GRADUATE PROGRAM
Master of Digital Marketing
30 total credits | average 2 years to complete
A Master’s Degree Program in Digital Marketing that Sets You Apart
The School of Professional Studies (SPS) offers an online Master’s degree in Digital Marketing to equip you with the in-demand skills and expertise to thrive in this dynamic field. This program combines creativity, analytics, and leadership, setting it apart from other institutions. Companies seek skilled professionals to lead their strategies as digital marketing budgets grow.
What You’ll Gain: Accelerate your business career- Lead consumer-centric digital marketing strategies
- Master marketing analytics and data visualization
- Design and execute successful digital campaigns
- Become a confident and ethical leader in the digital space
Career Prospects and Outcomes
Marketing remains a key driver of growth in companies of all sizes. As print, broadcast, and cable TV continue to shrink, digital marketing is now the most important part of a marketing strategy. According to Gartner, 72% of the marketing budget goes towards Digital Marketing. More than ever, companies are in need of digital experts with a foundational understanding of marketing strategies.
Comprehensive Curriculum
- Strategic Digital Marketing and AI
- Digital Marketing Research, Journey Mapping, and Consumer Analytics
- Marketing Analytics and Data Visualization
- Content Marketing, Social Media, Storytelling, and Writing for the Digital World
- Digital Design Thinking and the User Experience (UX)
- Leadership, Ethics, and the Legal Landscape of Digital Marketing
- Digital Marketing Tools and Campaign Analytics: Search Engine Optimization, Display, and Retargeting
- Social Media Marketing: SEO, Content, and Influencers
- Capstone in Digital Marketing: Campaign Consulting
You’ll also be able to choose an elective course, tailoring your education to your interests.
3
DAYS
Left to Apply
6
JAN
Start Date
Format
Online
Tuition
$37,620
Courses
10 courses
Term
Spring 2025
“I already feel more confident as a marketer and more comfortable with leading strategies in my work today because of what I am learning in the digital marketing program.”
Brianna Briggs, Current SPS Digital Marketing Student
Core Courses
There are 9 required core courses including the Digital Campaign Project/Capstone course. Students may also choose 1 elective.
There is no prescribed order for the courses, you may take them in the order that works for you when your selection is available.
Digital Marketing Tools and Campaign Analytics: SEM, Display, and Retargeting
Develop a deep understanding of the digital tools that can be used to track rapidly shifting consumer interests and behaviors. This course highlights impactful easy to communicate with consumers given the dynamic nature of the marketplace.
Social Media Marketing: SEO, Content and Influencers
This course explores the world of Earned/Owned Digital Marketing including SEO, Influencer, Social Media, and Public Relations and how to expertly leverage content in order to increase the attention consumers pay to their brands. Students will discuss the increasingly challenging task given the crowded marketplace and information overload that consumers face and how to address this challenge with practical and strategic skills, including organic search, social media content, community management, posting, and user-generated content, social listening and competitive modeling, and digital tools used in influencer marketing.
Capstone in Digital Marketing: Campaign Consulting
This course will enable students to integrate the skills and knowledge that were developed in the other courses of the program to complete a digital marketing project for a real organization. Students will be asked to identify their own marketing challenge (with the involved organization’s blessing, of course) and to leverage the digital marketing insights learned in the program to address it effectively. In addition to preparing a comprehensive plan for the client organization, the students will create a top-notch presentation incorporating digital marketing strategy and tactics, marketing concepts, and storytelling techniques to address the challenge and to sell the selected idea/product/solution.
Digital Design Thinking and the User Experience (UX)
This course focuses on user-centered design (UCD) and associated methodologies, including user research, digitally-enabled user experience (UX), interaction design, and usability testing. In this course, the students will learn about and practice design-thinking approaches to the process of new product development and market opportunity scanning. The course also teaches creative idea generation and concept screening/testing, test-and-learn processes — with continuous improvement as the goal, and a range of UCD approaches that include the formulation of a portfolio-ready deliverable incorporating a complete financial model.
Branding, Storytelling, and Writing for the Digital World
This course integrates brand management principles and marketing frameworks to guide digital storytelling that effectively engages consumers and other stakeholders. This course will explore how to focus on digital branding through storytelling to differentiate products and services from competitor offerings and to effectively position them as solutions to consumer needs and pain points. Students will learn how to write compelling content that scores highly with dynamic search engine algorithms and how to pursue strategic implementation of a brand narrative using various digital marketing approaches and analyses.
Leadership, Ethics, and the Legal Landscape of Digital Marketing
This course covers the ethics of digital marketing and product liability, and it explores emerging issues related to the buying and selling of consumer data, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to predict and to influence human behavior, and other consumer privacy concerns. This course will enable students to develop a comprehensive ethical decision-making philosophy so that they are well equipped to address challenging situations in their professional marketing roles.
