Digital Marketing Fundamentals
Define digital marketing scope versus sales, brand design, and pure social posting
Digital Marketing Fundamentals teaches freelancers, founders, agency juniors, and African SME operators how to plan and run coherent digital marketing work: customer research, funnels, positioning, content, social, SEO, email, campaigns, analytics, and conversion improvement.
This is an Africoders Academy course. Completing it earns a Certificate of Completion for Digital Marketing Fundamentals. It is one of the preparation courses for Africoders Certified Digital Marketing Specialist (which also requires Social Media, Content Strategy, and SEO Certificates of Completion). This course is not itself the professional certification, and it does not claim Google, Meta, HubSpot, or other third-party accreditation.
Included with this course
AI Tutor on every lesson
Ask for explanations, examples, or hints while you study — answers stay tied to the lesson you are on.
What you will learn
- Define digital marketing scope versus sales, brand design, and pure social posting
- Research customers and competitors with African market constraints in mind
- Map funnels and journeys that match real SME capacity
- Write positioning and value propositions customers can believe
- Plan content, social, SEO, and email as connected channels—not isolated tactics
- Build campaign briefs with objectives, offers, and measurement
Prerequisites
- Comfort using the web, email, and at least one social platform as a user
- Ability to write clearly in English (local languages welcome in examples)
- Willingness to document goals, audiences, and metrics
- No agency experience required
Prerequisites
- Comfort using the web, email, and at least one social platform as a user
- Ability to write clearly in English (local languages welcome in examples)
- Willingness to document goals, audiences, and metrics
- No agency experience required
What you will build and prove
- Project: Capstone: Complete Digital Marketing Campaign for an African Business
- Final assessment: Digital Marketing Fundamentals assessment (pass 70%)
Course journey
How this free course is structured — watch, practise, and progress module by module.
- Digital Marketing Foundations
- Customer Research
- Funnels
- Positioning
- Content Marketing
- Social Media
- SEO
- Campaign Planning
- Analytics
- Conversion Optimization
- Campaign Portfolio
Assessment
- Digital Marketing Fundamentals assessment · pass mark 70%
Prove
Course completion means finishing required lessons , required assignments , the course project , and the course assessment . That grants a certificate of completion — not a professional certification.
Curriculum
Week 1: Digital Marketing Foundations
- What digital marketing is (and is not) Preview 24min
- Channel fit for African SMEs 26min
- Ethics, claims, and African market context 25min
Week 2: Customer Research
- Jobs-to-be-done interviews and signals 27min
- Segmentation without stereotypes 23min
- Competitor and category research 26min
Week 3: Funnels
- Awareness to retention stages 24min
- Journey maps for SME capacity 28min
- Leak diagnosis before more traffic 25min
Week 4: Positioning
- Differentiation customers believe 24min
- Value propositions and messaging hierarchy 27min
- Offer design and proof 26min
Week 5: Content Marketing
- Content roles in the funnel 23min
- Formats and production systems 28min
- Briefs and quality bars 25min
Week 6: Social Media
- Social as a digital marketing channel 24min
- Organic vs paid social basics 26min
- Integrating social with other channels 27min
Week 7: SEO
- Search discovery basics for marketers 25min
- On-page clarity that supports search 24min
- When to partner with an SEO specialist 22min
Week 8: Email
- Permission and list hygiene 24min
- Lifecycle messages that earn opens 27min
- Email ethics and deliverability basics 23min
Week 9: Campaign Planning
- Campaign briefs and objectives 25min
- Budgets, timelines, and owners 26min
- Creative and landing alignment 24min
Week 10: Analytics
- Choosing KPIs that drive decisions 25min
- Reading channel reports without vanity theatre 28min
- Experiments and decision rules 24min
Week 11: Conversion Optimization
- Mapping the conversion path 24min
- Friction diagnosis on mobile journeys 27min
- Prioritising honest tests 23min
Week 12: Campaign Portfolio
- Packaging a campaign evidence pack 26min
- Client-ready narrative and assumptions 25min
- Capstone rehearsal checklist 28min
Free to enroll — no purchase required.
Instructor: Africoders
AI Tutor
Ask questions inside every lesson
Get explanations, examples, and hints while you learn — without leaving the course player. Free daily asks for signed-in members.
Includes AI Tutor in every lesson after you join.
Course forum →