Direct Online Marketing: Decidedly Not too Cool for School (but we are totally still very cool)

Determined to complement an awesome education with real-world experience, we at Direct Online Marketing have picked up the proverbial backpack and are ready to head into the classroom to be a guest speaker at your college.

I can speak from experience about the gob-smacking knowledge gap between what I learned in my courses and what was happening right then in marketing. I graduated with my Master’s in Marketing and Communication in 2012 (why thank you, it is a big deal), armed to the teeth with marketing concepts and techniques, branding strategies, and moderate knowledge of Photoshop and Excel. I really thought I was ready.

I really was wrong.

I was not aware that the line dividing the two sides of marketing—digital and traditional—is beginning to blur. These approaches are changing (rapidly).

What did I know about digital? Nothing. Zilch. Nada.

The applications of digital marketing are staggering. The impact it’s had on the way professionals market is profound. The skills necessary to survive in the field have drastically changed.

Although I found myself almost utterly in the dark about digital marketing, I sure wasn’t alone.

How it started

Justin—our resident keynote speaker—brings the purpose, process, and rewards of digital marketing to life for audiences at seminars and conventions around the world. This enables attendees to better target their audience, to be heard and be found on the most competitive platform (the internet), so they can flourish as a company. DOM is essentially the modern-day Robin Hood: we steal from our digital experts’ wealth of knowledge and give it to those who are in need of this vital information. It’s beautiful, really.

Besides speaking at these events, DOM also partners with Google to host fantastic symposiums. Search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) information is shared. Local businesses learn how to get found on Google maps. And DOM digital geniuses show business owners and managers the fantastic Google tools available for small businesses (hello, Google diagnostics!). Educating these businesses, universities, and marketing professionals is pretty awesome and definitely rewarding. This inevitably led to an “Aha!” moment of Oprah proportions.

Eureka!

It dawned on us—while educating these businesses, universities, and marketing professionals—that it would be equally beneficial to speak to businesses and marketing professionals before they become businesses and marketing professionals. Cue the magnificent epiphany: go to colleges and universities, and share our knowledge of digital marketing, as well as its implications for the marketing profession, with the future faces of the marketing world.

We will inform those attending of how the marketing platform has evolved, the impact of digital marketing, what digital marketing is, how it is applied in business settings, viable career options and a slew of other incredible stuff.

How could it get more amazing? We did some research and found out that “bringing in speakers with proven expertise in a topic provides added credibility to [your] content.”

See? Not only is it interactive and relevant, it’s also super beneficial to academic institutions.

On that note…

Obtaining higher education is veritable proof that you take your future seriously. Your school teaches you about your passion and provides you with a career-centered backbone composed of knowledge; expert lecturers in the field complement that knowledge with practical experience. Karen Hughes Miller, PhD, says “hearing new voices provides students not only with different points-of-view, but also with potential resources they can apply in later courses.”

We would be delighted to be a new voice in your classroom, and a resource for students’ success. If your class is ready to take the dive into digital, just let us know.