Digital marketing is a rapidly booming industry with a market value of billions. With the constant need to transform digital experiences, it is expected to grow substantially and offer great career opportunities. If you are also looking to build a great career in the industry, you might be wondering how much time does it take to learn digital marketing. Well, the answer is pretty straightforward. It may take from 3-6 months to a year, depending on what kind of institution you choose. The entire learning process depends on many key factors like curriculum, mode of learning, prior experience and so on. Let’s dig a little deeper to understand more about this course.

Factors Affecting How Much Time It Takes To Learn Digital Marketing

The best way to get an estimate for learning digital marketing is to understand the various factors that impact the learning curve.

• Educational Background – A degree in marketing or business may seem like the only path to start your career in marketing, but that’s not entirely true. Experience in tech helps you easily grasp the technical skills required in digital marketing, whereas if you come from an art background, your good command over creative skills can excel you in content creation and visual design. This kind of educational background can enhance the learning period.
• Prior Experience in Digital Marketing – Familiarity with any sort of marketing, whether it’s advertising, content creation, market research, or social media marketing, gives you an upper hand and accelerates the learning process since you already understand basic concepts and can easily build on that knowledge.
• Learning Resources – Digital marketing is a fast-growing industry, and you need to have up-to-date resources to keep up with the changes. Any outdated resources can make you fall behind on your learning journey.
• Learning Speed & Style – Every person has a different learning speed and style. Using methods that align with your learning style considerably speeds up the learning process.
• Time Dedicated to Learning – If you have a busy schedule and learn part-time, your learning period may be more than twice as long compared to learning full-time. Consistency also plays a huge role in keeping you up-to-date and on track.
• Learning Goals – Digital marketing is a vast field. A broad overview of basic concepts takes much less time than planning on doing a specialization. If you want to master any specific field, it may take a year or so.

Among all these factors that affect the learning period, the most important one is the mode of learning.

Mode of Learning

Mode of learning can significantly impact how much time it takes to learn digital marketing. While online courses provide more flexibility, offline classes provide direct interaction, focused learning, and hands-on experience, making them more impactful.

• Self-Study – This mode of learning can take you a few months to a few years. The learning period drastically varies based on the curriculum, learning speed, quality of resources and self-motivation.
• Self-paced Online Courses – These courses generally take more time than time-bound courses as they solely depend on self-motivation.
• Instructor-led Online Courses – Structured learning keeps you on track, and interaction with professors and peers promotes a better understanding of concepts.
• In-Person Classes – Setting deadlines along with hands-on experience improves learning time and paves the way for deeper understanding.

Estimated Learning Timelines For Learning Digital Marketing

• Fundamental Knowledge – If your goal is to have basic proficiency in digital marketing, it may take you around 3-6 months.
• Intermediate Knowledge – If you want to have a good command over various subdomains of digital marketing and solve real-life problems, it may take you around six months to a year.
• Specialization or Mastery – If you want to specialize in one subdomain or build expert-level skills, it may require 2+ years of consistent learning and practical experience.

Typically, it will take you 6-12 months to learn digital marketing. Your learning journey may differ from your peers based on the factors we discussed above. The main thing is to set realistic goals in line with your distinctiveness and be consistent.

With 500+ happy learners, Bangalore Digital Marketing institute is a reputed institute guiding tomorrow’s digital marketing pioneers. Our expertly curated curriculum helps beginners as well as advanced learners to establish their presence in the industry. We also offer a 100% placement and internship guarantee to kick-start your digital marketing career.