Bryant’s Digital Marketing course offers an invaluable entry point into a growing field by combining technical skills with competitive insight and hands-on learning – exactly what’s needed to excel in an increasingly important industry.
“Companies are spending more and more money on digital marketing. But they’re having trouble hiring because there’s a knowledge gap,” says Associate Professor of Marketing Sharmin Attaran, Ph.D. “Through this course, you can become someone who understands digital marketing and has done it.” The course empowers students to explore a wide range of skills and strategies to navigate the online world. They also learn about online customer behavior and how to communicate with clients.
“I’ve had a constant flow of interest from companies wanting to be a part of this class because they see the change that the students can provide their business in a very short amount of time.”
Those theories and skills are honed by an experiential component that pairs teams of students with local businesses and nonprofits and tasks them with designing and implementing a digital marketing strategy.
“I’ve had a constant flow of interest from companies wanting to be a part of this class,” says Attaran, “because they see the change that the students can provide their business in a very short amount of time.”
Telling a story with numbers
“It was Professor Attaran’s digital marketing class that turned me on to this specific line of business and marketing,” says Emma Grace Noga ’18. “I had always been interested in social platforms, and how you can track impressions, but I wasn’t fully exposed to all the things you could do until that class.”
As an analyst at the advertising and marketing company Havas, she provides strategic insights and campaign recommendations for digital marketing clients. Noga says that Professor Attaran’s ability to provide real-world context for her lessons was vital. “She’d show us the real value you can bring to your client.” Noga’s team was paired with Oh So African Designs, and helped them to build a digital strategy. “It was my first experience telling a story with the numbers,” she says, an experience that’s proved invaluable. “You need to be able to really look at data and information and show your client what’s really going on.”
“Killing it” with creativity and business skills
Jeffrey Girgenti ’16 met his first digital marketing client through the work he did in his digital marketing course. Now he’s the Director of Marketing for the Scroll design and marketing agency, where he puts what he’s learned into practice. “Professor Attaran’s class was a great introduction to digital marketing,” he says. “It gave me an opportunity to create something and say, wow, I did this.” To succeed takes hard work and initiative, he says, and a wide range of skills. “If you can combine the creative and the business aspects, you’re going to kill it.”
