#squared online

What is Squared Online?

Squared Online is a cutting-edge digital marketing leadership course designed for professionals who aspire to excel in the rapidly evolving digital landscape. Created by Google in collaboration with leading digital experts, Squared Online combines theoretical knowledge with practical application, ensuring participants gain a comprehensive understanding of the digital marketing ecosystem.

This program stands out for its emphasis on leadership, strategy, and collaboration, making it ideal for those looking to advance their careers, lead digital transformation initiatives, or simply stay ahead in an increasingly competitive market.

Why Squared Online is Relevant Today

In today’s business environment, digital transformation is no longer optional. Companies are investing heavily in digital strategies to reach their target audience, improve customer experiences, and drive revenue growth. This has created a significant demand for skilled digital marketers and leaders who can:

Analyze market trends and consumer behavior.

Develop data-driven marketing strategies.

Optimize campaigns across multiple digital channels.

Foster innovation and lead diverse teams in a virtual environment.

Squared Online addresses these needs by equipping professionals with the skills, tools, and mindset required to excel in the digital era.

Key Features of Squared Online

1. Comprehensive Curriculum

The Squared Online program covers a wide range of topics, ensuring a holistic learning experience:

Introduction to Digital Disruption: Understanding how digital transformation is reshaping industries.

Customer-Centric Marketing: Crafting strategies that prioritize customer needs and behaviors.

Data, Analytics, and Insights: Using data to inform decisions and optimize performance.

Leadership and Collaboration: Building skills to lead teams and manage projects effectively.

Future-Proofing Your Career: Staying ahead of trends and adapting to technological advancements.

2. Interactive Learning Experience

Squared Online employs a unique, interactive learning model that fosters collaboration and engagement:

Live Classes: Real-time sessions led by industry experts.

Group Projects: Collaborate with peers on real-world marketing challenges.

Interactive Modules: Self-paced lessons with quizzes and activities to reinforce learning.

3. Accreditation and Certification

Upon completion, participants receive a globally recognized certificate endorsed by Google. This credential is a testament to their expertise and commitment to professional development.

Benefits of Enrolling in Squared Online

1. Career Advancement

Participants gain skills that are highly valued in the job market, such as:

Strategic thinking

Analytical problem-solving

Effective communication and leadership

Many graduates report increased job opportunities, promotions, and salary increments after completing the course.

2. Networking Opportunities

Squared Online’s collaborative projects and global community provide:

Access to a network of like-minded professionals.

Insights from diverse industries and perspectives.

Opportunities to build lasting professional relationships.

3. Practical Application

The program emphasizes hands-on learning, enabling participants to:

Apply theoretical concepts to real-world scenarios.

Solve complex marketing challenges.

Showcase their expertise through portfolio projects.

Who Should Enroll in Squared Online?

Squared Online is designed for a diverse range of professionals, including:

1. Marketing Professionals

Those looking to deepen their digital marketing knowledge and advance their careers.

2. Entrepreneurs

Business owners who want to leverage digital channels to grow their ventures.

3. Career Switchers

Individuals seeking to transition into the dynamic field of digital marketing.

4. Corporate Teams

Squared Online is a digital marketing course accredited by the CPD and provided via the Home Learning College. It's also fully endorsed by Google. Here are five ways that your professional life could benefit from such a course.

Yes, there is much more to it! It isn't just a nicely packed set of beautiful visuals, there's more to it. At Google Squared online, we we are often thrown into challenges. At times, we felt like a non-swimmer squirming in a whale-ridden ocean of data.

So here's a quick 10 step guide for designing an Infographic -

1) Topic - develop a broad-based understanding of the topic, whether it is an industry vertical, a trend, a phenomenon or a process. Develop a broader understanding on the topic by exploring it's history, milestones, current status, key players and future predictions.

2) Audience -

Who are the target audience? What are their demographics, pschycographics and behavioral characteristics?

What could interest them? What would add value to them? Are there any benefits they can draw from this information?

3) Objectives - enlist the answers to the following questions:

What are you trying to communicate to the audience?

Do you want your readers to take a particular action after reading it? What are the key take-aways going to be?

Is this exercise being done for brand engagement, lead generation, general brand awareness or thought leadership?

Tie these goals with your brand's marketing objectives. These should be in sync with the brand's overall marketing strategy and fashion of communication. See where it fits into the bigger integrated communications plan and how you plan to leverage on this.

4) Develop an over-arching theme and message -

This is going to form the headline of your infographic.The overarching message should be -

attention-grabbing, should pique their curiosity

urging the audiences to read more

instigate humanly feelings and hence more sharing in the networks

5) Background research - it can be a daunting task to toll through heaps of information on the web and figure out what you need. So if you have your answers clearly chalked out in steps 1 to 4, it will help you to narrow down your search.

Segregate the data and chapterise the data points into various buckets. Form a logical flow between these chapters and connect them with each other.

