A connected course guide
17,818 words of teaching, with 34 glossary terms and 20 sources in the complete guide.
Open the course wikiOnline · Self-paced · By Bow Tie Kreative
Marketing foundations course
Know who you help, what you offer, and what to do next.
Bring your scattered marketing ideas into one workable plan. Learn to investigate customer needs, describe a useful offer, choose a channel for a reason, and measure the action that matters to your business.
Included in both lifetime memberships. Already a member? Open this course.
42 visual lessonsWiki + PDF + workbook
- Lessons
- 42
- Course guide
- 64 pages
- Workbook
- 63 pages
- Glossary
- 34 terms
The idea, made clear
What are marketing fundamentals?
Marketing fundamentals connect a customer need with an offer a business can deliver. They include audience research, positioning, channel choices, basic economics, and measurement. In this course, those ideas become decisions you can explain and revisit when the evidence changes.
What you’ll learn to do
Describe a customer situation without assuming everyone has the same need.
Write an offer and value proposition with clear, supportable boundaries.
Choose a channel and a measure that match the business decision.
Assemble a one-page plan with a test, budget assumptions, and a review rule.
Your learning path
Inside the 42 lessons
Each lesson connects a focused idea to practice and an explanation. Chapter links open the matching course wiki section. Sign in with course access to read the complete guide.
- Wiki chapter
Audience & need
Connect a real situation to the people it can help.
- Wiki chapter
Value proposition
Explain why a specific offer helps a specific person.
- Wiki chapter
Attention versus action
Separate seeing, considering, clicking, and buying.
- Wiki chapter
Choosing a channel
Choose a place to communicate based on a stated situation.
- Wiki chapter
Measuring outcomes
Read simple results without claiming more than the evidence supports.
- Wiki chapter
Turn a business goal into a decision
Write a marketing brief that names an outcome, a constraint, and a decision.
- Wiki chapter
Interview for evidence, not agreement
Ask about a real experience and separate observations from interpretations.
- Wiki chapter
Choose a segment you can actually serve
Build a useful segment from shared needs and practical access.
- Wiki chapter
Make the alternative visible
Explain a useful difference against a realistic customer alternative.
- Wiki chapter
Check the economics behind an offer
Distinguish revenue, contribution, and advertising cost in a small example.
- Wiki chapter
Give each channel a job
Choose complementary channel roles instead of copying a universal mix.
- Wiki chapter
Design a test that can change your mind
State a testable hypothesis and a decision rule before seeing results.
- Wiki chapter
Build a one-page marketing plan
Connect research, offer, channel, measurement, and review in one coherent plan.
- Wiki chapter
A person profile is not a journey
Choose a profile or a journey map according to the question you need to answer.
- Wiki chapter
Replace the imaginary customer
Label the evidence behind a profile instead of presenting invented detail as research.
- Wiki chapter
Find the difference that changes the message
Explain why two groups need different communication before making separate campaigns.
- Wiki chapter
There is no magic number of personas
Choose which profiles to merge or separate without relying on an arbitrary quota.
- Wiki chapter
Answer the question a visitor has now
Select information that supports a visitor’s stated task.
- Wiki chapter
A channel is not a readiness label
Avoid assigning buying readiness solely from the channel that brought a visitor.
- Wiki chapter
Leave room for a different route
Design a path that accommodates returning and already-informed visitors.
- Wiki chapter
Help someone resume the right task
Choose a return destination using task context while checking whether contact is appropriate.
- Wiki chapter
A contact record is not a customer outcome
Name contact, purchase and usage actions separately in a campaign report.
- Wiki chapter
Explain what the person is agreeing to
Describe the benefit, data request and follow-up expectation before a sign-up.
- Wiki chapter
Name the useful next action
Choose a primary action whose completion has a clear meaning.
- Wiki chapter
More arrivals do not tell the whole story
Evaluate audience relevance separately from raw visit growth.
- Wiki chapter
The purchase is not the end of the experience
Identify a postpurchase task that the business must help a customer complete.
- Wiki chapter
A subscription needs a recurring job
Assess whether a recurring offer has a real customer task behind it.
