Specialist Certification in Digital Strategy and Planning

The modules in this course are designed to teach you how to:

• Differentiate between strategy types
• Define your business value proposition
• Identify ways to maintain a long-term strategy and improve it over time
• Recognise resources you need and outsource specialist skills and knowledge
• Perform necessary research and map your communications and business plan and objectives
• Familiarise yourself with the tools and timelines associated with a digital campaign and digital PR activities.
• Contextualise the different social media platforms within the digital marketing landscape
• Assess the strengths and weaknesses of email marketing.
• Strategise, build, measure and scale an enterprise-level Social Customer Service operation.
• Assess the function of P2P support communities in Social Customer Service and become familiar with their creation, maintenance and growth.
• Describe the elements and practices that make up an efficient analytics approach and the main considerations when seeking to construct a formal analytics program for your business.
• Identify the key concepts of big data, automated data-driven decision-making and artificial intelligence.
• Measure the ROI of digital and align it to the overall goals of your organization.
• Monitor the social footprint of team members using social KPIs
• Create a SWOT analysis and develop SMART objectives in order to decide on the tactics that are most appropriate for the objectives decided upon and how best to implement them.

The Introduction to Strategy and Planning module will introduce you to the Digital Marketing Institute 3i Methodology and Framework that will empower you to implement a well-considered process of selecting and developing the best digital strategy for your organisation. You will learn how to address the complexities of planning as well as you will become familiar with the concept of strategic management and reporting.

On completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Understand necessary considerations to build your business strategy
• Differentiate between strategy types
• Define your business value proposition
• Identify ways to maintain a long-term strategy and improve it over time

Traditional Communications:

The Traditional Communications module will introduce you to the characteristics and features of the traditional communication channels and will help you learn to recognise their strengths and limitations in context with the new digital opportunities. You will respond to a range of different illustrations showing how you can integrate digital communications channels with traditional marketing approaches.

On completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Recognise traditional marketing and communication models and challenges
• Recognise resources you need and outsource specialist skills and knowledge
• Perform necessary research and map your communications and business plan and objectives
• Build a media plan, outline your budgets and measure your effectiveness

Digital Communications:

The Digital Communications module will introduce the concept of digital communications and will teach you how you can utilise them to reach and engage with your audience. You will become familiar with the tools and timelines associated with a digital campaign and digital PR activities. The module will also introduce you to the key requirements and regulations within the digital communications field.

On completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Explain the advantages and challenges associated with digital communications.
• Familiarise yourself with the tools and timelines associated with a digital campaign and digital PR activities.
• Recognise how digital PR activities can help spread and amplify a message.
• Recognise how marketing automation tools and platforms can help to save time, optimise limited resources and improve the ROI on an investment, and how they can use digital communications to research and better understand their target audience.
• Handle budgetary challenges and requirements when developing an effective digital communications strategy.

Digital Channels:

The Digital Channels module will help you learn to recognise the different digital channels and to assess their value, characteristics and suitability for achieving distinct communication goals. The module will introduce different social media platforms as well as it will contextualise digital landscapes, including Search Marketing (SEO), Email Marketing, Digital Display Advertising, Mobile Marketing, Social Media Marketing.

On completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Identify the different digital channels and their suitability for achieving distinct communication goals.
• Contextualise the different social media platforms within the digital marketing landscape.
• Assess the strengths and weaknesses of email marketing.
• Utilise email marketing campaigns.
• Recognise the range and extent of digital ad formats with reference to strong illustrations, relevant examples, as well as current global and national statistics.
• Explore Social Media Marketing, the opportunities it presents and different social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
• Identify the range of different mobile marketing tactics.

Social Customer Service:

The Social Customer Service module will introduce you to methodologies for utilising social media as a customer service channel. You will examine emerging trends in Social Customer Service and develop your understanding of how leading organisations are using social media to service their customers. The module will also teach you how to strategise, build, measure and scale an enterprise-level social customer service operation.

On completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Apply the methodologies for utilising social media as a customer service channel.
• Understand how leading organisations are using social media to service their customers.
• Strategise, build, measure and scale an enterprise-level Social Customer Service operation.
• Identify the appropriate technology ecosystem supporting the Social Customer Service space as well as the resourcing requirements for successful operation.
• Identify challenges and tactical approaches required for social crisis management.
• Assess the function of P2P support communities in Social Customer Service and become familiar with their creation, maintenance and growth.

