This pragmatic course is designed not only for those involved in marketing and IT, but also for all those involved in communicating, in sales, customer service, the arts, research and development, HR and every aspect of a business, government or personal development.

Digital business is an ever-changing environment able to produce an immediate impact on any business who embraces it. With its ceaseless developments, however, comes a great deal of confusion, and it is easy to lose sight of its objectives and relevance.

This course provides in-depth guidance on the latest tools in each area combined with a rigorous approach to planning and executing, including guidance on governance and deployment. 

Students will learn how to:

1. Set up accounts in all key services
2. Create a customised digital marketing plan for your business
3. Use advanced online tools for personal and business objectives
4. Learn advanced tactics to ensure success on each platform
5. Integrate online marketing & social media with existing activities

Francis Mac Aonghus has over 10 years of experience working in the UK and Ireland in a digital marketing environment, bringing together digital strategies to deliver business goals.

His client and agency experience with brands, including eumom and encendo in Ireland, allows him to gain first-hand experience in the intricate workings of a digital marketing plan including paid advertising, SEO, email, content, social, web development and design, and analytics.

Course Content

1. Introduction to the course and digital strategy concepts
   • Personal & business objectives for each participant
   • Introduction to digital strategy and how it is shaping business today
   • A holistic view of a digital strategy and how the elements fit together
   • Introduction to the concept of “micro-moments” vs “broadcast”

2. Websites
   • What to consider when building a website, including platforms and plugins to use
   • Making your website user-centric
   • Persona analysis
   • How mobile has changed website build
   • Optimising Landing Pages
   • Getting started

3. SEO
   • The core principles of onsite SEO
   • How does offsite SEO work
   • The mechanics of SEO
   • Ranking Factors
   • The latest developments in SEO

4. Google Adwords
   • What is Google Adwords
   • The benefits of Google Adwords
   • Google Adwords setup and hierarchy
   • Performance
   • Strategies for Adwords optimisation

5. Paid Advertising
   • Advanced Google Adwords techniques
   • Metrics and Definitions
   • Display Advertising and Remarketing
   • The rise of Programmatic

6. Social Media
   • Developing trends in social media
   • Thinking Social Media Plans and their relevance
   • What to post, and where to post
   • Increasing reach through paid Social Media campaigns
   • Setting up and managing social media paid advertising campaigns

7. Content Marketing
   • The importance of content in a digital strategy
   • Paid, owned and earned channels
   • User-centric engagement
   • Content types and creation ideas
   • Creating a content plan

8. Email Marketing
   • The growing importance of email marketing as a retention mechanism
   • Creating engaging emails
   • Optimising email for deliverability and engagement
   • Setting up your email strategy

9. Analytics
   • Following analytics through to the end objective
   • Setting up analytics tracking
   • A walk through Google Analytics
   • The main definitions in common analytics

10. Digital Strategies
    • How do you approach a holistic digital strategy
    • Bringing all the modules together into one solid approach
    • Building a pragmatic KPI driven digital strategy plan

NB: A WIFI ENABLED LAPTOP WILL BE REQUIRED FOR EACH CLASS. PARTICIPANTS MAY ALSO ATTEND REMOTELY. REMOTE PARTICIPATION WILL BE ENHANCED TO ENABLE Q&A PARTICIPATION DURING EACH SESSION

Course Fee

Classroom-based: €945
(€995 if paying  in instalments)

Online course: €845
(€895 if paying in instalments)

Non-EU students: €1,295

£76 will be payable to The Institute of Commercial Management on successful completion

• Why City Colleges?
  • Courses for students who are passionate about their subject, delivered by leaders in their field.
  • Live lectures which are also streamed live on Moodle and recorded for review
  • City centre location in South Great George’s Street, convenient for bus, LUAS, DART
  • Southside Dublin location in Dundrum
  • Study rooms and library in our City Centre and Dundrum locations
  • Limited class size
  • Parking

Having had a disastrous experience with a so-called “expert” who took a sizeable sum of money off me for a website and support in Digital Marketing I decided to empower myself to be able to do my own Digital Marketing and Social Media.

I looked at a few courses and settled on the Digital Marketing course in City Colleges.  At first, I thought I had made a mistake in attempting to learn more about Social Media and my “proposed empowerment” would end up becoming my undoing as there was so much to take in.  I own and run my own business so I have to wear many hats and wondered if I was spreading myself too thin here.

However, I stuck with it and over the weeks started to learn new and fascinating information, met some very nice people and actually enjoyed it both from a learning and social interaction point. I attended most of the classes online with 2 live sessions in Dublin (as I live in West Cork).  I found that the lecturer was very good at communicating and made the subjects interesting.

I am now nearing the end of my course – (two weeks to go) and am putting a lot of the information I learned into a Digital Marketing plan for my business.  I am excited about it as I know this is something practical which will grow my business over the coming years.

I found the course stimulated my interest in Digital Marketing in particular and also increased my competence as each week went by.  I know that for me, this is just the beginning (the course was a means to an end) of a long and exciting journey as I will continue to grow and learn and as I write, I have a stack of reference material on my desk – material which I actually look forward to going through now.

So thank you for piquing my interest and stimulating my knowledge for more.

My name is John Kelly – My company is The H.E.L.P. Group and I highly recommend this course.

“The Diploma in Digital Marketing for Business course brought me right up to date on best practice in the digital marketing industry. The course is very practical, with each session and exercise expertly tailored towards the goal of applying digital marketing to our own ventures. This real-world applicability has already brought me success. The skills I’ve learned have enabled me to secure an internship providing social media services for a leading international provider of anti-virus software. I’d highly recommend this course to anyone seeking to pursue in a career in any field, particularly those seeking to get involved in marketing and social media for businesses”

Mark Meehan

“I’ really enjoyed the course and the experience. The lectures were informative and interesting and the lecturers very helpful with specific queries that I had.”

Nigel Kelly