Digital Marketing Strategy Winter 2025

Course Requirements:
CMA’s certificate program courses are designed to build on the skills and knowledge of marketing practitioners. Individuals must have at least one year of experience in a marketing-related role to take this course. The instructor will assume that students have a foundational understanding of the principles of marketing and a working knowledge of digital marketing and social media channels. We will be looking at things from a 10,000 foot level and crafting a strategy plan to guide marketing activities. Students must achieve a final overall mark of 60% in order to qualify for a certificate pass. 

Workload:
This course is demanding, but very rewarding. Each session is comprised of a video-based multimedia presentation and a discussion question or assignment. The time required for the course will vary depending on your learning style. You are likely to invest 3 - 5 hours per week. If you wish to pursue a particular element in depth, there are additional resources - articles and videos - which may require additional time (1 - 4 hours, depending on the topic). You will be required to complete 3 individual assignments. Students will be given one week to complete the final assignment. 

Internet Requirements:
You will require a minimum upload bandwidth of 5mbps to stream our course videos, which are 1080p. Please ensure you have access to high-speed internet for the duration of the course

At the end of participating in this course, you should be able to:

• Design a digital marketing strategy and modify it to suit your specific needs
• Develop target market profiles, focused on understanding and serving customers (or stakeholders) motivations and behaviors
• Apply a selection process to digital marketing channels, in order to select the ideal marketing mix
• Strategically generate content to establish brand positioning and support sales
• Arrange marketing assets and coordinate efforts by using a flexible marketing and campaign calendar
• Understand different digital marketing management models and how to build or evolve into a digital-first team

Features:

• Interaction with a marketing expert
• Latest technologies
• Recorded videos with synchronized PowerPoint presentations
• Discussion boards for collaboration
• Technical Support

Benefits:

• Anywhere and anytime access
• Flexible to suit your schedule
• No travel time
• Interactive learning experience
• Online Certificate in Digital Marketing Strategy awarded upon successful completion of all course requirements

CMA’s Digital Marketing Strategy Online Certificate course consists of instructor recorded videos, synchronized PowerPoint presentations and discussion boards. Throughout the 10-week course students will be required to complete and submit a discussion post or assignment each week. This course also includes two live interactive webinars, during which learners have the opportunity to engage with fellow learners and ask direct questions to the instructor.

The following is a general outline of the course content:

1. Navigating the Digital Marketing Landscape

• Delivering results as an agile marketing leader
• Essential elements of modern digital strategy design.
• Collecting, understanding and applying the market forces to your strategy design

2. Performing a Deep Digital Audit

• How to identify and improve current weaknesses of your digital presence.
• Performing a simple visibility, SEO, Social, and Mobile audit.
• Using data and analytics to deep dive into content effectiveness.

3. Designing Target Market Profiles

• Selecting criteria for profile design, and how profile affect strategy trajectory.
• Importance of deeply understanding your customers in the modern market.
• Combining customer data with psychographics to create a customer profile.

4. Creating Clear Digital Marketing Objectives

• How to connect organizational goals into digital marketing objectives.
• 5-steps for creating clear, precise, and measurable digital objectives.
• Detailed examples of objective frameworks and how they inform strategy development.

5. Selecting Digital Marketing Assets

• Characteristics that turn a marketing channel into a digital marketing asset.
• Introducing agile and agnostic approach to your marketing mix evolution.
• How to select and grow the best performing channels for your goals.

6. Content Strategy Development

• How to identify and overcome common content strategy challenges.
• Measured methodology for crafting compelling, native content.
• Designing content for specific channels and customer journey stages.

7. Digital Customer Experience Design

• How to design and map intentional user flows, that meet strategic objectives.
• Best practices for creating a relationship-focused modern customer experience.
• Understanding and implementing key principles of successful digital experience design.

8. Data Driven Marketing

• Understanding and using different KPI frameworks for strategy development.
• How testing and optimization are implemented to deliver marketing ROI.
• Examples and frameworks for data-driven decision making.

9. Developing a Digital Marketing Calendar

• How to transition from plan to action. From annual planning down to daily tasks.
• Layering calendar types to maximize integration and streamline marketing efforts.
• Best practices to optimize each element of a marketing calendar.

10. AI & The Future of Digital Marketing

• Understanding the impact of AI on the marketing industry.
• Implementing business strategies designed for agility and readiness in the face of constant change.
• Evolving skills, qualities and leadership mindsets required of digital leaders.

Robin Whalen
President & CEO of Church+State

As an agency veteran, digital and direct marketing have been a professional passion of Robin’s for over 20 years. Perhaps her love of ‘accountability’ stemmed from her roots as a U of T graduate with a degree in Legal Ethics. Regardless of where it came from – Robin landed her first agency job in the Integrated Marketing Services division of Leo Burnett and has been hooked in the world of communications and agency management ever since.

Over the past 2 decades, Robin has held a variety of senior management roles at some of the largest advertising networks in the world. Robin has also worked closely with the Canadian Marketing Association for the past 20 years. Originally as the chair of the Direct Marketing Council, Robin has also chaired the Digital Marketing Council, sat on their Board of Directors, and currently teaches their Digital Marketing Course. Most recently, Robin has acted as a Senior Judge for the Annual CMA Awards Show and is a member of the Awards Strategic Advisory Committee.

When she’s not leading clients through business planning and brand activations, you can find her sourcing babysitters to pave the way for future travel expectations and shopping excursions.

• To cancel, a learner will select ‘credit request’ in MyBillings and select ‘refund’.
• Cancellations made greater than 14 calendar days prior to the course start date will not be penalized. A refund will be issued in full.
• Cancellations made with 14 or fewer calendar days prior to the course start date will be processed with a 50% administration fee deducted.
• No refunds past course start date.
• Refunds will be issued to the source of payment

In the Event of Program Cancellation

• We cannot always secure the minimum number of required participants to run each session. Program fees will be either credited or fully refunded in the event of a course cancellation at the discretion of the learner. 
• We take great pride in our programs and will do the utmost to make your experience with us both valuable and enjoyable. Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any questions or concerns.