Offered by: College of Business Administration, International Business and Marketing Department
The purpose of the program is to deliver a graduate-level experiential learning marketing program that aligns with Cal Poly Pomona’s strategic initiative of promoting integrative learning, discovery, and creativity. Below are the specific characteristics of the Master of Science in Digital Marketing Program.
This program is intended to produce marketing science/analytics specialists who need to acquire the skills necessary in the increasingly digital economy. The digital economy is revolutionizing the way companies market their products and services and how market research is conducted to gather data about consumers and generate insights from the data. The graduates of this program will be able to generate insights about consumers, create digital marketing programs (email, social media, mobile marketing, search engine marketing), and measure their effectiveness based on their understanding of consumer psychology, behaviors, and knowledge in marketing channels (online and brick and mortar).
This program is poised to produce data scientists capable of gathering and analyzing massive customer data generated from companies’ digital operations and marketing programs. This program will also balance the graduates’ digital marketing implementation skills with modern data analytic skills beyond traditional primary data collection methods. We will emphasize effectively analyzing customer data and generating an effective data-informed digital marketing strategy.
Thus, graduates of this program will be trained for entry-level jobs such as digital marketing specialists or managers for brands as well as project managers and research associates/analysts for brands and insights and data analytics suppliers. Example positions that graduates of the program would be prepared for include:
- Digital Marketing Specialist / Manager / Director
- Social Media Marketing Specialist
- Web Design Specialist
- Search Engine Marketing Specialist
- Database Marketing Specialist
- Web Analytics Specialist
- Social media and text analyst
- Customer Analytics Director
- Consumer Insights Analyst
- Marketing Data Scientist
- Research Associate / Research Director
This program will be positioned to excel on the following five dimensions that prospective students care about the most when they decide on a post-baccalaureate program to enroll in, according to our research conducted across the country with the professionals working in the insights and data industry: (1) industry-knowledgeable faculty, (2) practical, hands-on learning, (3) curriculum that is responsive to changing market, (4) professional connections to industries, and (5) advanced research infrastructure.
Admission Requirements
The M.S. in Digital Marketing program is open to students with a baccalaureate degree with any strong liberal arts and/or STEM background from a regionally accredited college or university. Admission to this program is based on the holistic view of the following criteria below. Weakness in one area can be made up by strengths in other areas.
- Demonstrated mastery of college algebra, statistics, and any programming course with a grade of “C” or better in relevant coursework. Students without a programming experience can be admitted conditionally. The conditionally accepted students without a college-level programming course are required to take DWV100 (Data Wrangling and Visualization Certificate Program) during the summer (or submit equivalent certificates) prior to the start of the MSDM program in the fall.
- Undergraduate degree with at least 2.5 Grade Point Average (or equivalent).
- For International students: demonstrated proof of English proficiency, e.g., TOEFL score of 550 (paper-based), 213 (computer-based) or 79 (internet-based), or IELTS of 6.5 or above.
- One letter of recommendation.
- Past working experience in marketing, insights, analytics, or closely related areas may be considered favorably.
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