Meet Dr David Hart - lead for the online Digital Marketing MSc

Tell us a little bit more about your professional and educational background, particularly in relation to Digital Marketing? 

I have been teaching marketing for around 15 years with an emphasis on the direct and increasingly digital aspects of the subject.  

I was the lead behind the development of the MSc Digital Marketing programme at Northumbria University, which has proven to be highly successful and attracts brilliant students from a variety of countries and subject specialisms. 

What is your particular area of academic expertise, and why are you passionate about it? 

My own expertise is centred around consumer behaviour, customer segmentation and database marketing. These are longstanding topics, but are especially fascinating in the digital era where we have incredible opportunities to understand and target customers by using data to better understand their needs. 

Why should people choose to study Digital Marketing at Northumbria? 

It’s fun! Digital Marketing is fast-paced and ever-changing. Once we have cracked the big social media channels, another one emerges. Once we understand how websites can be effectively designed to onboard customers, practices change.  

At Northumbria we take pride in ensuring our programmes reflect current practice and get you thinking about how companies can apply digital tools successfully. You will leave with a portfolio of experiences and work that will demonstrate that not only do you understand the key concepts, but you also have experience of applying them in a practical way. 

What can distance learning students expect when they join Northumbria University? 

Your modules will be packed with a range of different resources and ways to learn. There will be interactive online content for you to engage with and the opportunity for you to have live sessions with staff and meet your fellow students, and the chance to focus your wider learning with reading and associated tasks. 

How will this course transform students’ lives and careers? 

We want to open doors for our students. If you are new to marketing that may be paving the way for your first marketing role, if you are already in the field, we want to assist with your career progression. We want students to thrive on our modules and take advantages of our accreditations to get professional certificates that further showcase their readiness for marketing roles. 

What excites you most about teaching Digital Marketing? 

We get students on the course from a wide variety of undergraduate backgrounds, everything from business to music, arts, social sciences and engineering. All students bring their own skillsets and experiences to the course, and it results in a vibrant atmosphere where students complement one another. 

Aside from being able to meet the academic entry requirements, what makes a perfect candidate for this course? 

Someone who thinks commercially, who is interested in how companies can maximise their digital channels and is interested in digital communication. You do not need to be technologically minded, just interested in how companies can navigate them to better serve their customers.  

Own the digital landscape and harness marketing strategies to build your career. Apply for our next intake on our course page.