test variations.”
   Follow-up: “What types of images have historically led to higher engagement?”
3. Prompt: “Provide an Instagram posting schedule based on historical engagement data.”
   Follow-up: “What are the best times to post to reach young adults aged 18-24?”

3. ChatGPT prompts for video scripting

UX writing, including the art of video scripting, requires a captivating storyline and compelling dialogues. Suppose you’re creating a tutorial series to reduce customer service queries.

In that case, ChatGPT can be programmed to analyze hundreds of FAQs and customer feedback, generating a script that addresses most user pain points in a single go.

In this case, you’ll need to collate customer queries and complaints and any existing video metrics like watch times to provide context to the AI assistant.

1. Prompt: “Draft a script focusing on the top 10 user pain points for our product.”
   Follow-up: “Which user testimonials can we incorporate?”
2. Prompt: “Create a storyboard outline for our brand awareness video.”
   Follow-up: “What kinds of imagery will best illustrate our brand ethos?”
3. Prompt: “Help tighten a draft script for our new product launch video.”
   Follow-up: “Which of the following features should be highlighted for maximum impact?”

4. ChatGPT prompts for content curation

Curating content goes beyond aggregation; it’s about creating a valuable resource center for your target audience. This becomes more challenging with the daily flood of digital content.

A nutrition blogger may spend hours sifting through research, articles, and trends to stay relevant. ChatGPT and its web-based browser extensions, in particular, automate this process by filtering articles and identifying content gaps.

To offer thoughtful content curation, ChatGPT needs data from past campaigns and insights on engaging content. It’s also helpful to provide parameters like desired tone, brand aesthetic, and content type and length. 

1. Prompt: “Help categorize and organize our content library based on user engagement metrics.”
   Follow-up: “What are the top three categories we should focus on for boosting user interaction?”
2. Prompt: “Analyze our content repository and list topics we haven’t covered but are trending in our industry.”
   Follow-up: “How do these gaps align with our branding strategy?”
3. Prompt: “Evaluate the evergreen potential of our current content based on analytics and market trends.”
   Follow-up: “What kinds of evergreen content can we produce that would synergize with our existing materials?”

5. ChatGPT prompts for on-page SEO

On-page SEO is crucial for improving website visibility. With AI prompts from ChatGPT, you can optimize your content, conduct keyword research, and enhance website performance. 

ChatGPT can analyze multiple data points, from page speed to keyword relevance, providing nuanced suggestions. To get started, give ChatGPT Google Analytics data, heatmaps, and user surveys to generate informed recommendations.

1. Prompt: “Analyze high-exit pages to suggest user experience improvements.”
   Follow-up: “What are common elements in these pages that could be causing user exit?”
2. Prompt: “Improve meta descriptions incorporating long-tail keywords.”
   Follow-up: “Which long-tail keywords have low competition but high relevance?”
3. Prompt: “Evaluate the effectiveness of our current internal linking strategy.”
   Follow-up: “What other high-authority pages can we link to?”

6. ChatGPT prompts for PPC campaigns

Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns are dynamic, with many moving parts. AI assistance goes beyond basic analytics by identifying where your PPC campaigns are faltering and suggesting real-time solutions.

This means, instead of you second-guessing why a campaign underperformed during a critical product launch, ChatGPT could instantly evaluate the ROI, giving actionable insights on ad sets to scale and demographics to target.

If you already have campaigns that performed exceptionally well in the past, feed that data into ChatGPT. Likewise, having a list of high-performing keywords and an understanding of your target demographics will provide the chatbot with the tools it needs to help you soar.

1. Prompt: “Assess the ROI of our new feature launch PPC campaign.”
   Follow-up: “Which ad sets and demographics are most profitable?”
2. Prompt: “Evaluate our existing keyword performance to identify areas for improvement.”
   Follow-up: “Which new keywords should we test for better ROI?”
3. Prompt: “Generate ad copy that incorporates our product’s unique selling propositions and matches the emotional tone of our brand.”
   Follow-up: “How does this new ad copy compare in performance to our existing one?

2. Closing thoughts

AI tools like ChatGPT are setting new standards in digital marketing, offering nuanced and automated interactions that can significantly enhance user engagement and campaign efficacy.

This article has provided actionable prompts across seven key marketing channels to integrate this transformative technology into your strategy.

As you start working with ChatGPT prompts, consider these tips:

• Test variations: Use different prompts to test how ChatGPT responds and then refine your choices based on performance.
• Be contextual: Always include relevant context to get more accurate and tailored outputs.
• Analyze and adapt: Regularly review the analytics to see how the ChatGPT-powered campaigns are performing.

Keen to enter the world of digital marketing? Our free 5-day course is designed to introduce you to the fundamentals of this dynamic field. It’s the perfect way to get hands-on experience and gain the skills you need for a successful tech career.

Enjoyed this article? We think you’ll like these, too:

• 7 Great Coding Prompts for ChatGPT: A Beginner’s Guide
• ChatGPT for UX Design: The Top 15 Prompts
• 11 of the Best ChatGPT Data Analysis Prompts You Should Know

But, with so many options on the market, which digital marketing certification programs are actually worth considering?

To help you out, we’ve done our market research and compiled a shortlist of the best digital marketing certificates available right now. Whether you’re looking to brush up on your existing skills or break into digital marketing as a complete beginner—these certifications will help you on your way. 

Here’s what we’ll cover:

1. The 10 best digital marketing certification programs
   1.1 CareerFoundry
   1.2 Kellogg School of Business
   1.3 Udemy (Google)
   1.4 Digital Marketing Institute
   1.5 Duke University
   1.6 Brainstation
   1.7 Columbia Business School
   1.8 LinkedIn Learning
   1.9 Google Skillshop
   1.10 Hubspot
2. Is a digital marketing certificate worth it?
3. What jobs can you apply for with a digital marketing certification?
4. Key takeaways and next steps
5. FAQ about digital marketing certificates

Of course, if you want to jump right in, try our free digital marketing short course. 

1. The 10 best digital marketing certificate programs on the market

If you do a Google search for “digital marketing certification,” you’ll no doubt end up with a surplus of options. We’ll help you separate the wheat from the chaff when choosing the best digital marketing certification program to satisfy your unique needs.

1.1 CareerFoundry’s Digital Marketing Program

CareerFoundry is known for its top-quality instructors and mentors, up-to-the-minute curriculums, and students who graduate with a rock-solid understanding of course concepts. While completing the Digital Marketing Program, aspiring digital marketers will get exposure to real topics that professionals deal with every day, helping them to decide if digital marketing is a career path that suits them.

At a glance:

• Mode of study: Online, self-paced
• Best for: Those interested in a career change into digital marketing
• Duration: Four months studying full-time or up to seven months studying part-time
• Price: $6,900 (with discounts available if paying up-front and other payment options available)

Course description

The CareerFoundry Digital Marketing course teaches you all the fundamental skills, tools, and processes required to become a digital marketing expert. Working with an industry expert mentor and tutor, you’ll build projects that you can use in your digital marketing portfolio, preparing you for a career change into the field.

CareerFoundry is so confident in its approach and curriculum that it also offers a Job Guarantee: land a job in your desired field within 180 days of graduating from your program or get your money back.

All of CareerFoundry’s programs are self-paced, meaning there are no scheduled lectures or seminars to attend. Instead, you can choose to work part-time at 15-20 hours a week for seven months or full-time at 30-40 hours a week to graduate in four months.

Interested in learning more about how to start a career in digital marketing? Learn more in the following video featuring experienced digital marketing professional Ed Wood.

1.2 Kellogg Professional Certificate in Digital Marketing

The prestigious Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University offers a digital marketing certification as part of its executive education program. 

At a glance:

• Mode of study: Online
• Best for: Serious professionals with a few years of work experience 
• Duration: 6 months (estimated 15-20 hours per week)
• Cost: $6,950

Course description

This comprehensive program covers all the main digital marketing channels, including search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click display ads (PPC), and email. The curriculum includes hands-on experience with common marketing channels, a capstone project focusing on real-world applications, and professional help building a marketing resume and online portfolio.

Students will learn from a series of live webinars broken down into 20 modules and even have the option to join office hours for additional tutelage from esteemed digital marketing experts. 

1.3 Google Analytics Certification

Udemy’s Google Analytics Certification course will get you in fighting shape to pass your Google Analytics exam and earn a certificate that will help set you apart from your peers in the digital marketing sector. 

At a glance:

• Mode of study: Online
• Ideal for: Digital marketers interested in becoming an expert in Google Analytics 
• Duration: Courses are on-demand and can be done at your own pace
• Price: $21.99 for the course or $29/month for access to Udemy’s full library

Course description

Google Analytics is one of the most common and critical tools for a digital marketing professional to master. GA novices and experts will benefit from the course’s two hours of on-demand video instruction, downloadable resources, and 200 practice questions.

There’s even a practice exam you can take to help you prepare to earn your official Google Analytics certification. Even if you aren’t planning on taking the test, this course will boost your knowledge of Google Analytics—which can only improve your ability as a digital marketer. 

1.4 Digital Marketing Pro Certification from the Digital Marketing Institute

This digital marketing certification is a collaborative effort between the American Marketing Association (AMA) and the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI). Students who pass the exam will be dual-certified with two professional credentials: the PCM® Digital Marketing and Certified Digital Marketing Professional. 

At a glance:

• Mode of study: Online
• Ideal for: Newbie to intermediary digital marketers looking to improve their expertise in the field and burnish their credentials 
• Duration: 30 hours of on-demand courses
• Price: $1,368

Course description

Having conferred over 30,000 certifications since its inception in 2009, the Digital Marketing Institute is recognized as one of the top issuers of digital marketing certificates worldwide. The Digital Marketing Pro dual-certification promises to boost the skills of entry-level to intermediate marketers thanks to a comprehensive curriculum that includes courses on content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, digital marketing strategy, SEO, and more.

Former students rave about the program: 92% agree that the course had a “positive impact on their career,” and 81% of graduates snagged a promotion after successfully completing the course. 

1.5 Duke University Digital Media & Marketing certification

This professional-level online course will prepare you to take the Online Marketing Certified Professional (OMCP) exam to earn the highly-valued certification. 

At a glance:

• Mode of study: Online
• Ideal for: Digital marketing professionals with a few years of experience 
• Duration: Recommended 350 hours of self-paced instruction/study time that students can complete over a 12-month period (spending 5-10 hours per week)
• Price: $3,195

Course description

Duke University offers this course for professionals interested in attaining the industry-leading OMCP certification. Students must pass the Digital Marketing Certified Associate (DMCA) module and receive that certification before moving on to the advanced modules, which cover topics like mobile marketing, SEO, paid search, and content marketing in more depth.

They’ll also be exposed to popular digital marketing tools like Hootsuite (social media), Mailchimp (email marketing), and Google Ads (paid search). Hands-on work through labs that include access to Mimic Pro and Mimic Social allows students to hone their skills without needing access to real platforms.  

1.6 BrainStation’s Digital Marketing Certification

BrainStation offers both online and on-campus bootcamps and courses for those looking to learn in-demand tech skills. Their online digital marketing certification promises to teach cutting-edge skills and accelerate your digital marketing career. 

