NZ Digital Marketing Essentials 2025

Our “Digital Marketing Essentials 2025” course is designed to equip experienced Kiwi marketers with the knowledge and skills required to stay relevant in an ever-changing digital landscape. As digital technologies and customer expectations evolve at a rapid pace, the need to adapt has become crucial.

In case you needed reminding, Digital Marketing is now by far the dominant marketing medium in NZ, and represents 62.8% of the total advertising dollars spent in New Zealand annually.

Through this course, you will deepen your expertise in essential digital marketing areas, from harnessing AI-powered tools to mastering privacy-first targeting strategies. You’ll leave equipped not only to keep pace but to leverage change as a competitive advantage.

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Who Should Take This Course?

This course is specifically crafted for New Zealand marketing professionals who understand the importance of a digital-first approach but are keenly aware of the challenges of keeping up with emerging trends, technologies, and regulatory shifts.

Course Objectives:

Master the latest digital marketing technologies and methodologies
Develop AI-integrated marketing strategies that drive results
Navigate privacy regulations while maintaining marketing effectiveness
Build scalable, future-proof marketing frameworks
Create data-driven, personalized customer experiences

Course Outline

Here’s what the course covers:

Module 1: The Transformed Digital Marketing Landscape

This module provides a foundation in understanding the major changes shaping digital marketing in 2025. Participants will explore the historical evolution of digital marketing, focusing on recent trends that signal the industry’s future. Topics include:

Evolution of digital marketing
Key trends and predictions for 2025
Setting marketing goals and objectives in the digital age
Integration of AI across marketing functions
New consumer behaviour patterns and expectations
Navigating privacy regulations (NZ Privacy Act, GDPR, CCPA, etc.)
Privacy-First Targeting: How to balance personalisation with increased privacy regulations and cookieless tracking.
Building trust with data-driven marketing

Module 2: AI-Powered Marketing Strategy

AI’s capabilities are revolutionising marketing, making strategy development more efficient and data-driven. This module will cover:

Mapping Complex Customer Journeys: Tools and methodologies for mapping multi-touch, cross-platform customer journeys.
Market research and competitor analysis
Predictive analytics for campaign planning
Automated customer journey mapping
AI-driven budget allocation and ROI forecasting
Ethical considerations in AI marketing
Risk Management in Digital Marketing: Identifying and mitigating risks related to data breaches, brand reputation, and compliance.

Module 3: Next-Generation Content Marketing

Content remains a cornerstone of digital marketing, but its creation, distribution, and optimisation are rapidly evolving. This module covers:

AI content creation and optimization tools
Multimodal content strategy (text, voice, video)
Generative AI for visual content
Video marketing optimization
Podcast and audio content strategy
Content repurposing

Module 4: Advanced Search Marketing

As search engine algorithms increasingly rely on AI, traditional SEO strategies need an upgrade. This module explores:

E-E-A-T principles evolution
AI-enhanced SEO strategies
AI-first search engine algorithms
AI-driven keyword research and optimization
Voice search optimization
Visual search optimization
Mobile-first indexing advanced techniques
Core Web Vitals mastery
Semantic Search and Structured Data: Using schema markup and optimising for user intent to improve visibility
Local SEO in an AI-first world

Module 5: Social Media Evolution

Social media continues to grow, with new platforms and formats emerging every year. This module focuses on staying ahead of trends and adapting to changes in social media. Participants will learn about:

New Platforms and Formats: Keeping up with emerging social channels
Social media content creation using AI
Effective, automated content distribution strategies at scale
AI-powered social listening and trend analysis
Social commerce and shoppable content
Automated community management
Influencer marketing strategies

Module 6: Video Marketing

Video remains one of the most engaging forms of content in digital marketing. This module explores:

Creating engaging video content for different platforms (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook)
Using AI to generate videos, provide voices and even create music
Best practices for video conversion and distribution, in square, portrait and landscape formats
How to get noticed on each platform
Optimizing videos for search engines
Measuring video performance and ROI

Module 7: Paid Advertising & AI

This module provides an in-depth look at paid digital advertising in an AI-driven world. Topics include:

AI-powered ad targeting and retargeting
AI ad creation tools
Mastering Google Ads
Effective Meta Ads strategies
The Google and Meta ad libraries and how to use them to best advantage
Programmatic advertising and ad exchanges

Module 8: Email Marketing & Automation

Email marketing remains a powerful tool, but advancements in automation have raised the bar for personalisation and relevance. This module covers:

