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Future Marketers At Disadvantage As Digital Marketing Degree’s Go Overlooked

Five reasons why every college, university, and trade school in America needs to develop a digital marketing curriculum immediately.

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  1. Inbound marketing is essential to any marketing campaign.

    Customers are becoming more discerning and better informed. It’s rare that a customer is able to be sold solely by using outbound marketing techniques. Yes, outbound marketing is incredibly important, as I’ll mention later, but if you can’t convince a customer to buy your product once they’re on your site, then your outbound marketing is useless.

    Conversion optimization is the general term attributed to optimizing a customer’s experience while on your site and ensuring that they purchase your goods or services. However, there is a lot involved with conversion optimization. Does your site reinforce your brand? How many steps does it take to check-out? Are there calls to action? Are the calls to action effective? These are just some of the questions that conversion optimization uses to ensure that a website is effective.

    Most digital marketers utilize trial and error techniques to master conversion optimization. But wouldn’t it be helpful to learn the basics and general techniques without all the trial and error. The main reason being, trial and error isn’t free. In fact, it’s very expensive. Learning how to optimize an inbound marketing message prior to starting a company, or being employed by one, would save companies millions.

  2. Outbound marketing is a messy, noisy medium.

    A strong foundation in basic marketing techniques would pay huge dividends. This is where conventional marketing and digital marketing find a common ground. Outbound marketing in the digital space is a crowded mélange of display, text, video and pop-up advertising. Customers react differently to each type of ad.

    Learning how to craft strong outbound messages that entice customers to engage your company is a time consuming process. Like inbound marketing, it requires a lot of trial and error. I rely heavily on my conventional marketing training to develop strong messages that get customers to click. Some of the same techniques that are used offline work just as well online, while other traditional techniques fall short. A course on outbound marketing would help any digital marketer with ad creation and customer acquisition.

  3. The future of marketing is online.

    My final point is simply this: Digital marketing is quickly becoming the number one way to reach customers. Print advertising is expensive and losing ground to other marketing mediums. Radio and outdoor advertising don’t offer the same level of analytics as digital marketing and is quickly becoming an outlet solely for branding. With the advent of the DVR, television advertising is losing its ability to reach consumers. Commercials are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Therefore, it is essential that marketers learn basic digital marketing skills.

    It would be imprudent for a doctor to go through medical school and not receive training on techniques and devices that have been invented in the last 10 to 20 years. Likewise, it would be equally foolhardy for a marketer to receive a degree in marketing and not receive the proper education in the dominant marketing medium of the present and future.

 

Scott Cohen is the CEO of 180Fusion, an industry leader and award winner in providing search engine marketing and social media marketing. Cohen has an extensive background as a successful entrepreneur, senior executive and general manager in software, internet and compliance industries. Most recently, he took an enterprise software company (PSS Systems) from pre-revenue stage to market leader before being acquired by IBM. Cohen holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Arizona and currently holds advisory and board member positions at several privately held companies in the software and internet space. In addition, he is active in the Non Profit community and sits on the board of the Prostate Cancer Research Institute.

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