There are 8 lessons in this course:

1. Scope and Nature of Social Media

• Explore the possibilities of using social media for marketing a product
• Recognise Information Overload
• Become Readily Accessible
• Internet Marketing
• Website Marketing
• Social Media
• Video on the Net
• Audio on the Internet
• Gaming
• History of Internet Marketing
• Risks of Internet Marketing
• Legal Concerns
• How well are you doing?- Measuring your activities
• SEO

2. The Psychology of Internet Marketing

• How psychological theory applies to internet marketing?
• Understanding how customers think and behave
• Methods to encourage people to your site
• Overcoming consumer resistance
• Interacting and engaging with your customers
• Capture and hold your viewer’s attention
• Use of page title keywords
• Blogs
• Social Media

3. Social Media Applications

• What are the effective applications currently being used in social media?
• Why use social media?
• Purposes of Social Media
• Social Media Variables
• Ways of Using Social Media
• So why do people use social media to advertise their products?
• The purposes of different applications

4. Websites, Advertising and Other Applications

• How to properly utilise your web presence?
• Ensuring the appropriate mix of online marketing techniques for your product
• Types of internet marketing
• Website essentials
• Message to customers
• Website Layout
• Planning your website
• Search engines
• Mobile friendly websites
• Apps
• Landing Pages and Microsites
• Internet Advertising
• Demographics
• Promotions
• Get the Marketing Mix Right

5. Capturing and converting customers

• Establishing an appropriate online presence for marketing a product
• Know how to utilise your online presence
• Marketing Processes
• Encouraging a Connection
• Setting up an Online Store
• What do you need to set up an online store?
• Tips to Success
• Delivery Systems
• A Business Plan
• A Marketing Plan
• Steps in Marketing Plans

6. Creating and Using Content

• Determine what to create, how to create it and where to use it
• Websites need Information
• Articles
• Linking with social media
• Clients giving you content
• Content

7. Blogs and Newsletters

• How to develop and sustain effective online blogs and newsletters
• What is a blog?
• Online Newsletters

8. Developing an Internet Marketing Program

• Learn how to develop a one year online marketing strategy for a new product
• Apply what you have learnt online by developing an internet marketing program

Please Note:    Each lesson requires the completion of an assignment,  submitted to the academy for marking by your tutor, with suggestions, comments, and extra reading if necessary.

• To develop a capacity to use social media and other applications for marketing on the internet.
• Outline the possibilities for marketing any type of product or service effectively on the internet; in particular through the use of social media.
• Describe the use of psychological theory as applied to internet marketing.
• Determine an appropriate mix of online marketing techniques for a product or service, and how to properly utilise that web presence.
• Identify, discuss and compare the more effective applications that are currently being used in social media.
• Determine an appropriate online presence for the marketing of a product or service and know how to efficiently utilise that presence.
• Determine what content to create, how to create it and where to use it.
• Describe methods to develop and sustain effective online blogs and newsletters
• Develop a one year strategy for the online marketing of a new product or service.

RECEIVING FEEDBACK- MEASURING HOW WELL YOU ARE DOING?

It is important to recognise the factors that affect internet marketing success are continually changing.

You cannot expect to work out a way of successfully using the internet for marketing and then continue marketing that way, year after year, without changing what you do.

The most successful internet marketing will require constant monitoring and evaluating success, recognising changes that are needed, and making those changes in a timely manner.

Some of the ways that you can monitor your success include:

• Monitoring and analysing visitor statistics with mainstream services
• Monitoring overall rankings with search engines and online tools
• Monitoring your social media influence and goals
• Monitoring influence with respect to target markets
• Monitoring changes in your influence (e.g. using ranking tools and your own goals for social media)
• Monitoring your paid search engine marketing efforts

Ranking Tools

There are a number of measurement tools that can rank the popularity of your site against other sites on the net. It only ranks those users that are listed with that tool. It looks at how many users visited a certain site and how many links they clicked/pages they viewed when they were on each site. This is calculated by monitoring it over a 3 month period.

There are also tools which provide ranking as a measurement of a business’s online influence by using public social media networks. They look at your online content and how it influences those in your online network into action (that is how your network responds to the content you have placed online). Scores are produced and updated each morning.