Advanced email marketing techniques (dynamic content, personalization, automation)
Email deliverability best practices
Measuring email campaign performance

Module 9: Measurement & Attribution

Accurate measurement is key to understanding the impact of digital marketing efforts. This module delves into:

AI-driven attribution modeling
Understanding marketing mix modeling
ROI forecasting and optimization
First-party data strategies
Privacy-compliant tracking methods

Module 10: Future-Proofing Your Marketing

To remain competitive, marketers need to future-proof their skills and strategies. This final module focuses on:

Techniques for developing compelling brand stories that resonate across platforms and touchpoints
Evaluating and selecting AI marketing tools
Integration of marketing technologies
Building scalable marketing infrastructure
Security and compliance considerations
Continuous learning strategies

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TIMING

The NZ Digital Marketing Essentials 2025 Course begins on Monday 30 December, 2024.

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INVESTMENT

This ten-part online training course is available for $797+GST. However we offer an Early Bird Discount of $100 — pay just $697+GST for bookings received by Monday 23 December, 2024.

Bookings are confirmed on receipt of payment, which can be by bank deposit or credit card. We can raise an invoice in advance if you need it.

To reserve your place in this course, please pay by debit or credit card through PayPal by clicking here:

If you would prefer to pay by bank deposit, or require an invoice, please send an email to info@socialmedia.org.nz with your requirements.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

You’ll receive our emailed confirmation of your booking. Then on the first day of the course we’ll follow up with details of your Login and Password, along with an Enrolment Key for the NZ Digital Marketing Essentials 2025 online training course.

If you have any questions, or would like more information, please email us at info@socialmedia.org.nz

FAQ

How does the course work?

Every lesson includes Action Steps so that you can start implementing what you’ve just learned, along with Quick Wins so that you can apply your newfound knowledge immediately.

Is the course live?

No, everything is online, conducted on a web-based e-learning software platform. Once a lesson is released, you can access it whenever you wish, anytime 24/7, in accordance with your own timetable). You proceed at your own pace, accessing materials online.

What’s the course format?

This particular online training course provides content in a variety of multimedia forms, including text, images, videos, slideshows, presentations and PDF files. No special software is required to participate, you access it through a web browser (eg Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari).

How often are lessons released?

Course lessons will be provided weekly, on Mondays, over ten weeks. We release content on a weekly schedule because we review (and where necessary update) the contents of each lesson just before release, to ensure that the material is as up-to-date as possible — digital marketing is constantly changing, so we aim to ensure that the lessons reflect the latest developments.

How long will each lesson take?

We typically recommend you allow 1-2 hours per lesson.

What happens if I need help?

Interaction with the course tutor is enabled via email (with telephone backup if required).

What are people saying about these courses?

Feedback from previous digital marketing training course and workshop participants:

It is great that we have managed to get an external perspective on marketing in the digital space – your expertise in this area is greatly appreciated. – Hazel T.
I really enjoyed the [Digital Marketing Workshop] today and got a lot out of it – Nikki H.
Thanks for a great [Digital Marketing] session yesterday, really enjoyed it and learnt lots – Izi W
“this was the best professional development course I have done in many years” – Mark R, senior Agency Exec responsible for social media
“thought the information within was outstanding” – Ed P, General Manager
“What I loved was that I started with a fairly rudimentary understanding of social media but have learned a lot – including where to find more information as I need it.” – Fiona W, Marketing Manager
“I found it relevant, informative, topical, insightful and a bloody good read. It’s never evangelical, too techy, patronising, assumes that you know too much or too little about digital and has a warm sense of humour in the communication throughout which helped faciliate the learning process for me.” — Adrienne B, new media senior executive
“Thanks for pointing me in the direction of this course! It’s been extremely enlightening” — Shayne P, design agency director
“Rapt with what I have seen of the course” — Julia R, fashion editor
“I’m really enjoying the course – learning a lot – and I know the two friends I persuaded to join us are also loving it.” — Lavinia C, designer
“Am thoroughly enjoying the content!” – Kara B, magazine co-ordinator
“I was already engaging with social media and have been doing so for about 6 years or so. But, did I know how to use social media in a marketing and business sense? No, I simply did not. This course was a great way to show me how to do that.” — Sheryl K, online marketer

COURSE CREATION AND TUTORING

This course has been created and is tutored by Michael Carney.

Digital Marketing Essentials for NZ Business