I am increasingly asked about marketing qualifications, particularly with reference to developing digital skills so I thought I’d do a round-up of the established courses and highlight some new options.

Chartered Institute of Marketing

There is much material on this web site about the main professional qualifications offered by the Chartered Institute of Marketing http://kimtasso.com/students/marketing/

CIM (and CAM) also offer some digital courses including:

And there are overviews of some of the key books used by these courses:

http://kimtasso.com/inbound-marketing-getting-found-using-google-social-media-and-blogs

http://kimtasso.com/book-review-understanding-digital-marketing-marketing-strategies-for-engaging-the-digital-generation-damian-ryan-and-calvin-jones

Institute of Direct Marketing

The IDM offers a range of courses http://www.theidm.com/qualifications/ including:

  • MSc Digital Marketing
  • MSc Marketing Management
  • The IDM Diploma in Digital Marketing
  • The IDM Diploma in Direct and Digital Marketing
  • The IDM Diploma in B2B Marketing Conversion
  • The IDM Certificate in Digital Marketing
  • The IDM Certificate in Direct and Digital Marketing
  • The IDM Award in Direct and Digital Marketing
  • The IDM Award in Email Marketing
  • The IDM Award in Data Management
  • The IDM Award in Search Marketing
  • The IDM Award in Social Media

Econsultancy

Another serious contender in this space is e-consultancy http://econsultancy.com/uk. It’s a bit different in that it is a community where the world’s digital marketing and ecommerce professionals meet to sharpen their strategy, source suppliers, get quick answers, compare notes, help each other out and discover how to do everything better online.

Founded in 1999, Econsultancy has grown to become the leading source of independent advice and insight on digital marketing and ecommerce. Its reports, events, online resources and training programmes help over 120,000 members make better decisions, build business cases, find the best suppliers, look smart in meetings and accelerate their careers.

It too offers digital marketing qualifications http://econsultancy.com/uk/training/qualifications including:

There are two part-time MSc qualifications – one for marketing and one for e-commerce:

MSc in Digital Marketing Communications

Econsultancy created the first ever UK MSc in Digital Marketing Communications — and it’s widely recognised as the most rigorous, professional and practical program in the market. The MSc in Internet Retailing was the UK’s first postgraduate qualification to specifically address the career and business needs of ambitious retail professionals. This option goes beyond pure e-commerce to embrace the wider business strategy of online and multichannel retail.

Digital Certificates

There are also six month diploma courses covering a variety of topics including:

Analytics and Optimisation

The programme delivers a challenging series of academically accredited courses, each covering a specific digital discipline. The emphasis is on practical skill development combined with rigorous academic understanding. You’ll learn the most up-to-date strategies, tactics and technologies from top practitioners in a curriculum that combines face-to-face classes, distance learning and intensive on-the-job assignments.

The course is taught over two modules (12 weeks each) and assessed via two written assignments. All training and tutorial days will be held in Manchester.

Module One: Online Management

• Introduction to web analytics

• Objectives, KPIs and metrics

• Measurement frameworks

• Competitor/market analysis

• Implementation and basic configuration

• Mapping KPIs to reporting

• Analytics for online marketing

• Social media monitoring

• KPI workshop

• Tagging workshop

• Campaign evaluation

Module Two: Optimisation

• Funnel analysis

• Analysis for site content

• Advanced analysis

• Automated testing

• Offline/online integration

• Taking a holistic view

• Optimisation workshop

• Testing workshop

The next intake: 31st October 2012 and the cost is £2,450 (+ VAT)

Search Engine Optimisation

Achieving good search engine visibility is an essential part of an effective digital marketing strategy. This certificate guides participants through the entire SEO process, from building awareness of the importance of SEO in acquiring clients to undertaking initial keyword research, website auditing, planning and strategy and hands on implementation (both on and off site). Participants will graduate with a thorough understanding of all aspects of SEO and practical experience of achieving SEO success.

The course is taught over two modules (12 weeks each) and assessed via two written assignments. All training and tutorial days will be held in Manchester.

Module One: Search Engine Fundamentals

  • Build a Search Engine and hands-on exercises to reveal the complexity of search engine indexing and result management
  • Designed to give a robust, evidence-based grounding in the fundamentals of SEO, keywords, keyword clusters, authority pages, and reputation management for engine optimisation
  • Learning by doing: keyword research, search engine optimisation cycle and simple bullet point SEO strategy

Module Two: SEO Competency

  • Rebuild a search engine in a day – a series of challenging hands on exercises to take understanding of SEO to a higher level, including semantics, the PageRank algorithm and our own version of a Panda update
  • Real world SEO; What do SEO managers actually do and what makes the different between doing it well and doing it badly? Topics include keyword research, on-page optimisation of authority pages and link-building strategies.
  • Building an SEO strategy for a site with a diverse range of keywords

This course starts in September 2012 and the cost is £2450 (+ VAT)

If you have any views on the relative strengths of these various options, I would be keen to hear them and to share them with others on this web site and/or the various on-line communities frequented by professional service marketers. Let me know at kim@kimtasso.com