How to choose right digital marketing course & best digital marketing institute for you

How to choose best digital marketing institute & right digital marketing course: Digital marketing is now a booming field all over the world and India is also not any exception. Digital marketing skill is now on high demand and companies are looking for skilled resources. Universities and colleges are also including digital marketing in their course syllabus. Industry oriented practical hands-on experience on digital marketing has now a days become necessity for aspiring marketers and freshers. Even professionals from various other sectors need a skill upgrade in digital marketing.

Related reading: Why digital marketing is the future of marketing?

But to learn digital marketing well and to become a pro, you need to know how to choose best digital marketing institute and how to select the right digital marketing course. Choosing the best digital marketing institute sometimes looks confusing to a person who is new to this field or has no prior idea about digital marketing.

Statistics of digital marketing growth in India [Business & Career]

• 800% increase in job opportunities in last 5 years. Digital Entrepreneurship is also on big rise. faster career path & more than 60% better than other career courses. 
• 1.8X average salary hike in a year for right candidates. Huge scope for Part-time passive income too. Globally accepted skill. 
• Huge Demand – Top MNCs, SMEs & startups have a huge & increasing demand 
• Highest Growth – 1/3rd of businesses are planning to introduce a Digital Transformation program & 1/3 already have. Highest industry growth.

Digital trends in India in 2019-2020 [ PDF report]

Related reading: Digital Marketing Trends

Related reading: Digital Marketing career opportunities

India has many digital marketing training institutes and recently with increased number of newer digital marketing institutes, it is now becoming bit confusing to choose the best institute that suits your requirement. You should invest your money and effort wisely to get maximum benefit out of it. Here is a checklist that will help you to know how to choose best digital marketing institute and the right digital marketing course.

How to select the best digital marketing institute and the right digital marketing course for you

Here is a 15-points checklist of important parameters that you should consider while selecting the right digital marketing course or the best digital marketing institute depending upon your own customized requirement. These parameters and priorities may vary from person to person and depending on the priorities and personalized requirement, one needs to choose the right digital marketing course and the institute.

Understand your own requirement well

Before hunting for choosing the right digital marketing course or best digital marketing institute, the first thing you need is to understand your own requirement and objectives well. You should ask yourself the following questions and then note down the answers on pen and paper. then map them with the other parameters. Here is a list of questions that you should ask yourself.

• Why do you need a Digital Marketing course?
• What is your objective for pursuing this course?
• What are your precise expectations out of this course?
• Where do you want to use your digital marketing skills – startup, business, career jump or new job?
• What are the various learning options available to you?
• What kind of resources you can put in to learn?
• What are your preferred areas in Digital Marketing?
• How much time you can give to the course?
• What are the limitations and preferences that you have in terms of time, availability, commuting, environment, training methodology and teacher student bonding etc?
• Are you a typical spoon-feed type student? Are you lacking confidence?

Reputation of the institute in various platforms: 

You should carefully check reviews on various platforms such as Google, Facebook, Quora, Udemy, Trustpilot, JustDial, Sulekha , YouTube. You should also check the media coverage of the institute for awards, felicitations or for notable work.

• How many reviews are there on Google? How many positive and how many negative? What are the negative comments saying? What are the most common positive points?
• How many reviews are there on Facebook?
• How many reviews are there on Udemy?
• How many reviews are there on Trustpilot or justdial or sulekha or mouthshut?
• How many reviews are there on Quora?
• Are these reviews look genuine? Can these reviewers profile be verified ?
• How many video reviews are there on YouTube? Can these be cross verified?
• How many awards received by the institute?
• How many media coverage the institute received? Are there any links or proof of docs or images?
• Do they have notable alumni?

Establishment of the institute :

You should carefully note the establishment year of the institute. Also the RoC active status of the institute if it’s a private limited company or registered society. The hard fact is that any company or institute active more than 8-10 years in market has the credibility & trust. You should consider this parameter. Also any institute established under society act or as pvt. ltd. registered under ROC, Govt. of India with active status or a sister concern/part of it can have better credibility.

Faculty or Trainers:

You should check profiles of faculties of the institute. Whether they are established entrepreneur by themselves or experienced industry experts. Check their Facebook profile, LinkedIn profile, media coverage and activities. Check how long they are associated with the institute.

• How experienced the trainers are?
• How good are their credentials?
• What is their teaching methodology?
• How well they engage with their students’ learning?
• How the classes are distributed among trainers?

Course Curriculum:

This is one of the important factors. Research and tally with the course curriculum as per latest market trends and changing technological landscape. Digital marketing course syllabus should consists of all the essential modules as well as advanced modules. Now many institutes just for the sake of telling you, will give you the syllabus that is actually not followed well. So the trick is to check if they have an online video walk-through classes with the same modules mentioned in the course curriculum.

Practical Projects: 

Many of the digital marketing institutes in India are only institutes and they go by academic curriculum except a few those are digital marketing agency with real clients. So check on this parameter whether you get practical assignments and opportunity to work on live projects.

Course duration: 

You should check the course duration and total number of course hours along with access to study materials. Depending on how much time you can devote to learn this new skill along with your self confidence and pace, you can check with the institute for the course duration.

Course Language:

You should also check which language the course is being taught. It is always better if you get an institute where the training/lectures are being given in bi-language (One Regional & One English or National Language + English).

Online or Classroom:

Depending on your comfort & time, you should decide whether you should go with online digital marketing training or for classroom course.

Picture Gallery:

Credible institutes have more pictures, real faces and information all across the web. You should check pictures & videos of trainers, students, certificates, offices, pictures of training rooms, labs, awards, media coverage, job offer letters .

Course Certification:

You should check the course certification offered by the institute and the market value of it. Also check if the institute helps you to get additional certifications from Google, Hubspot , Facebook or others.

Beware of the fact that Google, Facebook or other certifications are completely their own certification and no 3rd party institute can claim that they can give you these certificates. They can assist you to sit for exam to get these certificates. Also take note that what certificates the institute is providing by their own.

Academia Industry Connect: 

Check if the institute has tie up with other credible recognized institutes or organizations or business commerce chambers.

Placement record: 

Check the placement record of the institute. Talk to past alumni. Ask the institute to show offer letters of previous students. The following question to ask yourself –

What are the benefits you will get after completion of course in terms of certifications, job assistance, placement, practical training, internships (if any)?

Course Fees:

Depending on your requirement and time you can commit, you should select a right course that fits into your budget. Don’t compromise on quality . This training is an investment on yourself so check various fees options for courses as well as installment options. Course fees of an institute depends on their pricing strategy, goodwill in market, infrastructure & brand reputation. You can ask yourself the following questions for your own research –

• How good and different is the program offered by that institute, in comparison with offerings from competitive institutes?
• How well planned the fees structure is?
• What payment options this institute is offering and how well they have scheduled it?
• Is there any financial assistance or student loan or flexibility or discount available?

Related reading: Digital marketing course fees in India

Online Demo:

Ask for online demo of the digital marketing course before you enroll in an institute. Also check the query response time and behavior of the support staffs.

Pedagogy:

You need to understand how a complete course is conducted including concept sessions, practical examples, home & class assignments, feedback, live internship, mock tests, case studies, exam & post course support.

Related reading: 15+ reasons why Seven Boats Academy is the best digital marketing institute in Kolkata

Final Words

Digital marketing is not a one day game. Also it is not exactly a show off biz. To learn it well, beside a good institute and trainers you also need to devote time, effort and love from your end with passion to learn and implement. Experiments and execution are important. You should align your thoughts as a marketer and try to execute and experiment your learning .