Gain specialist digital and business knowledge while exploring responsible and ethical digital marketing conduct in the age of AI. You’ll put digital marketing into context through the exploration of the balance between digital innovation and responsible practices in designing digital experiences and technologies. We aim to nurture your skills to enable you to develop positive and critical attitudes towards responsible and mindful digital marketing practices, developing skills for current digital marketing challenges as well as those that may arise in the future.
Develop your ambitions
As a Digital Marketing student, you’ll be part of Derby Business School, benefitting from our research expertise and industry links. During your studies, you’ll have the chance to work on real industry projects, live briefs and industry case studies to build your network before you graduate. Our teaching team has a vibrant research and practitioner culture, with specialists covering areas such as blockchain, automation intelligence, digital marketing and virtual reality.
Creating leaders of the future
The MSc Digital Marketing aims to develop your skills to give you a solid basis to build your digital marketing career. You’ll cover themes such as:
- digital transformation in organisations
- balancing digital innovation with responsible principles
- digital marketing in the era of AI
- professional level digital skills
- social media marketing
- data-driven marketing.
You’ll study modules such as:
Digital Innovation and Change Management
The aim of this module is to develop your understanding of leadership, innovation, and change, focusing particularly on their interplay with digital marketing and market dynamics. Participants will scrutinise the impact of disruptive technologies on challenging conventional business methods, exploring innovative approaches across infrastructure, processes, people, culture, and sustainability to bolster the marketing function within a business.
Encouraged to draw upon personal experiences, participants will contribute to discussions, inquiries, critical thinking, and reflective exercises. Additionally, the module aims to enhance interpersonal skills and apply core leadership techniques to effectively persuade others and drive change for the benefit of an organisation.
Contemporary Marketing Challenges
We examine how to measure business performance from a strategic and marketing perspective, including brand evaluation, CRM, satisfaction measurement and loyalty measurement. This module also considers the impact of such measures on how organisations and individuals behave. You’ll harness both quantitative and qualitative research methods to explore how appropriate measures can be identified and tracked.
Digital Marketing Strategy
The exponential growth of digital tools, technologies and platforms, coupled with increased consumer adoption, has empowered many organisations to excel and compete through innovation. This module aims to increase your knowledge of different types of digital marketing strategies and demonstrate how organisations can foster innovation to effectively leverage digital marketing as a strategic asset in the global context.
Strategic Brand Management
This module aims to develop a thorough understanding of the role of branding in positioning an organisation both internally and externally. It further provides an opportunity for participants to critically evaluate branding strategies and tactics relevant to the digital age, using existing research and frameworks to acquire the insights, skills and competencies necessary to develop brands for a range of sector and industry settings.
Digital Marketing Campaigns & Analytics
You’ll explore a range of contemporary areas of digital marketing communication strategies and techniques that will be considered together with appropriate analytic tools and methods for such digital campaigns. This will include email marketing, search engine marketing/optimisation, pay-per-click, mobile marketing, Google Analytics, data mining, use of artificial intelligence and programmatic marketing.
Marketing Metrics
This module introduces the techniques for measuring and monitoring digital marketing communication campaigns and how to effectively manage individual web projects to maximise resources and investment return. The module also highlights legislation which is required to meet the minimum standards of accessibility for web users.
Please note that our modules are subject to change - we review the content of our courses regularly, making changes where necessary to improve your experience and graduate prospects.
Throughout the programme, you'll experience diverse learning and teaching methods designed to achieve the programme goals and learning outcomes and create a transformative and contextual learning environment enhanced by digital technology integration.
You'll learn through methods such as:
- tutor facilitated learning with structured opportunities for discussion, reflection and planning for industry application
- learning opportunities identified and taken directly from business/industry case studies or live briefs to form module assessments
- business improvement projects/leadership projects
- guest lectures by industry experts, academic practitioners and researchers to allow exploration and discussion around issues, opportunities, challenges and best practice
- action learning sets and inquiry-based learning activities
- use of simulations, Generative AI and game-based learning
- specific digital marketing research
- critical review of emerging themes in academic and professional literature
- critical reflection and reflexive practice learning portfolios
Modules are typically assessed through one or more coursework assignments. There is a strong emphasis on individual assessment, although there are aspects of assessment where collaboration is required with peers. Coursework assignments may involve reflective portfolios, academic and management reports, analysis of real-world case studies or simulations, employer-commissioned live briefs, digital presentations or various combinations of these.
2024/25 (August 2024 - July 2025)
| Type | Full-time | Part-time |
|---|
| UK | £9,450 for the full course* | £1,050 per 20 credits |
| International | £14,900 for the full course | N/A |
Please note fees normally increase in line with inflation and the University's strategic approach to fees, which is reviewed on an annual basis. The total fee you pay may therefore increase after one year of study.
* UK full-time fees paid within one academic year are rounded down to the nearest £50 if applicable
About postgraduate awards
Please note at postgraduate level, you’ll need to gain the following number of credits in total to obtain the respective awards. If you have any questions please contact us.
| Award | Credits |
|---|
| Postgraduate Certificate | 60 Credits |
| Postgraduate Diploma | 120 Credits |
| MA or MSc | 180 Credits |
This means you will gain 180 credits in total to complete the full MA or MSc. If you are studying part time you will normally complete your studies over two or three years, depending on the course structure.
Funding your studies
Find out more about fees, postgraduate loans and support you may be entitled to.
Find out about funding your studiesFind out about funding your studies
Alumni discount for Derby graduates
We offer a discount on postgraduate course fees for all Derby alumni.
Find out about the Alumni discountFind out about the Alumni discount
How to apply
Please look at our before you apply.
If you need any more information from us, eg on courses, accommodation, applying, car parking, fees or funding, please contact us and we will do everything we can to help you.
Contact us Contact us Teaching hours
Like most universities, we operate extended teaching hours at the University of Derby, so contact time with your lecturers and tutors could be anytime between 9am and 9pm. Your timetable will usually be available on the website 24 hours after enrolment on to your course.
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