Marketing has evolved over time from,"You tin accept whatever colour yous want as long as it'southward black" to merely-in-fourth dimension marketing messages that might lead to your make posting on Reddit.

We're embracing digital channels and understanding the need to create marketing people honey more than and more ... simply exercise we actually grasp what's running behind the scenes of all these digital campaigns? Code is what lies behind so many of our swell marketing campaigns. Our websites, our emails, our apps and tools that are fabricated to requite your customers a better experience -- these all run because there are smart coders making them work.

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So my question today is this: Since code is the footing for most of our marketing today, should marketers be learning to code?

I'd similar to fence yeah, we should. Here'south why.

Why Marketers Should Learn Basic Code

  1. Coding saves fourth dimension and inspires.
  2. Coding informs marketers of the process.
  3. You can make quick fixes with coding knowledge.
  4. Yous can make an bear on with even basic skills.

1. Coding saves time and inspires.

Getting to grips with lawmaking and understanding the structures that bring your sites, apps, and tools to life will requite y'all a better understanding of what is possible in the offset identify.

And, hither, cognition is really inspiration. Imagine seeing across just what others accept done and having the ability to employ lawmaking to create new and innovative tools that truly delight your customers.

It is central hither not only to empathize code, but to understand what tools your designer is using (and what other tools are out in that location). There is an array of helpful apps that let you quickly do anything -- from edifice forms, to creating buttons, to building sites, and other functionality.

You need to know whether the tool offered to you is right, up to appointment, and will exercise what y'all want information technology to. This volition fuel your inspiration, and save costs and fourth dimension.

2. Coding informs marketers of the process.

My marketing mentor taught me that if you don't know what's involved in a process, y'all're not getting the most out of your upkeep. I'thousand far from maxim that all suppliers will effort and add a few hours to projects, but wouldn't it be great to have the confidence to know when something is quoted right?

We all need to know what is involved in building a website or a form, and what it takes to make a change to an app or your site navigation. Merely then can we actually accept an informed discussion about cost and timeframes with the people who will implement our ideas.

Some coding knowledge will enable y'all to brief a web designer or developer much clearer on your idea, and you lot'll understand when a "no" is a negotiation tactic rather than an bodily expression of the impossible.

Having this noesis about coding too helps y'all choose the right company or designer to partner with in the first place, every bit it helps y'all determine whether they tin do what you lot're asking at the right price and inside the right timeframe.

3. You can make quick fixes with coding knowledge.

I don't know about you, but if a paragraph is just not doing in your CMS what y'all're request it to do, when an epitome is not resizing correctly, or the YouTube video y'all're embedding is only huge for some reason, you want it fixed ... now.

That'southward the reason I learned near code. I didn't want to be in a situation where I would accept to call my web designer for every small alter. And then I went into the HTML view of my CMS, Googled lawmaking, and learned how to make minor changes on my own.

Information technology has saved hours of my time and budget, and my patience is still intact. At meetings with my designer, I would too ask him to explain small things about code and I started to lose my fear of brackets, slashes, and ampersands. I can't recommend this highly plenty.

four. You can make an bear on with even basic skills.

There is no reason why you shouldn't learn near lawmaking. But I don't think a marketer should necessarily acquire to lawmaking with the aim of becoming on-par with professional coders. In my humble opinion, you should get out specialized tasks to those who know how to practise them correct.

Web developers and designers take a very different skillset than marketers. As marketers, we decide on strategic direction and expect for return on marketing campaigns. And while nosotros might take a good eye for blueprint and user feel, the actual implementation skills prevarication with others.

Often, we're as well as well close to our brands -- whereas a good designer will ever bring in the expertise gained from different projects and electric current trends.

Only don't allow this stop you from learning more about how code works.

Where Marketers Can Learn to Code

I started learning how to code by Googling pieces of HTML lawmaking. It'south a quick and like shooting fish in a barrel way to discover what a slice of code does and how to dispense it. But this method won't give you the real hows and whys backside information technology. Besides, information technology gives you very picayune thought of how different pieces fit together -- similar HTML and CSS, for example.

For this level of data, y'all demand to get down and dirty with code and starting time edifice from scratch. If you have a developer in your organisation who can teach, why not offer a gratuitous tiffin to him or her while you learn from them?

For something more than methodical, I'd likewise recommend you check out one of the many online courses available. Here are some of the big ones:

ane. Code Academy

As they say themselves, this is all about learning how to code interactively and for gratuitous. Reviews are great and I know quite a few HubSpotters who used this tool.

2. W3 Schools

W3 schools accept a multifariousness of classes for unlike tools and levels. There is as well the option to get certified in your news skill (there is a charge here) and so y'all can evidence off to your peers!

3. Code Schools

This is some other tool that lets y'all learn from abode -- from the nuts in HTML and CSS, to Javascript and other languages. Courses are paid but affordable, and you'll get access to a variety of courses for your fee.

4. Make Information technology With Code

They are very active in the fence on whether marketers should lawmaking and believe that aye, we all need a adept understanding on what's possible to create. This is a paid course and you'll have admission to support via IM.

Side by side, let'southward look at some alternate routes you tin take to coding, such as programs that don't crave manual coding at all.

Coding Alternatives

If yous don't have the time to take up coding immediately, that'due south totally cool. That's also why there are coding programs online to practice the coding for yous — let's go into a few.

i. Embed.ly

Price: Free to embed single links, then $ix-99/per month

Emded.ly is super quick and clean to use for getting embed codes for a domain. All you have to do is copy and paste a domain in the box and click "embed." So, you'll run across this screen, where you tin can customize a couple of details most the embed.

Embedding a link using embed.lySome of the details you lot customize include adding social media buttons to the embed, including night theme within and making it optimized. When you check or uncheck these boxes, the embed code will automatically update for you to copy below, I checked all iii.

ii. iFramely

Price: Gratuitous for single links, then $29-$399 for paid plans

If you're a color code person, iFramely volition be an absolute vision to you. Copy and pasting your domain into iFramely will generate a color-coded embed for you right underneath it.

Embed example from iFramelyThe title of your embed is above the code, with the business relationship name and publish date beneath it. Checking the box underneath "Copy lawmaking" notates whether the video will autoplay or not, and y'all can also cull the start and endpoint of the video, if you lot simply demand a section.

3. Siteimprove

Price: Contact Siteimprove to request a quote

CMS Plugins streamline the performance of your website. Siteimprove is an example of a plugin that does just that. It integrates key analytics into the optimization of your domain, fixes errors in the code automatically, and allows you to add custom tags.

Embed example from Siteimprove Image Source

four. RedmineUP

Price: $29-$499/per month

With RedmineUP'south CMS plugin, yous can build simple pages and leave with code that's SEO friendly. These pages are fully customizable and come with templates.

Embed example from RedmineUP Epitome Source

On the website developer page, you can change data at the top to add together and modify the code in the bottom. With this process, yous don't have to add together in any brackets, quotes, or operational systems, simply the content y'all desire to encounter added.

Code is part of our Marketing DNA, and even if we don't need to be able to build sites from scratch, as marketers today, we need to understand how it works to make informed decisions.

Editor's note: This post was originally published prior in April 2014 only was updated in November 2019 for comprehensiveness.

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Originally published Nov fifteen, 2019 4:45:00 PM, updated November 18 2019