6) Wireframe your infographic - based on the chapters and headline, try to create a wireframe of your infographic, connecting chapters with each other in the visual. Try to build a storyline and make sure it flows seamlessly from one chapter to another.

7) Pictorial representation and Sub-headings - use the data-points available in each chapter to prepare a pictorial representation. Build and insight for each such chart/graph/visual - use this insight as a sub-heading for this chapter

8) Designing - Either use mainstream graphic design tools like Illustrator and Photoshop or use Infographic design tools available on the web.

These tools will allow you to set a colour theme, typography, icons for the visual. Follow a consistent pattern through all sections to give it a seamless look. Look up some successful examples of visuals on the web.

While designing you may have to reiterate steps 6 and 7 in order to come up with the most optimum and relevant piece of information.

Prepare a light file, that is easily share-able and upload-able on various content management systems.

9) Feedback - share the finished piece for review with your friends and colleagues for a third-eye check, so that they can point out the obvious gaps that you might have missed.

10) Check-points before release -

Run a spell-check, take print out and check spellings

Proof-read, correct any grammatical errors

Make sure all the dates, icons, milestones seem logically correct and there are no formatting errors

If you have used any images, data points, quotes from the web, make sure you mention their references/sources to avoid any plagiarism issues

The third module of the Google Squared programme was very much about digital campaigns and how to use digital technologies to create an effective campaign. I want to discuss my three key insights I gained from the course.

    1. The Customer Journey

After you have identified the customer segment and your target audience, the customer journey is probably one of the most important frameworks to start your campaign. What is the journey of the customer? How many touchpoints or moments of truth can you use to help the customer through the sales funnel? It is probably useful to first create a customer persona, because the journey will certainly change depending on the type of customer.

  2. Combine customer journey with SEO/PPC

The most common way of displaying the customer journey is as the sales funnel. Even so this framework has some limitations, since customer don’t necessarily go through eve phase, it’s a good starting point to combine the journey of the customer with marketing activities. A very straightforward way is Search marketing, because advertiser can match the search terms with targeted Adwords and landing pages, thus creating a congruent experience for the customer on his journey.

3. Display advertising

Whoever thinks display advertising is just boring banner advertising, is certainly wrong. Today much more different formats are available to marketers, ranging from video pre-rolls and homepage takeover to advertorial. Great examples and best practice can be found on this website: http://www.richmediagallery.com/gallery

Something new, slick and exciting - that I learnt in Module 2 is the business model canvas.

Thinking about a new business idea and detailing it out can actually drive you nuts. But with this simple and sexy framework, things were made so easy to take a crack at. The key ingredients of a business plan are laid out in this lean canvas and it gives you a bird's eye view of your business. It's a smart framework that isn't too lengthy to establish and helps you cover all aspects of the business.

Business model canvas consists of the following ingredients:

Problem

Existing alternatives - how these problems are solved today

Solution

Unique value proposition - Single, clear, compelling message that turns an unaware visitor into an interested prospect

Existing alternatives

Unfair advantage - Something that can't be easily copied or bought

Customer Segments

Early Adopters - characteristics of your ideal customers

High level concept - list your X for Y analogy

Key metrics - on how the business is doing

Cost Structure

Revenue Streams

Company and businesses are global these days and so are their teams. Working together in a team that is spread around the global is no easy task. Indeed it’s quite the opposite, because most of our communication techniques we use in a face-to-face situation seem not to work in a skype or video conversation. The following paragraph contains the tree lessons I've learned from my online communication on the Google Squared programme so far.

1. 80% of conversation is nonverbal is a big Myth. Whoever created this myth did a great job, because hundreds of authors, conference speakers and communication teacher still refer to this “fact”, when they emphasize the importance of body language. Not only is this myth untrue in everyday communication, since we don’t get 80% of a message if we cover our ears and only watch the body language, but in a video or skype call, this is certainly not true. Thus words, pauses, pitch, etc. are more important if you want to communicate effectively.

2. Play a role? Since a team is usually more than the sum of each individual, it can be more effective for the overall performance of the team if everyone sticks to a role. This doesn’t mean that people should not change roles, but many unnecessary arguments and discussions could be avoided if people would understand that they don’t have to contribute all the time. Too many (of the same) cooks spoil the broth.

As part of the assignment for Module 1 of Google's Squared Online digital marketing course, I had to make and upload an introductory video to YouTube.

I've always been a fan of squaring things. It was a maths concept that appealed to me. Multiplying numbers by themselves takes me back to the comforting ritual of learning your times table in primary school. It's not even maths any more. It's fact. 2x2 is 4 and it'll always be 4. There's a great symmetry to it.

I like the idea of squaring myself. Of using myself to make myself greater. I hope that doesn't sound egotistical. I mean it purely in the maths sense. Once I finish the Squared course I hope I will be a more valuable team member.That I will be worth more.