Digital Marketing Tools and Campaign Analytics: SEM, Display, and Retargeting
Develop a deep understanding of the digital tools that can be used to track rapidly shifting consumer interests and behaviors. This course highlights impactful easy to communicate with consumers given the dynamic nature of the marketplace.
Social Media Marketing: SEO, Content and Influencers
This course explores the world of Earned/Owned Digital Marketing including SEO, Influencer, Social Media, and Public Relations and how to expertly leverage content in order to increase the attention consumers pay to their brands. Students will discuss the increasingly challenging task given the crowded marketplace and information overload that consumers face and how to address this challenge with practical and strategic skills, including organic search, social media content, community management, posting, and user-generated content, social listening and competitive modeling, and digital tools used in influencer marketing.
Digital Marketing Research, Journey Mapping, and Consumer Analytics
Build a robust knowledge of research methods that are fundamental to the digital marketing discipline. This course teaches professionals how to use research techniques to deeply understand and focus on the needs and interests of the consumer in integrated campaigns.
Marketing Analytics and Data Visualization
Learn best practices for gathering, interpreting, and presenting compelling digital data to inspire positive action. This course teaches professionals to use analytical techniques and growing-edge software tools to generate marketing insights and to address marketing problems.
Branding, Storytelling, and Writing for the Digital World
This course integrates brand management principles and marketing frameworks to guide digital storytelling that effectively engages consumers and other stakeholders. This course will explore how to focus on digital branding through storytelling to differentiate products and services from competitor offerings and to effectively position them as solutions to consumer needs and pain points. Students will learn how to write compelling content that scores highly with dynamic search engine algorithms and how to pursue strategic implementation of a brand narrative using various digital marketing approaches and analyses.
Leadership, Ethics, and the Legal Landscape of Digital Marketing
This course covers the ethics of digital marketing and product liability, and it explores emerging issues related to the buying and selling of consumer data, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to predict and to influence human behavior, and other consumer privacy concerns. This course will enable students to develop a comprehensive ethical decision-making philosophy so that they are well equipped to address challenging situations in their professional marketing roles.
Digital Marketing Tools and Campaign Analytics: SEM, Display, and Retargeting
Develop a deep understanding of the digital tools that can be used to track rapidly shifting consumer interests and behaviors. This course highlights impactful easy to communicate with consumers given the dynamic nature of the marketplace.
Social Media Marketing: SEO, Content and Influencers
This course explores the world of Earned/Owned Digital Marketing including SEO, Influencer, Social Media, and Public Relations and how to expertly leverage content in order to increase the attention consumers pay to their brands. Students will discuss the increasingly challenging task given the crowded marketplace and information overload that consumers face and how to address this challenge with practical and strategic skills, including organic search, social media content, community management, posting, and user-generated content, social listening and competitive modeling, and digital tools used in influencer marketing.
Capstone in Digital Marketing: Campaign Consulting
This course will enable students to integrate the skills and knowledge that were developed in the other courses of the program to complete a digital marketing project for a real organization. Students will be asked to identify their own marketing challenge (with the involved organization’s blessing, of course) and to leverage the digital marketing insights learned in the program to address it effectively. In addition to preparing a comprehensive plan for the client organization, the students will create a top-notch presentation incorporating digital marketing strategy and tactics, marketing concepts, and storytelling techniques to address the challenge and to sell the selected idea/product/solution.
Electives
Students in the Master’s of Digital Marketing program may choose 1 elective.
Electives can be taken at any time during the program when your selection is available.
Visual Content Creation and Video Development
Creating engaging visual content requires a unique set of skills including knowledge of the latest tools, knowledge of your target audience, and the ability to communicate your creative vision. This course will explore the visual content formats used in digital marketing, the tools that help create them, and how to best measure their performance.
Digital Consumer Psychology and Decision Making
This course will provide a deep dive into online and mobile consumer behavior and use an analytics-driven approach to explain why consumers look, pause, click, engage, and buy.
The Customer Journey: Website and E-commerce Marketing
In digital marketing, understanding the consumer journey is extremely important. To help students understand that journey and to design impactful digital pathways for it, this course will focus on website and eCommerce marketing strategies that increase customer demand and sales.
Project Management Essentials
This course introduces the foundational concepts of project management. It provides an overview of the PM lifecycle as defined in the Project Management Body of Knowledge. Several PM knowledge areas such as risk, scope, schedule, quality, monitoring, and communication, among others, will be introduced. Distinctions between project, program, and portfolio management are explored.
Visual Content Creation and Video Development
Creating engaging visual content requires a unique set of skills including knowledge of the latest tools, knowledge of your target audience, and the ability to communicate your creative vision. This course will explore the visual content formats used in digital marketing, the tools that help create them, and how to best measure their performance.
