Digital Marketing Fundamentals
Advance your career in digital marketing and learn the latest innovative digital marketing strategies from industry experts. Today’s marketers need alternative strategies and tactics in order to connect with prospects and consumers. What worked a few years ago may not work now, or even a few months from now.
The University of Vermont Digital Marketing Fundamentals Professional Certificate is an online professional certificate where you’ll learn the holistic value of digital marketing through research and development of an actionable marketing plan. Every week of the program will be dedicated to a digital marketing topic, from mobile to email, from search-engine optimization to search-engine marketing.
This certificate is taught by seasoned practitioners who are succeeding in the digital space. With the numerous facets of digital marketing that are a part of an integrated marketing plan, you’ll learn from a variety of specialists leading in their area. Understanding the interconnected value of these channels and disciplines will set you apart from other marketing professionals and guide your development as a digital marketing expert.
“To be a successful digital marketing professional in today’s changing landscape requires more than a blog, Facebook page, banner ad or email address. Success is based on understanding how to connect with a customer’s needs and wants. This course is designed to educate students on the core and emerging channels of digital marketing. Students will gain a new understanding for the ‘how’ behind these channels and why these channels are critical for solving the marketing challenges of brands today.”
- Erik Harbison, Lead Instructor, Digital Marketing
Fundamentals Professional Certificate
Information
Fall Start: Sept. 21, 2016
Learning Format: Online
Estimated Time Commitment: 8-10 hours per week
Price: $1,695 (20% discount available for VBSR members)
Module Descriptions
WEEK 1: Intro and Overview
Instructor: Erik Harbison
Module description: In this week, students be on-boarded to the program’s planned curriculum, as well as a macro view of the current Interactive Marketing landscape. This session will provide valuable context around each module and corresponding channels. An emphasis will be placed on industry research, trends, compelling stats and examples of each channel. Students will also be provided an overview of the program’s certification project along with necessary timelines.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify key trends within the Digital Marketing landscape
- Explain the holistic impact of all Digital Marketing channels
- Showcase an example of each Digital Marketing channel
- Evaluate expectations and timelines for the course project
WEEK 2: Search Engine Optimization
Instructor: Bill Rowland
Module Description: During this week students will gain a solid understanding of the critical position Search Engine Optimization plays in any online presence. Emphasis will be placed on fundamental topics that transcend the constantly shifting nature of search to deliver actionable knowledge that every online marketer will be able to use. Specific examples of strategy and tactics will be presented and discussed.
Learning Objectives:
- Articulate SEO’s position as a fundamental building block for online marketing
- Grasp fundamental factors that result in achieving top search engine rankings
- Assess a website’s ability to rank well
- Develop the ability to create an Optimization Plan
- Live and Recorded Sessions
WEEK 3: Paid Search
Instructor: Nick Viggiano
Module description: Paid Search marketing, often referred to as Search Engine Marketing (SEM) or Pay-per-click (PPC), is the process of driving site visitors or gaining visibility through paid advertisements on Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines. Paid search marketing is a flexible and cost effective vehicle to help businesses achieve their goals (sales, leads, traffic, enquires, etc.) The purpose of this course will be to provide an overview of the functions of search engine marketing, strategy, performance analysis and real life execution.
Learning Objectives
- Examine what paid search is, what it isn’t, and where ads appear
- Identify typical goals advertisers may have when running paid search campaigns
- Learn how paid search works within a typical auction-based bidding system
- Explain the basics of quality score and its role within paid search
WEEK 4: Email Marketing
Instructor: Paul Corey
Module description: In this week, students will be exposed to the foundations of successful digital communications strategies including email and SMS. We’ll start with building an email list to getting to the inbox to Email ROI and complex strategies.
Learning Objectives
- Develop an email and sending strategy that adheres to email compliance best practices
- Utilize specific email formats to maximize email performance
- Create an accurate email data list to get emails into targeted inboxes
- Identify SMS strategies
- Develop effective email and sending strategies
- Compare and contrast when to use email or SMS marketing
Weeks 5: Display Advertising
Instructor: Aaron Levy
Module description: The free web as we know it is powered by display advertising. Newspapers and content providers simply wouldn’t be able to give their product away unless they knew they could monetize it. Today’s digital display ads are the modern version of yesterday’s billboards, television commercials and bus wraps, all combined around sophisticated targeting options and pricing structures.
