In this time of social media, streaming web content and eCommerce, digital marketing strategy is a crucial skill set for any MBA to have. In 2020, COVID-19 forced the hand of many retailers to move their shopping experience out of brick and mortar stores and onto digital platforms – whether Amazon, Shopify, or their own direct-to-consumer website. While many consumer behaviors may eventually go back to the way they were pre-pandemic, a great number of these trends will continue to rise. These trends are the influencers that prompted me to take Katie Krueger’s Marketing in the Digital Age class.
As you’d expect of any digital sage, Katie moved her class to a digital format with ease in light of COVID-19 restrictions on campus. The class began by describing the changes in the marketing space as more companies moved to digital platforms:
- Consumers have more control than ever before.
- Data is everywhere and those that can master it are king.
- How the internet features in consumer’s zero moment of truth.
- Understanding where the industry has been and how it’s changing set the stage for the ways to use digital marketing tactics to create the greatest impact.
The course taught marketing theory alongside useful tools like Facebook Ads and Google Analytics to help students understand not only what levers to pull to influence user engagement throughout the selling cycle, but also the practical side of how to create ads, test user engagement on websites and measure the effectiveness of your SEO campaigns. Marketing in the Digital age should really be billed more as a digital marketing bootcamp to gain insight and skills into the future of marketing.
Finally, to test student knowledge of these new skills, the class’s capstone project was to develop a functional digital strategy for an existing company. Not being one to want my work to sit in a file folder, I chose to work with a real team of marketers at an early-stage manufacturing technology company. Hearing first-hand what their goals were for growth and determining the best tactics to achieve that was a highlight of my experience in this class. Furthermore, the strategy I created provided the company with actionable and measurable digital marketing tactics with suggested tools to make it happen without a huge hit to their budget.
Overall, the Marketing in the Digital Age class was one of the most practical classes I had the privilege to take this term and Katie made each lecture enjoyable and relevant. I highly recommend brushing up on your digital skills with this course.
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