The Digital Marketer's Guide to Coding | by Jade De-Terville Martin

Hi! My name is  Jade and I’m a Digital Marketing Coach here at Multiverse, I’m also trained as a Full Stack Developer, meaning I’ve learnt to code what you see on the front-end of a website and app, as well as, how they work in the back-end e.g. database operations, user authentication etc. 

As a marketer, my interest in coding began like many others when I wanted to customise my emails and landing pages and then grew as I started to build them myself from scratch. If you are a marketer looking to get started with code and don’t know where to begin, then this guide is for you.

Coding is too logical for me

I don’t know how many times I said this before I actually got started. Coding can seem like this scary, mathematical thing that only those who are more logically inclined can do, however, it wasn’t until I dismissed this preconception and got stuck in that I saw the creativity in it. Creating something from nothing is magic to me, and with coding you write lines and then you have an awesome landing page or email to show for it. If you like to build things and enjoy problem-solving then coding could be for you. Also, coding for basic web development (which is what you’ll explore as a marketer) is very different to the programming skills needed for something like game development or back-end development.

Why coding can be a useful skill for digital marketers

As a marketer, especially when you’re in a smaller team, you often have to wear many hats. Content planner, copywriter, SEO, video editor, email marketer and more.

Nowadays, if you’re involved with editing websites, and building landing pages or emails, you can use a drag-and-drop editor to create what you want. But now and again they have limitations and that’s where feeling comfortable with code can be useful.

• Confidence and freedom
  Learning how to code, even if it’s just the basics of HTML and CSS, two languages that make up most of what you see on the web, can empower you to be able to jump into the code of a pre-built landing page or email and tweak colours or the way an email renders on mobile screens.
• Budget saving
  If you’ve ever worked with an external agency that charges by the hour, you’ll know that prices can add up quickly—and developers in particular are expensive. Avoid the frustration of spending your budget on small edits by learning how to do them yourself.
• Managing developers and understanding IT & SEO
  Got a website redesign coming up or working on an SEO project? If so, it’s going to involve having conversations with developers, SEO experts and your IT team and it helps to understand the fundamentals of how websites, servers and code actually work so you can understand the project more fully.
• Side hustle
  OK, so this one isn’t specific to digital marketers but if you’re looking for a new revenue stream, coding might just be that for you. With your newfound skills, you can make extra money by building and selling HTML and CSS templates and even templates for specific platforms. Marketing Content Management System (CMS) giant, HubSpot, for example, has a booming asset marketplace where people make money from building a theme and selling it again and again. Ah, passive income! 

What languages are most beneficial to learn

Since the evolution of coding, we’ve created over 9,000 different coding languages and there are new evolutions every day (Source: Future Learn.) 
Here are a few key languages you might want to consider learning as a digital marketer, in the order recommended that you learn them.
If a website was a house, HTML would be the bricks and mortar, CSS would be your decorations, and JavaScript, your electricity.

• HTML: A markup language

Uses: HTML elements are the building blocks of webpages. With HTML, you can define headings, create lists of information, insert hyperlinks, create paragraphs and much more. Technically, you could make an entire website with just HTML, it just wouldn’t be very pretty.

Difficulty: Easy

• CSS: A style sheet language

Uses: Once you’ve got the hang of HTML, CSS is the next step to learn because it is what’s used to style your HTML document. With CSS, you start to add colours, change fonts, resize images and text, and start to structure your webpage. As a marketer, knowing how to resize and change colours might be enough for you, but if you are looking to learn how to create web pages from scratch then there are a number of frameworks to learn that makes CSS styling easier. Start with Floats, then CSS Flexbox, and then CSS GRID.

Difficulty: Easy to get started with, difficult to master

• JavaScript: A programming language

Uses: Understanding the basics of JavaScript can enable you to add interactivity to your web creations in a way that wouldn’t have been possible with just HTML and CSS. Beyond what you’ll need it for as a digital marketer, JavaScript is a powerful language used for managing both what you see on the front of a website as well as what works on the back-end. JavaScript can even also be used for game development

Difficulty: Intermediate to advanced

• Python: A programming language

Uses: Python isn’t a typical coding skill for digital marketers, it’s used predominantly for data analysis and visualisation, machine learning, web and app development, and for writing scripts that can allow you to get a more manual job done faster. With its English-like syntax, it’s a programming language that can often be a bit easier to pick up.

Difficulty: Intermediate to advanced

How to learn to code

You’re a digital marketer and you love marketing, so how can you learn to code without reenrolling in a software development program?
Here are some great (and mostly free) resources for you to explore. These are a collection of text-based, video and gamified resources so you can find one that best aligns with your learning style.

Coding resources

• freeCodeCamp, a public charity with free online courses and programming projects ****(free)
• The Odin Project, an open-source coding curriculum that can be taken entirely online (free)
• W3Schools, the world’s largest web developer site (free)
• CodeAcademy, an online coding course provider (free and paid)
• Data Camp, a site for learning data skills like Python online and at your own pace (free and paid)

Influencers in the developer community

• Brad Traversy: Brad Traversy is a Boston-based developer who became a full-time educator and content creator in 2016. Brad has a fantastic website full of resources and also has a great YouTube channel with videos like this one where you can learn how to build a website in an hour with HTML and CSS. Brad also has paid courses on Udemy, a site that always, has a sale on (and if it doesn’t come back a few hours later).
• Colt Steele: Colt Steele is a developer with a serious love for teaching. Colt has a fun YouTube channel with super awesome series’ like Colt’s Code Camp (Learn Coding From Scratch). Like Brad, Colt also has paid courses on Udemy (again they are always on sale so don’t pay full price).
• Dr Angela Yu: Dr Angela Yu is a developer with a passion for teaching who has been coding since she was twelve. Angela has paid courses on Udemy (don’t pay full price). Angela also has an informative HTML and CSS collaboration on YouTube with The London App Brewery, where she serves as a Lead Instructor.
• Just for fun: Put your CSS Flex skills to the test with this fun game called Flexbox Froggy or have fun with the Doja Cat’s codable music video created in collaboration with Girls Who Code.

Quick tips for getting started with code

• Don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to learn every language, focus on HTML and CSS first
• If a video or resource doesn’t make sense to you, don’t chastise yourself, instead find another video or resource. Sometimes having something explained in another way can help.
• Don’t get frustrated if your code isn’t working. Taking a break, like going for a walk can often help you see your problem in a different light.

Your KM1 Principle of Coding Certification

As a Digital Marketing apprentice at Multiverse, you will learn about the Principles of Coding and sit your KM1 exam. For more information on the exams, you will take as an apprentice, check out this fantastic guide on navigating your exams written by two apprentices. As part of your studies with Multiverse, you’ll attend a fantastic 5-day coding bootcamp which will teach you the theory of how the web works and give you two interactive coding days where you’ll use HTML and CSS to build a landing page of your choosing.

Interested in going further with code?

If you find that you love coding and want to go further with it, consider learning more about Multiverse’s Software Engineering apprenticeship. Multiverse’s Data Fellowship dives into data cleansing and editing with Python.

Happy Coding!

 Jade De-Terville Martin is a Digital Marketing Coach at Multiverse.