Cert HE Digital Marketing

This comprehensive introduction to digital marketing covers everything you need to know about the purpose of marketing, best practice techniques for attracting your target audience, managing your reputation, working with influencers, and analysing your online performance through data.

We’ll also touch on wider principles of general marketing, teaching you about its role in building relationships with customers, and explain how to understand — and satisfy — those customers’ needs. You’ll discover the power of customer insights, and learn how market research can help you to plan a more effective and targeted strategy. And towards the end, we’ll show you how to apply all that knowledge to a digital context, using product, service, pricing, distribution, and promotion strategies to attract attention and drive action.

Advertising has been around for centuries, but it was in the mid-20th century, with the advent of television, when it truly boomed. Since then, it’s continued to evolve, adapting to every leap in technology and shift in public attitudes. In this module, that’s just what we’ll explore: how has advertising changed, and where will it go next?

We’ll start with a brief history of advertising, looking at different cultural, political, sociological, technological, and economic contexts. You’ll then explore the different ways advertisers have communicated their messages since the 50s, evolving from traditional media like print and television through to the more interactive and ever-present formats of the modern day.

We’ll consider how culture and public opinion influences advertising creative, and vice versa. Finally, you’ll look to the future: in the context of current affairs, public attitudes, and technology, what do you think might happen next?

Your online presence, and the content you create, are intertwined; in the digital world, making and posting content shows you’re active and helps you to connect with your audience.

In ‘Content Creation & Social Media’, we’ll teach you how to create assets and content that fit your goals and suit your audiences. You’ll consider why a compelling online presence is now such an important part of any business’s marketing plan and explore the various social and digital platforms, considering how content should be tailored to fit. You’ll also learn about the technical side of social — management tools, analytics, social listening, outreach, and more — and learn how SEO (search engine optimisation) and digital and social advertising can help your content to reach a bigger, and more specific, audience.

Finally, you’ll touch on social media governance and reputation management, and look at creative ways to stand out and get noticed online. In the end, you’ll have the tools and understanding you need to attract the attention of your audience and tell them what to do next. And to expand your practical content marketing skills in your second year, there’s the ‘Digital Storytelling’ module, too.

Social media, blockchain, 3D printing: behind every brilliant invention and unique idea, there’s an entrepreneur — someone who stepped off the beaten path and created something of their own. It’s not just technology billionaires or maverick inventors; every self-employed person is an entrepreneur, too.

Here, we’ll explore what it means to be an entrepreneur, considering how new ideas are formed; the process of turning those ideas into reality; and what makes some people better entrepreneurs than others. We’ll look at where entrepreneurs fit into commercial, non-commercial, start-up and established organisations, and teach you about the challenges of entrepreneurship at individual, organisational, and societal levels.

We can all learn from the creativity, determination, conduct, and commercial acumen of people who run their own businesses. When you finish the module, you’ll have a better idea of entrepreneurship, from taking risks to managing money, problem-solving and creative thinking.

The best digital marketing plans are rooted in thorough and thoughtful research. With the right insights you’ll know where to find your audience, and what to say to them; which customers are worth pursuing; and what they think about your brand, product, or service. Without them? Your content might not get results.

That’s why market research is so important. In this module, we’ll teach you about the steps of market research, including problem formulation, research design, data collection instruments, data analysis methods, and how to present your findings. You’ll learn how to design quantitative and qualitative research, and explore different data collection and analysis techniques. And most importantly, we’ll look at how to use all the insights you collect as the foundation for your marketing plan, turning all the data into information that informs your strategy.

Building on your previous modules on content creation and digital marketing, this module will show you how to put creative content to work as part of a campaign. It explores where content fits into your digital marketing strategy; how to develop effective content for social media and other digital platforms; and what makes a successful content plan.

Over the course of the module, you’ll develop valuable skills in producing and managing digital content, building brands, and running digital marketing campaigns. We’ll teach you how to devise a strategy and what factors you should consider, from business goals and budget to how best to reach your target audience.

At the end, you’ll create a social media content plan for a high-quality digital marketing campaign, putting everything you’ve learned into practice. In your second year you’ll move onto the ‘Digital Storytelling’ module to begin creating content of your own.