At a glance:

• Mode of study: Online, live
• Ideal for: Digital marketing professionals and newcomers alike
• Duration: 10 weeks, 5 hours per week
• Price: $3,250

Course description

The BrainStation digital marketing certification course has five units: marketing strategy foundations, attracting and engaging audiences, digital marketing analytics, social media marketing, and email marketing. The lessons are taught online, at set times, in a live classroom environment, and the project-based nature of the course will have you working on a real-world project for your marketing portfolio. Upon completing the course, you’ll get a professional certificate to share with your network. 

1.7 Columbia Business School Digital Marketing Certificate Program

The digital marketing certification offered by Emeritus and Columbia Business School provides a comprehensive initiation to the field of digital marketing. 

At a glance:

• Mode of study: Online
• Ideal for: Entry-level marketing professionals 
• Duration: 3 months, 2-4 hours per week
• Price: $1,250

Course description

If you’re looking for a course that’s a little more in-depth but won’t take you the best part of a year to complete, the Columbia Business School offers a digital marketing program spanning just three months, requiring as little as two to four hours of study per week. Taking place entirely online, the curriculum is divided into fourteen modules, covering topics such as key marketing channels and principles, customer behavior, content marketing and messaging, and digital marketing metrics.

The content is delivered through live online teaching sessions and Q&As, discussion groups, and video lectures. You’ll also try your hand at real-world applications and simulations. In all, this is a highly interactive, comprehensive course that will give you a credible digital marketing certification for your CV.

1.8 Become a Digital Marketing Specialist (LinkedIn)

Taught by various experienced professionals, LinkedIn’s online course provides a no-pressure environment for entry-level marketers wishing to build their knowledge of digital marketing.  

At a glance:

• Mode of study: Online
• Ideal for: Entry-level marketing professionals 
• Duration: Almost 20 hours of on-demand videos broken down into 11 modules
• Price: $29.99/month or $19.99 paid annually for access to all LinkedIn Learning courses

Course description

This is an ideal course for people with little to no experience with digital marketing. It provides a comprehensive overview of all the leading digital marketing channels, including Google Ads (PPC), SEO, email, and social media.

Students will also get a basic introduction to Google Analytics, content marketing, Facebook, and Instagram, and even learn the fundamentals of graphic design using Adobe products. Each video module includes a quiz to test how much you’ve learned, and you’ll receive a certificate upon completion of all the modules. 

1.9 Google Ads Skillshop

Google offers several free certifications for its tools through its Skillshop, including one for Google Ads.  

At a glance

• Mode of study: Online
• Ideal for: Digital marketers looking to specialize in search engine marketing (SEM) or brush up on their existing knowledge 
• Duration: Each of the six Google Ads courses ranges in length from an estimated 2.6 to 4.7 hours long to complete
• Price: Free!

Course description

If you’re keen to become an expert in any of Google’s ad formats (e.g., pay-per-click, display, Shopping, etc.), these mini modules are the perfect way to achieve your goals. Google has broken down each course into easy-to-digest articles with interactive components, like flip cards and a short quiz at the end.

Students even get additional context for how to use each ad type through real-world case studies. A digital marketing certification that credibly proves your competence in the top SEM platform will ensure your resume stands out from the rest in today’s competitive job market. 

1.10 HubSpot Digital Marketing Certification Course

Hubspot Academy has a wide variety of marketing certifications that will benefit digital marketers at any stage of their careers. The digital marketing certification course is geared towards both experienced digital marketers looking to upskill, and newcomers looking for an introduction to the field.   

At a glance:

• Mode of study: Online
• Ideal for: Marketers looking to build out their skillset or get an introduction to the field
• Duration: Four hours (comprising 9 lessons, 37 videos, and 11 quizzes)
• Price: Free!

Course description

HubSpot’s free digital marketing certification course will take you through the fundamentals of digital marketing, with modules covering content creation, SEO strategy, website performance, social media, and an introduction to paid search advertising and email marketing. Although you’ll get a certificate of completion, it’s important to note that this is a free course that provides a high-level overview of the field.

If you’re taking a digital marketing certification program in order to get a job in the field, you’ll need a more comprehensive offering. Still, this is a great place to start if you’re just dipping your toe in and aren’t quite ready to commit to a more intensive program of study. 

2. Is a digital marketing certificate worth it?

It’s a smart move to consider a career in digital marketing, given that experts estimated the global digital marketing spend topped $450 billion in 2021. Even better, they expect this number to increase by 40% by 2024. And guess what? Companies will need digital marketers to manage those billions. 

If you’re considering a career change, a digital marketing certification can be an enormous help. Here’s why:  

A digital marketing certification program will get you job-ready

One of the best ways to learn new skills is through a structured learning environment. Yet, unlike a traditional degree, a digital marketing certification program will focus only on digital marketing and will not take nearly as much time to complete.

Depending on your chosen provider, a digital marketing certification program can offer the complete career-change package, taking you from complete beginner to job-ready in a matter of months. It’s a great option if you want to change careers but don’t have the time, money, or patience to spread it out over years and years! 

It will help with networking and mentorship

Many digital marketing certification programs include mentoring as part of the services students receive for their tuition. Mentorship is beneficial for everyone, no matter what stage you’re at in your career. Especially if you’re new to digital marketing, a mentor will give you advice and feedback on your work, share tips and insights about the industry, and potentially open up doors for you when it comes to making connections and looking for jobs.

Networking is another benefit. When you take a digital marketing certification program, you’re not alone. You may have the opportunity to work on group projects and get to know other students, widening your social circle. Even if you study online, most programs will provide access to an online community space.

You never know who might introduce you to the hiring manager for your next role! Aside from that, it’s extremely motivating to be studying alongside other upskillers and career-changers from all over the world.

A digital marketing certification program will help keep your skills up to date

Even seasoned digital marketers need to keep on top of new trends, platforms, and technology, as change is the only constant in this field. Digital marketing certifications often offer more up-to-the-minute curriculums than traditional degrees. Getting a certification is an excellent way to show employers that you’re keeping up with the industry (if you’re already in the field) and, if you’re brand new to digital marketing, that you’ve followed a structured learning path to master all the necessary skills and know-how. 

Now let’s look at the careers that a digital marketing certification can help with. 

3. What jobs can you apply for with a digital marketing certification?

You already know that digital marketing is a rapidly expanding field. Part of the reason why is that there are so many roles that fall into this category. One of the biggest benefits of a digital marketing certification program is that it’ll prepare you for a career in the field. So what jobs can you apply for once you’ve got your certification?

We’ve outlined the top digital marketing jobs in this guide, and we’ll highlight them briefly here, too:

• Digital marketing analyst
• Digital marketing specialist
• Digital marketing manager
• Social media manager
• Social media specialist
• Email marketing specialist
• Director of digital marketing

More specific job titles include that of the SEO specialist, performance marketing manager, content marketing manager, and copywriter—to name just a few. Essentially, the route you take depends on where your interests lie and whether or not you want to specialize or generalize. 

Either way, a digital marketing certification program will lay a solid foundation for your career in digital marketing, teaching you the fundamentals you’ll need for any role. From there, you can build up your skills to focus on a particular area of digital marketing. 

4. Key takeaways and next steps

Whether you’re keen to go all-in through an intensive program that will facilitate a career change or simply interested in keeping your existing skills fresh, you’ll be sure to find the perfect digital marketing certification with all the potential options available to you. Your next step is to determine your goals, budget, and time frame for completion, and you’ll be good to go! 

If you’re interested in taking a digital marketing course but want to try one out obligation-free, try out our free, 5-day short course.

To learn more about starting a career in digital marketing, check out these guides:

• Is a digital marketing bootcamp worth it?
• Do you need a digital marketing degree to start a career in the field?
• Is digital marketing a good career to get into?

5. FAQ about digital marketing certificates

1. Is a digital marketing certification worth it?

It’s a smart move to consider a career in digital marketing, given that experts estimated the global digital marketing spend topped $450 billion in 2021. Even better, they expect this number to increase by 40% by 2024. And guess what? Companies will need digital marketers to manage those billions.

2. What jobs can you apply for once you’ve got a digital marketing certification?

A digital marketing certificate can help you stand out to potential employers and demonstrate your skills and knowledge in the field. However, it’s important to note that a certificate alone may not be sufficient to secure a job in digital marketing. Practical experience, a strong portfolio, and networking can also be important factors in securing a job in this competitive field.

3. Is a digital marketing certificate hard?

The difficulty level of a digital marketing certificate program can vary depending on the program and your prior experience. However, with dedication and effort, anyone can successfully complete a digital marketing program and earn a certificate.

But as a newcomer, the sheer diversity of digital marketing careers can be overwhelming. Digital marketing isn’t a one-size-fits-all career path, after all. 

Our digital marketing quiz is designed to help you find the perfect digital marketing role.

Whether you have a flair for social media, are fascinated by search engine optimization, or prefer creative copywriting, our quiz will unveil your core digital marketing persona. 

Ready to find out which digital marketing role is right for you? Let’s do it.

Which data role is right for you? The digital marketing quiz

Our digital marketing quiz consists of 10 multiple-choice questions designed to evaluate your interests, skill areas, and their relevance to various digital marketing roles. You should be able to complete the test in about 5 minutes.

The digital marketing job quiz focuses primarily on your strengths, interests, responses to work problems, and soft skills. With a little effort, many of the hard skills for each role can be learned, but the capabilities described are most important as they are more inherent to an individual’s way of working and will inform your suitability for different roles.

With all that in mind, let’s jump into the quiz!

Next steps

Well done for completing our digital marketing quiz. You should now have insight into the types of digital marketing careers that suit you. It’s an incredible field, and with job demand in marketing expected to increase by 10% by 2026, it’s a great time to get started, whichever your perfect role. 

Although this is just a starting point, consider the following steps to help launch your digital marketing career.

1. Explore the specific digital marketing roles that interest you in more depth. Do they align with your interests and skills?
2. Enhance your digital marketing skills through online courses and practical projects. Would you prefer learning online via free tutorials and YouTube videos or bootcamps? There are a lot of great options. 
3. Build a portfolio to showcase your digital marketing accomplishments. Which areas interest you most, and what projects can you carry out?
4. Network with professionals in the industry through events and online platforms. What advice can you find about job hunting and skills specialization?
5. Gain practical experience through internships or freelance work. Are you ready to take the plunge into the workplace? If not, what skills do you still need?
6. Stay ahead of industry trends and advances to keep your knowledge fresh. Not just the areas that interest you, but the ones that seem to be making a big splash!

Remember, whatever your path in digital marketing, it should align with your personal aspirations and career objectives.

While our quiz can provide guidance, the ultimate decision is yours. Whether you’re a creative character or have a more analytical streak, one thing’s for sure—you’ll find a role that’s right for you.

Ready to find out more about different digital marketing jobs? Sign up for this free 5-day digital marketing short course, speak directly with a program advisor, or check out the following articles:

• How To Become a Digital Marketing Manager
• What Is the Digital Marketing Salary? 2023 Guide
• The 9 Best Online Courses to Learn Digital Marketing in 2023

For aspiring digital marketers and tech career changers, it’s a wild professional ride out there with so much change and uncertainty. But don’t be alarmed; we’re here, ready to navigate you through the future of digital marketing with well-informed insights.

