The demand for digital marketing professionals is increasing, especially in a tech hub city like San Francisco. Many digital marketing courses in San Francisco are available in the Bay Area for you to learn the trade and begin a career in the field.
This article will go over the best digital marketing courses in San Francisco. It will cover what digital marketing is, the skills you need to go down this path, and how and where you can learn these skills.
What Is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is the use of the Internet and online digital marketing tools to promote products or services to people. There are many aspects of digital marketing including search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, email marketing, digital advertising, and Google Analytics. Let’s go over them in more detail below.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization, also known as SEO, is the practice of improving website traffic to boost a website search engine ranking. Search engines include Google, Bing, Yahoo, among many others.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search engine marketing is the practice of using paid advertisements for search engine result pages. The difference between SEO and SEM is that SEM involves paid results while SEO involves organic results.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is the practice of using electronic mail to attract and retain customer attention. It is a great form of digital marketing because it can keep current customers informed. With email marketing, businesses can send out tailored promotions, company updates, and try to get new customers interested in products or services.
Digital Advertising
Digital advertising, also called online marketing or advertising, is the practice of using the Internet to market a company’s product or service. These advertisements are generally displayed on websites.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is the practice of using social media sites to display ads. It is one of the top ways in contemporary marketing, especially when your company wants to attract a younger crowd.
With social media marketing, businesses can advertise or post content on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Through this practice, companies post paid content tailored to specific audiences on social media.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is the practice of tracking conversions of Google ad campaigns. With the practice, you analyze the performance of your campaigns.
Google Analytics works hand-in-hand with Google Adwords as the latter tracks ad clicks, and the former tracks other kinds of information, such as how much time a person spends viewing an advertisement before clicking or passing on it.
The Top Digital Marketing Courses in San Francisco
The city of San Francisco offers many digital marketing courses in person and online. These classes teach students about the many areas of digital marketing and the best tools to use in digital marketing. Please note that due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, some classes and programs that were in person may have moved online temporarily.
Simpli Learn
Course: Digital Marketing Specialist Course
Cost: $1,499
Simpli Learn offers a digital marketing specialist course in San Francisco to teach individuals all there is to know about digital marketing and turn them into gurus. Digital marketing students at Simpli Learn’s course take the following classes:
- Mastering SEO, Content marketing, PPC, and Digital Analytics
- Mastering Social Media, Mobile Marketing, and Digital Strategy
- Advanced Web Analytics
- Advanced Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Advanced Pay Per Click (PPC) Certification Program
- Advanced Social Media
Upon completion of the program, students will receive a digital marketing specialist certification.
Bay Area Video Coalition
Course: Multimedia Intermediate Full Certificate: Digital Marketing
Cost: $3,085
The Bay Area Video Coalition is a school that offers a great digital marketing certification upon the completion of its digital marketing course, which goes over everything there is to know about the field.
This course covers social media marketing plans and strategy, how to use WordPress and its functions, HTML5 and CSS3, Graphic Design, Google Analytics, and SEO.
San Francisco State University
Course: Marketing Certificate
Cost: $4,500 plus $50 certificate fee
In this marketing certificate course, offered by San Francisco State University, students will learn about the three different concentrations that are offered: digital marketing, social media marketing, and marketing essentials. Each concentration will go over the following.
Marketing Essentials
Marketing Essentials helps you learn about marketing principles, marketing research, and copywriting. This concentration focuses on the fundamentals of marketing and some basic marketing tools.
Digital Marketing
Digital Marketing teaches search engine marketing such as SEO and SEM, analytics, landing pages, digital marketing essentials, and location-based marketing.
Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing teaches social media strategy, social media marketing campaigns, how to effectively use social media platforms, and their metrics.
General Assembly
Course: Digital Marketing Bootcamp Remote (Online)
Cost: $250
"Career Karma entered my life when I needed it most and quickly helped me match with a bootcamp. Two months after graduating, I found my dream job that aligned with my values and goals in life!"
Venus, Software Engineer at Rockbot
In this one-day online digital marketing bootcamp offered by General Assembly, you will learn how to draft campaigns to boost sales and attract new customers. You will also learn how to find their audiences, marketing funnels, SEO, paid advertising, how to use marketing analytics, and website optimization.
Course: Digital Marketing Course: San Francisco
Cost: $3,950
In this 12-week digital marketing course, you will learn about digital marketing strategies and how to effectively create campaigns to gain customer insights and boost sales. This course is for students who have some professional experience and are looking to improve their skills.
You can be a beginner or expert, but this course is mostly geared towards newer students. With the course, you can learn about Google Analytics, search strategies, social media marketing, and optimization.
Bootcamp Digital
Course: 4-Day Digital Marketing Workshop
Cost: $2947
Bootcamp Digital, located in San Francisco, offers a four-day digital marketing workshop that covers different topics of marketing each day. The agenda includes two days of digital marketing and two days of social media marketing.
The first day of classes starts with digital marketing. Students learn about the basics of digital marketing, website usability, search engine optimization, and online reputation management.
Day two is also a digital marketing class. Students learn about email marketing, online advertising, managing digital campaigns, and mobile marketing.
The third day of this workshop is about social media marketing. Students learn social media strategy, social networks, and best practices.
The fourth day of this workshop is also about social media marketing. On this final day, students learn about measuring social media, how to get started, and how to use different social media networks.
Should I Take Digital Marketing Courses in San Francisco?
San Francisco is a great city with amazing views and an NBA Finals winning team. The Californian tech hub is lively, making it a great place for you to learn and apply digital marketing techniques. If working in digital marketing, creating social media campaigns, online advertising, and reviewing analytics interest you, take a digital marketing course in San Francisco.
Someone who works in digital marketing is paid fairly as well here. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, they make an average of $135,900 per year in the United States.
There are many career options for individuals who are interested in digital marketing. You can be a social media manager, content strategist, SEO strategist, or marketer. These positions are great for people just starting their digital marketing careers.
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