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SOUTH AFRICAN QUALIFICATIONS AUTHORITY 
REGISTERED QUALIFICATION: 

Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Marketing 
SAQA QUAL ID QUALIFICATION TITLE
122867  Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Marketing 
ORIGINATOR
Regenesys Management (Pty) Ltd 
PRIMARY OR DELEGATED QUALITY ASSURANCE FUNCTIONARY NQF SUB-FRAMEWORK
CHE - Council on Higher Education  HEQSF - Higher Education Qualifications Sub-framework 
QUALIFICATION TYPE FIELD SUBFIELD
Postgraduate Diploma  Field 03 - Business, Commerce and Management Studies  Marketing 
ABET BAND MINIMUM CREDITS PRE-2009 NQF LEVEL NQF LEVEL QUAL CLASS
Undefined  120  Not Applicable  NQF Level 08  Regular-Provider-ELOAC 
REGISTRATION STATUS SAQA DECISION NUMBER REGISTRATION START DATE REGISTRATION END DATE
Registered  EXCO 0527/24  2024-10-03  2027-10-03 
LAST DATE FOR ENROLMENT LAST DATE FOR ACHIEVEMENT
2028-10-03   2031-10-03  

In all of the tables in this document, both the pre-2009 NQF Level and the NQF Level is shown. In the text (purpose statements, qualification rules, etc), any references to NQF Levels are to the pre-2009 levels unless specifically stated otherwise.  

This qualification does not replace any other qualification and is not replaced by any other qualification. 

PURPOSE AND RATIONALE OF THE QUALIFICATION 
Purpose:
The purpose of the Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Marketing is to equip future marketing middle managers to exploit the new mediums and channels of marketing and in return affect cost savings and greater market share for their businesses or organisations.

The days when conceptualising, developing and implementing any marketing campaigns only used to be practising Above The Line (ATL) activities like running advertisements on television and radio, and placing printed advertisements in various newspapers and business magazines are fast approaching their end. However, as the whole world moves more toward a digital marketplace, especially post-COVID-19. Businesses now have the right opportunities to reach out and connect with their right target groups by using various digital marketing strategies in addition to their existing traditional marketing strategies. This will result in the high optimization of their marketing campaigns, which will ultimately yield maximum output/results for them. One of the greatest advantages of digital marketing is that it is both affordable and effective in terms of attractive return on investment, return on advertising spend, etc. that many entrepreneurs, business houses or brands found it an excellent alternative to branch into.

Upon completion of the qualification, qualifying learners will be able to:
  • Engage in the forefront of Digital Marketing in consumer behaviour, Social Media Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization.
  • Apply the concepts, tools, strategies and tactics relevant to identifying and using the right digital marketing and social media channels, platforms, business models and others.
  • Consider the implication of vivid tools showcasing or highlighting the importance of individual technical and non-technical aspects of Search Engine Optimization.
  • Develop an appropriate strategy related to content marketing, focusing on the importance of content funnel, marketing qualified leads, sales qualified leads, content calendar and programmatic advertising, with the help of relevant tools.
  • Set up the important technical requirements, for running and assessing a digital marketing campaign, like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, pixels, Advertisement goals setting, etc.

    Rationale:
    The focus of the qualification is on equipping future marketing middle managers to exploit the new mediums and channels of marketing and in return effect cost savings and greater market share for their businesses or organisations.

    The qualification was developed as a means of providing future skills. Companies, brands, entrepreneurs, influencers, affiliates, 'womenpreneurs', etc. are not only using digital marketing strategies today to reach out to their right target groups but are also continuously increasing their spending of marketing budget on these strategies. Technology is real-time and ever-changing; hence, digital marketing allows one to respond to popular trends in real time. The qualification intends to prepare learners for middle management positions in the digital marketing field to be able to set industry standards across the globe. Since this is a multidisciplinary qualification along with general management skills, the qualification also includes various fundamentals of digital marketing like search engine optimisation, social media marketing, Pay-Per-Click (PPC), content marketing, and Email marketing. With the usage of a variety of tools, learners will not only learn how to identify problems but will also be able to solve them. 
    		•

    LEARNING ASSUMED TO BE IN PLACE AND RECOGNITION OF PRIOR LEARNING 
    Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL):

    RPL for exemption of credits:
  • Recognition of prior learning access into this qualification will be applied to learners who discontinued their postgraduate diploma or honours degree studies.
  • This assessment will only apply to learners who discontinued their studies at NQF Level 8 in a Marketing-oriented qualification with marketing management modules.
  • Should it be determined that there is a 70 % correlation in modular content between the completed modules and the modules from the institution's qualification, learners will be granted credits to a maximum of 60 credits of the qualification.

