Rhea Drysdale from Outspoken Media brought up some good points in her SEO Audits: What you need to know post about earning a college degree in Internet Marketing, so I thought I would elaborate on what she said.
Colleges and Universities across the country are starting to offer Internet Marketing as a degree. The question is: “Is it worth it to get a formal education in Internet Marketing?”
Rhea says:
This industry moves too quickly to study it in a formal classroom setting. You have to be in it everyday, testing, learning, sharing, succeeding.
I thought that was an excellent point. By the time you finish your degree, the entire internet marketing landscape will change. There will be new tactics to rank well, new tools to help analyze websites, and new mediums to reach your target market. On the other hand, a formal classroom education would be useful to understanding the core fundamentals of internet marketing. Things like keyword research, competitive analysis, content development, link building, site structure, etc., are always going to be aspects of internet marketing that will never change (at least for the foreseeable future).
With that being said, I feel that you do not necessarily need a degree to understand the fundamentals of internet marketing. There are plenty of specialized classes and training seminars that will teach you the basics of Internet Marketing/SEO. Once you understand those basics, that’s where experience will come into play. The only way to apply these basic concepts is by jumping right in and working on websites.
From an employer or Search Marketing agency standpoint, I would love to get some feedback as to what you feel is more important – Classroom Training or Experience?
Experience vs Internet Marketing Degree…
Kudos for a great SEO article – Trackback from SEOKudos…
I wonder if i would really be best to be actually marketing on the internet while you are going to school. That way your gaining experience and getting the basics down as you go. Thats my plan anyway. Thanks for the article really helped put things in perspective.
Hello Mark,
I am starting a career in SEO Strategy and would be interested in hearing some pointers on how to succeed in the field. I, myself, have no degree in Internet Marketing and feel that the experience I have is far greater than anything I could have gained from schooling. I am, however, willing to experience the other end of the spectrum.
What pointers do you have for new comers to the ever-growing industry? Thanks!
I would recommend staying up-to-date with industry news, trends, and tools. With the industry changing so rapidly, there are always new marketing strategies and innovative ways you can reach your target market online.
My view is that experience is much better than learning in a classroom, so it is important to get your feet wet and start managing some accounts. Find a mentor who can train you and give you advice along the way. It would also be worthwhile to attend some Meetups and local industry seminars/conferences to network and meet the people in the internet marketing space.
I want to start a career in IM but struggling getting a certificate or a degree in IM. I know all the basics but need to know what works. I feel by being hired by a company they could show me what works in the business, but how do I get hired by one of the e-business companies?
I can’t really think of to many tech degrees that this doesn’t apply too. In regards to what you learn in school and what you learn in the “trenches” that is.
I think most of the learning will come outside of school though, it would seem that a degree looks good on one’s resume and makes you stand out from the next guy/girl when it comes to being hired or not.
Then again, I never went to a university for Internet Marketing so, I could be wrong but, probably I am right and seems I am inline with Mark on this one.
Any schools out there want to prove us wrong? I will do your bachelor degree program (all expenses paid by you) and if I am wrong then I will Internet Market the crap out of your program based on what it was that I learned in your program. Deal?
I am currently considering getting a masters in internet marketing online in an effort to make me more effective in my current job marketing a smartphone shopping app. Finding the merchant to advertise on the app is relatively easy compared to the challenge of getting the word out to the public so they know we exist! This topic is especially timely for me. I have not been in a job with much exposure to IM in the past. Seems like an online degree or certificate program might be the place to start for someone with little current knowledge on the subject. your thoughts anyone?
I do feel that learning internet marketing takes a certain kind of person who likes to study trends, human behavior and marketing strategies. If a person has an affinity to change on many levels, studying this topic will be a thriller while for others, it is a nightmare. Some education is necessary though….so carefully place yourself in the right point of educational entry is necessary.
I have question i am a novice online and i want do internet marking as a career. My question is where can i go to know all the basics in internet marketing so i can successfull online?
Lastactionseo…
Vielen Dank für das freischalten des Kommentars….
As an current internet marketer- I would say real world experience is awesome but there is a foundation that an internet marketing degree can give you that takes lots of time to get on your own.
Personally, I would get a bachelor in something different like web development and then a masters in online marketing. Both are available at full sail. Both are available online… which you can get while you work so you can kill two birds with one stone.
