Getting back to studying once we’ve started working is really difficult. The endless questions we ask ourselves make the transition daunting and overwhelming. However, in order to grow and improve our careers, we make such big decisions.
My name is Navneet Kaur, and I hail from India to make a big change in my professional life. I am currently enrolled in a digital marketing & content marketing course at the York University School of Continuing Studies. I’m still working as an SEO consultant, and to be honest, balancing work and study is not a piece of cake, like literally.
However, the difficulties are worth it. The support from York University, faculty, and my classmates has eased my journey. I’m proud of my decision to return to studying and choosing this university over other colleges in Canada. I can’t wait to complete this course and see the opportunities that await me in the digital marketing field.
Why York University School of Continuing Studies
York University offers numerous courses, and based on my past experience as an SEO Consultant, I enrolled in the Post Graduate Certificate in Digital and Content Marketing course to expand my digital marketing skills and become a T-shaped marketer.
Along with providing SEO services to my clients, I aim to offer them 360-degree digital marketing services, including social media management, content creation, email marketing, and data analytics. This will ensure comprehensive strategies that drive results and business growth from all the digital mediums.
Therefore, to upskill myself, I joined this course at York University School of Continuing Studies. I am completing it in September with newfound expertise and confidence in holistic digital marketing solutions.
About the Digital Marketing Program
In this full-time digital marketing course of 9 months, we delved into a wide range of digital marketing disciplines, but my favorite topics are:
• CRM
• Content Amplification
• PPC
• Web Analytics
• Content Creation and Marketing Strategy
For example, this semester, one of our final projects is to choose a CRM for a startup and create a marketing campaign using some form of content marketing. CRM is something that I always wanted to learn but never got an opportunity to learn. Under the guidance of Leigh Mitchell, we’re learning and exploring the interface of HubSpot; creating emails, workflows, and understanding automation. This is a brand new skill that I’ll add in my resume.
The program aims to provide both theoretical knowledge and practical skills, with hands-on projects and real-world case studies that allow us to apply what we learned in a future jobs.
My Experience as a Digital Marketing Student at YorkU
My journey at York University in this digital marketing program has been exciting and a great learning so far. From the time I enrolled in this course, I was impressed with the faculty, teaching styles, and course materials. It was exactly what I was looking for to expand my horizons in digital marketing. Here’re what I liked about this college:
Learning from the Industry Experts
Every teacher gave their introduction on the first day, and I was overjoyed to discover that all the professors are highly qualified and experienced entrepreneurs. This means we have access to practical knowledge of online marketing that one can’t learn from books.
For instance, Tim Campbell-Smith has consulted organizations like The Small Business Centres of Ontario, The Canadian Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, The Resilience Summit. Similarly, Heath Applebaum is a President of Echo Communications Inc, Doris Montanera is an award-winning writer(she's the best), Rahim Katchi is the founder of The Herringbone, Melyssa Lipsey has worked with Top 100 companies and Leigh Mitchell is the founder of Bee Happy Mindfulness & HR.
Isn’t this amazing?
Many of us even picked the brains of these experts after class, and they were always happy to help. Their real-world marketing experiences provided a huge benefit to us.
Additionally, guest speakers and industry experts made timely visits to our class, helping us understand ongoing trends and future directions in digital marketing. This also allowed us to expand our network with experts in our field.
Here’re some of the guest speakers:
Pranav Malik - He’s a business graduate student from York University and a digital marketing professional who loves creating new ways to make brands stand out online. He gave a knowledgeable and interesting session on how you can create a side hustle or full-time career in marketing advertising.
Rebecca Bultsma - She’s an internationally recognized AI trainer, speaker, and educator. She also runs her own AI consulting firm, specializing in training and speaking on foundational AI literacy and ethical adoption for various organizations. Her insights about ethical adoption of AI for Digital Marketers were eye opening for the whole class.
Luki Danukarjanto - Luki is a career coach who has discovered his purpose in helping others in finding theirs. He told us how we can get the most out of LinkedIn. His live demonstration of optimizing a LinkedIn profile of one of our classmates gave us plenty of ideas to optimize our profiles and increase the online visibility.
Marketing Tools and Certifications
We always had access to HubSpot, a leading platform for marketing, sales, and customer service. With HubSpot, we created emails, workflows, automation processes, and much more. This is one of the trendy tools that the market needs, and we’re glad that it’s a part of our resume now. We have also worked on tools such as Canva, SEMrush, Keyword Planner, Google Ads, Hootsuite, and many more internet marketing tools.
Also, I have completed around 10 digital marketing certifications(including Google Analytics, HubSpot, Hootsuite, & Google Ads) that are highly regarded in the marketing industry. These certifications will not only strengthen our resumes but also confirm our expertise in the industry.
Advice for Aspiring Digital Marketers
Commitment to Attend Classes Daily
I’m not saying that my attendance was 100% but I always avoided missing any class unless I had important reasons too. I’ll not lie that I’ve missed a few important classes of PPC because of which I didn’t understand it completely, resulting in getting lower marks in the final assignments.
It didn’t take me long to realize the importance of attending regular classes. I started coming in all the classes, noting down important details, and paying my full attention in the class. I even started making dummy marketing campaigns in order to practice whatever I’ve learnt in the classes.
Practice Digital Marketing Tools and Create Strategies
To master these skills, practice is important. I’ll suggest spending at least 1-2 hours on self-study and familiarizing yourself with industry-standard tools such as HubSpot, Google Analytics, and social media platforms. By using these tools, you can run a trial or real campaigns, analyze data, and optimize the campaigns more.
This will build your confidence in managing and optimizing digital marketing campaigns. The more you practice and experiment, the more prepared you’ll be for your future jobs, beating the competition.
My transformative journey as a digital marketing student at York University School of Continuing Studies has been full of insights, networking, and understanding. I still have a month to learn from my professors and connect with my classmates. After that, I’m all set to apply in good companies and take on challenging gigs.
I hope my experience will help you find the best college for you. All the best!