    The project module will not be considered for purposes of RPL. This module will have to be completed as part of the qualification. No credits will in other words be allocated.

    RPL for access:
    In exceptional cases, proven digital marketing workplace experience at the senior management level that is equitable with the outcomes of the Diploma and a Bachelor's Degree will be considered for an RPL assessment for access only.

    Entry Requirements:
    The minimum entry requirement for this qualification is:
  • Advanced Diploma in Digital Marketing, NQF Level 7.
    Or
  • Advanced Diploma in Digital Marketing Management, NQF Level 7.
    Or
  • Bachelor of Business Administration, NQF Level 7.
    Or
  • Bachelor of Business Administration in Banking, NQF Level 7.
    Or
  • Bachelor of Business Administration in Retail Management, NQF Level 7. 
    		•

    RECOGNISE PREVIOUS LEARNING? 
    Y 

    QUALIFICATION RULES 
    This qualification consists of the following compulsory modules at NQF Level 8 totalling 130 Credits.

    Compulsory Modules, Level 8, 130 Credits:
  • Introduction to Marketing and Digital Marketing, 15 Credits.
  • Search Engine Optimization, 15 Credits.
  • Content Creation and Marketing, 15 Credits.
  • Digital Analytics and Search Engine Marketing, 15 Credits.
  • Integrated Marketing Communication, 10 Credits.
  • Online Reputation Management, 10 Credits.
  • Social Media Marketing and E-Commerce, 15 Credits.
  • Affiliate and Mobile Marketing, 15 Credits.
  • Final Capstone Presentation, 20 Credits. 
    		•

    EXIT LEVEL OUTCOMES 
    1. Demonstrate knowledge of and engage in the forefront of Digital Marketing
    in consumer behaviour, Social Media Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization.
    2. Demonstrate the ability to apply the concepts, tools, strategies, and tactics relevant to identifying and using the right digital marketing and social media channels, platforms, business models and others.
    3. Consider the implication of vivid tools showcasing or highlighting the importance of individual technical and non-technical aspects of Search Engine Optimization.
    4. Develop an appropriate strategy related to content marketing, focusing on the importance of content funnel, marketing qualified leads, sales qualified leads, content calendar and programmatic advertising, with the help of relevant tools.
    5. Set up the important technical requirements, for running and assessing a digital marketing campaign, like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, pixels, Advertisement goals setting, etc.
    6. Demonstrate the ability to identify and use a range of hard and soft digital marketing skills to analyse, evaluate and address major challenges and situations pertaining to Digital Marketing.
    7. Demonstrate the ability to identify, analyse and evaluate various industrial challenges, situations, and solutions, with the help of case studies focusing on different branches of digital marketing like content marketing, reputation management, social media strategy, Search Engine Optimisation, Search Engine Marketing, Email Marketing and Mobile Marketing.
    8. Present the developed skills and acquired knowledge with the help of a presentation on real digital campaign briefs. 

    ASSOCIATED ASSESSMENT CRITERIA 
    Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 1:
  • Identify the various models and concepts of marketing, consumer behaviour and branding, that are still relevant in the industry.
  • Differentiate between digitalization and digitization.
  • Demonstrate a basic understanding of marketing, consumer behaviour (CB) and branding.
  • Outline the scope of Digital Marketing to get an overview of Digital Marketing.
  • Identify different types of Industries, webs, etc.

    Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 2:
  • Explain the functioning of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
  • Manage and organize SEO work effectively and /or supervise a search engine optimisation team or outside search engine optimisation firm.
  • Discuss the importance of search engine optimisation in search.
  • Analyse and evaluate various methods and practices adopted in the industry like black hat search engine optimisation, white hat search engine optimisation, etc.
  • Evaluate how to rank a web page or a website in the Search Engine Result Page.
  • Use various tools.
  • Evaluate search engine algorithms.
  • Analyse and evaluate the keywords, their importance, usage and tools.
  • Evaluate keyword matrices.
  • Evaluate and analyse backlinking & its importance, etc.

    Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 3:
  • Identify the various ad platforms and ad types.
  • Analyze their 1st campaign with the help of tools.
  • Practice enough about the Google Business Profile, programmatic advertisements, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, etc.
  • Develop an understanding of the "Google ads" and its best practices.

    Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 4:
  • Accept and recognize the importance of integrated marketing communication.
  • Identify various integrated marketing communication tools and channels.
  • Formulate a proper digital strategy focusing on integrated marketing communication tools and their importance.
  • Identify the Mission, Money, Message, Media, and Measurement. (5 Ms) of advertising.
  • Realize the importance of Marketing Technology (Marktech) and Advertising Technology (AdTech).
  • Assess the effectiveness of integrated marketing communication campaigns.
  • Prepare a media brief.

    Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 5:
  • Discuss the importance of online reputation management.
  • Formulate a proper online reputation management strategy.
  • Assimilate the usage of various tools.
  • Prepare a dashboard and analyse it.
  • Measure corporate reputation by using various tools.

    Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 6:
  • Acknowledge and analyse the monetization of social media platforms.
  • Discuss the campaign managers of diverse platforms and advertisements (ads) formats.
  • Run various ads on the platforms.
  • Prepare the social media strategy.
  • Identify the Marketing Qualified Leads and Sales Qualified Leads.
  • Identify the various marketing funnels and their importance.
  • Draw funnels.
  • Prepare and analyse consumer persona.
  • Differentiate and evaluate proper Segmenting, Targeting, Positioning and differentiation of consumers.
  • Create and measure a digital footprint.

    Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 7:
  • Differentiate among various business models.
  • Discuss the importance of the direct-to-consumer model in the digital sphere.
  • Explain the importance of integrating email as a part of digital strategy.
  • Use email as a marketing tool.
  • Discuss the different types of email marketing.
  • Use various tools and practice on them.

    Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 8:
  • Discuss the difference between an affiliate and an influencer.
  • Identify various affiliate programs run by the companies.
  • Recognize and analyse various types of affiliate marketing.
  • Identify and analyse various tools to track down the matrices of affiliate marketing.
  • Acknowledge the importance of mobile marketing.
  • Define App Store Optimization (ASO) and its importance.
  • Evaluate the functionality of ASO and how can it impact a company.
  • Analyse and evaluate various tools related to mobile marketing by practising them.
  • Extract campaign data through mobile marketing.
  • Design, run, analyse, and evaluate a mobile marketing campaign. 
    		•

    INTERNATIONAL COMPARABILITY 
    Country: Australia
    Institution: University of Melbourne
    Qualification Title: Graduate Diploma in Marketing
    NQF Level: Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) Level 8
    Credits: 112.5 credit points
    Duration: 1 year full-time / 2 years part-time
    Entry requirements
    Applicants must have completed:
  • An undergraduate degree; and two years of full-time work experience.

    Purpose:
    The Graduate Diploma in Marketing aims to equip managers from any functional area or industry with an in-depth understanding of markets, marketing decision variables, and the market-oriented organisation.

    Upon completion of this qualification, learners should be able to:
  • Identify the competitive, social and environmental context of business activities and evaluate their impacts on business outcomes and performance.
  • Apply a set of essential management tools and frameworks to measure, analyse and drive business performance.
  • Demonstrate an in-depth understanding of markets, marketing decision variables, and the market-oriented organisation.
  • Identify key factors for effectively leading and managing teams.
  • Develop learning skills and strong relationships with peers, thereby creating a foundation for career development and lifelong learning.

    Qualification structure:
    The qualification comprises nine subjects, three of which are compulsory General Management subjects (two units plus two full subjects). Three are compulsory Marketing subjects and the remainder are Marketing elective subjects.

    Compulsory Modules:
  • Leadership
  • Managerial Ethics and Business Environment
  • Marketing comparable to Introduction to Marketing and Digital Marketing
  • Consumer Behaviour
  • Marketing Strategy comparable to Introduction to Marketing and Digital Marketing

    Elective Modules (Select three modules):
  • Marketing Communications comparable to Integrated Marketing Communication
  • Brand Management
  • Digital Product Management comparable to Introduction to Marketing and Digital Marketing
  • Leadership and Change
  • Negotiations
  • Internet Marketing and Electronic Commerce

    Similarities:
  • The South African Postgraduate Diploma compares favourably with the Australian Graduate Diploma on the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF).
  • The AQF also has ten levels and 1 credit in the Australian higher education system also represents 10 notional hours of learning.
  • The credit allocation per module works slightly differently in Australia but the total completion time for a Graduate Diploma is indicated as one to two years which resembles the volume of learning required by the South African Postgraduate Diploma.
  • The purpose of the Graduate Diploma qualification type is to qualify individuals who apply a body of knowledge in a range of contexts to undertake professional or highly skilled work and as a pathway for further learning. This purpose resonates well with the South African purpose as described in the Higher Education Qualification Sub Framework (2013).
  • The University of Melbourne (UM) and the South African (SA) qualifications are offered over one year of full-time study.
  • The UM and the SA qualifications are registered at level 8 on the AQF/SA NQF.
  • Both qualifications require applicants who completed the undergraduate qualification in a cognate field.

