Mini-MBA: Digital Marketing Curriculum

Digital Marketing Strategy

This session provides a comprehensive view of digital marketing. It starts at the "50,000-foot level" by looking at the trends that are driving the shift of dollars from traditional advertising to digital. It then delves deeper into the changes that are irreversible -- like users searching for and empowered by information online -- and how these changes necessitate changes in the way advertising and marketing are done. Finally many case studies are used to show how various disciplines within digital marketing are interrelated -- from search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), website analytics, mobile marketing, and social media marketing.

Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing is the lowest cost of marketing and provides the highest results for gaining new visitors and building your business. Learn practical techniques for growing your search engine rankings and managing a paid search ad campaign. In addition, learn how these same techniques can help you build a better website that increases sales, leads and your business - and then how to measure your success in these efforts!

Key Takeaways:

  • Rank for the right keywords
  • Measure the right numbers
  • Set up a paid search campaign without blowing your budget
  • Increase your conversions in a few easy steps
  • Learn which improvements make you more money

Social Media Marketing

The social landscape changes frequently, and the amount of social platforms available seem to grow on a weekly basis. This module offers a high-level overview to help individuals and firms navigate social media to gain a competitive edge.  

Key Takeaways:

  • What are the best social media strategies and tactics to employ?
  • Should every company be on social media, and how do you decide?
  • What are new sources of power and influence on the social web?
  • What are the special organizational considerations for implementation and integration?

Marketing and the Evolving Role of Marketers in an AI-Accelerated World

This module examines the profound impact of AI on marketing and the evolving responsibilities of marketers. It is organized into four main sections, exploring: how AI is reshaping the landscape and redefining priorities for marketers; methods for integrating AI into marketing workflows; key AI-driven strategies for B2B and B2C marketing programs; and an analysis of AI’s potential future trajectory. Included are two interactive exercises designed to apply AI lessons for both marketers and customers.

Participants will be equipped to address the following questions and integrate AI insights:

  • How is AI transforming marketing, and in what ways is the role of the marketer evolving?
  • With a continuous influx of AI tools, how can marketers identify where to integrate AI effectively into their processes?
  • What AI-driven strategies can marketers use to create customer-centric programs?
  • How is AI expected to evolve, advance, and expand in the next 1-3 years?

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action. Remove relevant and valuable and that’s the informational garbage you get from companies trying to sell you “stuff.”

Key Takeaways:

  • What is content marketing and what makes it different from other marketing?
  • Why do you need a documented content strategy and someone who oversees it?
  • When should marketers use various social media to distribute content?
  • How do you create valuable content that can change hearts, minds, and actions?
  • Who are some of the most effective and least effective content marketers?

Personalized Digital Experiences

The great promise of digital marketing -- putting precisely the right message in front of precisely the right customer at precisely the right time -- often goes unmet. However, a number of tactics, including personalization, CRM, email marketing, and retargeting, can assist you in delivering just what your customer needs and help you reach your business goals. This module explores each of these topics and how you can apply them to make your digital marketing dollars work more effectively.

Web Analytics and ROI for Better Decision-Making

Web analytics and ROI might not be the sexiest topic in digital marketing, but, for those who understand and master its principles, it establishes credibility, commands respect and is empowering. This module demystifies web analytics because as Peter Drucker said: "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it." You will also participate in hands-on activities and workshops where you will construct key performance indicators (KPIs) for your business or next endeavor. You'll leave with skills you didn't know you had before came to class.

Digital Customer Acquisition

Marketers pursuing digital customer acquisition strategies try to get online prospects to complete a desired action relevant to their business. This “desired action” might look like an online purchase, online investigation that leads to an offline purchase, completion of a lead form, or even an e-mail newsletter registration – any conversion or micro-conversion that gets a customer more deeply engaged with a marketer’s product or service.

Students will learn:

  • Ecommerce and digital-influenced sales strategies
  • The evolution of “multi-channel retailing” to “omnichannel retailing”
  • Importance of mobile and social media in digital customer acquisition
  • Popular digital marketing tactics throughout the online sales funnel
  • Direct response marketing tactics
  • Ways to measure online and cross-channel conversions
  • The future of digital customer acquisition

Ideas to Transform Your Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is different from traditional offline marketing, but it’s still marketing. And any marketing program benefits from having all of its parts working together as a whole. Rather than implementing search, social media, mobile, and every other digital marketing tactic individually, what you really need to know is how to integrate them into a single digital marketing program that builds on each success.

Key Takeaways:

  • How to apply market segmentation to digital tactics
  • How to listen to what customers say and to watch what they do
  • How to improve your digital marketing return on investment
  • How to manage organizational change to improve digital marketing
  • How to expand reach across your entire organization

Program Overview

For an overview of our Mini-MBA: Digital Marketing program plus program benefits and outcomes, please click here.