Budget and Resourcing:

The Budget and Resourcing module enables you to recognise budgeting methodologies for digital marketing activities along with the key concepts and challenges of resourcing for these activities. You will become familiar with the key areas to consider when creating a budget for digital marketing activities as well as gain an understanding of the range of standard documentation necessary to operate safely and securely within the digital communications field.

On completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Recognise the importance of budgeting and the factors that you must consider when setting a budget.
• Identify the key areas to consider when creating a digital marketing budget, namely personnel, technology, training and processes.
• Explore the new roles that now exist following the growth of digital media and learn how to budget for these new roles.
• Identify the technologies that are available to support the digital marketing infrastructure of a company.
• Recognise the importance of overseeing and managing budgets.

Big Data and Analytics:

The Big Data and Analytics module will provide you with a broad understanding of Big Data, Advanced Analytics and Artificial Intelligence. You will learn the fundamental frameworks and understand how cutting-edge tools are used to help business succeed.

On completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Describe the elements and practices that make up an efficient analytics approach and the main considerations when seeking to construct a formal analytics program for your business.
• Identify the key concepts of big data, automated data-driven decision-making and artificial intelligence.
• Understand how analytics underpin the key concepts of iteration and enhancement that allow digital campaigns to be continually adjusted, improved and enhanced.
• Plan data-driven strategies to develop new insights about your customers, processes and their behaviors
• Recognise the importance of developing data-driven business models, and ways to provide appropriate incentives for private-sector actors to share and use data for the benefit of the individual, firm and society.

Digital Leadership:

The Digital Leadership module will guide you as you transition from a traditional to a digital strategy and will help you to understand the importance that adopting a digital approach will have to remaining competitive in a rapidly evolving landscape. The module will empower you to coach and lead your team to ensure they are targeting the right customers in the right markets, building the right networks and creating a consistent brand.

On completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Bridge the gap between marketing and sales and empower your people to leverage their networks and build relationships to accelerate your business.
• Act as a social leader, building and maintaining awareness of your digital strategy and implementing effective communication strategies to keep employees motivated and accountable for their individual digital strategies.
• Measure the ROI of digital and align it to the overall goals of your organisation.
• Monitor the social footprint of team members using social KPIs.

Strategy Formulation and Plan:

The Strategy Formulation and Plan module will provide a structured conclusion to bring together all the strands of the Digital Strategy and Planning Program. It introduces you to methodologies for utilising a SWOT Analysis to develop SMART objectives and create a coherent strategic plan for your organisation.

On completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Identify the structure of a digital marketing strategy and the documentation required.
• Carry out a situation analysis of competitor activities, current activities and internal capabilities.
• Carry out digital research, including an exposition of social listening.
• Carry out an audience definition exercise, including the creation of audience personas and an explanation of the digital customer and their habits.
• Create a SWOT analysis and develop SMART objectives in order to decide on the tactics that are most appropriate for the objectives decided upon and how best to implement them.
• Recognise the importance of an ongoing, high-level process of review using analytics to measure performance against targets and to continually assess and improve your digital strategy.

Integration and Strategy:

The Integration and Strategy module will teach sales leaders and those aspiring to a leadership level, how to research, construct and integrate an effective and optimised digital sales strategy within an organisation.

You will learn how to conduct an all-inclusive analysis of your territories, identifying information such as key trends in geos and top prospects. You will be able to leverage this research to clarify what drives customers to buy, to understand their needs and motivations, and use this insight to determine your selling goals and objectives.

By conducting competitor analysis, you will be able to identify their solutions and offerings, and use this information as a benchmark to adapt and refine your overall digital selling strategy.

This module will teach you how to forecast effectively and establish targets based on a comprehensive assessment of your digital sales pipeline. This will allow you to identify gaps in your pipeline and tailor a plan to address them.

You will learn how to develop digital client coverage strategies that will enable you to maximise your time and resources across entire territories.

You will also be able to consolidate an execution plan that will enable you to achieve targets, generate qualified leads and improve conversion rates.

By the end of this module you will be able to measure the ROI of digital selling, align it to the overall goals of your organisation and use it to gain further executive support.