Certificate of Professional Studies or Minor in Digital Marketing & Sales (Online)

Accelerated Certificate of Professional Studies or Minor in Digital Marketing & Sales

Benefits

The School of Professional Studies certificate of professional studies or minor in Digital Marketing & Sales will help you to:

1. Increase sales through effective digital promotion and selling strategies
2. Establish and enhance branding through effective use of social media and electronic channels
3. Engage buyers through appealing, share-worthy content
4. Analyze the effectiveness of digital marketing strategies and tactics
5. Develop data-driven marketing plans through effective data capture and utilization techniques

What are the benefits of accelerated learning?

Learning in an accelerated course format allows adult learners to focus on one subject at a time.  While the class is condensed into seven weeks, the learning outcomes and objectives are the same as those in a standard 15-week course.  This means that students have increased out-of-classroom work or instructional equivalencies, which can be completed at home, during the lunch hour, or whenever your scheduled allows.

Albright College Faculty

Adam Owenz, MBA,
Instructor of Business
BS, Albright College
MBA, Kutztown University
610-921-7701
aowenz@albright.edu

Richard P. Schott, MBA,
Senior Instructor of Economics & Business
BS, BA, University of Richmond
MBA, St. Joseph’s University
610-921-7889
rschott@albright.edu

Jayanthi Rajan, MBA,
Instructor of Business;
William and Mary Dearden Endowed Chair in Business
B.S., University of Madras, India
MBA, Bangalore University
610-921-7704
jrajan@albright.edu

Curriculum & Course Descriptions

Minor in Digital Marketing & Sales
Students pursuing a bachelor’s degree through Albright College’s School of Professional Studies may elect to add this minor to round out their bachelor’s degree. This minor will likely be of interest to accounting, business administration, computer information systems and computer information systems and management bachelor’s degree seekers, but it is open to any bachelor’s degree-seeking student in the School of Professional Studies.

The five-course curriculum may count toward completion of overall general studies and elective credit requirements at Albright College. Students working toward a bachelor’s degree are eligible to include the digital marketing & sales courses as part of their financial aid package.

Certificate of Professional Studies in Digital Marketing & Sales
Non-degree-seeking students may pursue the certificate of professional studies as a short-term credential for students who have already completed a bachelor’s degree, students who have an interest in studying digital marketing & sales or students who may have some college, but don’t want to commit to an entire bachelor’s degree.

This certificate of professional studies can serve as a bridge to getting students back into the classroom and advance your pursuit of a bachelor’s degree. All five courses count toward a bachelor’s degree at Albright College’s School of Professional Studies. Students who are only pursuing the certificate of professional studies would not be considered degree-seeking and would not be eligible for financial aid. Tuition deferment, payment plans and course-by-course billing is available.

Courses

DMS247 Introduction to Marketing

This course is designed to introduce the student to the basic, time-tested principles of marketing and their application in the workplace. It is also taught from a strategic perspective, integrating these marketing principles to ascertain how companies can attract and retain customers while beating competitors and positioning the product appropriately. Topic areas for this course include: the marketing concept and process, the marketing environment, market segmentation and target marketing, product strategy, price strategy, distribution strategy, and promotional strategy.

DMS371 Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing covers all marketing efforts deployed over the internet. Digital Marketing will prepare you for developing and managing an effective digital marketing strategy. This course will review major current digital marketing trends and tactics including search and display advertising, search engine optimization, website analytics, email marketing, social media and marketing automation. You  will learn to analyze digital marketing channels and assess their ability to reach target markets and meet business objectives. This course will also study basic advertising flighting and marketing budget management. You  will be exposed to popular digital marketing costs and fee structures. Pre-requisite: BUS920 Marketing I or DMS247Introduction to Marketing or approved introductory marketing course (minimum 3 credits)

DMS373 Marketing Analytics

This course will focus on developing marketing strategies and making resource allocation decisions driven by quantitative analysis. Emphasis is on obtaining, managing and using information about current and potential customers. This course introduces sophisticated tools and techniques to make data-driven decisions that address marketing problems in areas of customer acquisition, development, and retention. It will also cover predictive analytics and large-scale testing. Students apply each technique to a large consumer-level database, learning how to target consumers individually and derive customer insights. Topics include data acquisition, data mining, list segmentation and customer modeling, and direct marketing, relationship marketing and customer lifetime value applications.

