It’s much easier to stand still in business than it is to leap ahead of the competition.

After all, if things are going swimmingly and you have both a healthy bank balance and juicy influx of new leads, why rock the boat?

Industries move at a lightning pace in the digital age, and much of this is down to the impact digital marketing has on products, markets and customers. If you don’t keep pace with these changes, your good fortunes can change, super-fast.

Thankfully, there’s a solution to this, which is to invest consistently in training for all things digital.

If you’re not convinced, here’s why training investment will help you sprint ahead of the competition.

You’ll see things from your customer’s perspective

When did you last access your website with the mindset of a customer?

It’s not an easy thing to do, but by putting on your customer hat and sussing out your offering from their perspective, you’ll gain invaluable insight into what is and isn’t working.

Training will help you here considerably, because you’ll know exactly what to look for as you navigate your business website.

You'll gain a basic (but vital) grasp of SEO

Search engine optimisation (SEO) isn’t a dark art. And, while it helps to have expert external assistance for this vital element of digital marketing, there’s an awful lot you can do in-house, too.

If you invest in digital marketing training, you’ll gain a basic grasp of SEO. That means you’ll understand the impact keywords have on Google search rankings and the methods you can use to write blog posts that the search giant will love.

No one expects you to get your hands dirty with SEO but keeping abreast of the basics is a great way to ensure you maintain a Google-friendly website.

You’ll begin to understand how Google works

Google will always keep their algorithm a closely guarded secret, but they let out just enough information for the initiated to understand what they look for in a website.

By investing in SEO training, your team will gain a much better understanding of how Google works. In turn, that means they’ll take a more measured look at instances where you disappear from search results and have a far better idea of why such instances take place.

Google isn’t a beast you need to tame - it’s a friendly giant (most of the time) that just needs to be understood. Training will help you with that immeasurably.

You’ll gain access to killer website metrics

When was the last time you logged into Google Analytics? More importantly, when you did, were you totally confused by everything on offer?

There’s no getting away from the fact that Google Analytics is a bit of a beast. But the more you’re trained in how to use it, the more value you’ll get from this brilliant platform.

What’s more, you’ll spend far less time hunting around for specific numbers. Consistent training in Google Analytics will equip you with the know-how for finding exactly what you need to know in order to make informed decisions about website changes and content marketing strategies.

Wrapping up

It certainly helps to have the guiding hand of an experienced marketing agency at your beck-and-call, but by also investing in staff training, you’ll build a business that can react to the fast-paced digital world.

When was the last time you booked an SEO or digital marketing training course? 2020 might be the year you finally make this a priority!