HubSpot Academy Is Free — So Why Would Anyone Pay for a Marketing Course?
HubSpot Academy certifications are free, polished, and everywhere. But free has a cost. Here is what paid marketing courses actually give you that HubSpot cannot.
Google’s $300 Marketing Certificate vs. a $2,000 Course: What’s the Real Difference?
If you are comparing a Google digital marketing certificate vs bootcamp options, the price gap is massive. But the real differences go deeper than cost.
The Solopreneur’s Guide to Digital Marketing: Why Most Courses Aren’t Built for You (and One That Is)
Most digital marketing courses assume you have a team. Here’s why solopreneurs need a different approach, and a course designed specifically for one-person businesses.
Week 15: Blockchain-Secure LinkedIn Certification Issued to Students
This week, when students complete their 15-week higher education course, the student will be awarded a blockchain-secure LinkedIn certification on the last day of class. We have teamed up with Accredible at credential.net to provide our certification and badge, which students can proudly display on their LinkedIn profile. Check out Read more…
Week 13: Organizing Leads into a Zoho CRM Database
The last two weeks students have audited their campaigns and made strategic decisions to improve performance in any of the four categorical areas where they may be weak. Students examine 16 different variables through their InGen Analytics report to determine where they may need to spend extra time to improve Read more…
Week 10: Email Marketing Strategies with Intuit’s MailChimp Platform
This week we are all about MailChimp. The past two weeks have been focused on digital communication effectiveness around website and social media content. This week we continue that discussion with email. As we say here at the Digital Engine, email is the “heartbeat” of your inbound marketing campaign. Staying Read more…
Week 8: Content Strategy and Search Engine Optimization
This week our Digital Engine students are learning how to strategically create and post content within their domain. Over the last several weeks while building their website, students were planning their content by creating their content matrix and editorial calendar. Now, students are implementing those plans by creating content. Students Read more…
Week 6: Goal Funnel Setup and Social Channel Selection
Last week, students were instructed to set up as much of the aesthetics of their website as possible. Using our step-by-step instructions, students typically take twice as long in setting up the look and feel of their website verses the website mechanics. Students find this creative process fun and tantalizing Read more…
Week 5: Aesthetic Website Setup and Serialized Content Selection
Last week, students were instructed to set up the mechanics of their website to make it operate as the hub of their inbound marketing campaign. With our step-by-step instructions, this process can take about 5-6 hours to complete. And while our aesthetic instructions are half as long, constructing the look Read more…
Week 4: Mechanical Website Setup and Target Market Selection
After purchasing their web assets and getting their WordPress website installed, this week students begin two parallel paths of getting ready for their campaign kickoff. One of these paths includes three weeks of website setup to be completed outside of class. The second path is three weeks of content planning Read more…
Week 3: Purchasing Digital Assets and Building Websites
After deciding on a topic last week and developing a brand positioning statement and tagline, this week students purchased their digital assets. This includes students leasing their website URL from ICANN for one year and purchasing monthly web hosting and branded email plans. Using these three assets, students will build Read more…
Week 2: Topical Selection Foci for Live Practicums
When it comes time for students to pick their practicum topic for the semester, I have found it is important to help them consider a few different ideas before selecting. First, this project is so much better for students if they complete it on their own, rather than in groups. Read more…
Week 1: Introduction to Organic Inbound Marketing and Topic Selection
This week my students were introduced to the principles of inbound marketing, and in this domain, CONTENT IS KING! Therefore, this first week is spent teaching them about inbound marketing and their project. Through this process, I help them conceptualize the need for inbound marketing, since most business aren’t currently Read more…
Keeping Up With Kat Finishes in Top 3 Overall
Kathryn Mouchette was a junior at Samford University when she created her site, Keeping Up With Kat. Through her journey with the Digital Engine, she shared ways to elevate your everyday style by sharing things that she loved. Kathryn finished in the top three in her class overall with an Read more…
The Power of WordPress: Why It Conquers Wix and Squarespace
When it comes to creating and managing websites, WordPress has emerged as the leading choice for individuals and businesses alike. In fact, HubSpot reports that WordPress is used by 43.2% of all websites on the Internet, up from 39.5% in 2021, and is used by 65.2% of all websites that Read more…
Aesthetic Design Setup Instructions Added to Our Courseware
We have an exciting announcement to make! As requested by our students, more instruction on the aesthetic design of your site has been added to our courseware and curriculum. If you have a current membership at the Digital Engine, then you can access our new instruction set here. Included in Read more…
Emma Sneed Uses Linktree to Achieve Highest Number of Referral Acquisitions
Emma Sneed, a junior at Belmont University, created Push to Playoffs for her semester practicum and creatively used Linktree to increase referral acquisitions. As a devout hockey fan and an intern with the Nashville Predators, she desired “to inform and educate others about the push to playoff hockey.” Whether you Read more…
5 Important Reasons You Should Use Inbound Organic Digital Marketing
In today’s highly competitive digital landscape, companies strive to gain a competitive edge and establish a strong online presence. Inbound organic digital marketing, as highlighted by the Digital Marketing Institute, has emerged as a crucial tool to reach and engage with target audiences effectively. While paid digital marketing offers immediate Read more…
Amelia Chavez Introduces Big Break Athletics
Amelia Chavez is a marketing student at Samford University. This past semester while using the Digital Engine courseware in her Customer Journey class, Amelia conceptualized and began her website entitled Big Break Athletics. Amelia welcomed all new users to her website with a well-constructed welcome blog. As you can see Read more…
Gates vs. Socrates: Generative AI Debates Prompted by ChatGPT and MidJourney
Is there a better example of using the creativity of Generative AI in the classroom than this video? Instead of providing a review of the AI created debate between Bill Gates and Socrates, we wanted to demonstrate how both ChatGPT and Midjourney can be used to create unique and innovative Read more…
DALL-E Can Help Students Express Their Creativity
DALL-E is a 12-billion parameter version of GPT-3 trained to generate images from text descriptions, using a dataset of text–image pairs. OpenAI, DALL-E’s developer, has found that it has a diverse set of capabilities, including creating anthropomorphized versions of animals and objects, combining unrelated concepts in plausible ways, rendering text, Read more…
Laura Shoopman Helps Student Athletes Move Beyond-the-Net
The goal of Beyond The Net was to create a platform to help student athletes share stories and experiences close to their heart. As a student athlete myself, I have seen how consuming, draining, and exhausting it truly is. I knew that I wasn’t alone and that others are going Read more…
Is Artificial Intelligence Already Conscious? Watch This. You Decide.
