USF Digital Marketing Certificate Program Curriculum

The USF Digital Marketing Certificate Program is an introduction to foundational concepts and technologies central to creating and launching an effective digital strategy. The program is presented as an eight-module, self-paced online course. As you go through each module, keep your own organizational environment in mind. This helps you apply concepts to any current projects.

Gain access to resources including video perspectives from professionals representing a range of organizational types, sizes, and industries. These Digital Marketing experts guide you through solving real-world challenges with best practices used within top companies. Build your skillset and develop your unique, personalized Digital Marketing Portfolio.
View Our Brochure for More Details

MODULE 1
Digital Strategy 

Discover elements that, when used successfully, creates a digital strategy that is aspirational, yet attainable. 
  • Blue Ocean Strategy: Think beyond the common areas where competitors fight for market share and move toward spaces where little or no competition exists.
  • SMART Goals: Thinking big is an excellent first step, but every strategy should also include goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.
  • Audience: Identify primary, secondary, and tertiary audiences. Create a strategy that reaches those most likely to engage with your digital strategies.
  • Message: Align with your audiences for greater impact.
  • Platform: Choose the one that best fits your strategy.​

MODULE 3
Marketing ​Automation

Learn the fundamentals of marketing automation and the opportunities it presents to marketers who want to foster relationships with customers through digital interactions.
  • Identifying the Business Need: Does marketing automation make sense for your organization? Find out through some high-level overviews of the technology and its benefits.
  • Lead Generation & Building Your Marketing Funnel: When a customer engages with content, they are telling you they want more information. Through marketing automation, you can build interactions that will move them through your marketing funnel into conversions.
  • Working With Data: One of the benefits of marketing automation is access to significant amounts of data. How do you interpret and use data to inform other marketing decisions?
  • Content Design: Gain best practices for content design and learn important opt-out requirements to ensure positive customer experiences.
  • Workflows & Automation: Marketing automation tools provides a clear path for users based on their choices.

MODULE 5
Social Media

Gain high-level views of opportunities to boost brand, product, and service awareness through organic social media.
  • Defining Brand Personas for Social Media: Know your audiences before you dive in.
  • Understanding Social Media Platforms: Discover each platform’s current reach and popularity.
  • Content Development and Posting Frequency: Gain recommendations on the type of content and the  posting frequencies for the most popular platforms.
  • Audience Interaction and Engagement: Learn ways to communicate with audiences.
  • Leveraging Graphics, Video, and Live Streaming: The right visuals can improve responses.
  • Organic Social Media Analytics, KPIs, and ROI: Measure effectiveness with social media posts.

MODULE 7
Data & Analytics

Align data and analytics with business objectives and outcomes. 
  • Analytics Assumptions and Data Foundations: Dispel myths around analytics and see the data cornerstones on which businesses should focus.
  • Apply Data to Business Outcomes and Information to Revenue: See how to interpret data in a way that is meaningful to decision-makers.
  • Turn KPIs into Action: Move KPIs from intangibles into actions that can be tracked.
  • Make Sense of Attribution: What's the difference between first, last, and linear attribution? Analyze the effect that multiple touchpoints have on web conversions.
  • Examine Behavioral Factors: See how raw data ignores human behavioral factors and how you can tie behavioral influences to online actions.

MODULE 2
​Why Client Insight is the Ultimate Guide 

Customer Experience drives a relevant digital marketing dialogue. Aligning how you market the product and how your customer experiences the product is critical to retention and revenue growth. 
  • Identifying the Pillars of Customer Experience (CX):  Your Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) and effective marketing tactics work together to create brand loyalty.
  • Meeting Customers Where They Are: Define your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). 
  • Delving Into Account-Based Marketing: Engage customers and use insights to drive demand with targeted marketing. 
  • Join Forces with Customers: This ongoing effort is based on an empathetic and insightful approach. ​

MODULE 4
Content Marketing

Gain an understanding of the crucial elements needed to develop and deliver content marketing campaigns that build reputation and engagement with customers and prospects.
  • Audience and Voice: Learn the importance of defining your audience, including their concerns, feelings and other factors at different stages of the buying process.
  • Content Framework: Discover elements of a campaign brief and the benefits of developing a brief prior to launching a content campaign.
  • Creating Your Brand Story: Content marketing helps you tell a story about your products, services, and overall brand.
  • Channel Strategies: Learn how to apply content in owned, earned, and paid channels or platforms.
  • Tools of the Trade: The instructor shares her top tips, tricks, and resources to inspire content marketing campaigns.
  • Measuring Success: Align measurement techniques to the traditional depths of the marketing funnel and discover why it's important to give content marketing initiatives time to take hold.

MODULE 6
​Drive Leads & Sales with Paid Search

Learn how paid search strategies are instituted and measured. Explore the concept of paid search prior to investment.
  • Drive Leads & Sales: Discover why an investment in paid search may be worth it for your organization. See how Google search pages are structured.
  • Campaign Setup: Learn the requirements of launching a campaign.
  • Keywords: Learn how keyword intent and match types can enhance or detract from campaign success.
  • Creating the Ad: Create compelling ads and calls to action that align with your objectives. See how the Google Quality Score affects performance.
  • Landing Pages: Create landing pages that work.
  • Measuring and Optimizing: Track performance and modify elements to improve results of this ongoing investment.

MODULE 8
Digital Transformation

Gain practical ways to bridge gaps between marketing and other functional areas to bring about digital transformation that benefits the entire organization.
  • The Necessity of Planning: Thorough planning must be complete before platforms or initiatives are launched to maximize buy-in.
  • Build a Specification: Learn why it's important to build a spec before creating a Request for Proposal and how this step can help you gather quotes that are competitive and thorough.
  • The Necessity of Process: See why process is a critical element regarding digital transformation and the long-tail effect of the institution of digital practices.
  • The Necessity of Community: Discover how to build relationships that bolster the success of your digital strategies through collaboration with other functional areas.

​Your Personal Digital Marketing Capstone Project

Cap off your success at University of South Florida, Muma College of Business with a personalized, detailed Digital Marketing action plan including your organization's goals and key performance indicators to develop an ROI strategy.
Request Information