• The Open University
  • The Open University Business School

The Digital Economy: Selling Through Customer Insight

Uncover new perspectives on the role and behaviour of your customers, to enhance your sales and marketing.

32,159 enrolled on this course

A graphic showing cogs, speech bubbles and bank notes - a metaphor for customer relationship management in sales and marketing
  • Duration

    4 weeks
  • Weekly study

    3 hours

Build a holistic view of your customers

No matter how sophisticated your marketing is, if it doesn’t result in attracting customers, your business is set to fail.

This online course applies fresh thinking to how marketing and selling activities combine to create customers who keep coming back.

You will develop an understanding of how customer relationship management breeds business development success; critically evaluate accepted wisdom on how marketing influences customers; and learn how marketers increasingly draw on powerful information systems to build a holistic view of customers.

What topics will you cover?

  • How technologies such as big data, the cloud and open-source are driving the digital economy
  • Insight in the context of sales
  • How customer insight is enabled by the digital economy
  • Tools and technologies that enable businesses to use big data to access and deliver value
  • How digital engagement works, and the importance of personalisation
  • How the move to digital selling is being enacted across the globe
  • Key trends in the digital economy and the impact on customer insight

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Demonstrate knowledge and critical understanding of how customers behave in the digital economy and describe the role of information systems in creating customer insight
  • Apply exchange theory to a range of different business models to create mutual benefit for suppliers and buyers
  • Explore and conduct theoretically-informed analysis of decision making in consumer and organisational markets and assess digital marketing communications against research-based criteria
  • Apply and use insight-driven selling to improve performance, and engage with relevant ethical issues driven by the digital economy

Who is the course for?

This course is intended for anyone who wants to learn about attracting and retaining customers. No previous experience of studying sales or marketing is required, but some basic knowledge of how businesses work would be beneficial.

Find further information about OU registration, the assessment module and MBA in the entry requirements.

IMPORTANT! If you are aiming to use your study of courses in the Digital Economy program to obtain academic credit, please be aware that the final planned presentation of the Open University Assessment Course BXM871 Managing in the Digital Economy starts July 2020. Please ensure that you allow yourself enough time to obtain all four Certificates of Achievement from courses in the program before registering for the Assessment Course. Details of runs of the relevant FutureLearn courses in 2019 and 2020 are available here.

Who will you learn with?

Hilary is a senior lecturer in executive education with research interests in the economic and cultural role of the creative industries. She researches academic identity and the future of work.

Who developed the course?

The Open University

As the UK’s largest university, The Open University (OU) supports thousands of students to achieve their goals and ambitions via supported distance learning, helping to fit learning around professional and personal life commitments.

  • Established

    1969
  • Location

    Milton Keynes, UK
  • World ranking

    Top 510Source: Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020

The Open University Business School

A pioneer in flexible learning for over 30 years, The Open University Business School delivers transformational, high quality business and management education which is quality assured.

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

Want to know more about learning on FutureLearn? Using FutureLearn

Get a taste of this course

Find out what this course is like by previewing some of the course steps before you join:

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