The 2020 Deloitte global survey of early AI adopters revealed that marketing-oriented goals are at the forefront of AI applications. Specifically, the objectives of enhancing products and services, fostering innovation and nurturing customer relationships ranked in the top five.

As AI capabilities mature, businesses are liberated from the time constraints of human work rhythms. AI-powered organizations are riding the data wave and deploying AI in smart ways, nabbing a competitive edge, always innovating, and making things better for customers. It’s pretty clear AI is set to be the star player in the marketing game plan of the future.

But while the power of AI in digital marketing is undeniable, many are left wondering, what exactly does this mean for the field? What changes can we anticipate, and how will they transform the way we approach marketing strategies?

In this article, we’ll explore the impacts and potential applications of AI in the digital marketing space, guiding you through the impending revolution. 

Here are the topics we’ll cover:

• How will AI impact digital marketing?
  1. Impact of AI on customer service
  2. AI in advanced customer segmentation
  3. Enhancing UX design with AI
  4. The role of AI in targeted and predictive content
• 5 ways to use AI in digital marketing
  1. Chatbots: A new way to interact
  2. AI-powered image recognition
  3. AI-assisted ads optimization
  4. AI in content creation
  5. Predictive analysis with AI
• Potential and challenges in using AI in digital marketing
• Key takeaways

Feel free to use the clickable menu to jump to the sections you’re most interested in. With that, let’s jump right in!

How will AI impact digital marketing?

Paul Roetzer, founder and CEO of the Marketing AI Institute and author of Marketing Artificial Intelligence, argues that the marketing world is on the brink of a seismic shift thanks to artificial intelligence. He posits that while AI may not lead to self-running, autonomous marketing systems, even a small application of AI can significantly improve productivity, efficiency, and performance.

By effectively sifting through the ever-increasing data noise, AI provides actionable intelligence, giving marketers the edge they’ve been waiting for.

Now that we’ve outlined the big picture of AI’s potential, let’s move into the specifics—the practical ways this new technology can revolutionize digital marketing. We’ll explore the influence of AI on customer service, delve into its role in predictive content creation, and discover how it can dramatically enhance user experience. 

Impact of AI on customer service

AI’s advancement in the customer service realm marks a turning point for marketing professionals. Here’s how it redefines the game:

• Smart automation provides a continuous flow of customer support.
• Personalized experience crafts individualized customer interactions.
• Deep insight enhances business understanding of consumer requirements.
• Optimized productivity increases performance by accomplishing tasks faster.
• Uninterrupted service guarantees customer help is available around the clock.

These advancements not only elevate customer satisfaction but also recalibrate digital marketing strategies. The new focus? Delivering personalized, efficient, and always-available service, thereby creating a stronger connection with consumers and fostering loyalty.

AI in advanced customer segmentation

Have you ever launched a marketing campaign based on traditional segmentation only to discover your audience’s interests and motivations don’t align with your assumptions? Digital marketers can now overcome these hurdles by tapping into the power of AI and Machine Learning (ML). 

Here is how it works: artificial intelligence, equipped with sophisticated algorithms, can sift through massive customer data sets, revealing hidden psychographic and behavioral patterns essential to accurate predictions. With real-time insights and improved scalability, AI and ML open the door for agile, data-driven strategies.

Whether it’s supervised learning, guided by predefined rules, or unsupervised learning, which identifies intricate customer clusters, AI-enhanced customer segmentation is poised to revolutionize your marketing approach.

Enhancing UX design with AI

Another area where AI is making a significant impact is in the realm of UX design, leading to an array of powerful enhancements and opportunities. Consider the following:

• Data-Driven Insights: designers can use AI algorithms to extract valuable insights from voluminous user data to support design decision-making.
• Tailored User Experiences: AI-powered predictive models foster personalized digital products, echoing individual user behavior.
• Automated Workflows: using AI for repetitive tasks like data validation or feature creation expedites the design process.
• Sophisticated Prototyping: AI tools aid user testing and prototyping, highlighting potential behavior patterns for better iterations.

In this way, AI and UX design are intertwined, opening up limitless possibilities for creative problem-solving. However, the integration of AI does not negate the designer’s role. Instead, it emphasizes the importance of human and AI collaboration for enriched user experiences.

The human designer’s ability to empathize and intuitively understand users’ needs complements AI’s precision and efficiency, creating a synergistic environment that enhances the UX design process.

The role of AI in targeted and predictive content

AI also excels at content targeting. Drawing from vast datasets, AI can decode user behavior patterns, interests, and preferences, crafting content tailored to each individual’s unique persona.

AI-powered targeted content becomes a laser-focused messaging tool. Utilizing Natural Language Processing (NLP), AI analyzes user-generated content, distilling key themes and sentiments to deliver content that resonates with the user’s interests and attitudes.

Whether it’s social media posts, news articles, or product reviews, AI can skillfully weave its way through a sea of text, discerning patterns and meaning, and thus, inform content creation in a truly customized manner.

In addition, AI ventures into the realm of predictive analytics. By examining data trails such as search history, purchase patterns, and social media activity, AI can anticipate content users will likely find engaging. This predictive prowess allows marketers to preemptively serve users with engaging, relevant content, allowing them to connect with their audience on a deeper level.

5 ways to use AI in digital marketing

It’s one thing to understand the theory behind AI’s impact on digital marketing, but how will it be applied in practice? Here are five ways we expect AI to be used in digital marketing in the coming years.

1. Chatbots: A new way to interact

Chatbots like ChatGPT represent a groundbreaking means to interact. They leverage AI to provide real-time, personalized responses to enhance customer service.

Whether guiding users to desired products or resolving queries around the clock, chatbots streamline the customer journey and enrich user experience. 

For a detailed dive into the transformative power of AI bots, check out this Search Engine Journal resource about different use cases and opportunities you should be aware of as a digital marketer.

2. AI-powered image recognition

Revolutionizing marketing, AI-powered image recognition automates the formerly tedious process of photo sorting and analyzing imagery for trends. Tech-savvy marketers now use this AI feature to tailor ads, monitor social media, refine product suggestions, and optimize ad content, reducing manual labor and boosting marketing efficiency.

3. AI-assisted ads optimization

AI tools are reshaping advertising strategies by fine-tuning ads, focusing on individual interests, behaviors, and past interactions.

In fact, Statista reports that in 2022, the expenditure on advertising facilitated by artificial intelligence stood at an impressive $370 billion. Forecasts indicate a substantial surge in AI-powered advertising spending, with predictions of it escalating to $1.3 trillion by the year 2032. 

From recommending products to predicting buying behaviors and customizing ad content, AI offers a triple-edged advantage: 

• Precise targeting
• Personalization
• Scalability

These components make it possible to optimize ads in real time and reach the right people with the right message at the right time.

4. AI in content creation

In today’s content creation economy, AI is a game changer. It allows you to:

• Craft engaging blogs with human-like language
• Develop social media posts that hit the right chord
• Create personalized email campaigns to foster customer relationships
• Produce innovative visual content driven by AI-powered content ideation tools
• Pinpoint and optimize keywords for SEO, boosting content visibility

While AI may stir fears of job displacement, its role is increasingly seen as an assistive tool for human creators, not a threat—a balance that’s vital to strike. 

For more information on which AI tools you should be using, check out our article on the best AI tools for digital marketing.

5. Predictive analysis with AI

If integrated with predictive analytics models, AI can offer up-to-the-second data vital for real-time decision-making. In the dynamic post-pandemic environment, these accurate predictions can optimize supply chains.

For instance, AI can help digital marketers forecast customer behavior, product demand, or potential website traffic fluctuations. Accurately predicting such factors enables better resource allocation and campaign planning.

Potential and challenges in using AI in digital marketing

Embracing AI in digital marketing also means navigating various challenges and risks.

For example, ethical dilemmas are prevalent in content targeting. Privacy is a hot-button issue, with user data serving as the fuel for AI algorithms. Its mishandling can lead to breaches, trust erosion, and reputational damage. 

Moreover, if trained on biased data, these algorithms can perpetuate, even amplify, discrimination or exclusion, fostering a lack of fairness in content targeting. Transparency, too, is paramount; users deserve to understand why they see certain content and what decisions led to its presentation.

But despite these hurdles, the transformative potential of AI in digital marketing is remarkable. AI can catapult customer engagement and business growth to unprecedented levels when used ethically and responsibly.  

So, while challenges exist, don’t underestimate the future-altering power of AI in marketing and start familiarizing yourself with its vast capabilities.

Key takeaways 

Ready to ride the wave of the future in digital marketing? AI has been a game-changer, revolutionizing the way we engage customers, dissect data, and craft meaningful content. By deploying AI correctly, your marketing efforts can reach new heights of personalization and precision. 

So, what’s the next step? If you’re new to the field, check out our free, 5-day introductory course to digital marketing—it’s the perfect starting point to gain a solid foundation and discover if the profession is right for you. 

Or, if you’d like to keep reading, you might enjoy our other articles on related  topics: 

• What Are the Different Types of Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
• How To Become a Digital Marketer (Is It a Good Career Fit?)
• Why AI Won’t Replace Web Developers Anytime Soon

Indeed, marketers have long sought innovative ways to enhance their strategies, save time, and stay ahead of the competition. 

The arrival of AI has opened up a new realm of possibilities, allowing digital marketers to streamline their efforts, make fast, data-driven decisions, and deliver unique and personalized customer experiences to their target audience.

But what are the best AI tools for digital marketing? In this post, we’ll explore the 20 best AI tools for digital marketing professionals, including those that will help optimize your campaigns, others to improve customer engagement, and even those that can help shape your overall strategy.

Since accessibility is key, we’ve ensured that our curated list includes some of the best free AI tools for digital marketing. Harnessing the power of AI needn’t break the bank, as we’ll see. 

We’ll cover:

1. What is an AI digital marketing tool?
2. The 20 best AI tools for digital marketing
3. Closing thoughts

Ready? Then let’s dive into the exciting world of artificial intelligence!

1. What is an AI digital marketing tool?

Before we reach our top 20, it helps to ensure we all know what we mean by “AI digital marketing tools”. Simply put, an AI tool is a piece of software or a platform that leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to optimize otherwise complex or menial tasks—in this case, those related to digital marketing.

Whether we’re talking about social media advertising, content strategy, SEO, or affiliate marketing, AI tools can help.

Learn more: What are the 9 types of digital marketing?

While all digital marketing activity requires human oversight, AI tools specializing in data analysis, image or natural language processing (and more) can eradicate much of the heavy lifting associated with these tasks.

For example, there are tools to help with everything from ad strategy to influencer marketing. And despite occasional doom-mongering in the media, these tools are not here to replace humans. 

They are here to make our jobs easier and more productive. In turn, this allows us to focus our efforts where they’re most needed (and spoiler alert: that’s usually on the fun and creative tasks!) 

While there’s little doubt that AI tools will transform digital marketing, we could say the same about any digital innovation over the past 20 years. 

Artificial intelligence may play an increasingly prominent role in our lives, but it simply means our jobs will evolve—admittedly in unexpected ways—to match. This comes with uncertainty but it also makes it an exciting time to be a digital marketer!