Statistics are not Always What They Seem

• It can be a mistake to assume that more visitors to a website, or more ‘friends’ on social media will result in more business. The quantity of contacts made is only one factor. The quality is also very critical (i.e. if they are potential customers or not). The amount of attention they give you can be critical too (how often do they visit you and how much time is spent in contact with you when they are actually on your site?).
• Having less contacts on social media who are engaging with you can be more valuable than having more contacts on social media.
• Some statistics can be skewed (e.g. a tool that only evaluates your rankings against websites that are listed within that system.
• A search engine might rank you relative to millions of others within a multitude of categories, and not reflect your high ranking within a highly specialised category).
• Using analytics tools can tell you how well your website is doing, how many visitors are on the site, where they are from, how many pages they have visited, how long they are on the site and which page they left from.
• It is an invaluable source of information about your potential customers and the activity that is occurring on your website.
• The data that you can collect will provide you with an account of how your website is doing. As feedback is usually provided within a few days, you can monitor and respond to any issues that you find quickly. Analytics data can be both qualitative and quantitative.
• Depending on which account you use, you can get a free analytics account by signing up to that service. Your website will need to have specific tracking code embedded in each webpage for this to work.

Keywords
Consider the difference that might occur in general influence, and influence with respect to a narrow target:

• When you do a search for restaurants, a particular restaurant might not rank highly, but when you search for something specific like “Thai Noodle Restaurant” it might be at the top of the list.
• In social media, a local landscape designer might go unnoticed if people are using the search term ‘landscaping’; but when they search for ‘landscape designers’ in the landscape designer’s own town (say Sydney) or even region; they may become prominent.

One part of getting noticed or gaining a prominent position on the internet (determined by how many people visit or ‘hit’ your site) is to use the words that potential customers are likely to use in their search in your copy and on other parts of the site – these are known as keywords.

Therefore, an important way of determining your current effectiveness is to know what keywords to use when evaluating your ‘position’. In other words, is your site coming up first or on the first page when a customer is looking for it? Keywords will help determine your position on the internet.

The words that you choose to use and make prominent will have a strong affect upon the type of person you attract as well as the quantity and quality of people you gain attention from on the internet. This is called ‘search engine optimisation’.

Search engine optimisation can be outsourced to professionals that deal with this as a service business, or you can do this yourself by determining the most likely keywords used by people looking for your product and strategically using those in your website.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Search engine optimisation is an internet marketing strategy whereby websites and social media sites are edited in a way that optimises the chances of them being “picked up” or “found” by a search engine and presented in organic search results.

• If you choose to use words that are very specialised, and only commonly used by a narrow target market, you may attract fewer people, but are more likely to attract the right type of person (potential customers).
• If you choose broader, less targeted terms, you may well get lost in the crowd.

There are tools that can help you determine what keywords to use. These include:

• A thesaurus – this will list equivalent or similar words to the one you are focusing on so that if someone searches for the item using a slightly different term the thesaurus should help you find these potential alternatives.
• Internet marketing tools – marketing services on the internet (such as an Ads Keyword tool or Trends) have automated services which allow you to enter a series of terms, and see the relative strength of each.

You can see lists of suggested keywords and the demand for them as well as the relative popularity of different keywords in different countries.

The best keywords are not the best in every circumstance, for example:

• The best key word in one country might be different is another country. People in one country might search for “home study courses” more than “distance education”; while another country may use “distance education more frequently than “home study” for example.
• Changing a keyword from singular to plural may give you an advantage and vice versa.
• Using variations of the same keyword may give you an advantage
• The number of times you use a keyword may give an advantage
• The places that you use a keyword may be important

The best keyword to use is one that lots of people search for, but which your competitors are not using a lot.

• The best keyword today, can sometimes become the worst tomorrow.
• A popular keyword in one industry may not be as popular in another.
• The only way to work these things out it to analyse it using keyword tools.

How do you actually do this?
Once you have decided on the best keywords for your business you have to integrate them into your website (remember though that the popularity of certain keywords will change as users’ preferences alter – so this is not a static process; to keep your ranking high you will need to keep abreast of popular search terms and keywords and make changes quite regularly).