This portion of the course will provide a high level overview of the different types of display ads that advertisers can create, and what the steps are required to make sure they’re in line with best practices. We’ll also touch what pricing models exist, how they can be related to traditional media buys and how you as a marketing professional, can get the best value for your ad dollars.
Learning Objectives:
- Utilize the different methods of targeting and buying display media. DSP’s vs. Programmatic vs. CPM vs. Direct buys.
- Develop success metrics for a notoriously difficult to track advertising medium and why click-throughs are not the best metric
- Evaluate the pricing models for display and target what works best for your budget
- Track and identify ways to optimize performance of display campaigns
Week 6: Social Marketing
Instructor: Jed Singer
Module Description: In this week, students will learn the history of social technology, gain an understanding of social marketing strategy, and see examples of tactical execution. An emphasis will be placed on social+mobile and understanding the impact of the transition from social marketing on the desktop to social marketing via mobile platforms.
Learning Objectives:
- Examine what social media is, what it isn’t and how it can be used for marketing
- Explain the difference between, and the convergence of, paid, owned and earned media
- Describe the function of community management and explain its importance to a social media marketing strategy
- Analyze brand examples across social media platforms against best practices
- Analyze the role that social media marketing plays in the digital landscape and marketing mix
- Define the difference between goals, objectives, strategies and tactics
- Map out social media marketing goals to tie back to overall business objectives
- Identify popular strategies and tactics currently being executed in the industry
- Explain the importance of measurement and analysis for continually evolving social media marketing strategies
Week 7: Mobile Marketing
Instructor: Paul Campagna
Module Description: Over 25 percent of internet traffic in the US alone is driven by mobile and tablet users. Mobile is the next frontier for marketers. In this week students will learn the history of mobile, how the technology has grown at a rampant rate and what it means for marketers and consumers today. The course will overview the latest technologies built into devices, and in the cloud. This course will also look at design principles on mobile and how they affect a marketer’s ability to connect with a mobile customer. Lastly, the class will overview the impact of location based services.
Learning Objectives:
- Examine the evolution of mobile and identify how it has shaped the consumer landscape today
- Explore how mobile technology and the mobile field is evolving faster than any other technology platform
- Highlight the basic mobile technologies, both in the hardware and in the cloud, and identify how they create opportunities for marketers to interact with mobile users
- Review the basic principles of design and how analytics, research and validation are impacting decision making at every level
- Dive into mobile applications & marketing on the whole and opportunity areas based on current technology, demographic data, new technology in development and possibilities on the horizon
Week 8: Analytics
Instructor:Amanda McGowan
Module Description: Analytics plays a critical role in interactive marketing, and this course will provide an overview of the basic functions of analytics, and how analytics can be used to drive business decisions. This will encompass measurement strategy, goal setting, tracking, data analysis, and performance reporting. The course will also touch at a high level on how to pull actionable insights from data and make recommendations for site design and marketing initiatives.
Learning Objectives:
- Provide an overview of the various analytics data types: Specifically the dimensions & metrics of the data Google Analytics provides
- Explain the basics of data analysis including assessing items like:
- User engagement and user value
- Interactions of a variety of marketing channels
- Detailed data e.g. device type, geographic locations, etc.
- Developing an analytics strategy: Setting & measuring KPIs based on the data
Weeks 9-12: Capstone Project
Project Overview
Students will be expected to develop and present a digital marketing plan that includes and references learning gained from each session. The presentation of the plan will be recorded via screencast software and will be a maximum of 12 to 15 minutes long.
The content of their project will be comprised of three random variables (a brand, a marketing challenge, and a core initiative) that will determine the basis for their marketing objectives, strategies, goals, and tactics. The students will know their variables before the start of the Week Two module.
Students will also be able to select their existing company, or competitive company, as the focus brand for their projects. Students will be able to apply strategies and tactics learned through weekly assignments and the final project immediately to their day-to-day marketing campaigns.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
- Gain experience in developing an executable digital marketing plan.
- Gain experience with time management around meeting project deadlines.
- Develop their own presentation/speaking styles and learn effective methods of doing so through feedback on their presentation, as well as observation of other student presentations.
- Gain an understanding of the value a holistic digital marketing approach will deliver.
- Apply creative flexibility in the development of their final project content.
Students will have the ability to begin crafting their plan during weeks two through nine. They will then have weeks 10 and 11 of the course to compile thoughts, conduct follow-up Q&A with instructors, develop the plan, complete the screencast, and post to Blackboard.
United States