2. The 20 best AI tools for digital marketing

While we may think of artificial intelligence as being highly sophisticated—which in many ways, it is—it’s also still in its infancy. As such, you can expect many more sophisticated tools to emerge in the coming months and years.

With the present moment in mind though, let’s explore 20 of the best AI tools for digital marketing that are available right now.

Content is, of course, king, so you’ll notice many of the tools on our list relate one way or another to creating or optimizing various types of content. Let’s take a look.

1. Jasper.ai

Launched: 2021

Used for: Content production

Pricing: $39 (individuals) and £99 (teams)

Jasper.ai is a cutting-edge AI-powered content generation and optimization tool designed for augmenting content production. Using advanced natural language processing algorithms, the platform allows you to effortlessly tackle multiple content-related tasks, such as crafting blogs, social media posts, ad copy, and other compelling marketing content.

Its focus on marketing-specific content distinguishes it from more generic content generation tools.

2. Surfer SEO

Launched: 2008

Used for: SEO management

Pricing: From $19 to $249

A well-established SEO tool that recently incorporated AI into its functionality, Surfer SEO is designed to help digital marketers optimize content for search engines. It now uses automated data-driven recommendations for improving on-page SEO, such as keyword usage, content structure, and meta tags. 

Using detailed analysis and competitor insight, you can also use the tool to automate the trickier aspects of SEO itself, allowing you to concentrate on the important stuff: namely, creating high-ranking, search engine-friendly content that packs a punch!

3. Grammarly

Launched: 2009

Used for: Content editing

Pricing: Free to $15 per month

Grammarly is probably one of the best free AI tools for digital marketing professionals looking to streamline their editing tasks.

Think of it as being a bit like an AI version of MS Word’s grammar tools; it detects and corrects grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style errors (just like MS Word) but also offers enhanced, real-time suggestions for improving sentence structure, word use, and tone of voice. 

Better yet, most of its functionality is free, and even if you fork out for the premium version, it won’t break the bank.

4. Brand24

Launched: 2013

Used for: Social listening

Pricing: $69 to $349

Use Brand24 to monitor and analyze online mentions of your brand, products, and broader industry trends.

Offering real-time insights from social media, news articles, blogs, and other content, Brand24 can help you track customer sentiment, identify influencers you might want to work with and offer additional tips and insights to help you engage your audience better.

And by automating data analytics tasks, the tool also gives the comfort of staying on top of your online reputation using reliable recommendations you can trust.

5. MarketMuse

Launched: 2011

Used for: Automated content marketing strategy

Pricing: Free to $399 for teams

MarketMuse is an AI-driven content auditing platform. It assists digital marketers in creating high-quality content that achieves the holy grail of being both relevant to end users and meeting organic SEO requirements.

MarketMuse goes beyond the basic keyword analysis offered by many tools, also identifying content gaps, providing strategic recommendations, and empowering data-driven decision-making.

6. Seventh Sense

Launched: 2013

Used for: Email marketing

Pricing: $64 or $360 per month, depending on platform integration

Seventh Sense is a cloud-based AI tool that simplifies email marketing campaign management, analysis, and associated business intelligence.

Designed to integrate with the marketing platforms HubSpot and Marketo, it automatically analyzes recipients’ email engagement patterns, determining the optimal time to send emails for maximum open and click-through rates.

By sending customized emails to each customer, you will ultimately improve deliverability and conversion rates, all with minimal effort.

7. Brandwatch Influence

Launched: 2022

Used for: Influencer marketing

Pricing: On request

In 2022, the social listening provider Brandwatch acquired the LA startup, Paladin, before relaunching it as Brandwatch Influence. With a database of over 30 million influencers and supporting all the big social media platforms, you can use it to efficiently manage your influencer networks and discover the best influencers for your brand.

The tool utilizes AI for audience and product analysis, as well as for measuring the impact and ROI of influencer campaigns, an automation that would not have been possible just a few years ago.

8. Zapier

Launched: 2011

Used for: Task automation

Pricing: Free to $750

Zapier is undoubtedly one of the best AI tools for digital marketing professionals wanting to improve workflow management. This AI-powered platform helps streamline workflows, connecting various apps and automating repetitive tasks.

Beyond merely automating, you can create custom workflows, known as “Zaps”, which trigger actions in one app based on events in another. Examples include things like data synchronization, lead generation, social media posting, and more.

9. Drift

Launched: 2015

Used for: AI chatbot

Pricing: $2,500 per month

Drift is a conversational AI platform that helps businesses provide chat assistance and answer common questions from their website visitors.

By engaging with visitors in real time, the tool vastly speeds up lead generation, freeing human marketers to handle more complex tasks, such as answering specific questions or providing custom quotes.

With personalized messaging and seamless integration with various platforms, Drift can transform how businesses interact with their visitors, making the experience more positive and productive for all involved.

10. Ocoya

Launched: 2021

Used for: Social media automation and content generation

Pricing: $15 to $159 per month

Ocoya is a social media automation and AI-driven content generation tool that digital marketers can use to create (and post) compelling social media content. Outputs include posts, captions, blogs, hashtags, and gifs, to name a few.

With over 10,000 preexisting customizable templates, you can quickly create unique branded content without having to resource a graphic designer or content writer every single time. It also integrates with many popular social media platforms and other social media scheduling suites, making it a fantastic time-saver.

11. ManyChat

Launched: 2015

Used for: Chat marketing

Pricing: Free to $15 a month

ManyChat is an AI chatbot platform aimed not at websites (like Drift) but at Facebook Messenger. Using a simple drag-and-drop interface and offering many templates, you can create chatbots for digital marketing, sales, and customer support purposes.

It automates your conversations, sends targeted messages, collects leads, and drives user engagement on Facebook, all with minimal effort. Ultimately, this sets you up to go, allowing you to focus more time on complex strategic tasks such as customer segmentation and campaign performance management.

12. Tidio

Launched: 2013

Used for: Automatic customer service

Pricing: Free to $29 per month

Another AI chat and customer service tool, Tidio stands out for its multichannel support, allowing you to create chat interfaces on websites, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp. Its intuitive interface means digital marketers can easily customize their chatbots without any coding knowledge. 

It also offers live chat services, directing visitors towards human-to-human interactions when required. On top of that, its customer analytics and helpdesk support are excellent for those moments when even state-of-the-art tech can’t do it all!

13. Smartly.io

Launched: 2013

Used for: Branded social media ads

Pricing: Demos/pricing on request

Smartly.io is an AI-powered advertising platform designed to optimize and automate social media ad campaigns. Smartly has an array of advanced tools, such as creative automation, ad optimization, and precise audience targeting, and supports advertising across platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Leveraging its analytics functionality, you can also scale your social media advertising efforts right up, without any impact on campaign performance, ultimately helping you achieve higher returns on investment.

14. DeepL

Launched: 2017

Used for: Language translation

Pricing: From free to $49.99 per month

DeepL is one of the best free AI tools for digital marketing professionals looking for quick, accurate language translations. By using neural networks, DeepL typically offers more accurate and context-specific translations than mainstream alternatives such as Google Translate. 

While it doesn’t offer quite as many languages as Google, it regularly introduces new ones and currently has around 30 in its arsenal. Its ability to manage colloquialisms and unusual turns of phrase makes it helpful for digital marketers who need to translate or localize content, ads, or customer communications. And while you can pay for additional features, the basic version is free. Bonus!

15. Hemingway App

Launched: 2013

Used for: Content editing

Pricing: Free online/ $19.99 for the desktop app

Similar to Grammarly, Hemingway App is an AI writing tool that helps digital marketers improve the clarity and readability of their content. Input your article or blog post, and it highlights complex sentences, excessive adverbs, and cases of passive voice; while suggesting revisions for better readability. 

The tool’s readability scores are based on US high school grades, allowing you to assess how easily different age groups will understand your writing. You can then adjust your text accordingly, ensuring it is comprehensible to your intended audience.

16. HubSpot

Launched: 2006

Used for: Digital marketing platform

Pricing: $800 to $3,600 per month

HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing automation platform that has been around since 2006, making it an industry veteran. Although AI has only gained traction more recently, in March 2023, HubSpot launched ChatSpot.ai, as well as a content assistant tool. 

Now, in addition to features such as lead generation, email marketing, social media analytics, and CRM integration, HubSpot enables you to implement chatbots on websites and generate content for digital marketing campaigns, social media posts, and so on. We think this may be a tool to watch.

As AI continues to evolve, you can bet HubSpot will introduce even more AI-driven tools, making it an ideal solution that caters to all your digital marketing needs.

17. PhotoRoom

Launched: 2020

Used for: Photographic editing

Pricing: Free to $9.99 per month

Yes, OK, end-to-end, all-bells-and-whistles solutions that will knock your socks off can be great. But sometimes, you just want to fix a photo in a hurry! PhotoRoom is an AI-powered mobile and browser app that allows digital marketers to quickly and accurately remove backgrounds from images and make other minor edits. 

It uses computer vision technology to detect objects and people in photos, making it easy to create professional-looking product images and other visual content.

Although the tool is quite straightforward, its output is surprisingly professional-looking, saving you time with manual image editing when you need it in a pinch!

18. DALL·E

Launched: 2021

Used for: Text to image generation

Pricing: $15 for 115 credits (one credit per prompt)

Brought to you by Open AI, the organization behind the now ubiquitous ChatGPT, DALL·E is one of several emerging text-to-image generation tools slowly being adopted by digital marketers. Simply enter a text prompt, and the tool will output a handful of images you can abandon, further refine, or use as they are. 

While the technology is still relatively new (and its output can be a little questionable at times) some organizations are already using it in their digital marketing efforts. 

19. Albert.ai

Launched: 2014

Used for: Digital advertising

Pricing: On request

Albert.ai uses machine learning to analyze vast amounts of data that can then help you automate ad purchasing and optimization, delivering personalized social media advertisements to users based on their unique digital profiles and demographics. 

While similar tools are available, Albert.ai’s website boasts that it covers 90% of platforms that offer biddable advertising, making it ideal for those looking to expand or scale up their paid search to a much wider audience.

20. Browse AI

Launched: 2021

Used for: Web monitoring and scraping

Pricing: $19 to $249 per month

Much of digital marketing involves creating compelling content, as our list has shown. But alongside this, there is the more practical issue of collecting and analyzing data—a must for any well-informed strategy. Enter Browse AI. Use this tool to monitor and extract data from any website (that permits you) using easily programmable web scrapers, which require no special coding knowledge to customize. 

Whether you’re tracking login information or want geolocation data, the tool is adaptable to various digital marketing needs, making it one of the best AI tools for digital marketing professionals who want to expand their databases.

It might not be as flashy as an image generation tool, but it’s still very valuable!

3. Closing thoughts

So there we have it. In this post, we’ve explored 20 of the best AI tools for digital marketing. Don’t worry, we didn’t forget ChatGPT. Read our full guide on the best ChatGPT prompts for digital marketing.

As we’ve seen, the recent surge in artificial intelligence capabilities has resulted in many new AI tools emerging. These tools can now cover an array of functionalities, from content production to search engine optimization, copyediting, social listening, email marketing, influencer marketing, chatbots, photographic editing, text-to-image generation, language translation, and much more.

