This module introduces digital marketing, tracing its evolution since the 1980s and highlighting its distinctions from traditional methods. It emphasizes benefits such as broad reach, efficiency, and enhanced data accuracy. Current trends and platforms like email, mobile, and websites are discussed, along with the role of web analytics in campaign assessment. The module briefly covers online public relations methods like blogs and social media, emphasizing their integration with analytics for audience targeting and campaign planning. Legal considerations are underscored, emphasizing the potential for wider reach beyond the intended audience. Overall, it provides a foundational understanding of digital marketing before delving into specific topics in subsequent modules.

This module sought to explain how useful search engines can be to a digital marketing campaign, in terms of building increased traffic, as well as profitability. It began by first giving a basic overview of search engines and how they function. Next, it outlined search engine optimization, or SEO. This included a discussion on how SEO works, as well as looking at some of the pros and cons of this strategy.

Following this, the module examined search engine marketing (SEM). Providing an understanding of the processes behind this strategy and the benefits and consequences of SEM were then outlined. Finally, pay-per-click (PPC) marketing was introduced, as a means of furthering the discussion on SEM, by detailing one of its many functions.

The related sections within this module focused on a variety of aspects including how it works, keyword matching, and like the other two main topics, the positives and negatives of using PPC campaigns as a digital marketing strategy. Each of these sections should have provided a clear understanding of how they can fit into a successful marketing campaign, while noting several aspects to consider in order to reduce the potential for ill-fated attempts, or ending up with undesirable traffic.

Module 3: Websites and Web Design

What you will learn:

· Website basics, the differences between websites, pages and servers

· The different types of websites

· How websites can be used as a means of digital marketing?

· About how to create a website, including content, structure and design

· The importance of website test runs

· What is needed in order to market a website?

An overview of digital display advertising.

The formats used in digital display advertising.

The pros and cons of its use.

How to implement successful campaigns.

What you will learn:

An overview of digital display advertising

The formats used in digital display advertising

The pros and cons of its use

How to implement successful campaigns

The measures of success

Module 5: Email and Mobile Marketing

The basics behind email and mobile marketing, including the types of each, as well as how they work.

About the legal considerations, with a focus on those applying to the UK

The pros and cons of both marketing practices

Some of the best strategies used to employ these types of initiatives

Module 6: Social Media Marketing

The differences between social media, networking, and marketing.

How social media marketing works.

The differences between the two social media strategies: passive and active.

About the various platforms of social media and the demographics that engage with each.

Module 7: Online Public Relations

The differences between traditional and online public relations

The four elements of online public relations

About the various tools used for employing these strategies

The four phases of online public relations

The definition of web analytics and how it differs from website stats

The two categories of web analytics: off-site and on-site

The types and processes of web analytics

How web analytics can be used within an online marketing strategy

Module 9: Planning a Digital Marketing Campaign

The difference between a digital marketing strategy and a digital marketing campaign.

How to develop the marketing objectives.

The importance of looking at past data.

About identifying a target market: quantitative and qualitative approaches.

Module 10 : Digital Marketing Regulations

About the two regulating bodies in the UK.

The three current regulations concerning digital marketing in the UK.

How data protection is handled in a number of countries around the world.

The various regulations that handle unsolicited communications in countries such as Australia, Canada, the European Union, and the United States.