[Note from Ross: This is part of a series of blog posts by Cassie, a student in our MKT513 Digital Marketing Masters Class. She’s documenting what the course is like from the student’s perspective. She received a partial scholarship in exchange for her blog posts about the course.]
I’ve often been envious of friends and family members who were able to attend one of those new coding boot camps that are popping up. My brother signed up for one, quit his job, went to class full time for four months, and by the end of it came out with a new job he loves in a completely new field, web development.
Now, I know a little coding, but I’m not ready to sign up for this level of dedication to pure code. I do social media marketing which has led me to work with a handful of clients ranging from eCommerce to international B2B companies. The marketing industry is always changing, and thus endlessly fascinating to me. When I learned about a Digital Marketing Masters class in Nashville that would allow me to keep my job (yay!) while working towards a greater knowledge of the world I already love, I jumped at the chance.
What I Experienced – Week 1
This week was our first class. The teacher, Ross Jones, set the tone of the course by explaining how he got into website design, and specifically SEO. In 1996 he saw a need in his company and jumped headfirst into meeting that need. The class meets for three hours each Tuesday night in one of the conference rooms in 2 The Top Design’s office located inside Center 615 in East Nashville.
We were able to introduce everyone and get a little background on where people are coming from and what they are hoping to get out of the class. For me, I started in social media and blogging. I’m really looking forward to learning more about SEO, SEM, and analytics which will help me better serve my clients.
Others in the class come from more of a website design background with a desire to learn more about how to better set up the back end of a website to help their clients rank higher. There were also a handful of students that were either entrepreneurs or handled marketing for small companies. Those students saw a great deal of benefit in a course like this that will help them as they take on the task of wearing many hats in their organization.
What I Learned
No matter the reason, we all showed up eager to learn more about the vast world of Digital Marketing. In week one we did something critical – start with the basics. We delved into the technical terms of digital marketing to be sure we were building a strong foundation of knowledge for what’s to come in the following weeks.
We discussed the difference between URL and domain names, and the different paths website traffic can be defined as (direct, paid, or referral). We also introduced web conversions and how to interpret conversion rates.
Truthfully, there was a good bit about week one that was somewhat familiar to me, but I learned a lot of new things and had some clarifying moments when it comes to understanding the correct terminology. I was glad to have this lesson so we could move forward all on the same page as we go through the course.
Final Thoughts
Overall, week one was a great start to the class. I’m so glad that Ross is offering this Digital Marketing Master’s class to marketing professionals or novices here in the Nashville area. I think this class is a huge step in the right direction when it comes to improving myself professionally and growing to serve my clients in a fuller capacity in the future. Stay tuned to 2 The Top Design’s blog throughout the next 14 weeks as we continue on this journey.
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