How to Get the Most Out of the Springboard Digital Marketing Course

Springboard is a scheme designed to give your employment prospects a significant boost. Co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the EU, it provides you with the added opportunity, training and help to attain promotion, switch to a new career or even enter the job market after a lengthy period of unemployment.

Springboard Courses 2022 offer a choice of free and funded courses in higher education and are either recognised on the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ) or are aligned to the framework.

If you are considering a digital marketing course in Ireland, Galway Business School has fantastic Springboard courses online. If you are looking to retrain, upskill and give your employment prospects a real boost, our Springboard Digital Marketing Course is the perfect choice for you.

What is a Digital Marketing Course?

In simple terms, digital marketing is advertising using online media channels. It is the process of selling products and promoting brands to consumers via digital technologies.

A Digital Marketing Course will develop your knowledge and understanding of digital marketing, from its key pillars and history to its growth as one of the prominent methods of interaction between organisations and their customers.

You will learn how to devise digital marketing strategies, implement specific plans and evaluate your marketing achievements. The programme will provide input on the fundamentals of online and internet marketing, including forms of digital communication such as:

• Email marketing
• Social media
• Websites
• Mobile apps
• Text messaging
• Web-based advertising

You will also learn about the broad range of strategies which companies use to reach potential customers and increase brand awareness, including:

• Content marketing
• SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
• Blog writing
• Pay per click (PPC) advertising
• Website marketing

Is a Digital Marketing Course useful to do?

Absolutely! The world is changing, and quickly. The Covid-19 pandemic, where many millions around the globe were forced to work from home for long periods, taught us that businesses and individuals need to be adaptable in order to survive.

Working online from home is now considered normal for many of us. We spend considerable amounts of time using the internet, and companies have found it necessary to adopt new ways of connecting with potential customers and getting their brands and products ‘out there’.

This has led to an explosion in digital marketing, especially via social media and mobile marketing for smartphones. Ireland's National Skills Strategy 2025 has identified that digital marketing proficiency is essential if the country’s economy is to grow and flourish. The marketers of the future will need a knowledge base and strong skillset that is digital.

Completing a Digital Marketing Course at Galway Business School (GBS) means you will be part of an interesting and rapidly developing field of study that offers excellent employment prospects and exciting careers.

How to do a Digital Marketing Course

Many organisations and places of learning offer training in digital marketing, and at Galway Business School we provide a comprehensive programme designed to give you a well-grounded knowledge of digital marketing that can be demonstrated and put into action in the workplace. During our course you will:

• Learn about and develop digital marketing strategies
• Study a broad range of methods (for example, social media marketing, SEO content) coupled with practical, hands-on activities for a digital marketing campaign
• Discover the history and basics of digital marketing
• Learn how the key pillars of digital marketing work and affect different situations
• Discover how impactful digital marketing campaigns can be on consumers and for the organisations running the promotions

Enrolment at Galway is quick and easy, so if you are looking to enter the digital marketing arena for the first time, add additional digital skills to your portfolio, or simply develop your existing marketing abilities, we are the perfect choice.

Galway Business School offers students a suite of excellent Springboard courses which range from Levels 6 to 8 on the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ) and are fully accredited by the QQI (Quality & Qualifications Ireland).

As well as a Digital Marketing Course, at GBS we offer:

• Certificate in Business Communications
• Certificate in Sales and Marketing
• Human Resource Management
  

Who can do a Springboard Digital Marketing Course?

In short: anyone! Springboard courses in Ireland are open to everyone, and attract applications from people from all walks of life. Our Digital Marketing Course is just one of more than three hundred programmes available on the government-backed initiative for 2022 to 2023.

To be eligible for Galway Business School’s Digital Marketing Course, students are required to have Leaving Certificate 5 passes (or High School Diploma equivalent) along with an English Language qualification at CEFR B2 or above. International learners who are non-native English speakers or have not attained IELTS Level 6 or equivalent have to take compulsory language classes at the start of the programme.

Our Springboard Digital Marketing Course lasts one semester (typically eighteen weeks) and is a mixture of part-time evening and online work. It is QQI accredited and on Level 6 of the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ).

For more details on how to qualify for our Digital Marketing Course via Springboard read here.

Digital Marketing Tips to Make the most of The Springboard Digital Marketing Course

No matter what your level of experience, our Springboard Digital Marketing programme will provide you with the requisite skills and knowledge base so you can confidently move into a digital marketing job, or look to advance in your current digital marketing career.

Completing the springboard digital marketing course will give you a GBS Certificate in Digital Marketing at level 6 on the National Framework of Qualifications. This can be used to progress on to a career in a small or medium enterprise working with their digital marketing channels, or even to a broad choice of entry level jobs in digital marketing that you can find in global organisations.

To help you get ahead, before and during the course you can research the various digital marketing roles that are available. These include:

• Content creator – this includes blogging, article writing, copy for websites, as well as being part of the strategy team where you will plan campaigns.
• Lead generator – you will find and work on new leads for the business, which can be used to promote growth, increase brand awareness and reach new customers.
• Social media – you manage the social media channels for a business, including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, creating engaging posts and dealing with consumer replies and feedback, all with a view to expanding the reach of the company.
• Pay per click – you will operate the pay-per-click ad campaigns, ensuring you keep within budget while hitting target markets and provide evaluation of the campaigns once they are finished.
• SEO – search engine optimisation is a key part of digital marketing, and you will ensure content creation drives your organisation up the search rankings, as well as providing analysis of your website performance and how it compares to those of other businesses.

No matter what area of digital marketing you wish to focus on, you should remember that the job itself requires an excellent understanding of data. Attention to detail and an inquiring mind are key. Social media and content positions will also need someone with creative flair and a lively imagination.

Other tips to help you improve your chances of success in the digital marketing arena include:

• Keep on top of new marketing trends – for example, SEO (search engine optimisation) has been around for a while, but to really drive your digital channels you now need a potent, engaging mix of SEO and Content.
• If you’re a content creator for blogs, remember that longer is now considered better. Gone are the days when short meant sweet – Google’s top-ranked content is typically between 1100 and 1300 words, with 1200 being the best. Blogs that are longer and more in-depth are likely to be more successful in reaching new customers – around nine times more than a short post!
• Learn how to develop email campaigns, as they are vitally important and generate significant income streams. Research has shown that for every $1 spent on an email campaign, $44 is earned.
• Understand how important the smartphone market is – and optimise your company’s website for mobile!
• Learn how to create or source visual content – consumers love watching videos, no matter how short, and research shows that a person is 88% more likely to stay on your website if it contains a video background to its pages.
• Become a social media wizard. You may Tweet occasionally, or share food pics on Facebook, or occasionally post on Insta. But being seen online is vitally important to a business, and as a digital marketer you will need to understand about reach and brand awareness. Engaging with consumers is key, and being contactable, relatable and even laugh-out-loud funny on your company’s social feeds will do no end of good for the business.

Galway Business School is situated on the seaside resort of Salthill, a stone’s throw from the beach and Galway Bay, while the beautiful, lively city centre – with all that it has to offer – is just a three minute drive away.