Dear Students,
Welcome to the textbook written and designed specifically for COMSTRAT 310 Digital Content Promotion at Washington State University in The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. The main goal of the course is to introduce students to key ideas, principles, and tactics for writing for digital content, creating and executing a digital campaign and understanding core concepts in tracking and measuring the effectiveness of digital communications. Students are introduced to digital campaign planning and project management – challenged on how to establish purposeful and measurable outcomes and trained on the setup, design, delivery, and measurement of various online tools used by practitioners for web development, email outreach, social media engagement and online advertising.
“Integrated Digital Marketing Campaigns” was originally written by me in the summer of 2016 with contributing content and editing by fellow professors Ryan Risenmay, Brett Atwood and Chris Cooney. A second edition was released in fall 2018 that provides students with current articles, best practices, and industry standards in the field of digital communications.
As you explore the textbook, you will see eight chapters with several sub-chapters throughout that include quick reference definitions of industry terms via hyperlinks, dozens of support graphics and infographics, and interactive activities within the sub-chapters to further illustrate key points. At the close of each chapter, you will find graded “testing your knowledge” activities designed to add value to the process of experiencing digital communication in action in the course itself while also digging deeper into the topics through the text.
All course content coincides with textbook so it is relevant, has immediate application and provides you with valuable tools you can take with you once you complete the course. The goal with the textbook and support materials provided in the curriculum is for students to close out the semester with a solid understanding of digital content tactics, tools, and resources available for ongoing professional development, exploration, and mastering.
I hope you enjoy the textbook, learn a lot from it, and walk away feeling confident, digitally-literate, and equipped with fantastic new, usable vocabulary and skills!
Rebecca L. Cooney, MSC
Rebecca L. Cooney, M.S. is a professional communicator with more than 25 years of strategic communication experience in conceptual design, implementation, monitoring and metrics of comprehensive integrated projects and campaigns for traditional media and digital platform initiatives. In addition to her ongoing activities in industry, she is a Clinical Associate Professor of Strategic Communication with an emphasis in public relations and digital media and serves as the Director of Murrow Online Programs for The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University (WSU). She is also a Research Associate with a collaborative natural product and drug interaction grant sponsored by the Natural Institutes of Health in partnerships with the pharmaceutical colleges at the University of Washington and WSU called NaPDI – Center for Natural Product-Drug Interaction Brand Materials. Rebecca joined the Murrow faculty in 2012 and teaches a full load of undergraduate and graduate courses focused on integrated communications, writing for public relations, digital marketing campaigns, brand and consumer insights, employee communications and advertising. She holds a BA in communications from California State University Sacramento and an MS degree in communications from Eastern Washington University.
Before WSU she spent more than 10 years in higher education administration in leadership roles for marketing and university relations, business development, website coordination and regional communication initiatives. She also worked in corporate as director of marketing for an international educational travel company and served as an adjunct professor at two universities. She started her career at a full-service ad agency and continues to grow in the areas of strategic communications, integrated communications, public relations, brand and message platforms and digital communications. Rebecca is married with four children and resides in Pullman, WA. She considers herself a lifelong learner and finds experiential learning opportunities to be the most beneficial and applicable to everything she does.
Chapter 1: Foundations in Integrated Digital Marketing
Chapter 2: Becoming a Digital Guru
Chapter 3: Integrated Marketing Communication
Chapter 4: Digital Marketing WebSocial
Chapter 5: Digital Marketing Metrics
Chapter 6: Digital Campaigns
Chapter 7: Staying Current in Digitial Space
Chapter 8: BrandYou