The main thing to remember is that, despite occasional concerns to the contrary, AI tools are exactly that: tools. They are intended to assist human marketers in streamlining their tasks and improving productivity, thereby freeing up more time for areas where machine learning is less effective, such as creative strategy, critical thinking, and relationship building. 

Although digital marketing is changing, it’s also exciting times ahead as we learn to leverage AI in unexpected new ways that will help us achieve exceptional results. To learn more about the impact of AI in digital marketing, read our full guide on the subject.

Want to learn more about digital marketing? Then sign up for this free, 5-day digital marketing short course. 

Alternatively, check out the following related guides:

• The 9 Best Online Courses to Learn Digital Marketing in 2023
• What Is the Digital Marketing Salary? 2023 Guide
• 12 Digital Marketing Tools You Should Know About in 2023

While developing new strategies and campaigns is fun, it also often requires a lot of admin. Fortunately, many digital marketing tools are available, designed to help streamline the entire digital marketing lifecycle.

In this post, we look at 12 digital marketing tools that all digital marketers need to know about in 2023. We haven’t covered those for SEO, which you can check out in detail in this post.

For a list of the best AI tools for digital marketing, read our comprehensive guide.

But we’ll look at the following:

1. Digital marketing tools: social media
2. Digital marketing tools: email marketing
3. Digital marketing tools: analytics 
4. Digital marketing tools: lead generation and capture
5. Wrap up and further reading

Ready to learn about the top digital marketing tools you can’t do without? Let’s dive in.

1. Digital marketing tools: social media

Hootsuite

Price:  From $49 per month for one user, to $739 per month for five (with additional features).

Great for: Tracking and managing multiple social media channels.

One of the first-ever social media management systems, Hootsuite lets you create, schedule, and post content across numerous social media channels. These include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, and more. Intuitive, visual, and easy to use, Hootsuite monitors all your social accounts in one window.

Stand-out tools include its inbox feature, which lets you manage both public and private engagement in one place, and its social listening and data analytics tools, which are great for optimizing and measuring the success of your campaigns. Ideally suited to teams, Hootsuite has few downsides and even offers a free version.

Sprout Social

Price: From $89 per user, per month.

Great for: Social media listening and customer support.

Sprout Social is an all-in-one social media management platform with tools for publishing, engagement, analytics, and more. Similar to Hootsuite, the main difference is its superior customer service. The addition of phone and email support makes it an ideal choice for those new to social media marketing who need extra help.

Like Hootsuite, it also has excellent social media listening features that let you tap into the global social media conversation. This helps identify gaps in your strategy or brand management. The audience discovery tool is also great for identifying useful influencers you might want to follow or engage with. Check out its 30-day free trial.

Buffer

Price: Free for up to three channels, and $100 per month for up to 10.

Great for: Small businesses and those with limited spend.

Ideal for smaller businesses, startups, and those on tight budgets, Buffer offers a streamlined version of other popular social media management tools. While it can’t compete with Hootsuite or Sprout in terms of features, it does have a clean, user-friendly interface and—critically—is much more affordable. Plus, if you’re most interested in the content creation side of things, Buffer is likely the best option for small teams.

Its visual collaboration and team working features are top-notch for managing a lot of content in one place. It has fewer bells and whistles in terms of things like analytics, but it’s still a solid contender. Get started with the free version now.

2. Digital marketing tools: email marketing

Omnisend

Price: Free for up to 250 subscribers and up to $59 per month for a premium account.

Great for: Ecommerce marketing

Omnisend is a marketing automation tool used by more than 75,000 ecommerce businesses worldwide. It’s designed to help online merchants increase their sales, and comes with plenty of features to help them do this.

Even on the free plan, you’ll get access to features like advanced segmentation, pre-built automation workflows, and 24/7 email & live chat support. This all-in-one ecommerce digital marketing tool has intuitive email and web form builders that are easy to use and specifically designed for ecommerce purposes. Omnisend’s customer support team is available 24/7 and usually respond in under 3 minutes, even during busy retail periods such as Black Friday and Christmas.

Mailchimp

Price: Free (with limits) and up to $299 per month for a premium account.

Great for: All aspects of email marketing.

Perhaps the best-known email marketing software, Mailchimp has long been the market leader. It offers everything you need to get professional email campaigns off the ground quickly. This includes over 100 slickly-designed email campaign templates (eight in the free version), an email editor, and scheduling features such as auto-resend to contacts who failed to open the original email.

Mailchimp also presents some nice add-ons like recommended send times, which takes unnecessary admin off your hands. The only downside is that as they add new features, their core offering has suffered a little. But although the interface has become slightly less intuitive over time, it’s still a solid tool for email marketing.

Moosend

Price: A sliding scale from as little as $9 per month.

Great for: Affordable email marketing.

Moosend is another email marketing tool that lets you create, monitor, and manage all your email campaigns in one place. Compared to Mailchimp, it offers relatively simple features: the ability to design and customize campaigns, collect user sign-up and opt-in/out data and produce and segment email subscriber lists. However, for most marketing campaigns, its functionality is more than sufficient. It has a user-friendly interface, excellent reporting, and—despite the affordable price—it offers competitive customer support, too.

MailerLite

Price: Free for one user and up to 1,000 subscribers, with custom pricing for larger companies.

Great for: Small businesses seeking a user-friendly email marketing tool.

Easy to use and comparable in price to Moosend, MailerLite is both practical and more than sufficient for getting basic email campaigns off the ground. Key features include text and theme templates, data import and export tools, and high volume sending; notably, even on the free version. While you’ll have to pay once you get beyond 1,000 subscribers (or for additional features) MailerLite is a good option for small businesses.

Beyond the basics of campaign management, it also offers precision reports with tracking for things like open and click-through rates, unsubscribes, and user devices.

3. Digital marketing tools: analytics

Google Analytics

Price: Free for smaller businesses, premium charge for advanced features.

Great for: Website analytics.

The go-to tool for identifying and tracking user navigation on your website, Google Analytics has been around since the dawn of digital marketing. Track everything from session duration, pages visited per session, bounce rate, and clicks, to name a few. For casual users, it offers high-level visual dashboards and reporting. But if you want to dig deeper into the data, everything you could need is available.

Overall, Google Analytics is an indispensable tool for creating precision landing pages. Better yet, most of its features are completely free. Costs only start to come in if you choose to integrate Google Analytics with your Google AdWords campaigns, or other digital marketing tools in the G Suite. 

Twitter Analytics

Price: Free, with varying charges for additional features.

Great for: Analyzing Tweet data.

While there are larger social networks, Twitter is a key one for digital marketers. For this reason, you’ll want to make sure that every Tweet, photo, video, and interaction is working towards stronger brand awareness and lead generation. Enter Twitter Analytics. Each Tweet comes with an activity dashboard where you can track impressions, retweets, likes, link clicks, and other engagements. You can also generate monthly report cards and, for a cost, generate campaign dashboards and conversion tracking to go alongside your Twitter Ads.

Facebook Insights

Price: Free, with costs for additional features like Facebook Ads.

Great for: Tracking Facebook posts, page performance, and user activity.

With more than two billion monthly users, no digital marketing campaign would be complete without a Facebook presence. Facebook Insights analyzes both the people connected to your company page as well as other Facebook users. Break down user demographics to an astonishing degree, including things like age and gender, education level, job title, and relationship status.

On top of this, Facebook provides psychographic data on your audience’s values and personal interests, helping further refine your campaigns. With these powerful insights, you can create ever-more compelling content to grow your audience.

4. Digital marketing tools: lead generation and capture

Salesforce Essentials

Price: $25 per user, per month.

Great for: Startups and small businesses with up to 10 users.

Every digital marketing team needs a customer relationship management (CRM) system. Having one is vital for capturing and following up on leads, and for tracking general customer information. With many CRMs on the market, perhaps the best-known is Salesforce. While there are CRMs that are easier to use straight off the shelf, Salesforce makes our list as it’s one of the most ubiquitous and is unrivaled in terms of customizability.

For smaller businesses and teams, Salesforce Essentials offers a smaller and less complex implementation of the larger platform. You can adapt the system to fit your digital marketing processes, create new fields, automate reports, connect it to your preferred email campaign software, capture link clicks, conversions, and more. Sign up now for a 14-day free trial.

HubSpot Marketing

Price: From $45 per month, up to $3,200 per month for an enterprise licence.

Great for: Customizing lead interactions and managing your digital marketing in one place.

An all-in-one marketing solution, HubSpot lets you collect and manage all your digital marketing activities and leads from your blog, social media, email campaigns, ads, website, and so on. A cloud-based CRM like Salesforce, HubSpot utilizes smart landing pages, calls to action, and forms, allowing you to personalize and capture each customer’s unique brand interactions. Although it’s great for creating tailored experiences, it may not be the best tool if you’re only looking to use some of its features.

It’s designed as an all-in-one solution, so only applying some of its functionality means you won’t get the bang for your buck. It’s quite pricy, too, so you’ll want to be sure you’re happy with it. Fortunately, HubSpot offers a 14-day free trial to test out all its features.

ZoomInfo

Price: Not immediately available—it depends on which services you use.

Great for: Comprehensive B2B sales/marketing contacts.

Capturing leads is one thing—building and maintaining a clean database of contacts is quite another. Customer and lead contact information is constantly changing, and keeping your lead database up-to-date is a full-time job in its own right. Fortunately, ZoomInfo lets marketers purchase detailed, up-to-date contact details that they can use to generate new leads.

While there are similar services available, ZoomInfo uses machine learning algorithms that pull contacts from millions of sources, identifying which information is accurate enough to warrant publication on the platform. Better yet, since this happens in real-time, you can be sure your contacts are up to date, and you’ll know when a company changes status, an employee gets a new job, a new office opens, and so on. All this is invaluable for creating high-precision campaigns that go to the right people. 

5. Wrap up and further reading

Digital marketing can be fun, challenging, and creatively rewarding. But it also often comes with a lot of admin. Using digital marketing tools like these, and many more similar ones, you take the pain out of your digital marketing planning by automating the boring or complex stuff.

Once the admin’s taken care of, you’ll be free to focus on doing what you do best: producing innovative, creative campaigns that win new leads and keep you ahead of the competition. 

If you’re curious about where a potential career in digital marketing might take you, why not try out this free, 5-day short course? You may also be interested in checking out the following introductory guides:

• The 7 Best Free Digital Marketing Courses
• What Are the 4 Ps of Marketing? A Beginner’s Guide to the Marketing Mix
• What Is an SEO Specialist? Role Description & Career Guide

From search engines and social media to mobile apps and advertising, every organization now uses digital marketing in one way or another. This is exactly why finding a course that actually teaches you employable skills is so necessary. 

In this post, we provide a round-up of the best online digital marketing courses in 2023. With the top free digital marketing programs and longer, priced courses, we’ve got something for everyone. 

Use the menu to move through the top digital marketing courses easily.