Pre-requisite: BUS920 Marketing I or DMS247Introduction to Marketing or approved introductory marketing course (minimum 3 credits)

DMS375 Integrated Content Strategies (Elective)

Effective content leads to sharing of brand messaging and drives sales and provides customers with interesting and helpful content while driving deeper customer engagement. This course will prepare students to develop and manage an effective sales and marketing strategy built around content specifically designed for maximum engagement of a target market in modern marketing channels and media outlets. This course will study overall content marketing strategy, as well as specific content strategies tailored for popular social media platforms, automated email marketing, as well as digital and mobile advertising. Students will learn how to develop content for video, audio, and written communications. Students will be exposed to popular inbound marketing platforms and will craft automated marketing communication flows designed to draw customers through a sales funnel.

PREREQUISITE BUS920 Marketing Management I or DMS247 Introduction to Marketing or approved introductory marketing course (Minimum 3 credits)

DMS377 Consumer Behavior (Elective)

Consumer Behavior covers all consumer decision processes as they relate to marketing management decision areas. Successful marketing management depends on understanding the consumer. In this course we will examine concepts from social and cognitive psychology, behavioral decision theory, behavioral economics, and sociology that are used to develop effective marketing strategies. The course content focuses on behavioral aspects of marketing, the processes and decisions involved in purchase and consumption. Some of the general topics covered in the course include: how consumers search and use information in their decision-making process; how cultural influences, sociological factors, psychographics, lifestyle, symbolism in brand communication, persuasion, social media influences, and environmental factors affect purchase decisions. The implications of consumer behavior will be examined both from the marketer’s and the consumer’s viewpoint.

PREREQUISITE BUS920 Marketing Management I or DMS247 Introduction to Marketing or approved introductory marketing course (minimum 3 credits)

DMS378 Principles of Selling

This is a hands-on, learn-by-doing course that has application to every career. The course explores foundational topics such as relationship building, communication, ethics and how and why people buy. Social selling, the use of social networking in the selling process, is a pivotal topic with analysis of the integration of social and digital media into selling, the role of different platforms and real-time critical looks at dos and don’ts in this important channel. A course-long project on LinkedIn provides personal practice and a head start on students’ personal branding efforts. The focus is on how to leverage, not just use, this universal business platform.

The seven steps of the selling process are examined in detail with relevant readings and videos and interactive activities such as video, audio and text discussions along with application assignments and short quizzes to reinforce key concepts.

The semester culminates with a Capstone Sales Project that challenges each student to develop a new product or service, identify a business-to-business prospective customer, create a written sales proposal and deliver a sales presentation, complete with handling objections.

PREREQUISITE

BUS920 Marketing Management I or DMS247 Introduction to Marketing or approved introductory marketing course (minimum 3 credits)

Learning Outcomes

After completing the certificate of professional studies or minor in digital marketing & sales, you will be able to:

1. Create a comprehensive digital marketing and content strategy for products, concepts, goods or services for a specific target market taking into account the most recent and appropriate technology tools and platforms.
2. Design a sales strategy that infuses best practices of sales of today and aligns to corporate goals that persuades a prospect to buy a product or service.
3. Interpret and use data to inform future marketing approaches at an organization.
4. Discuss different platforms, technologies and marketing approaches of yesterday, today and tomorrow to support marketing decisions.
5. Draw from theories, principles and knowledge of marketing to help solve marketing dilemmas.
6. Consider ideas of others in order to improve a marketing idea, product or strategy.
7. Inform management on up-to-date marketing technologies and strategies.
8. Determine the effect of human experiences in the search, purchase and consumption processes for both the provider and consumer perspective.

Albright College: Who Are We?

Founded in 1856, Albright College educates creative, curious students to become adaptable, global citizens who discover and reach their full potential.  Close faculty mentorship, numerous experiential learning options, and a diverse, supportive and nurturing community of scholars and learners help students exceed their own expectations and graduate with a commitment to a lifetime of service and learning.