It you don’t want to go to school learn from someone like Frank Kern and they can steer you in the direction you need.
I attended full sail’s program and it is more geared toward graphic and illustration and it costs a lot of money and I dropped out in the first 2 weeks it is very time consuming and if you are working it takes up more time than they say. I am a single mom divorced with 3 kids and between working fultime going to online school trying to help my kids with work. Well school was no easy task. If you are single and able to work fulltime and have no life go for it otherwise I recommend going to a college campus or just teach yourself or go for an internship to learn internet marketing..
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I learned HTML from books building my first B2B and B2C ecommerce site in 1999. I’ve managed multi-dollar ecommerce sites for years and can confirm beyond any doubt Mark’s main idea. There are no classrooms that can give you the speed, intensity and intuition you learn in a month of trying to scale or just stay alive in Internet marketing. Sometimes I practice tennis against a backboard, but it never compares to getting out on the clay with opponents. I dig harder to WIN when there is an opponent across the net. The HEAT of online competition simply can NEVER be duplicated in a college or university. No matter what, you can still hit the student lounge and chill. A soldier can tell you stories about Vietnam or Iraq but it isn’t the same as being there, not even close.
My favorite colleges don’t get it story is, sadly, from my college. The Vassar President sent out a 1200 word email with a single link. I’m going to pause here a little for emphasis and ask if you can guess what that single links was for? If you answered to unsubscribe you win a MA in Internet marketing. Every experienced email marketer reading this knows why it is ironic that Vassar would send such a long communication with a single link. Email is NOT the place for such a one sided conversation. Better to send that tome to me in the mail where I can file it in the circular file with the rest of the junk mail. Email is an IMMEDIATE medium asking me to do something NOW. There were plenty of hooks Vassar could have used to get me involved. Vassar grads Meryl Streep and Lisa Kudrow were doing special readings for Vassar’s sesquicentennial. Cool right? No link to YouTube to see these two great stars do their Vassar thing. The president had just been on a trip visiting well-known alums around America. Cool right? No link to Flickr with pictures so I could feel included instead of excluded.
The largest and saddest irony is half of the note was in defense of a liberal arts education. Vassar’s President pressed her case even as her actions spoke loudly to the opposition. By violating the unstated but generally understood and observed email marketing best practices Vassar’s President proved Mark’s point. If you want to learn how these magical tools work today, how they are changing the world and will work tomorrow and what you will be able to do a year from now you MUST get chest deep in the water and wade and swim as best you can. No one, no college, and no university can teach you the Darwinian skills you will learn working for a great company like AtlanticBT, great startups like ShareFile or having the courage to start your own thing. No matter how good they are, and there may be good ones out there, the task is impossible. It is like the difference between a test site and production. No matter how complex you think you’ve made your QA site five minutes in the real world exposes its weakness. No protected environment can ever match the absolute complexity, speed of change and stresses of our networked world.
Working in large corporations (M&M/Mars, Monsanto, NutraSweet) I thought I understood what it took to be an entrepreneur. Nope, not even close. The only thing capable of teaching me about startups was starting one. The only thing that can teach Internet marketing skills is doing it. I suggest going to the University of AtlanticBT before paying any college tuition money for something they don’t and probably can never understand.
Brilliant post Mark and excellent comments and questions.
Thanks,
Martin Smith
President, ScentTrail Ecommerce
Creating the Cure Cancer Store (launching 1.2012)
@ScentTrail
Hey Mark, I completely agree. I’ve taken the UnCollege route myself as a website designer and am now teaching myself internet marketing. I actually work for http://UnCollege.org as the Ambassador of Social Response so it’s been great practice.
BTW, I live in Cazenovia so not far from LeMoyne. Are you still in the area? I’ll be for another month or so then off to San Fran if you are but let’s chat sometime anyway.
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Hey, I am interested in learning more about internet marketing so I can do it for a living. Is there a certain training program that you could recommend. I am looking at Marketing Motive, but unsure if this will make me marketable. I have noticed a lot of IM jobs want you to have a bachlors and I will go back to college if I need to but would rather get it done quicker is possible. I do manage my own site and it is doing well but feel I really need to learn a lot more before I do it for someone else. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.