• The best online digital marketing courses
  1. CareerFoundry
  2. LinkedIn Learning
  3. Google
  4. Copyblogger
  5. Udemy
  6. Coursera
  7. Springboard
  8. Thinkful
  9. Simplilearn
• Key takeaways
• FAQ about online digital marketing courses

Best online digital marketing courses

1. CareerFoundry Digital Marketing Program

CareerFoundry’s Digital Marketing Program at a glance:

• Mode of study: Online 
• Ideal for: Anyone interested in pursuing a career in digital marketing and want to fully immerse themselves across all aspects of the field
• Duration: Four months studying full-time or up to seven months studying part-time
• Price: $6,900, with discounts available if paying up-front

Who is it for?

This online digital marketing course is perfect for those with a genuine interest in digital marketing who want to study on their own terms under the guidance of both a mentor and a tutor.

How does it work?

The CareerFoundry Digital Marketing course teaches you all the fundamental skills, tools, and processes required to become a digital marketing expert.

Working with an industry expert mentor and tutor, you’ll build projects that you can use in your digital marketing portfolio, preparing you for a career change into the field.

CareerFoundry is so confident in its approach and curriculum that it offers a Job Guarantee: land a job in your desired field within 180 days of graduating from your program or get your money back.

How long does it take to complete?

All of CareerFoundry’s programs are self-paced, meaning there are no scheduled lectures or seminars to attend. Instead, you can choose to work part-time at 15-20 hours a week for seven months or full-time at 30-40 hours a week to graduate in four months.

How much does it cost?

The full program costs $6,900. You’ll also benefit from a 5% discount if you can pay upfront.

However, if you’d like to test out the curriculum for yourself before committing to the full tuition cost, you can try out the free, 5-day short course.

Check out this video to learn more about the free digital marketing course.

Learn more:

• Talk to a program advisor to see if the digital marketing program is right for you
• Why become a digital marketer?

2. LinkedIn Learning Become a Digital Marketing Specialist Course

LinkedIn’s Digital Marketing course at a glance:

• Mode of study: Online video tutorials
• Ideal for: Beginners curious about digital marketing but who aren’t ready to commit to a paid program
• Duration: 20 hours across 11 courses
• Price: Free, with the option of a monthly subscription for more in-depth content 

Who is it for?

If you’re new to the mechanics of digital marketing, this course is an ideal introduction to the fundamentals. Think you might be interested in starting a career in the field but aren’t ready to commit the time or money to a paid program? Then dip your toe in first. 

How does it work?

This foundation course offers a collection of bite-size video tutorials, each about two hours long. Each course on the program introduces a new digital marketing topic.

Starting with the basic framework and concepts, you’ll go on to learn about the foundations of search engine optimization (SEO), Google Ads, content and social media marketing, and more.

As a high-level introduction, don’t expect to come away with in-depth knowledge. But this course offers an excellent overview. It’ll also provide enough insight to help you figure out which areas might interest you, helping you decide what to expand on if you choose to take things further.

Just as a note, LinkedIn Learning is the new face of Lynda: a well-respected online training provider purchased by the social media giant in 2015 and rebranded in 2021. You can guarantee the quality of the content. There’s a whole swathe of additional courses to choose from, too.

How long does it take to complete?

The entire program includes 20 hours of content across 11 courses. Even if you only check out the first course in the program, you’re only committing to two hours and nine minutes. Worth a go!

How much does it cost?

While this program is free, to access more of LinkedIn Learning’s digital marketing programs, you’ll need to subscribe. This costs between $19.99 and $29.99 a month, depending on your payment plan.

They do offer a month’s free trial, though. Since most of their courses are only a few hours long, there’s plenty for you to get your teeth into.

Learn more:

• Sign up for a month’s free trial
• LinkedinLearning’s full list of digital marketing courses

3. Google Fundamentals of Digital Marketing

Google’s Digital Marketing Course at a glance: 

• Mode of study: Online
• Ideal for: Beginners who want to commit a little time
• Duration: 26 modules over 40 hours
• Price: Free

Who is it for?

While LinkedIn Learning’s course is great for those looking to dip a toe in, Google’s Fundamentals of Digital Marketing offers a slightly more consistent experience. It’s ideal for small business owners or those looking for a career change.

How does it work?

While the first program on our list is a mish-mash of courses from different tutors, Google’s program is produced entirely by the company’s trainers. Over 26 modules, it explores the basics of digital marketing, ranging from content to finding success with basic analytics.

The program consists of bitesize videos and quizzes that test your knowledge. The final quiz, or exam, includes 40 questions.

Pass and you receive a digital certification for your LinkedIn profile and resume. This is more than just a vanity certification: it’s accredited by the Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe and the Open University.

How long does it take to complete?

This 26-module course contains 40 hours of learning, which you can complete at your own pace.

How much does it cost?

The course is free and accredited to boot, so that’s pretty good!

Learn more:

• Intro to the Digital Garage
• Check out some live webinar training
• More online courses with Google

4. Copyblogger Content Marketing Tools and Training

Copyblogger’s digital marketing course at a glance:

• Mode of study: Via email
• Ideal for: Beginners and experienced professionals
• Duration: Entirely of your choosing
• Price: 100% free

Who is it for?

As a content marketing resource, Copyblogger primarily targets writers. Beyond that, its audience is not too specific. Whether you’re a beginner looking for a low-effort way to learn, or an experienced professional keeping up with the latest trends and opinions, Copyblogger will help.

How does it work?

Copyblogger is part blog, part training resource, part newsletter. Unlike courses that demand a given time commitment, you can sign up to Copyblogger to receive 20 emails exploring content marketing topics from copywriting and SEO to keyword research and more.

Because it comes straight to your inbox, you can choose when to read it, rather than feeling pressure at the prospect of making notes in front of tutorials.

While Copyblogger isn’t a course in the traditional sense, it’s hugely popular in content marketing circles. Another reason it’s on our list is that digital marketing trends evolve so quickly. While a formal course can teach you the fundamentals, the specifics go out of date fast.

With new tools, fads, and thinking always emerging, digital marketing professionals must keep up with these trends via a site like Copyblogger or similar if you find that it’s not for you, no problem. But we highly recommend finding and following a similar blog.

How long does it take to complete?

Less of a course and more of a resource; there’s no time commitment to make here. Consume as much or as little as you want!

How much does it cost?

Copyblogger is 100% free, so there’s zero harm in signing up.

Learn more: 

• Get started with an introduction to content marketing
• Listen to the Copyblogger podcast
• Check out the blog

5. Udemy Complete Digital Marketing course

Udemy’s digital marketing course at a glance: 

• Mode of study: Online
• Ideal for: Beginners, employees, or small business owners looking to upskill
• Duration: 22.5 hours
• Price: $149.99 (but they regularly offer major discounts)

Who is it for?

This digital marketing course is ideal for those looking to upskill on the job without splashing too much cash. Companies, including VW, Apple, and Eventbrite, all use Udemy’s Digital Marketing course to help develop their staff, too. Udemy is also great for individuals wanting to expand their skill set when starting their own business.

How does it work?

While Udemy is another course that relies on video tutorials, it takes a pragmatic approach, focusing on learning by doing. Combining videos, quizzes, sample projects, and checklists, the program gradually builds your skills. The 12 courses cover the full digital marketing lifecycle, from market research to building a website in WordPress.

Rather than simply explaining the range of digital marketing techniques, it also aims to give you the practical experience of applying them. The aim is to help you create a tailored marketing strategy that’s either free (or very cheap) to implement. With over 600,000 students, this is one of Udemy’s most popular courses.

There are many more digital marketing courses to choose from, too.

How long does it take to complete?

Udemy’s digital marketing course contains a total of 22.5 hours of learning, supported by articles and downloadable resources that help you to ‘learn by doing.’

How much does it cost?

According to Udemy, the base price for the course is $149.99. However, Udemy offers regular (massive) discounts, suggesting that this is a bit of a marketing gimmick (but hey, you’re already learning some digital skills, right there!) The last time we checked, the course was reduced to $16.99, suggesting it’s usually very affordable.

Learn more:

• Meet the instructor
• Read the breakdown of course content
• Check out some student reviews

6. Coursera Digital Marketing Specialization course

Coursera’s Digital Marketing Specialization course at a glance:

• Mode of study: Online
• Ideal for: Beginners with no prior experience
• Duration: Approximately 8 months (5 hours a week)
• Price: The Coursera subscription fee is $79 per month

Who is it for?

This course is pitched at beginners with a relatively modest budget. It has a good depth of content, though, so you’ll be well-prepared once you’ve completed it.

How does it work?

For a longer course of study that doesn’t break the bank, this Coursera program has you covered. Coursera’s ‘specializations’ are a series of courses combined to build skills in a particular area, in this case, digital marketing. This particular specialization requires the completion of six courses, but you can take each one at your own pace, and if you want to take a break in between, that’s fine, too. 

Each Coursera specialization includes a hands-on project (which follows the courses) that you’ll need to complete to gain certification. For this digital marketing course, you’ll apply your newfound skills to a real-life project created in partnership with industrial supply company, Grainger. Whether industrial supplies are your area of interest or not, the bigger picture here is that you’ll be learning the skills and processes that real employers need. Bonus! You can’t put a price on that.

How long does it take to complete?

If you follow Coursera’s suggested pace of study (5 hours per week) the course will take you 8 months to complete. However, you can set personal deadlines, so if you want to finish it sooner, you can!

How much does it cost?

The course promotes ‘free enrolment’ but you’ll have to pay the monthly Coursera subscription fee of $79 to do the whole thing. As an 8-month course, that’s around $360 if you only subscribe for the duration. However, the subscription also gives you access to thousands of other courses so it’s not bad value for money.

Learn more:

• Check out enrolment options
• Read a breakdown of the seven courses in the program
• Explore more digital marketing courses with Coursera

7. Springboard Digital Marketing Career Track Bootcamp

Springboard’s Digital Marketing course at a glance:

• Mode of study: Mentor-led online course
• Ideal for: Relative newcomers looking to advance their digital marketing skills
• Duration: 6 months (8-10 hours a week)
• Price: $2,399 to $2,994 (depending on payment plan)

Who is it for?

This digital marketing course doesn’t strictly preclude beginners but is geared more towards those with some fundamental writing skills and knowledge of statistics. Given the price tag, it’s probably more suited to those ready to commit to a career in digital marketing. This likely includes people with digital marketing experience already under their belt.

How does it work?

An option on the higher end of the digital marketing course scale, Springboard offers a mentor-led, community-driven, full-stack digital marketing certification. This takes things up a notch from the standard video tutorial approach. Despite being online, you’ll have regular video calls with a mentor (an industry professional) and access to a peer network for support. While you’ll learn the so-called ‘full stack’ of digital marketing skills (from SEO to social), you’ll hone your skills through real-world projects rather than relying solely on video tutorials.

Springboard also focuses on career readiness. You’ll build a marketing portfolio, and a career coach will prepare you for interviews, reviewing your resume. You’ll also have access to a professional network to help you secure your first digital marketing job. Limited slots are available, though, and you’ll need an undergraduate degree to apply. 

How long does it take to complete?

Springboard’s course contains approximately 200 hours of learning. They estimate it will take six months to complete if you can commit to 8-10 hours weekly.

How much does it cost?

Although on the pricier end of the scale, you get more bang for your buck with this course. If you’re lucky enough to have the cash up front, the total cost is $2,399. You can also pay monthly as required, at $499 per month (up to $2,994).

