Dig Ad and Donuts by Meghan Murray
The fields of Digital Advertising and Search Engine Optimization are continuously growing and evolving, and it seems that it leaves behind many people who would love to learn. We rely on keywords, like “Pay Per Click” marketing or “Organic” and hope that those words are enough to keep from follow-up questions to test our knowledge. We have found that is an area of desired learning and needed education without our EVOLVE courses. Thus, we formed the “Dig Ad and Donuts” training, putting together a comfortable environment to educate our peers.
The date was set for our afternoon training and employees continued to fill our largest conference room. When introducing myself, I noticed that not only were all the chairs taken, but the room was filled with my peers snacking on donuts while sitting on the ground. I looked at Skype and noticed that it was filled with active participants. We hit nearly 100 employees who were looking to learn!
The intention of the training was to give a foundational level of education regarding digital advertising and SEO, how they integrate in our general roles, and how my primary team utilizes this information to review with our dealers. The training was broken down into 3 segments. The first topic was Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It was important to review SEO’s general role, but also how to apply it to our daily work while optimizing previous work. Afterward, we focused specifically on digital advertising. For many of us at Shift, this piece is the most exciting to learn about. While it is mostly advisory for our roles, it was important to break down the different types of advertising, the structure of an ad, and so much more! Finally, we reviewed the growingly popular “micro-moment” strategy. This has become a staple in the automotive strategy, and it’s important that our employees understand this phenomenon when discussing with their dealerships and their providers.
Realizing that everyone learns in different capacities, I utilized multi-media throughout my presentation and included handouts for attendees to complete during their time in the training. The incorporation of donuts adds a *sprinkle* of fun in a seemingly heavy training. Questions were abundant throughout the training, which enhanced our discussions!
When you’re first learning Dig Ad and SEO it can sometimes feel like you’re staring up at a large mountain. However, this was a successful kick-off to the EVOLVE training year, as it allowed our employees a fun and inviting place to start that climb.
