New online master’s degree in digital marketing will supply industry with new talent

Rutgers Business School is offering a new online Master of Science in Digital Marketing to help produce modern marketing professionals with the knowledge and skills in demand by a growing industry.

The program is designed to provide in-depth instruction to a variety of prospective students, including highly educated marketing veterans yearning for the knowledge to continue their careers in a digital world and young marketing professionals with one or two years of work experience and ambitions of obtaining a new credential.

The master’s program is also tailored for individuals from complementary fields, such as communications and web design, who want to combine their experience and know-how with a marketing and business foundation.

Hurry! The deadline to apply to begin classes in the fall is Aug. 5. Applicants will be admitted on a rolling basis until the application deadline.

As students complete the rigorous 36-credit program, their master’s degree will be supplemented and enhanced by industry certificates that endorse their working knowledge of digital marketing platforms such as Hootsuite and Google Analytics. Prospective students with industry experience or who have completed other digital marketing curriculum, such as Rutgers Business School’s Executive Education Mini-MBA in Digital Marketing, can qualify for up to six credits toward the master’s degree. 

“I often say there’s no such thing as digital marketing. There’s just marketing in a digital world,” said Stacy Schwartz, a Rutgers professor of professional practice who is building the program to address the industry’s need for a larger pool of digital marketing expertise.

According to McKinley Marketing Partners, nearly 60 percent of marketing hires require digital marketing skills, but less than 20 percent of job seekers possess the digital marketing talent to meet the demand of employers.

To remedy the talent shortage, the Rutgers Master of Science in Digital Marketing will teach students traditional marketing fundamentals, including consumer behavior, marketing research, retail marketing, law, policy, ethics and marketing strategy, from a digital point of view.

The other piece of the curriculum will provide tools and tactics for executing digital marketing campaigns, including digital advertising and promotions, mobile marketing and innovation, search engine marketing, social media marketing and content marketing.

The Master of Science in Digital Marketing is rooted in business and bolstered by Rutgers Business School’s accreditation from the AACSB or Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. It augments the Rutgers Mini-MBA in Digital Marketing as well as courses taught as part of the undergraduate and MBA curriculum.

“This is a continuation of our leadership in digital marketing instruction,” Schwartz said.  

The courses offered in the master’s program will be taught by instructors who will bring real world experience and practical insights into the classroom.

Schwartz, who earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, is an example. She was on the ground floor at the advent of digital marketing. An original launch team member of DoubleClick, an internet advertising pioneer that is now part of Google, Schwartz went on to serve in executive marketing positions at the Hospital for Special Surgery and Virgin Mobile USA.

She also developed a portfolio of ANSI-accredited professional certification programs for the digital media industry as a learning consultant to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

“Our curriculum is being developed with the input of industry professionals to quickly adapt to meet the changing needs of employers,” Schwartz said.