Why Earn a Master's Degree in Marketing Online?

You’ve made up your mind: To launch yourself on the path to a fulfilling career in one of the most dynamic and creatively invigorating areas of the business landscape, you’ve decided that you’re going to pursue a master’s degree in marketing. Congratulations! This bold step will expand your sense of what’s possible as a marketing strategist and leader and open doors that will accelerate your climb toward a CMO role.

In 2021, the best way to earn this transformative degree is in an online program. Online master’s degrees in marketing put the actual tools of the trade in the palm of your hands, connect you to a worldwide network of peers and potential colleagues, and give you the best opportunity to grow and advance as a visionary marketing leader.

Read five key reasons to earn your master’s in marketing online in 2021, and start considering which degree program is the right one for you.

It’s common sense today that the bulk of marketing occurs digitally, and that the most important developments on the leading edge of the profession are occurring online. It only makes sense, then, to earn a master’s degree in marketing that puts the marketing technology, or “MarTech,” tools and techniques required to market online directly at your fingertips, in every one of your courses. A truly seamless online learning experience is one in which your coursework and lectures are just a browser tab away from the real-world materials you are learning to use.

A strong online master’s degree in marketing program will offer you hands-on experience using Google Analytics, CRM software like Salesforce and Marketo, search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) software, and other digital tools essential to the marketing trade in 2021. It will also prompt you to think strategically about the best uses of social media, web content, emails, and ads to reach and nurture your target consumers.

If you are one of the many people whose decision to pursue graduate-level business education has come several years into your career, as you find yourself in need of momentum to advance or in search of a professional pivot, you should definitely consider online options. Online programs are often best equipped to meet the specific demands of your schedule as a working professional because of the flexibility and customizability that are designed into them.

Many online programs utilize “asynchronous” coursework, which means there are no set times in which you have to attend virtual class sessions. When you are able to view lectures, complete readings, and work on assignments entirely on your own schedule, fitting a master’s degree program around your full-time job and other responsibilities is quite manageable. The best online master’s degree programs will even have custom-built learning management interfaces designed to make tracking your grades, completing and submitting your assignments, communicating with your classmates and faculty, and managing your overall progress a breeze.

Online master’s degree programs in any field have the natural benefit of being available globally, without any geographic restrictions. While the most obvious implication of this is that you can enroll in a program from a university outside of your local area, it also means you will be exposed to a diverse array of peers, potentially ones from around the U.S. or across the globe.

When you join a cohort with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and approaches, you will learn to view the challenges you face as a marketing professional through different lenses than those you are used to, and you can potentially have the same eye-opening impact on your classmates in return. This is even—perhaps especially—true for an online program with a strong regional identity like Santa Clara University’s Online Master of Science in Marketing . Built in the heart of Silicon Valley, the Online MS in Marketing draws a global body of students intent on learning the MarTech insights for which the Valley is known and applying them in their own geographical and professional contexts.

Distributed teams have been growing in significance throughout the professional world in recent years. This was true before the COVID-19 pandemic forced a massive, worldwide shift to remote work, and it has only accelerated in light of that watershed moment. A host of networking technologies are used by companies to enable their distributed teams to function smoothly and securely, and most contemporary marketing professionals will need to be comfortable using them in order to succeed in the field.

It turns out that many of these same programs—Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and others—are typically used to stay in touch and work together in online master’s degree in marketing programs. Chances are you are already used to working with these tools from your current job or any educational experiences you may have had in the past year, but even if that is the case, the collaborative nature of a good online master’s degree program will give you a new appreciation for the ease with which they’ll let you work closely with teammates located anywhere in the world.

You certainly don’t need reminding of this last point, but here it is just in case: There is still a pandemic sweeping the U.S. and the globe. Even with COVID-19 vaccine distribution underway, the patterns of work and education that you were used to prior to March 2020 are still likely a ways away from returning.

Nearly all postsecondary and graduate instruction in the U.S. is still being conducted online in the first half of 2021, and many universities that were caught off-guard by the transition to distance education still have not devised a better way of delivering their courses digitally. By choosing a master’s degree in marketing program that was designed specifically to be taught and taken online, from a university that has built a reputation as a leader working at the forefront of online education, you will be sure to receive the best learning experience available today.

The Online MS in Marketing at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business is designed to train you as a next-generation visionary leader in the field, able to confidently use the MarTech tools at your disposal to make decisions and strategize for success. Learn about our versatile curriculum, designed in collaboration with Silicon Valley marketing executives and luminaries , and find out how you can customize your experience at SCU with electives tailored to your specific professional goals.