A new session of each course opens each month, allowing you to enroll whenever your busy schedule permits!
How does it work? Once a session starts, two lessons will be released each week, for the six-week duration of your course. You will have access to all previously released lessons until the course ends.
Keep in mind that the interactive discussion area for each lesson automatically closes 2 weeks after each lesson is released, so you’re encouraged to complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.
The Final Exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the Final Exam has been released, you will have 2 weeks plus 10 days to complete the Final and finish any remaining lessons in your course. No further extensions can be provided beyond these 10 days.
Week One
Lesson 01 - Understanding the Digital Ecosystem
Wednesday
There are millions of pages on the web, and more are added daily. With all these pages, how can you ensure that your website gets noticed? It isn't easy. To increase traffic to your site, you need to learn all you can about digital marketing strategies and when to use each. In this lesson, we'll start with a high-level view of these strategies with an introduction to the digital marketing ecosystem, several types of websites, and common business models.
Lesson 02 - Understanding Your Digital Footprint
Friday
To establish a web presence for your business, you'll need to understand your goals, your customers' needs, and your target audience. With this information, you can establish a market position that differentiates you from competitors and helps grow your digital footprint. We'll discuss these topics and more in this lesson.
Week Two
Lesson 03 - The Digital Customer Journey
Wednesday
In this lesson, you'll learn about the phases of the digital customer journey and how to create content and develop strategies for users during each phase. It's essential to meet your prospective customers where they are, and this lesson will discuss ways to do just that.
Lesson 04 - Domain Names and Search Engines
Friday
In this lesson, you'll discover the importance of selecting your site's domain name. You'll also learn how search engines work. With this knowledge, you can make choices that help drive visitors to your website.
Week Three
Lesson 05 - Website Optimization
Wednesday
In this lesson, you'll discover how to optimize your website so it ranks higher on search engine results pages. You'll learn about keywords and coding elements to improve your site's ranking and reach more visitors, as well as what backlinks are and how they can affect ranking.
Lesson 06 - Web Analytics
Friday
This lesson will explain how to find invaluable performance data about your website. The number of visitors, how long they stay, which pages they visit, and how they get to your site are just a few metrics you can evaluate to learn more about your audience and improve your site.
Week Four
Lesson 07 - Paid Media
Wednesday
During this lesson, you'll learn how to develop ads that inspire your target audience to take the action you want. You'll understand how to advertise your website using search engine marketing (SEM), display advertising, video marketing, social media, and more.
Lesson 08 - Email Marketing
Friday
Despite the growing number of junk email messages filling inboxes, email is still a thriving medium. So, it's important to understand how to use email to keep current customers and acquire new ones. In this lesson, we'll examine how you can use email to promote your business.
Week Five
Lesson 09 - Creating Engagement Through Content
Wednesday
If you want visitors to spend more than a few seconds on your website, you'll need to make it interesting, entertaining, and informative. Stickiness is the factor that causes visitors to spend more time at your site. In this lesson, you'll learn how to use content such as blogs and syndicated content to make your website more engaging and increase stickiness.
Lesson 10 - Creating Engagement Through Community
Friday
In the previous lesson, you learned to build site stickiness through content. In this lesson, you'll learn to build site stickiness through social media. You'll also become acquainted with synchronous and asynchronous tools you can use to develop a social media community experience for your visitors.
Week Six
Lesson 11 - Selling Products Using E-Commerce
Wednesday
The last element you can use to build site stickiness is commerce, or, in this case, e-commerce. In this lesson, you'll learn how to use e-commerce to engage visitors on your site and encourage them to return more often. You'll become acquainted with technology you can use to create an online store, including shopping cart software and online payment systems.
Lesson 12 - Completing Your Digital Marketing Plan
Friday
In our final lesson, you'll have the opportunity to compile all the information you gathered during this course to create your digital marketing plan. To help with this effort, you will download a checklist, calendar, and budget worksheet to walk you through the process of completing and implementing your plan.