CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION

All students who finish this program will receive a signed certificate of completion verifying their participation in the program.

Schedule

Day 1

Creating Your Business Strategy
The first step in building your web traffic is making sure you have a clearly defined brand and business identity. Do you really know what makes your business different? Do your customers?

In this first section, we will identify what makes your business or endeavor unique and sets it apart from competitors. We'll examine the visuals and language that make up your brand, and evaluate whether your online presence Web site, Facebook pages, Twitter account, etc communicates it accurately.

Through in-class exercises, you'll select key words to use, identify target audiences to attract, and set goals for the remainder of the course.

Your Web Site
Whether you have a small business, a freelance enterprise, a non-profit, or a blog, this course assumes that you want to increase your web traffic, attracting new visitors and retaining existing ones.

All your marketing efforts will ultimately direct people to your website and prompt them to take an action, so we'll examine your site and make sure it provides visitors with a clear path to your product sales, sign up for your newsletter, leave a comment on your blog, etc.

Web Marketing
We'll continue improving your website by discussing effective copywriting - both for humans and search engines. Writing on the web is different than writing for print, and writing Google-friendly pages, menus, and headlines is an art unto itself. The instructor will teach you proven, ethical strategies for search engine optimization and go over why adding a blog is one of the most effective things you can do.

We'll discuss building community around your site and moving beyond your own site to write articles and guest posts for other blogs, raising your own site's profile in the process. The day finishes with a homework assignment: be ready to work on your business strategies and come with them for the second day!

Video Content
With the rise and rise of YouTube and other online video media, no company can ignore this critical communications channel. We'll explore what's needed to create effective online videos, develop shooting scripts and produce our own videos ready to post online and share with classmates and, hopefully, the online community.

Web Marketing Continued
We'll continue by diving deeper into the world of search engine optimization and search engine marketing, and bring more advanced SEO and SEM strategies into play. This afternoon will include individual site SEO audits and time to analyze what you can improve on your own Web pages to increase ranking and traffic. You'll also learn how to use online PR sites like PRWeb for your press releases and practice writing a release.

The instructor will give you a solid overview of e-mail marketing programs like ConstantContact and AWeber and how to leverage them effectively. Finally, we'll examine your website analytics so you can track the results of your marketing efforts and understand what the numbers mean!

Day 2

Mobile Marketing
We'll explore the brave new world of mobile device marketing, including iPhone, Android, and iPad app building options and the critical importance of creating a mobile-friendly version of your website.

Using Social Media
The afternoon focuses on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus and Pinterest. We'll start by exploring smart ways to work with the LinkedIn community to build your business, then explore Twitter, including the use of hashtags, identifying and taking advantage of trending topics, and committing to regular updates and interacting with your followers.

Facebook Marketing
We'll dive headfirst into Facebook and explore different strategies for using Facebook pages, events and advertising for your business. We'll cover how to foster a positive community on Facebook while managing trolls and negative feedback, empowering your team to represent your company, and cross-linking between Facebook and your website content.

Facebook Advertising and More
The afternoon will feature a deep dive into Facebook advertising, including how to boost posts - - "and whether it's worth the money - - " along with how to set up and run Facebook ad campaigns and what kind of results to expect.

We'll also talk about ways to maintain a balance between your personal life on Facebook and your professional identity, so that you can use social media without sharing your private life with the world! Homework assignments will include Tweeting and creating content on Facebook.

Lab and Open Review Time
We'll take a look at how the world has responded to your marketing efforts so far, review your social media efforts, review any material that people still have questions about and work on a plan for you to take with you beyond this course.

Instructor

Dave Taylor has been involved with the Internet since 1980 and is widely recognized as an expert on both technical and business issues. He has been published over a thousand times, launched four Internet-related startup companies, has written twenty business and technical books and holds both an MBA and MS Ed. Dave maintains four weblogs: The Business Blog at Intuitive.com, Ask Dave Taylor, Dave On Film, and Attachment Parenting Blog. Dave is an award-winning speaker, sought after conference and workshop participant and frequent guest on radio and pod programs.

Location

This certificate program will be held in the Boulder Digital Arts Boulder location classroom.