Learn more:

• Check out the curriculum
• Meet the mentors
• See Springboard’s FAQs

8. Thinkful Digital Marketing Bootcamp

Thinkful’s Digital Marketing Course at a glance:

• Mode of study: Online with career mentoring support
• Ideal for: Those looking to change careers and fit study around existing commitments
• Duration: 3 months at 15-20 hours per week
• Price: $4,900

Who is it for?

Thinkful’s digital marketing course targets beginners or professionals looking to change (or start) careers in the field. It offers flexible learning hours, meaning you can fit the course around existing commitments.

How does it work?

Thinkful describes its digital marketing offering as a part-time course with full-time career support. This covers all the usual suspects regarding digital marketing skills, unlimited technical interview practice, and insights into industry and salary expectations. You’ll also be supported in creating a job-winning portfolio and LinkedIn profile, and perhaps most excitingly, exclusive access to open roles. 

How long does it take to complete?

Thinkful suggests that with 15-20 hours of commitment per week, the course will take three months. This is similar to Springboard’s digital marketing course but compressed into half the time.

How much does it cost?

Upfront, the full fee is $4,900. If you choose to pay monthly, you can do so for $2,066 per month (although this increases the total fee to $6,200). There’s also an option to pay nothing until you’re earning $40,000 a year and a money-back guarantee if you’re still unemployed six months after graduating. A good safety net!

Learn more:

• Check out payment options
• Learn more about their mentoring approach
• Browse some student stories

9. Simplilearn Post Graduate Program in Digital Marketing with Purdue University

Simplilearn’s Digital Marketing course at a glance:

• Mode of study: Online bootcamp
• Ideal for: Business professionals aiming to pursue a career in digital marketing
• Duration: 6 months at 5-10 hours per week
• Price: $3,000

Who is it for?

As a post-graduate program, this course targets existing business professionals with at least two years of experience under their belt and an undergraduate degree in any subject. So while you don’t need to be an expert, this is not a digital marketing course for total novices.

How does it work?

Those seeking an exclusive qualification certified by a legitimate university (and Purdue, no less!) look no further. Unlike most of the courses on our list, this is not just a case of sign-up and go: you’ll have to complete an application first. While this might seem a nuisance, providing you get on the course, you’re guaranteed an element of exclusivity you won’t find elsewhere.

Simplilearn has a team of admissions counselors to guide you through the process, so it shouldn’t be too painful.

This admissions process isn’t just expensive posturing. Post-grad courses like these are often more affordable than private-only initiatives. And there are other benefits, too. Co-created with Facebook, this course offers both academic insight and the relevant, real-world skills that employers are actively seeking.

Not only will you learn popular tools and techniques, but you’ll also dive deeper into more complex topics like reputation management, search psychology, and language targeting. And if all that isn’t sufficient, graduation from this digital marketing course includes Purdue Alumni membership and access to Simplilearn’s career services.

How long does it take to complete?

This post-graduate course takes six months, with a weekly commitment of five to ten hours per week (varying depending on your learning speed).

How much does it cost?

Simplilearn’s Post Graduate Program in Digital Marketing costs a total of $3,000. You can either pay upfront or via a payment plan ($264 per month).

Learn more:

• Read some learner reviews
• Check out the learning path (and request a syllabus)
• See the entry requirements and application process

Key takeaways

In this post, we’ve explored some of the best digital marketing courses for 2023. From free tutorials to full post-graduate programs, we’ve covered something for every need and price range. While we highly recommend whetting your digital marketing appetite with a free course, ultimately, it’s up to you to decide which one covers your needs. 

But don’t take our word for it. Check out some courses yourself, too. There’s no shortage of them available. And at the end of the day, any digital marketing course is only as good as the effort and commitment that the learner puts into it! So give it gusto, and see you on the other side!

Want to learn more about starting a career in digital marketing? Check out our free, 5-day short course, or check out these guides:

• Are digital marketing bootcamps worth it? The pros & cons
• The 9 best digital marketing certification programs available right now
• Is Digital Marketing a Good Career to Get Into?

FAQ for online digital marketing courses

1. What courses are best for digital marketing?

The best courses for digital marketing depend on individual preferences and goals. However, some highly recommended courses include CareerFoundry, Google Digital Garage, Udemy, Coursera, and Simplilearn. 

These platforms offer a range of courses taught by industry experts and cover various aspects of digital marketing, such as SEO, social media marketing, content marketing, and analytics. It’s important to research each course thoroughly to find the one that aligns with your specific needs and learning style.

2. Is it worth doing a digital marketing course?

Yes, pursuing a digital marketing course can be highly beneficial. Digital marketing is a rapidly growing field, and having the skills and knowledge in this area can open up various career opportunities. A digital marketing course can provide you with a solid foundation, practical skills, and industry insights that can help you excel in this field. It can also enhance your resume and increase your earning potential.

However, it’s important to choose a reputable course and ensure it covers the key aspects of digital marketing that are relevant to your career goals.

3. How much does it cost to train for digital marketing?

The cost of training for digital marketing can vary depending on factors such as the type of course, the institution or platform offering the training, and the level of depth and specialization. There are free online resources like CareerFoundry and Google Digital Garage that offer introductory digital marketing courses at no cost. 

Paid courses can range from around $50 to a few hundred dollars, depending on the platform, course length, and content. Specialized certification programs often have higher costs, typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. Pursuing a degree in digital marketing can involve varying tuition costs. It’s important to consider your budget and evaluate the value and reputation of the training program before making a decision.

4. How long does it take to learn digital marketing?

The time it takes to learn digital marketing can vary depending on factors such as the depth of knowledge you want to acquire, your prior experience, the amount of time you can dedicate to learning, and the learning resources you have access to.

Some basic digital marketing concepts can be learned within a few weeks or months, while gaining expertise in advanced strategies may take several months to a year or more. It’s a continuous learning process as the digital marketing landscape evolves. Practical experience and staying updated with industry trends and technologies are also important for ongoing skill development.

Here, you’ll find all the latest digital marketing salary data based on years of experience, geographical location, and a range of job titles within the digital marketing field. 

Want to skip to a specific section? Just use the clickable menu.

1. Digital marketing salary overview
2. Digital marketing salary by experience
3. Digital marketing salary by location
4. Digital marketing salary for different job titles
5. Key takeaways and further reading
6. FAQ about the digital marketing salary

So, what kind of salary can you expect if you work in digital marketing? Let’s take a look.

1. The digital marketing salary overview

Salaries for digital marketing roles vary greatly depending on seniority, company size, industry, geographic location, and other factors.

However, if you look at average digital marketing salaries that take all these factors into account, you can still expect to earn a decent paycheck, no matter what level you’re at. Here is the experts’ take on the average digital marketing salary in the United States. 

Digital marketing salary in the U.S. 

• Indeed: $57,596 USD base salary for digital marketers
• ZipRecruiter: $54,672 USD base salary for digital marketers
• Talent.com: $65,122 USD base salary for digital marketers

These numbers are for the United States as a whole. But the cost of living and concentration of talent in particular geographies also impact digital marketing salaries.

2. Digital marketing salary by experience

Digital marketers are in high demand, and their wages often reflect this. As with any job, several factors influence the amount you can expect to earn, regardless of how much experience you have. Company size, geographic location, and industry all determine your total take.

That said, we’ve compiled salary data for several roles, from entry-level to director, that you can use as benchmarks for what to expect.

Entry-level digital marketing salary 

Digital marketing newbies are best qualified for roles like digital marketing specialists or digital marketing analysts. Here’s what the experts say these professionals will earn per year:

• Payscale: $52,151 USD base salary for a digital marketing specialist
• Zippia: $60,359 USD base salary for a digital marketing specialist
• CareerExplorer: $39,281 USD base salary for a digital marketing specialist
• ZipRecruiter: $45,600 USD base salary for a digital marketing analyst

Entry-level digital marketing salary range based on all data: $39,281 to $60,359

Mid-level digital marketing salary

Once you have a few years of experience under your belt, you’ll be better positioned for mid-level marketing positions like a digital marketing manager. Here’s what you can expect to earn on average:

• Talent.com: $65,979 USD base salary for mid-level digital marketers
• Salary.com: $121,701 USD base salary for a digital marketing manager
• Glassdoor: $81,792 USD base salary for a digital marketing manager
• Payscale: $71,038 USD base salary for a digital marketing manager

Range: $65,979 to $121,701

Related reading: What are the best entry-level digital marketing jobs?

Senior-level digital marketing salary

If you’ve been in the field for several years but don’t yet qualify for director status, you’ll have the opportunity to snag a senior-level position. Depending on the company, a senior-level post may or may not include the word “senior” in the title, but your salary should reflect it!

• Glassdoor: $147,317 USD base salary for a senior digital marketing manager
• ZipRecruiter: $92,731 USD base salary for a senior digital marketing manager
• Comparably: $138,524 USD base salary for a senior digital marketing manager
• Zippia: $105,167 USD base salary for a senior digital marketing manager

Range: $92,731 to $147,317

Director of digital marketing salary

Congratulations! If you’ve worked steadily in the field of digital marketing for several years, you’ll be eligible to snag one of the top jobs in digital marketing: a director. Here’s what you can expect in terms of compensation:

• Glassdoor: $249,813 USD base salary for a director of digital marketing
• Salary.com: $182,410 USD base salary for a director of digital marketing
• ZipRecruiter: $104,259 USD base salary for a director of digital marketing
• Payscale: $108,132 USD base salary for a director of digital marketing

Range: $104,258 to $249,813

VP of digital marketing salary

If you’re in the running for VP of digital marketing roles, you’ve reached the acme of your career. Salaries for this C-Suite position are in the mid-to-top six figures, but they’re commensurate with your level of responsibility: 

• Glassdoor: $321,825 USD base salary for a VP of digital marketing role
• ZipRecruiter: $143,863 USD base salary for a VP of digital marketing role

Range: $143,863 to $321,825

Want to make that jump to senior-level salary as quickly as possible? In this video, Careerfoundry Chief Marketing Officer Ed Wood uncovers the secrets to jumping from junior to senior in rapid time.

3. Digital marketing salary by location

Let’s look at a few different regions in the U.S. to see how location influences compensation. Salaries are taken from Glassdoor, Built in LA, Payscale, and Indeed. 

Digital marketing salaries in Los Angeles, California

• Digital marketer: $64,380 
• Digital marketing specialist: $68,085 
• Digital marketing manager: $92,179
• Director of digital marketing: $107,000

Digital marketing salaries in New York City, New York

• Digital marketer: $68,999 
• Digital marketing specialist: $67,074 
• Digital marketing manager: $96,217 
• Director of digital marketing: $159,352

Digital marketing salaries in Austin, Texas

• Digital marketer: $61,015 
• Digital marketing specialist: $63,309 
• Digital marketing manager: $119,693
• Director of digital marketing: $179,401 

Though the numbers do vary, if you’re looking for a career in digital marketing, make sure that you do your research before discussing salaries. This way, you’ll be well-equipped to ask for compensation that’s commensurate with your experience and geographic location.