- Wiki chapter
An upgrade and an extra solve different questions
Identify whether a recommendation replaces the original choice or adds another item.
- Wiki chapter
More orders and more value are different questions
Distinguish conversion count from average and total value.
- Wiki chapter
Write a prediction you could reject
Write a hypothesis whose evidence could disagree with the prediction.
- Wiki chapter
You can see the tactic, not its effect
Separate observable competitor behaviour from unsupported explanations of its results.
- Wiki chapter
A previous buyer is not a guaranteed cheaper sale
Evaluate a repeat-customer campaign without assuming it must be cheaper or more profitable.
- Wiki chapter
Repeat purchases are only one part of the picture
Pair a retention outcome with measures that can reveal a worse customer experience.
- Wiki chapter
Measure the handoffs, not just the finish
Identify a decision-relevant measurement gap without assuming all behaviour can or should be tracked.
- Wiki chapter
A short dashboard can have deep evidence behind it
Choose a headline measure without discarding evidence needed to explain or validate it.
- Wiki chapter
A percentage needs a population
Explain exactly what a reported conversion percentage divides by.
- Wiki chapter
Look beyond the payment button
Identify an improvement opportunity outside payment that serves a real customer task.
- Wiki chapter
Borrow a question, not a guaranteed result
Identify context differences before adopting a tactic from another business.
- Wiki chapter
Specify the job before buying the tool
Write a capability requirement before comparing software vendors.
- Wiki chapter
Know what a channel can do
Identify channel assumptions that must be checked before committing resources.
- Wiki chapter
More offers need clearer routing
Identify which parts of a customer route need to change when an offer is added.
- Wiki chapter
Give the plan a review date
Set a meaningful review trigger without changing a process merely for novelty.
A small decision. A useful connection.
Try the thinking for yourself.
Read the situation and pause before opening the explanation. You don’t need an account for this example.
Fictional teaching example. Your response is not recorded.
Turn a busy calendar into a useful plan
A fictional bicycle workshop has spare appointments on Saturday. Its owner wants to advertise to everyone in the city. What would you investigate before choosing an ad?
Show the explanation
Start with who can use that appointment, what service the workshop can deliver, and why the present alternative is inconvenient. Then choose a route to reach that group. More reach is not evidence of a better fit.
Put the course to work
A one-page audience, offer, channel, and measurement brief.
Keep the idea within reach
Read it. Check it. Apply it.
Your course resources are digital and included with membership. Move from a question to the wiki chapter, or take the PDF and workbook with you.
A guide you can keep nearby
A 64-page PDF brings the course together in one document, with linked sources to follow when you want more context.
Find the course PDFSpace to make it your own
A 63-page workbook helps you turn ideas into written decisions, check your assumptions, and plan what to try next.
Find the workbookSources to explore
Selected references from the course guide. Research supports particular ideas in context; it does not guarantee a marketing result or a learning outcome for every person.
- When Do Purchase Intentions Predict Sales?
- Reconstruction of automobile destruction
- Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention
- Practical Guide to Controlled Experiments on the Web
Find the complete reference list in the course wiki sources.
Is this a digital marketing course for beginners?
Yes. It introduces the underlying decisions before specific channel tactics. You can then continue into SEO, paid advertising, email, or social media in the included library.
Will I create a marketing plan?
The lessons and workbook guide you toward a one-page plan, with customer evidence, an offer, channel roles, and a test you can review. You supply the context for your own business.
What happens if I answer a practice question incorrectly?
You receive a teaching explanation and a worked example, with another opportunity to practice. Correct answers also lead to an explanation so you can understand the reason behind your choice.
Does access include every Program Reset course?
Yes. Both lifetime options include all 13 courses in this library, their wiki guides, PDFs, and workbooks. Community and the separate 200+ course vault are included in the Community & Vault bundle. Access lasts while the platform operates. See the access terms.
One membership. A connected library.
Learn this. Then connect the dots.
Marketing foundations course is included in both Program Reset lifetime access options. Move between visual lessons, the linked wiki, PDF guides, and workbooks as your questions change.
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Explore the coursePublished by Bow Tie Kreative · Calgary, Alberta, Canada · Course page reviewed .