March 23, 2007

Online Marketing Education

In the past couple of weeks I have had the pleasure of guest lecturing to two different marketing classes.

1. The University of Nevada, Reno Student Chapter of the Reno-Tahoe American Marketing Association (AMA)
2. An MBA marketing  class at Morrison University.

In both cases I spoke about subjects of online marketing such as:

• Search Engine Optimization
• Website Design and Development
• Blogging
• Email Marketing
• Online and Offline Integration
• Marketing Strategy

These are some bright students of varying ages that I am speaking to, and they are all busy filling their heads with the fundamentals of marketing. However, one component of their education that is clearly missing is the emphasis on online marketing. There is not a dedicated class as part of the curriculum.

This needs to change!

Upon finishing my presentations, I received numerous questions, students came up to me after class to speak further, and in general there was much enthusiasm surrounding the subject matter.

I recognize the difficulties that universities have to contend with when it comes to changing the academic process, or including new courses, but in the realm of day-to-day business, how important is online marketing for so many different businesses? The answer – very!

If schools are really going to empower their marketing students to get good jobs and demonstrate value for their employers, they must have a foundation in online marketing.

tags: online marketing, search engine optimization, email, marketing

Posted in Marketing, Reno-Tahoe, Web & SEO