Digital Consumer Psychology and Decision Making
This course will provide a deep dive into online and mobile consumer behavior and use an analytics-driven approach to explain why consumers look, pause, click, engage, and buy.
The Customer Journey: Website and E-commerce Marketing
In digital marketing, understanding the consumer journey is extremely important. To help students understand that journey and to design impactful digital pathways for it, this course will focus on website and eCommerce marketing strategies that increase customer demand and sales.
Project Management Essentials
This course introduces the foundational concepts of project management. It provides an overview of the PM lifecycle as defined in the Project Management Body of Knowledge. Several PM knowledge areas such as risk, scope, schedule, quality, monitoring, and communication, among others, will be introduced. Distinctions between project, program, and portfolio management are explored.
Visual Content Creation and Video Development
Creating engaging visual content requires a unique set of skills including knowledge of the latest tools, knowledge of your target audience, and the ability to communicate your creative vision. This course will explore the visual content formats used in digital marketing, the tools that help create them, and how to best measure their performance.
Digital Consumer Psychology and Decision Making
This course will provide a deep dive into online and mobile consumer behavior and use an analytics-driven approach to explain why consumers look, pause, click, engage, and buy.
The Customer Journey: Website and E-commerce Marketing
In digital marketing, understanding the consumer journey is extremely important. To help students understand that journey and to design impactful digital pathways for it, this course will focus on website and eCommerce marketing strategies that increase customer demand and sales.
Get to know SPS Digital Marketing Students
The People Behind the Program
To accelerate your career growth, reach your professional goals, and expand your network, we created a Programmatic Advisory Board (PAB) to bring knowledge from experts in the field into the classroom. These board members are committed to your academic excellence and keeping Wake Forest University School of Professional Studies graduates industry-competitive and globally impactful.
Ged King
Wake Forest University
Jeff Campbell
West Marine
Lakesha Holloway
Atrium Health
Kent Panther
Wray Ward
Mike Shady
Staples
Laurin Titus
Wells Fargo
Christina Wells
RVO Health
Carol Oliff
Wake Forest University
Why Choose This Program?
- Gain a competitive edge in a rapidly growing industry
- Increase your earning potential
- Transform your career and become a sought-after digital marketing leader
A Deeper Dive into Digital Marketing
This Master’s program distinguishes itself from other digital marketing certificates in several key ways:
- Depth and breadth of curriculum: A complete Master’s degree covers a broader range of topics and provides greater depth of knowledge than a certificate program.
- Focus on leadership: Leadership development is a core component, equipping you with the skills to lead teams and initiatives.
- Integration of AI: Recognizing the growing importance of artificial intelligence in digital marketing, AI is actively integrated into the courses.
- Practical, hands-on experience: Prioritizes providing students with practical experience using current tools and techniques, preparing them for real-world challenges.
- Engagement with industry leaders: Strong PAB engagement ensures the curriculum stays relevant and offers students valuable connections.
Our Master of Digital Marketing program offers a more comprehensive and career-focused education, positioning you for tremendous success in this dynamic field. Apply now and join a community of ambitious professionals shaping the future of digital marketing.
Meet Digital Marketing Faculty
Get to Know Ged King, Academic Director for Digital Marketing
Ged King
Wake Forest University
Tatia Jordan, Ph.D.
Wake Forest University
Craig Geigger
Wake Forest University
Lisa Peyton
Wake Forest University
Susan Wallace
Wake Forest University
Jeff Campbell
West Marine
Elizabeth Ricks
Visiting Associate Professor, Analytics, Wake Forest School of Business
Kile Allison, DBA
Wake Forest University
Patrice Nealon
Wake Forest University
Why Wake Forest?
Consider Wake Forest University because of its strong commitment to flexibility, accessibility, and academic excellence. The university’s mission focuses on accelerating professional growth through cutting-edge educational experiences tailored to the needs of adult learners. With flexible delivery options and stackable certificates, students can complete programs at their own pace. Additionally, the programs are market-oriented and designed with input from industry practitioners, ensuring relevance in the evolving job market. Wake Forest’s commitment to character-based leadership and diversity further strengthens its appeal.
Applying to WFU SPS Masters in Digital Marketing is Quick and Easy.
How to apply
At the School of Professional Studies, the application process is streamlined for busy working professionals like you.
To apply to a Master’s or certificate program, you must submit:
- Completed online application
- Updated resume
- Bachelor’s degree transcript*
- Interview with Student Success Manager: Virtual or Self Completed
- Non-refundable $50 application fee
*An unofficial transcript is acceptable for admission; an official transcript is due by the start of the first course.
After we have received all your application materials and completed your interview, we work to issue a decision within 2 business days unless additional information is needed.