A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about artificial intelligence and what marketing education could possibly look like in a decade of exponential growth of technology. If you missed the debate on promise vs peril, click here. Nevertheless, it’s common knowledge that the exponential growth of technology is being powered Read more…
The Co-Evolution of Social Media: Human Connectedness vs Automated Connectivity
In the popular press book, The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media, author José Van Dijck makes a compelling argument about the dialectical nature and co-evolution of social media. That is, social media capitalizes on the inter-connectedness between humans and machines. She contends that connectedness is human Read more…
Addison’s Practicum Helps Land Job as a Creative Associate
In the spring semester of 2022, Addison Lentz opted to take The Digital Engine course before graduating May, not expecting it would lead to her job as a Creative Associate. When discussing how the course helped her land this position, she discussed how much she had learned and how easy Read more…
The Digital Engine Content Matrix & Editorial Calendar
In our instruction on content design, The Digital Engine teaches course participants how to create a content matrix. This matrix is critically important as it becomes the building blocks for your rolling editorial calendar, which is the life blood of your inbound marketing campaign. Unlike paid digital, inbound marketing is Read more…
Nugtastic! Emily Graduates with Social Media Job Due to Practicum Fun
Looking for practicum fun, then let us introduce you to Nugs the Doodle! Nugs mom, Emily Krog, decided to build her semester project with The Digital Engine into a blog revolving around her adorable pup! This lifestyle blog is full of lighthearted fun with make-you-smile posts and pictures. Nugs and Read more…
Marketing Education During the Exponential Growth of Technology
In curriculum discussions surrounding current trends in marketing education, I am often asked about the impact of artificial intelligence on the future of education. There is no doubt that academics, especially marketing academics, are scrambling to keep up with the exponential growth in technology and innovation in both theory and Read more…
Lauren Overcomes Mental Health to Win Top Marketing Student Award
Lauren Hackett, a Belmont University graduate and winner of the Jack C. Massey College’s Top Marketing Student Award, used The Digital Engine to build her own mental health blog titled Your Story is Unfinished for her semester project. In her first blog, she blazes the door open about how it’s Read more…
Creative Content Lands a Film Internship in LA
Coleman Alford worked efficiently and effectively to build creative content to earn his DE Certification this semester. For as long as Coleman can remember, he has loved film, especially in the theater. To him, there is no better feeling than the excitement and emotional response he feels when watching a Read more…
Blockchain-Secure Digital Certification Demonstrates Skillsets on LinkedIn
When course participants complete the 15-week higher education course or the continuing ed “go-at-your-own-pace” course, then he or she will be awarded a blockchain-secure Certificate of Achievement. Here at the Digital Engine, we have teamed up with Accredible at credential.net to provide a block-chain secure digital certification and badge that Read more…
International Mission Board Awards Ashley With a Digital Internship
Unbeknownst to Ashley Prigge that her semester project would lead to a digital internship with the International Mission Board, Ashley took on the tall task of reviewing churches to help other students away from home find the best place for themselves in a faith-based community. Stating that there seems to Read more…
Delaney Provides Type 1 Insight for Incoming Freshmen
Delaney Walker’s 4th Birthday came with a surprise her family did not expect. Worried about all the water intake Delaney was taking in, her mom took her to the pediatrician. A simple blood test came back with the result of Type 1 Diabetes (T1D). Living with diabetes has been a Read more…
Platform Insights Increase Lead Generation
In order to successful track the inbound campaign, several different measurements will be assembled from the various components of the campaign design. Within the consumer acquisition module of the campaign, platform insights from the various social media channels and/or social media management tools will be used to determine the successful Read more…
Just Justice Lifestyle Brand Promotes Grammy’s Recipes
Justice Martin, a Junior at Belmont University, built the most aesthetically pleasing website for her lifestyle brand, Just Justice, in her spring 2022 course The Digital Engine. She has a passion for event planning, graphic design, advertising and anything that allows her to be creative. For her semester project, Justice Read more…