Digital Entrepreneurship Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Aspiring Digital Entrepreneurs, Startup Founders and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-DM-039

Before you join: Participants should understand basic marketing terms such as target customer, website, social media, email and sales conversion.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Digital ventures fail when founders and intrapreneurs build before proving demand, choose channels without a commercial rationale, or track activity rather than customer and revenue outcomes. The result is wasted media spend, weak conversion, unclear positioning and a product offer that cannot support repeatable growth. This course gives participants a disciplined route from opportunity assessment to launch planning, using customer evidence, commercial modelling and measurable digital marketing.

Participants learn to identify worthwhile customer problems, define a differentiated value proposition and test assumptions before committing significant budget. They build a Lean Canvas, calculate basic unit economics, develop positioning and messaging, and plan acquisition through search, paid media, content, email and social channels. The course also covers e-commerce and sales funnels, analytics, attribution, cash forecasting, data protection and consumer-facing marketing controls.

Instruction combines short practitioner briefings with case work, facilitated group analysis, campaign simulations and structured planning tasks. Cases can be adapted to consumer services, fintech, public programmes, NGO initiatives, professional services, retail, education or B2B software. Participants leave with a practical digital venture launch pack: a validated opportunity hypothesis, commercial model, channel plan, measurement framework, budget assumptions and 90-day action plan. A certificate of completion is issued to participants who complete the course.

The course is suited to professionals developing a new digital business, introducing a digital product or service, or taking responsibility for growth in an early-stage venture. It is also valuable for managers supporting innovation portfolios, online revenue programmes or digitally enabled customer acquisition.

What you will be able to do

  • Validate a digital venture opportunity using customer interviews, smoke tests and evidence logs
  • Construct a Lean Canvas and unit economics model for a digital offer
  • Design positioning, messaging and customer journeys that support conversion
  • Build a channel plan using RACE objectives, content pillars and acquisition economics
  • Configure a paid campaign measurement approach using UTM conventions and conversion events
  • Create an e-commerce or sales funnel with qualification, follow-up and retention steps
  • Interpret GA4, funnel, cohort and attribution data to guide growth decisions
  • Produce a 90-day go-to-market plan with budget, risks, milestones and owners

Benefits of attending

For you

  • A defensible method for deciding whether a digital business idea merits investment
  • Practical confidence selecting channels based on customer intent and commercial evidence
  • A reusable approach to calculating customer acquisition cost and lifetime value
  • Clearer conversations with developers, agencies, sales teams and finance stakeholders
  • A documented 90-day launch plan for immediate workplace application

For your organisation

  • Earlier identification of weak assumptions before product and media budget commitments
  • More accountable digital marketing spend through defined funnel and attribution measures
  • Stronger connection between customer research, product decisions and revenue plans
  • Consistent launch planning across innovation, marketing, sales and product teams
  • Improved visibility of cash needs, regulatory issues and commercial risks

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can assess a digital venture opportunity using customer problems, market evidence and competitive alternatives.

  • Jobs to Be Done interviews expose functional, social and emotional demand
  • Problem statements distinguish urgent customer pains from attractive but weak ideas
  • Persona assumptions recorded with evidence, confidence ratings and research priorities
  • Competitor mapping compares alternatives, switching costs, pricing and acquisition channels
  • TAM, SAM and SOM estimates use defensible market-sizing assumptions
  • Value proposition wording links customer outcomes to differentiated product benefits

Participants can model a viable digital business and test its principal commercial assumptions.

  • Lean Canvas documents problem, solution, channels, revenue and cost assumptions
  • Business Model Canvas tests partners, activities, resources and customer relationships
  • Revenue models compare subscription, transaction, freemium, licensing and marketplace fees
  • Unit economics calculate contribution margin, customer acquisition cost and lifetime value
  • Pricing hypotheses connect willingness to pay, packaging and competitive anchors
  • Assumption registers rank desirability, feasibility and viability risks for testing

Participants can plan and interpret experiments that test demand before a full launch.

  • Customer discovery interviews follow a neutral discussion guide and evidence log
  • Smoke tests measure demand through landing pages, ads and waitlists
  • Minimum viable products isolate the smallest testable value proposition
  • A/B test design specifies hypotheses, metrics, sample criteria and decision rules
  • Funnel metrics track visit, signup, activation, purchase and retention rates
  • Experiment backlogs prioritise tests by impact, confidence and effort scores

Participants can create market positioning and conversion-focused customer experiences for a digital offer.

  • Positioning statements define category, target buyer, differentiation and proof
  • Brand messaging hierarchy aligns promise, pillars, proof points and calls-to-action
  • Customer journey maps identify moments, objections, content needs and conversion barriers
  • Website information architecture groups pages around intent, tasks and trust signals
  • Landing-page copy applies PAS, FAB and objection-handling structures to conversion goals
  • Conversion-rate optimisation reviews page speed, forms, headlines and social proof

Participants can develop an organic channel plan that attracts and nurtures priority audiences.

  • RACE planning connects reach, act, convert and engage objectives
  • Channel selection weighs audience intent, cost, control and measurement quality
  • Content pillars translate customer questions into searchable educational and commercial assets
  • Editorial calendars assign formats, owners, publication dates and distribution actions
  • SEO keyword mapping matches search intent to pages and content briefs
  • Email nurture sequences use triggers, segmentation, cadence and conversion prompts
  • Organic social plans distinguish community interaction from promotional publishing

Participants can plan paid acquisition campaigns with controlled testing, budgets and measurement rules.

