If you're not sure you want to stay within the realm of marketing, you may want to consider an MBA, which will give you a greater breadth of knowledge. But if you are confident that marketing is where you want to be, a marketing program will allow you to delve more deeply and broadly into your chosen craft. For the online space, I would specifically suggest a master's in integrated marketing communications, which will give you the knowledge you need to best leverage the ocean of data available in the digital world.
While the motivations of your customers are important, IMC will teach you to focus more closely on data collected through the past actions of consumers in order to predict future outcomes. By looking at the data and modeling future actions, you will be able to more accurately understand the value of specific segments of customers and assign your budget dollars toward the most worthwhile marketing programs.
That type of knowledge will allow you to confidently take a seat at the table with your company's CFO or other financial decision makers and involve yourself with the big-picture questions that your organization faces.
If you have the resources to enter into a full-time program, I would recommend doing so. It will help you immerse yourself totally into a culture of learning without the baggage of your current job. I recently graduated from the full-time master's in IMC program at Northwestern University's Medill School and felt that I was learning from some of the best minds in the industry and studying alongside an amazingly smart pool of students ranging in age from lower 20s to upper 30s.
The leaders of this program work hard to keep the curriculum on the cutting edge of the industry, and I took classes on digital marketing, direct and interactive marketing, building networked audiences, etc., with opportunities for real world projects with companies like P&G, FedEx, Best Buy, etc. I also had the opportunity to take classes within Medill's journalism program as well as at the Kellogg School of Management, where a select number of IMC students are accepted into the Media Management program.
I commend you on going back to school after so many years already in the industry. Good luck in your pursuits!
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