Can you believe there was a time when a business believed that having digital media/marketing knowledge and skills was nice, but not necessary? How the times have quickly changed.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the amount of market research analysts and marketing specialists is expected to increase 32% from 2012-2022 which is faster than the national average of 11% for all occupations. While that sound promising for anyone pursuing a career in digital marketing, the education required for these skills seems to be lacking.
This isnt exactly a new development. Marketers have been discussing this topic for several years now. Take, for example, John Rampton, who shared on Inc.com that 79 percent of business leaders polled say there are noticeable skill gaps on their teamsprimarily in data, customer insight, and digital marketing techniques, according to Circle Marketings 2013 B2B Leaders report. Stuart Draper, CEO and founder of Stukent, informed John that Out of the 200 business schools we contacted in 2013, a surprisingly high 64 still werent offering a dedicated class on digital marketing.
According to Draper, there are several reasons why colleges are not teaching digital marketing courses. These include: Most traditional marketing professors have no formal education in internet marketing professors fearing that students know more about the internet than they do, marketing textbooks being outdated, some believe this is a fad, and adding or changing courses requires a sign-off from the school administration.
That doesnt mean all institutions waiting to see what happens. For example, there are online institutions, such as the Digital Marketing Institute, Full Sail University, and University of Phoenix, who offer accredited courses, certificates, or degrees focused on digital marketing. Some colleges are even requiring marketing courses, such as Indiana University Bloomington who hasa required digital marketing course, Analysis of Marketing Data.
Many othertraditional institutions withsolid reputations are finally beginning to add courses involving digital marketing.
While these courses which include everything from graduate programs to certificate programs may not be full-fledged digital marketing courses, they do include courses that discuss social media, analytics, content creation, SEO and PPC. They may not be the answer just yet, but its a promising start.
For example, here are 15 colleges in the United States (in no particular order) who are offering digital marketing classes, in some form.
Established in 1956, and eventually built on land that was donated by the Ford Motor Co., the University of Michigan-Dearborn has earned a reputation as one of the most effective marketing schools in the country it was 35 ranked in the 2015 edition of Best Colleges is Regional Universities (Midwest) by U.S. News.
U of Ms Digital Marketing program isnt just top-notch, its also one of the first in the country where students can study social network marketing, SEO, open source innovation, viral marketing, web analytics, reputation management, and experimenting with market research.
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15 Colleges That Offer Digital Marketing Classes by @albertcostill