    Differences:
    The UM consists of 112.5 credits whereas the South African (SA) consists of 120 credits.
  • The UM qualification consists of compulsory and elective modules while the SA qualification consists of compulsory modules.

    Country: New Zealand
    Institution: The University of Canterbury
    Qualification Title: Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Data Science
    Credits: 120 Points
    Duration: 1 year Full-time:
    Entry requirements:
  • Potential learners can come from a variety of undergraduate backgrounds.
  • Require a B Grade Point Average in the 300-level bachelor's degree modules or have evidence of achievement at the postgraduate level.

    Purpose/Rationale:
    Data science is a new profession emerging along with the exponential growth in size, and availability of 'big data'. A data scientist provides insight into future trends by looking at past and current data. This is an essential skill set in a world where everything from education to commerce, communication to transport, involves large-scale data collection and digitalisation.

    This Postgraduate Diploma is designed to accommodate learners from a range of backgrounds (not just those with Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science majors), who want to enhance or build their data science capabilities and combine these with the skills and knowledge they bring from their previous studies. This degree can add to employability and career prospects.

    Graduates will be ready to work in a range of industries including government, corporates, the IT sector, market research and finance, agriculture, and transport. Successful learners can progress to the Master of Applied Data Science.

    Qualification structure:
    The Diploma will comprise a minimum of 120 points as follows:
  • 45 points for foundation courses.
  • 60 points from the advanced data science competencies courses.
  • at least 15 points of elective courses from relevant subjects.

    Compulsory Modules
  • Introduction to Data Science.
  • Computer Programming.
  • Data Management.
  • Texts, Discourses and Data: The Humanities and Data Science.
  • Data Mining.
  • Scalable Data Science.
  • Big Data.

    Elective Modules:
    Biological Sciences, Computer Science, Data Science, Digital Humanities, Economics, Environmental Science, Finance, Geography, Geology, Mathematics, Physics, Psychology, Statistics.

    Similarities:
  • The South African (SA) and the University of Canterbury (UC) qualifications are registered at Level 8 on the NZQF/ SA NQF.
  • Both qualifications have a weighting of 120 credits.
  • The SA and UC qualifications require learners who completed a bachelor's degree in a cognate field.
  • On completion of both qualifications, learners will be able to use data to inform solutions to workplace needs and have an awareness of what can be done with the data, work both in multidisciplinary teams and independently to apply their knowledge to new situations, be able to engage in rigorous intellectual analysis, criticism and problem-solving and understand what basic programming can offer.
  • Learners who complete the SA and UC qualifications may proceed to master's studies. 
    		•

    ARTICULATION OPTIONS 
    This qualification allows possibilities for both horizontal and vertical articulation.

    Horizontal Articulation:
  • Bachelor of Arts Honours in Digital Media, NQF Level 8.
  • Bachelor of Commerce Honours in Marketing Management, NQF Level 8.
  • Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Business, NQF Level 8.
  • Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Strategy, NQF Level 8.
  • Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing, NQF Level 8.
  • Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing Management, NQF Level 8.

    Vertical Articulation:
  • Master of Arts in Digital Communication, NQF Level 9.
  • Master of Commerce in Marketing, NQF Level 9.
  • Master of Commerce in Marketing Management, NQF Level 9.

    Diagonal Articulation
    There is no diagonal articulation for this qualification. 
    		•

    MODERATION OPTIONS 
    N/A 

    CRITERIA FOR THE REGISTRATION OF ASSESSORS 
    N/A 

    NOTES 
    N/A 

    LEARNING PROGRAMMES RECORDED AGAINST THIS QUALIFICATION: 
     
    NONE 


    PROVIDERS CURRENTLY ACCREDITED TO OFFER THIS QUALIFICATION: 
    This information shows the current accreditations (i.e. those not past their accreditation end dates), and is the most complete record available to SAQA as of today. Some Primary or Delegated Quality Assurance Functionaries have a lag in their recording systems for provider accreditation, in turn leading to a lag in notifying SAQA of all the providers that they have accredited to offer qualifications and unit standards, as well as any extensions to accreditation end dates. The relevant Primary or Delegated Quality Assurance Functionary should be notified if a record appears to be missing from here.
     
    1. Regenesys Management (Pty) Ltd 


    All qualifications and part qualifications registered on the National Qualifications Framework are public property. Thus the only payment that can be made for them is for service and reproduction. It is illegal to sell this material for profit. If the material is reproduced or quoted, the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) should be acknowledged as the source.