There are many software applications available that allow you to easily import your own keywords (or keywords that have been identified by others as gaining the greatest amount of hits). These ‘keywords’ may not be seen by people who visit your website if they are embedded in the metadata – they are only visible to internet search engines.

When a person conducts an internet search using these same words (i.e. those embedded in your website), your site will come up (usually) within the first few listings in the search engine results.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Here is a list of the most often asked FAQ’s.

General

Q. Why should I enrol with the Academy for Distance Learning?
A. Here at ADL, our students are our priority – we treat everyone as a unique individual.

Q. Do I need to buy text books?
A. No, as each module has been written by highly qualified industry professionals. The content of the material is presented in such a way that text books are not required. However, if you require additional reading your tutor will be able to supply a list.

Q. What happens if I have to stop studying for a while? (eg. become sick, go on holidays, have a baby, move house, etc)
A. It’s OK to take a break and start up your study at a later point in time. Just let us know.

Q. Is there an age limit?
A. There is no maximum age limit. We do however, have a minimum age limit of 18 years. Below that age parental consent would be required.

Q. Are your courses up-to date?
A. Our courses are revised and updated on a rotation system.

Q. Do you have a Cancellation policy?
A. Yes. We have a cancellation policy that is fair and equitable. For further details please click here.

Q. Will I have any opportunity to engage with other students?
A. We have a Student Community group based on facebook! If you don’t have a facebook account already, you could make one just for talking with fellow students on the group.

Enrolment

Q. When can I enrol/start?
A. You may enrol and start at any time of the year – it’s all self- paced.

Q. Can I study from anywhere in the world?
A. Our courses are available to anyone, anywhere in the world from the comfort of your own home. The course content is relevant to any country, culture or economy.

Q. How long do I have to complete the course?
A. You complete the course at any time that is convenient for you.

Q. Completing a 100 hour module – how long will it take?
A. For some students a 100 hour module will take approximately to 3- 6 months to complete. Others take less time and some even longer.

Assessment

Q. Assessment – how does it work?
A. For each 100 hour module you are assessed by assignments (at the end of each lesson) and a final one and a half hour exam (or you may elect to complete a Project, instead of sitting the exam) – the choice is yours – you sit for the exam in your own location.

Q. I don’t cope well with exams – what can I do?
A. You may elect to undertake a Project (set by your tutor) instead of sitting the exam. Projects are completed from your home and can usually take a couple of weeks to complete.

Q. If my assignment is not up to standard is there an opportunity to resubmit my work?
A. Yes –

Q. How many assignments do I need to complete for each module?
A. At the end of each lesson, there is an assignment – so if a course has say, 10 lessons, there would be 10 assignments.

Q. I am having difficulty attending workshops/industry meetings, what can be done?
A. If your course requires attendance at workshops, conferences, or industry meetings; alternative arrangements can be made in your country.

Qualifications

Q. What qualification will I receive?
A. For individual modules, you would be awarded a Certificate endorsed by TQUK (Training Qualifications, UK), providing you complete all assignments and the exam. If you just want to complete only the assignments and not sit for the exam or finish a Project, then a Letter of Achievement would be awarded. For more details on qualifications available please click here.

Q. Can I customize my diploma/higher qualification?
A. Not all educational institution’s certificates /diplomas meet everyone’s needs. The opportunity to Design Your Own Diploma at the Academy (subject to our approval) is an added bonus, not found at other colleges. You choose modules that you think will help you in achieving your goal.

Q. What do I get when I complete the course? Will I receive a transcript?
A. At the completion of all courses and providing all assignments and exam requirements have been met, you will receive your Award and a Transcript.

Tutors

Q. Our tutors – who are they?
A. We appoint Tutors and require that they must be currently active in their industry, with at least 5 years’ experience in their chosen profession.

Q. Can I contact my tutor at any time?
A. Yes – you have unlimited access to your tutor via email through our Online Classroom. You can always leave a message with ADL requesting your tutor to contact you. You decide on how much or how little contact you wish to have.

Q. Practical work – How is this done?
A. To find out more about this part of the course please visit the section on How Our Courses Work here.