  • Google Ads account structure separates campaigns, ad groups, keywords and budgets
  • Paid social audiences combine first-party data, interests, behaviours and exclusions
  • Creative testing matrices vary hooks, formats, offers and calls-to-action systematically
  • Bid strategies align with traffic, lead, purchase or value objectives
  • UTM conventions preserve source, medium, campaign and content attribution detail
  • Media plans set spend caps, flighting, test budgets and guardrails

Participants can design sales and retention processes that convert digital interest into repeat revenue.

  • E-commerce checkout design reduces friction across product, cart, payment and confirmation
  • Marketplace listings optimise titles, images, attributes, reviews and fulfilment options
  • Sales funnels define lead qualification, follow-up timing and handover criteria
  • CRM pipelines record stages, activities, probabilities and next actions
  • Payment options, returns policies and service standards shape purchase confidence
  • Retention tactics use onboarding, replenishment prompts, loyalty and win-back campaigns

Participants can use digital performance data to identify priorities and make evidence-based growth decisions.

  • GA4 event plans define business actions, parameters and conversion events
  • Dashboard design connects acquisition, activation, revenue, retention and referral metrics
  • Cohort analysis separates customer behaviour by acquisition period and segment
  • Attribution models compare last-click, first-click, linear and data-driven credit
  • North-star metrics balance customer value, business outcomes and behavioural frequency
  • Weekly growth reviews convert metric movements into decisions and experiments

Participants can identify financial, regulatory and operational controls required for a digital venture.

  • Thirteen-week cash forecasts combine sales receipts, payroll, media spend and suppliers
  • Break-even analysis tests fixed costs, gross margin and sales volume
  • Marketing budgets allocate test funds using expected return and cash constraints
  • Data protection obligations address consent, retention, access and lawful processing
  • Consumer protection rules govern pricing claims, refunds, disclosures and promotions
  • Risk registers assign owners, mitigations, triggers and review dates

Participants can assemble a timed go-to-market plan with measurable actions, ownership and review points.

  • Go-to-market plans sequence target segments, offers, channels, budgets and milestones
  • Ninety-day roadmaps prioritise validated actions, dependencies, owners and review points
  • OKRs translate growth strategy into measurable objectives and key results
  • Partnership plans define mutual value, commercial terms, referrals and governance
  • Investor and stakeholder narratives present traction, economics, risks and funding needs
  • Application plans schedule immediate experiments, measures, decisions and accountability

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Digital opportunity evidence log
  2. Lean Canvas and unit economics model
  3. Positioning and messaging framework
  4. RACE channel and content plan
  5. Funnel measurement dashboard specification
  6. Ninety-day go-to-market action plan

Who should attend

  • Aspiring Digital Entrepreneurs — need a structured route from idea validation to launch planning
  • Startup Founders — need evidence-led marketing and commercial decisions before scaling spend
  • Product Managers — need to connect digital offers with acquisition, conversion and retention plans
  • Digital Marketing Managers — need stronger commercial modelling for new products and ventures
  • Innovation Managers — need practical methods for assessing and progressing digital business concepts
  • Small Business Owners — need repeatable online customer acquisition and revenue methods

Skills and tools covered

Opportunity validationDigital business modellingChannel planningPaid media measurementConversion funnel designGrowth analytics

Tools and standards

Lean Canvas, Business Model Canvas, RACE Planning Framework, Google Analytics 4

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce methods, followed by sector-relevant cases, facilitated group analysis and practical simulations. Participants assess venture assumptions, interpret campaign and funnel data, compare channel choices, and make commercial decisions under budget constraints. Trainers use examples from B2B services, retail, financial services, social enterprises and digital products where relevant. Individual application planning throughout the course helps participants translate methods into a venture or workplace initiative.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand basic marketing terms such as target customer, website, social media, email and sales conversion. Experience working on a product, service, campaign, business idea or customer programme is helpful, whether in a startup, established organisation or public initiative. Participants should be comfortable discussing simple commercial figures such as price, costs and sales volume. No prior entrepreneurship qualification, coding ability, design software expertise, advertising platform certification or advanced analytics knowledge is required.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should understand basic marketing and customer terms and have some exposure to a product, service, campaign or business idea. You do not need coding, graphic design, advertising platform certification or previous startup experience.

Bring a laptop if possible and, ideally, an idea, product, service or current digital acquisition challenge to apply during the course. Participants without a live initiative can work from a supplied case context.

It suits aspiring entrepreneurs, founders, product managers, innovation managers, marketing managers and business owners. It is designed for people who need to make commercial decisions about a digital offer, not only create promotional content.

A digital marketing course often concentrates on campaign channels and communications. This course includes those subjects but also covers opportunity validation, business models, pricing, unit economics, e-commerce, cash planning and launch governance.

Participants can use the templates to assess a new offer, improve an existing acquisition funnel or prepare a digitally enabled service launch. The final application plan identifies specific experiments, measures, owners and review dates.

Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, with approximately 6.5 contact hours. The course progresses from opportunity and commercial modelling through customer acquisition, conversion, analytics, risk control and a 90-day launch plan.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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