The Best Digital Marketing Bootcamps of 2021
A high-quality digital marketing bootcamp can teach you the practical tech and social media skills necessary to help you in your job search. Potential employers will hire anyone with desirable tech skills and marketing experience, regardless of their education.
What Is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is the art of using online tools to market to a target audience on behalf of a business. Businesses are always looking for new potential consumers, no matter the industry. The job of a digital marketing professional is to help identify that audience and find out the best way to convince them to buy their client’s products.
The success of your digital marketing efforts is measured in conversions, which is the biggest source of feedback, as well as profit for your organization. Marketers look at the analytics of how each ad performs on each platform, from social media networks to email to display ads. They then decide how to optimize their approach for better performance.
Types of Digital Marketing
Find Your Bootcamp Match
- Career Karma matches you with top tech bootcamps
- Access exclusive scholarships and prep courses
By continuing you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, and you consent to receive offers and opportunities from Career Karma by telephone, text message, and email.
Below are a few of the most common types of digital marketing campaigns that organizations run. For any given advertising campaign, a digital marketing professional may use several of the following methods in tandem.
Search Engine Optimization. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves configuring a site to rank higher in Google’s results. There are several ways to accomplish this, from starting blogs that incorporate important keywords to optimizing links and URLs. Marketers can use Google Trends to better understand how search algorithms work.
Search Engine Marketing. Search engine marketing (SEM) is similar to SEO. However, instead of optimizing a website to attract free traffic with search terms, companies pay to have their sites boosted to the top of search results.
Social Media Marketing. Social media marketing describes every digital marketing tactic that businesses employ to attract new customers via various social media platforms. This involves everything from posting regularly to creating eye-catching paid advertisements and tracking engagement analytics.
Email Marketing and Automation. This interlinked content marketing strategy involves acquiring customer emails and sending automated messages to their inboxes. Organizations create personalized email campaigns to send out promo codes and inform users of sales.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platforms like Google AdWords allow organizations to host their advertisements for a per-click fee. These ads can take the form of display advertising on websites, social media ads, or affiliate links posted on Instagram, YouTube, and more.
Affiliate Marketing Programs. Affiliate marketing programs are a form of PPC where organizations partner with influencers, who get a commission for every conversion they help a company create. This method allows influencers to leverage their relationships with customers to land sponsorship deals with brands.
Digital Marketing Skills
For a successful digital marketing career, you need a few essential skills. These skills help guide your interaction with customers to ensure the best outcomes possible. The amount you use these in-demand skills will differ depending on your job situation, but meeting business objectives will be the top priority no matter where you start your new career.
Understanding the Customer Acquisition Funnel. This is one of the most important concepts in marketing. Only a few potential customers will feel prompted to click an ad or search for more information about your product. You must build knowledge of your target audience and consumer behavior to translate your advertising budget into conversions.
Content Strategy. Content strategy is the act of planning out which advertising materials to use for a campaign and how to use them. Whether you’re trying to make more organic content with industry partnerships or using display advertising, content optimization is key for maintaining a high conversion rate.
Building Customer Personas. Customer or buyer personas are individuals created by companies to embody several traits of their target audience. These traits can include age, gender, race, income bracket, preferred social networks, and job level. Industry experts use these personas to identify customer behavior to increase conversions.
Understanding the Customer Journey. The customer journey is the start-to-finish user experience of a customer, from a cold lead to an endpoint. This endpoint can range from a single conversion to becoming a diehard fan. It’s important to map out this journey to eliminate any potential issues with the user experience.
Understanding the Customer Flow. Customer flow is a slightly different concept from the customer journey. The customer flow is a more zoomed-in version of the customer journey that focuses on customer behavior during a single step of a process.
Customer Engagement. This digital strategy is the act of maintaining relationships with potential consumers through social networks, text messaging, or automated emails. A digital marketer can excel at customer relationship management by answering questions, having limited-time sales, and offering promo codes for repeat buyers.
Best Digital Marketing Bootcamps
Several popular coding bootcamps have courses that teach you how to become a digital marketer. These programs may have different methods, but each curriculum will give you hands-on training on the behavior of customers and the industry’s most cutting-edge tools. You can find great digital marketing bootcamps online or in person.
