Digital Marketing Undergrad Degree Programs
If you are serious about a career in digital marketing, you may find it is worth investing your time, money and effort into taking digital marketing college courses or earning a university degree in digital marketing.
Even within this digital marketing education niche, you have a large number of choices from community colleges to Ivy League institutions.
The variety of programs for earning a certificate or university degree in digital marketing can be daunting. Here is a general overview of choices.
Professional Certificate
Some institutions offer certificate programs with no prerequisites. Georgetown University’s Certificate in Digital Marketing is just such a program. The University of Alabama’s Social Media Graduate Certificate program requires that you have already earned a bachelor’s degree from an accredited university with a cumulative GPA over 3.0 or a GMAT score above 480.
You have a choice of attending in person or can combine online with in-person learning at the University of Washington. A growing number of programs are this self-paced professional certificate from Duke University, which is offered online in a distance learning format.
Course offerings vary greatly. This comprehensive graduate certificate program at the Stern Business School at New York University gives you an idea of what a complete and rigorous program may include topics such as:
Digital Strategies for Marketing
Content Development Strategies for Digital Marketing
Blogs to Buzz
Effective Email Strategy
Strategic Search Engine Marketing
Mobile Marketing
Media Buying, Planning and Analysis
E-Commerce: Managing, Building, and Developing Digital Sales Environments
Social Media Marketing
Building and Managing Social Media Networks
Applying Social Media Analytics
Web Analytics
Data Analysis, Interpretation and Dashboarding
Digital Analytics
Bachelor of Arts of Science Digital Marketing Degree
Universities are quickly revamping their business degree offerings to support the growing demand for people with digital marketing expertise. The University of Connecticut offers a Digital Marketing & Analytics major as does the Penn State University.
These are traditional on-campus undergraduate degree with a digital marketing focus.
Many of the programs have a strong technology element, but you will find a number that are decidedly more business oriented.
Arizona State Bachelor of Science Marketing (Digital and Integrated Marketing Communications) offers a comprehensive business and marketing degree that incorporates the digital aspects.
Online distance learning degree programs offer you the chance to earn your degree without living on or near campus.
The University of Maryland offers a Bachelor of Science Digital Media and Web Technology degree that is for the more technically inclined. The Bachelor of Science in Digital Marketing Technology from the University of Wisconsin is similarly tech-heavy. The University of Harrisburg has a digital marketing concentration option for its Online Bachelor of Science in Management, Entrepreneurship, and Business Administration (MEBA).
Arkansas State adds a Social Media Management Certification to its online Bachelor of Science in Strategic Communication.
Master of Science in Digital Marketing
Masters programs are designed to produce the industry’s future leaders. Pursuing an advanced degree in the field means combining a solid understanding of underlying technologies, as well as the fundamentals of branding, marketing management, user design, content marketing, social media, and trends in marketing technology and consumer demand.
You will understand high-level corporate planning in digital infrastructure, product, and marketing, to manage the integration of digital with the overall corporate strategy.
Temple University’s Fox School of Business offers a Master of Science in Digital Innovation in Marketing degree that can be completed totally online.
More specifically focused on marketing is the Brandeis University Master of Science Digital Marketing and Design degree.
The program is designed to be completed by part-time students online in a self-paced program covering required and elective courses, such as:
Digital Marketing Strategy
Search Engine Marketing and Optimization
Writing for Digital Environments
Multichannel Marketing Campaigns
Conversion Rate Optimization
Marketing and Customer Analytics
User Experience Design
Digital Imaging, Video and Media Production
Mobile Applications and Responsive Web Design
Web Development Technologies
Software Development in Java
Ethics in Digital Design and Marketing
Cognitive and Social Psychology of User-Centered Design
Special Topics in Digital Marketing and Design
Mini MBA
If you already have a bachelor degree, don’t want to spring for a master’s degree, but still want to upgrade your credentials, Rutgers University has an interesting option:
The “Mini MBA.” It is designed for seasoned marketers who want to strengthen their command of digital marketing or for marketers leading digital marketing teams and partners and need to connect the rest of the organization with digital marketing initiatives.
The course is broken into ten modules taking about three and half hours to complete. Credits count towards a graduate degree, should you eventually decide to go that route. Topics covered include:
Digital Marketing Strategy: Looking at trends from a high-level and their impact on marketing, this module is about how all the digital marketing pieces connect and how to orchestrate strategies that make it all work together.
Search Engine Marketing: Provides practical techniques for ranking organically and using paid search. The course looks ahead at algorithm trends and technologies.
Social Media Marketing: Presents current best practices for each platform, delves into the role of influence, and provides a framework for integrating social into your overall marketing program and implementing campaigns effectively.
Smart Technologies: From mobile to the Internet of Things to artificial intelligence and augmented reality, marketing technology is changing the face of digital marketing.
Content Marketing: One of the fastest growing areas of digital marketing content marketing is a powerful driver of customer acquisition and loyalty. This module looks at the holistic opportunities of today and those evolving in the future.
Personalized Digital Experiences: This emerging area of digital marketing is new and exciting, with application across tactics, from email to retargeting.
Web Analytics: The art and science of measuring and optimizing are must-have skills in today’s fast paced digital marketing world.
Online Customer Acquisition: This module looks at ways to attract customers and inspire them to take the desired action.
User Experience (UX) & Marketing: It is more than making things easy to use; it is about creating memorable brand experiences and putting the customer at the center of your product and your marketing.
In this beginner's digital marketing course (11 Language Subtitles Available), you'll learn how to generate more traffic to your businesses's website, increase your ranking on Google, generate compelling content that will drive interest and sales, create social media posts that people will want to share, and learn how to keep customers coming back. This course is for business owners, entrepreneurs, and working professionals.
