The Online Master of Science in Marketing Degree

William & Mary's online program creates a new type of marketing leader by cultivating disparate skills at the intersection of data, innovation and creativity.

Marketing leaders are perpetual beta testers.

They are continuously learning, optimizing and experimenting.

They are adept at the digital and marketing analytics-based skills that drive innovative decision-making. They are capable and fluent in the rapidly evolving technology that defines their profession, and they recognize its role as a catalyst for collaboration and insight.

They are modernizers in a dynamic world and are not bound to the mechanistic rhythms of conventional workflows. Embracing ambiguity and iteration, graduates of this program understand that the best use of time is often nonlinear.

Marketing leaders see problems as an opportunity for innovation.

They treat even the most difficult problems as opportunities for strategic creativity and inventive brand strategy. They approach their work informed by, but not beholden to, time-tested methods: They balance the wisdom to respect proven processes with the courage to adapt them—or even radically change them—to meet current challenges.

Marketing leaders look outward.

They understand that broad collaboration is key to identifying problems and creating solutions. As a result, they act with humility, engage with empathy, and create a culture of respect in which all are challenged to do their best work. They cultivate new ideas by inviting diverse perspectives, engaging in deep immersion, encouraging open debate and treating every idea as a hypothesis to be tested.

They not only collaborate with colleagues, but with the customer. Social media invites dialogue and the ability for customers to opt-in. Customer empowerment and participation drive marketing leaders to experiment with and optimize marketing strategies.

Marketing leaders use colleague collaboration and customer input to make an impact on the problem at hand, positively affecting the companies for which they work and the markets they serve.

At the core of our Online Master’s in Marketing program lies the Marketing Challenge: the defining, unifying project that you create, refine and build throughout your coursework. To complete it successfully, you must expand your thinking and adopt a broader, strategic view of marketing.

The challenge is an opportunity for you to embrace new ideas and new initiatives, and to become a richer asset for your company.

Work starts right away in the foundational Renaissance Marketer course. You’ll start to develop your unique Marketing Challenge, establishing parameters for a project you’ll work on throughout the master's program.

At the beginning of each course, you’ll identify areas of your Marketing Challenge that need development, and the current class’s possible impact on its outcome. At the course’s end, you will update your challenge’s parameters, discuss the course’s impact on it and outline your next steps.

As you grow as a marketing professional through work on the Marketing Challenge, you’ll create value for your current business. The challenge gives you occasion to reach out to senior leaders in your company with whom you don’t interact on a daily basis. In meeting with them, you’ll have the chance to demonstrate strategic skill by addressing your challenge’s tactical requirements. You will become adept at collaboration and relationship-building through discussions with fellow marketing professionals.

William & Mary students have recently created and addressed these Marketing Challenges:

• With podcasting companies focusing predominantly on high-income audiences, how do we create compelling podcast content for an underserved population and connect it to a brand that serves that audience?
• How do we increase referrals from general veterinary practitioners to veterinary neurologists?
• How do we create and market a content creation company for Black men?

Study with faculty creators, innovators and marketing professionals who have been influential in building nationally and internationally known companies and brands, including:

• American Express
• Arby’s
• Best Buy
• Burger King
• Discover Financial
• Domino’s Pizza
• Expedia
• Geico
• Kraft Foods
• MetLife
• Microsoft
• Mondelez (Oreo, Chips Ahoy, Velveeta)
• Morgan Stanley
• Old Navy
• Taco Bell
• Target
• Turkish Airlines
• Uber
• UPS
• Volkswagen
• Walmart
• Zillow

William & Mary’s Online Master’s in Marketing 15-month program offers a shorter time to completion than other part-time master’s programs, which typically take two years to complete. This program is built for marketers who want to advance into marketing quickly, with a focused curriculum that grows marketing expertise more thoroughly than an MBA program.

Through the marketing curriculum, you will gain a deep understanding of the role that the digital and global world play in the field and will graduate prepared to lead in an evolving industry. Check out the course descriptions to get a better sense of how we teach you to understand, create and communicate value.