BrainStation is a popular bootcamp for digital skills training where students can learn digital marketing. Over 12 weeks, students go through sessions on search engine marketing, Google Analytics, email marketing campaigns, and more. You’ll also receive job support from the school’s career coaches, who provide interview training and job placement assistance.
Cost: $15,000
The Digital Marketing Boot Camp at Texas McCombs
Designed by Trilogy Education Services, this program is part of UT Austin Boot Camps. In its 18-week comprehensive curriculum, you will learn about Google Ads, social media marketing, lead generation, content strategy, optimizing websites, and more.
This bootcamp also provides career planning services that can transform students into digital marketing managers, marketing analysts, and more.
Cost: $9,495
Digital Marketing Bootcamp from North Carolina State University
NC State has partnered with cyber security educator Hacker U to offer a digital marketing bootcamp, complete with virtual, instructor-led Q&A sessions. The classes cover SEO techniques, Google Analytics, Google Ads and Google Ads Editor, social media marketing, and more. You will build your professional portfolio with hands-on projects.
One unique feature of this program is the addition of ecommerce training, which helps students master all phases of the customer journey. Plus, future employers may be swayed by the credibility that comes with a credential from an accredited university.
Cost: $14,500
Digital Marketing Programs at Northeastern Illinois University
Northeastern Illinois University offers two short-term programs for prospective digital marketers. Students can choose to take a four-week certification course or an immersive 12-week program. In the immersive course, you’ll also learn a bit of basic coding to give you an edge as you enter the job market.
Cost: $6,900
General Assembly offers a popular digital marketing bootcamp with a part-time curriculum. Students complete agency-style projects, gaining hands-on experience in the field while building digital marketing portfolios. You can plug into a network of over 70,000 alumni as you attain a high level of education and launch a new career.
Cost: $3,950
Kellogg Executive Education from Northwestern University
This is one of several university-backed bootcamps where you can learn top-tier digital marketing strategies. Northwestern’s Kellogg Executive Education has built a tailor-made curriculum for career changers, upskillers, and professionals to improve their digital marketing skills.
You’ll cover every skill that goes into a successful digital marketing operation, including conversion rate optimization, customer segmentation, and more.
Cost: $6,950
Pepperdine Graziadio Digital Marketing Boot Camp
This 18-week bootcamp from California-based Pepperdine University’s business school teaches students the most in-demand skills on a part-time schedule. These tools include the entire Google Suite, WordPress, and Facebook Ads Manager. You’ll also have a chance to show off your newfound skills to industry professionals during the school’s Demo Day events.
Cost: Contact school for more information
If you’re interested in the design aspect of digital marketing, Springboard has you covered. Its UI/UX Design Bootcamp provides a comprehensive training model where you’ll work on real-world projects to master market research and learn the digital marketing tools you’ll need to create great customer flows.
Cost: $11,691
Thinkful is a popular coding bootcamp where you can learn the fundamentals of marketing in a part-time program. In this remote learning experience, you’ll study several digital advertising platforms, work with experienced instructors, and complete a capstone project. Thinkful has comprehensive career services, in part due to its hundreds of hiring partners.
Cost: $4,900
How Much Does a Digital Marketing Bootcamp Cost?
The average cost of the digital marketing bootcamps above is $8,154. The lowest price among all of these bootcamps is General Assembly at $3,950 upfront, and the highest is BrainStation at $15,000. Many of these options offer payment plans and scholarship opportunities to help you learn these key concepts without breaking the bank.
Digital Marketing Salary
According to PayScale, the average salary for a digital marketing specialist is $50,414, and the entry-level salary is around $41,181. However, there are several different jobs with varying pay that digital marketing experts can pursue after graduating from a bootcamp.
For example, marketing analysts make around $57,113 per year, and those just starting out earn in this profession earn $51,179, according to PayScale. As a marketing analyst, you’ll use analytical thinking to study the results of a campaign and report the results to stakeholders.
Is a Digital Marketing Bootcamp Worth It?
Yes, if you think you’d enjoy it. Industry experts expect digital marketing spending to continue to grow, after reaching a high of $378.16 billion last year, according to Statista. The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects that the US marketing industry will add around 42,300 jobs by 2029, so there’s room for new hires as the digital economy keeps expanding.
