The Basics of Coding for Digital Marketers

Why should a digital marketer know how to code?

Coding is a process that sounds complicated and scary. In marketing this is not something people usually focus on, but what if your job depended on it? Let’s say you have a website that is having problems and your customers are complaining. You must rely on a developer that may not respond to you for hours, as you try to fix this error. This sounds like a big headache. What if you could fix your website immediately, because you have background knowledge of coding?

Digital marketers need to know how to code to save precious time and it informs marketers of the process. ?You will be able to understand the basics when you choose to work with a developer.

Codecademy

So here is your chance to learn how to code. You can learn to code for free by signing up for Codeacademy. In the first lesson on Introduction to HTML I learned the basic of how to code headings, paragraphs, lists, images, videos. This was my first experience with coding as the course is beginner friendly and straightforward to learn. Here is my progression through the step-by-step lesson as I created a page about Brown Bears.

Squarespace

Squarespace is a platform that allows you to build your own website. This platform is much easier to use than Codecademy as it allows you to choose from different templates and lets you customize them by dragging and dropping elements to create and modify. In addition, it allows you to incorporate customs code rules into your website if you would like.

Here I chose a custom template above and below is how I customized it to make it into my own. Overall, it is a great tool to get started and they provide a 14-day free trial.

WordPress

Lastly, there is WordPress which is like Squarespace. It is a content management system (CMS) that allows you to host and build websites. WordPress contains plugin architecture and a template system, so you can customize any website to fit your business, blog, portfolio, or online store.

WordPress for Western, allows students to make personal sites for free using your Western Sign in. You can also choose to sign up for the regular version as it is free for the first year with any annual plan.

I created my own website through Western last quarter using WordPress. Overall, this platform is more advanced as it allows you to use many features.

As a digital marketer, how could you use all three?

My advice for digital marketers is to use all 3 platforms! Begin with Codecademcy to get started and learn how to code and then use Squarespace or WordPress to implement your knowledge into customizing your website or starting your own blog! As a marketer, people can get to know you by looking at your website and see how talented you are that you created something of your own, so get out there and experiment on your own!