<h1> Coding as a Marketer?!? </h1>

Hi friends! Today’s blog will be about coding?!?! Yes, I know coding can seem intimidating, but after practicing with Codecademy and W3Schools, I felt that it is a useful skill to have, especially for me, a marketing student who wants to become a well-rounded marketing professional. I found that understanding the backbones, skin, and muscles of a website can help us marketers put those creative ideas into action, all from scratch!

Before I dive in. If you have not read my last article yet, click this “I Took The Amazon Ads Foundation Course: You Should Too!"

Codecademy and W3Schools HTML Overview

HTML stands for “HyperText Markup Language”, a language that is used to structure web pages. HTML essentially marks and labels your content, so your browser knows what your content is. It can label your content as headings, paragraphs, links, containers, etc.

I started learning and spent some time using Codecademy’s introductory course, where beginners like me learned using their interactive, guided lessons. The introduction module of the course is broken into small steps that focus on individual codes that teach you how to tag a specific type of content. The screen is broken into three separate windows: the information/instructions, the coding section, and the output section, where you can see your efforts. Since it is broken into smaller steps, I was able to type out the code with guidance from the instructions and get instant feedback. I did miss some code here and there, but the overall setup of the webpage helped me understand faster.

W3Schools, similarly set up to Codecademy, I also felt that it was intuitive, with setting examples and then having the Try it Yourself call to action button, so I could try the code myself. One thing I liked about W3Schools was their Exercise activity at the bottom, like Codecademy, but it was for each page that you go through and do. Their approach to teaching HTML through their site was pretty quick to read the instructions and information, encouraging me to interact with the editor window within the page so I could start coding immediately.

Which Felt More Engaging?

To be honest, I felt both were engaging, though I started with Codecademy, I felt that I took a much longer time learning with them than with W3Schools. I think had I started with W3Schools, I’d probably spend more time on their site too, but it was interesting and fun to learn HTML on both, as they both encourage users to interact and code immediately, so it’s interactive.

Coding Connection to Marketing

Learning new skills for marketing is always good for a marketer who wants to be well-rounded, or in “coding terms”, a full-stack marketer. It can also help boost your credibility in marketing by showing that you understand the technical knowledge behind these digital experiences. For example, using an article form Formx, understanding HTML can help you spot issues quickly and fix things like broken links or images on your company’s site. It also makes troubleshooting issues like why certain pages aren’t loading or are loading slowly easier, because you can fix it, or be able to explain to the coding team what exactly is wrong with the page. When you understand what is happening behind the scenes, you’ll feel like an effective marketer and your business will run more smoothly.

Wrapping up

As I wrap up and conclude today’s blog, I highly recommend to all my marketing friends and friends who intend on pursuing this career to take a look at coding. Both Codecademy and W3Schools are great places to get started in learning HTML, but who knows, maybe you’ll finish those up quickly and move on to CSS and Java? There’s so much to learn, and don’t feel intimidated by it. I found this exercise helpful to my career and totally know how I will keep myself occupied at home this winter break while I am surrounded by my loving, totally not annoying parents!

As always, thanks for reading!