Perhaps you’re not limiting your job search to the United States. And why should you? Digital marketers are highly sought after all over the world. Here’s what you can expect to make in several different countries worldwide:

• United Kingdom (digital marketer): £27,683
• Singapore (digital marketer): $48,146 SGD
• Hong Kong (digital marketer): HK$361,504
• France (digital marketing manager): €55,429
• Russia (digital marketing manager): 1,772,298₽
• South Africa: R 266,928
• Mexico: MX $1,251,012

4. Digital marketing salary for different job titles

Digital marketers utilize a range of marketing channels as part of their daily activities. But what if you’d like to specialize in one? Whether you work for an agency or have an in-house position, being highly skilled in one particular medium can be very fulfilling and lucrative. Here’s what channel-specific roles offer in terms of a salary:

• Social media manager: $53,221 (see our full social media manager salary guide)
• Content marketing manager: $76,595
• Email marketing manager: $84,244
• Paid search manager: $89,181
• SEO manager: $86,520

As with digital marketing salaries, individual compensation depends on many factors. But these numbers will at least give you an idea of what to expect if you decide to pursue a career in a specialized digital marketing category.

5. Key takeaways and further reading

If you’re looking for an in-demand job that offers a highly liveable range of salaries, digital marketing is a terrific career path. It’s an ever-changing role that requires both an analytical and creative mindset.

Interested in getting into digital marketing? Why not try out our free, 5-day short course. This course will cover the basics of digital marketing, so you can see if it’s the right field for you. Alternatively, speak directly with a digital marketing program advisor.

For more digital marketing career insights and salary guides, check out the following:

• What does a digital marketing manager actually do?
• What is the average digital marketing analyst salary?
• What is the average social media specialist salary?

6. FAQ about the digital marketing salary

1. How much can I make as a digital marketer?

The salary range for digital marketers can vary depending on factors such as experience, skill set, location, and industry. Entry-level positions may start around $40,000 to $50,000 annually, while more experienced professionals or those in managerial roles can earn well into six figures.

Additionally, freelancers and consultants may charge hourly rates or project-based fees. It’s important to note that digital marketing encompasses various roles, such as SEO specialist, social media manager, content marketer, and more, each with its own salary potential.

2. Is digital marketing high paying?

Digital marketing can potentially be a high-paying field, especially as the demand for digital expertise grows. Companies recognize the value of effective online marketing strategies, and they are willing to invest in skilled professionals who can drive results.

However, it’s important to remember that salary levels can vary based on factors like experience, job title, industry, and location. While some digital marketers may earn lucrative salaries, it’s crucial to continuously improve your skills, gain experience, and stay updated with industry trends to maximize earning potential.

3. Is digital marketing a good career?

Yes, digital marketing can be a rewarding and fulfilling career choice for many individuals. The field offers a range of opportunities to work in diverse industries, employ creative and analytical skills, and contribute to business growth. With the increasing importance of digital channels in today’s business landscape, the demand for skilled digital marketers continues to rise.

Additionally, digital marketing roles often provide flexibility regarding remote work or freelance opportunities. However, it’s important to stay adaptable and continually upskill to keep pace with the evolving digital marketing landscape.

4. What degree do you need for digital marketing?

There isn’t a specific degree requirement for digital marketing, as the field is more focused on skills and experience rather than formal education. However, having a bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, business, or a related field can be beneficial in terms of foundational knowledge. Many institutions also offer specialized digital marketing programs, bootcamps, or certifications that can enhance your skills and improve your career prospects.

Ultimately, employers often value practical experience, a strong portfolio, and a solid understanding of digital marketing strategies and tools. Continuous learning and staying up-to-date with industry trends are key in this dynamic field.

So it goes without saying that digital marketing managers, in particular, are in high demand.

But what is the digital marketing manager’s salary? And how does it vary according to location, experience, and company?

Look no further than our ultimate digital marketing manager salary guide, complete with all the most up-to-date salary data.

Often, a lack of salary transparency can make it difficult to know what we should expect from ourselves or if what we’re being paid is fair considering our experience level, the cost of living in our area, and the profession we’ve worked hard to succeed in.

By the end of this post, you should feel empowered to ask for a salary that truly reflects your skills and expertise and is in keeping with the wages of your particular country, city, or state. 

Here’s what we’ll cover:

1. Digital marketing manager salary overview
2. Digital marketing manager salary by experience
3. Digital marketing manager salary by location
4. Wrap-up and next steps
5. Digital marketing salary FAQs

1. Digital marketing manager salary overview

According to Zippia, the average salary for a digital marketing manager in the U.S. is $99,563 annually.

Digital marketing managers at the lowest end of that scale make approximately $71,000 per annum, while those who find themselves in the top 10 percent make roughly $138,000 per year. 

As we shall see, location makes a big difference.

The states that currently offer the highest salaries for digital marketing managers are New Jersey, Virginia, New York, California, and Minnesota. The lowest salaries for this role are offered in Wyoming and Mississippi, where you could expect to earn closer to $21-$22.50 for every hour you work. 

For comparison, here are the predictions from a few other sources for average US salaries for digital marketing managers: 

• Built In: $86,609
• Salary.com: $121,701
• Glassdoor: $81,764

2. Digital marketing manager salary data based on years of experience

It’s standard practice for recruiters and employers to consider the number of years you’ve worked in an industry or a particular role when calculating a salary offer.

While those who are still relatively fresh to a field will start off at the lower end of the salary spectrum, you can expect your wages to increase significantly over time as you build knowledge and accumulate sought-after skills.

You’ll generally find this is the case, irrespective of the role’s location or the industry you’ve chosen to go into. 

Let’s take a look at expected salaries for digital marketing managers based on experience: 

Entry level digital marketing manager salary:

• PayScale: $49,872
• Talent.com: $60,000
• Zippia: $99,563

Mid-level digital marketing manager salary:

• Payscale: $75,235
• Glassdoor: $81,764

Senior digital marketing manager salary:

• Zippia: $105,167
• Glassdoor: $135,434

Want to make that jump to senior-level salary as quickly as possible? In this video, Careerfoundry Chief Marketing Officer Ed Wood uncovers the secrets to jumping from junior to senior in rapid time.

3. Digital marketing manager salary by location

Digital marketing salary across the U.S.

The state where you live, work, and pay taxes will be one of the defining factors of how much you are able to earn as a digital marketing manager.

The cost of living varies greatly across U.S. states and will be reflected in the salaries offered to state residents. A liter of milk in San Francisco, California, for example, will set you back $1.56, while in Florence, Alabama that same liter of milk will cost you just 50 cents. 

However, it’s worth considering that other factors will impact your salary. Your total number of years in a similar role, the industry you work in, your professional background and qualifications, and the size of the company you work in will all affect your total compensation, too.

Here, you’ll find data we’ve collected from experts on what you can expect to earn on average in the following U.S states and cities.

Digital marketing manager salaries in the northeast

• New York City, NY: $96,184 (Glassdoor)
• Boston, MA: $137,134 (Salary.com)
• Providence, RI: $88,571  (Built In)
• Portland, ME: $118,938 (Salary.com)

Digital marketing manager salaries in the southeast

• Savannah, GA: $78,541 (Salary.com)
• Washington, DC: $77,235 (Glassdoor)
• Miami, FL: $118,447 (Salary.com)
• Richmond, VA: $64,434 (PayScale) 

Digital marketing manager salaries in the southwest

• Phoenix, AZ: $87,566 (Glassdoor)
• Austin, TX: $88,735 (BuiltInAustin)
• Colorado Springs, CO: $83,193 (Salary.com)
• Los Angeles, CA: $76,354 (PayScale)

Digital marketing manager salaries in the northwest

• Seattle, WA: $112,305  (Glassdoor)
• Portland, OR: $126,348 (Salary.com)
• Salt Lake City, UT: $61,445 (PayScale)
• Boise, ID: $75,286 (Built In)

Digital marketing manager salaries in the midwest:

• Chicago, IL: $91,553 (Glassdoor)
• Wichita, KS: $117,598 (Salary.com)
• Omaha, NE: $115,061 (Salary.com)
• Minneapolis, MI: $69,921 (PayScale)

Digital marketing manager salary around the world

The cost of living in different countries and cities worldwide varies dramatically and will directly impact the salary you can expect to be offered as a digital marketing manager. 

Whether you’re already based in one of the areas we’ve included in the following global salary round-up or relocating to another country is something that you’re excited to consider, it’s worth doing some additional research into major expenses like rent, commuting, and the cost of a meal to see how far your salary will actually go.

With this information in hand, you can then make an informed choice about where you want to live while pursuing this career. 

Here are the average digital marketing salaries around the world:

• France: €44,572
• Australia: A$72,414
• United Kingdom: £50,563
• China: ¥255,000
• Brazil: R$178,532

6. Wrap-up and next steps

In this post, we shone a light on the different salaries you can expect to earn as a digital marketing manager, irrespective of your location and experience level, and answer some commonly asked questions about skills, training, and how to get started. 

If you take away just one piece of advice from this post, let it be this: always do your salary research!

It’ll give you the confidence to ask for what you deserve when you start applying for your first positions in the field. 

If this article has piqued your interest in the field of digital marketing, why not try out this free, self-paced short course, to see if the practical ins and outs are for you.

Check out the following posts for further reading on digital marketing:

• An introduction to the main marketing channels
• A complete guide to social media jobs
• What does a digital marketing analyst do?

7. Digital marketing manager salary FAQs

1. Is digital marketing high paying?

Digital marketing can be a highly lucrative field, with the potential for high-paying positions. The earning potential in digital marketing largely depends on factors such as the level of experience, expertise, industry specialization, and geographical location. 

In general, professionals who possess strong skills in areas like search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, content marketing, and data analysis tend to command higher salaries. Additionally, individuals who continually update their knowledge and adapt to the evolving trends in digital marketing have better chances of securing well-paying roles. While high salaries are attainable, it is important to note that individual earnings can vary and are influenced by multiple factors within the industry.

2. Is digital marketing a good career?

Digital marketing offers a promising career path for individuals who are passionate about leveraging online platforms to reach and engage target audiences. The field continues to grow rapidly as businesses increasingly recognize the importance of establishing a strong online presence. With a wide range of roles available, including digital marketing strategists, SEO specialists, content marketers, social media managers, and more, there are ample opportunities for career advancement and specialization. 

Furthermore, digital marketing allows for a dynamic work environment, often involving creativity, data analysis, and staying up-to-date with emerging trends. As long as one is willing to continually learn, adapt, and develop their skills, digital marketing can be a fulfilling and rewarding career choice.

3. Do you need a degree to be a digital marketing manager?

While having a degree can be advantageous in many professions, it is not an absolute requirement to become a successful digital marketer. Digital marketing is a field that places significant emphasis on practical skills, creativity, and staying updated with the latest trends and technologies. Many professionals in this industry have gained their expertise through self-learning, online courses, certifications, and hands-on experience. 

Building a strong portfolio showcasing practical experience, results-driven campaigns, and successful projects can often carry more weight than a formal degree. However, some employers may still prefer candidates with a relevant degree in marketing, communications, or a related field. 

Ultimately, what matters most in digital marketing is a combination of skills, experience, a passion for the field, and the ability to demonstrate a track record of delivering successful marketing outcomes.

You can learn more about how to become a digital marketing manager in this step-by-step guide.