Digital Marketing Class Enhancements

PROVO, Utah – Jul 18, 2018 – Amazon. Google. Apple. Adobe. These Silicon Valley giants and countless other businesses use marketing tools every day to reach audiences. Though traditional marketing generates effective customer reach, a newer form of marketing seems to be taking the stage.

With technology becoming more present in our lives, getting a grasp on internet marketing is an important skill for students to learn in the classroom and professionals to learn in the marketing field. 

“Digital marketing needs to be a central part of every company’s marketing strategy, even if their commerce takes place offline,” says Jeff Larson, associate marketing professor at BYU Marriott.
 
BYU Marriott’s marketing program has offered an internet marketing class—Marketing 415, Internet Marketing of Products and Services—for many semesters to give students digital experience. Due to some scheduling conflicts in Winter 2018, the program needed a new professor to teach the class. 

BYU Marriott faculty looked to previous guest lecturers in the class as possible professors and found Bruce Rowe to take on the position. Rowe enhanced student experience by offering real-world expertise and new changes to the curriculum. “I wanted to offer more hands-on experience to students in the course,” Rowe says.

In prior semesters, students worked on a class group project where they promoted and improved one company website between the forty students. To enrich hands-on experience in this project, students did the work on their own; instead of working as a class, each of the students worked on a website of their choice. Many used the opportunity to develop a website for a startup company or to improve an existing website. 

“The hands-on practice seemed to be the most useful of the curriculum changes,” Larson says. “Students often thought they knew what they were doing, and then when they went to apply that knowledge, they made a lot more mistakes than they anticipated.” 

In addition to teaching, Rowe also owns an internet marketing company called Sebo Marketing he created in 2005. His company focuses on getting website owners more site visitors via search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising.

“Almost every class period a student would ask a question and I could apply something that happened at Sebo within the past few weeks,” Rowe says. “Students emphasized how helpful it was to have real world examples.”

Larson noted that student feedback for the semester offered higher scores than he’s ever seen before. Many students sent emails of appreciation to Rowe and left positive comments on the class evaluation forms.

“I’ve recognized even more now what a powerful tool the internet is, and by just applying a few basic principles from the class, I can help a company reach more customers and increase sales,” says Devin Barker, a marketing senior. “Bruce gave me the right base knowledge and motivation to continue learning.” 

Rowe will return as a professor in Winter 2019 to teach an advanced internet marketing class as well. In the meantime, the marketing program continues taking steps forward to improve the education and experiences of its students.