Digital Marketing Workshop: Is It Worth Your Time?

Do you know that the global digital marketing and advertising market is expected to reach $786.2 billion by 2026? This explains why digital marketing is getting a bigger share of marketing budget allocation for many businesses. So, what does this mean for your motorsport, automotive, or any other business?

Business owners have realized the effectiveness of digital marketing. This includes reaching a larger audience and targeting “the right” prospects, most likely to purchase your products or services.

Let's get real. In this current digital era, you should not rely on offline marketing as your only strategy for driving sales. Most of your audiences are spending much of their time on the internet. Certainly, if they are trying to solve a problem they have… they are not opening a magazine & looking at ads to find their solution. So, doesn’t it make more sense to connect with them through digital marketing channels like websites, social media, email marketing, videos, webinars, etc.?

As the digital landscape continues to evolve, staying up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in digital marketing is essential for your business growth. This will allow you to remain competitive and effectively reach your target audience. 

You may have seen digital marketing workshops pitched online, but are they worth your time?

What is a Digital Marketing Workshop?

A digital marketing workshop is an educational session or training program designed to teach business professionals and marketers the various aspects of digital marketing. Some of the various disciplines you'll learn from these workshops include social media and email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and online advertising.

The workshops can be online or in-person. They are usually led by industry experts and digital marketing professionals. Digital marketing workshops provide insights and strategies to help you improve your digital marketing skills and achieve business goals.

The workshops often involve case studies, interactive sessions, and real-world examples to help you practically understand digital marketing principles and techniques.

But are digital marketing workshops worth your time? Let's find out.

Is a digital marketing workshop worth your time?

Why do you think so many brands’ marketing efforts fail? It is often because they go straight into marketing without a plan.

The best way to kickstart your digital marketing journey is to first understand what you are trying to accomplish for your business… Are you trying to increase brand awareness, create customer loyalty, drive more sales… all of the above? You should identify what objectives or business growth you are looking for so that you understand which digital marketing workshops can help you accomplish these goals.

There are various forms of digital marketing workshops—somecan help your business significantly, while others can be a waste of time.

Determining whether a digital marketing workshop is worth your time depends on various factors, including your specific learning needs, the quality of the workshop itself, and the available resources.

Below are a few benefits of a digital marketing workshop:

Learn about new trends in digital marketing

Digital marketing workshops help business owners and marketers keep up with the latest trends in digital marketing. The field of digital marketing is constantly evolving. New technologies and techniques are introduced all the time. Leveraging workshops focused on digital marketing allows you to keep pace with the industry (and your competition).

Learn from experts

Digital marketing workshops allow you to interact and learn from professionals who know more than you do about digital marketing. Mostly, the workshops are led by highly skilled and experienced professionals with a deep understanding of digital marketing. You can learn from their expertise and gain valuable insights to apply to your own marketing strategies.

Networking opportunities

A digital marketing workshop brings together different professionals, including entrepreneurs, marketers, industry experts, and business owners. These professionals are there to learn as well as share what they know.

The workshops present an excellent networking opportunity to help you grow your network, discover new opportunities, and collaborate on future projects.

Customized learning

Imagine attending a learning program where you don't understand anything. And the worst part is that you may have paid for the training.

Digital marketing workshops offer customized learning to all attendees—the workshops can be tailored to the attendee's needs and skill levels. This allows you to choose workshops most relevant to your specific needs, interests, and goals. In return, you receive personalized instructions meeting your unique business needs.

How do you know a particular workshop is a good use of your time?

Not every workshop is good for your time and business. Therefore, you should not waste your time attending every digital marketing workshop you see advertised online. Instead, you should carefully consider whether the workshop or digital strategy will be a good use of your time.

One way to do this is by understanding where your business is and what you hope to take from the workshop.

Here are some factors to help you decide:

• Who are your target customers?: You must understand your customers, their core problems, and their motivations for buying your products and services.
• Solutions your prospects are considering: Of course, your prospects will have more than one solution to their problem in mind. So, they are simply weighing all the options and finding an ideal solution. Find out the solutions they are considering and their shortcomings concerning the prospects' needs.
• Can you prove your "WHY": Do you have an ideal solution to your prospect's problems? Can you prove why your product or service is better than the other solutions? You need to clearly articulate why your solution has proven results.
• What's your brand promise?: You and everyone in your company should know your brand promise. Moreover, your reputation, products, and services should support your brand promise. Most importantly, your brand promise should benefit your customers.
• What are your buyer's suspicions?: You need to understand your buyer's suspicions to alleviate their objections. This way, you can easily get them to convert to your offer when ready.

What I have seen in my 20+ years of experience in this industry is that most digital marketing workshops focus on tactics. But for many companies, this isn’t the place to start. I view those marketing tactics as “fuel” that goes into your growth “engine.” That engine is, generically speaking, your website, where prospective customers interact with you in their journey to (hopefully) become a customer. If you put fuel (even if it’s the best fuel you can find)  into an engine that doesn't run or isn’t tuned properly, you use your fuel, but you don't go anywhere.

My recommendation is to start with the “right” strategy, plan, workshop (whatever it is called) to get you the right “engine.”  Find a workshop that will help you get your strategy right, and help you craft a website that is built around the buyer’s journey. Once you have the right engine in place, THEN you can focus on putting marketing fuel into that engine. That is going to give you the best chance to drive significant ROI from your marketing investment.

Final thoughts

If you don't understand marketing, all your efforts and dollars will go to waste whenever you try to implement your marketing strategies. And since digital marketing is constantly evolving, you must always stay current with all the latest trends and best practices. This is, perhaps, the only way to beat your competitors.

But should you attend a digital marketing workshop to learn about the various marketing principles? Well, it depends on a lot of factors. Some workshops can be significantly helpful, while others will waste your time. To differentiate the two, you should understand where your business is and what you hope to take from the digital marketing workshop.

Watch this Digital Growth Framework™ video to understand how talking to people at the right stage of the buying process moves them to the next one. We market something that engages and converts people—and this is what makes our marketing highly effective.