We all know that most marketing professionals wear multiple hats.  Their job isn’t just social media, or just blogging, or just SEO; they quite often cover the management of all digital marketing tasks, even those that they may not have the most experience with. 

Luckily, the ability to expand one’s knowledge and skills is easily within grasp with online courses….and even better, a lot of them are free! Below is a list of a few of our favourites, that we think are the most effective for developing your digital marketing skills. Check them out, and let the learning begin (just in time for the new school year!)

1. Hubspot’s Academy

The self-paced Inbound Certification offered by HubSpot is free and open to everyone, and its listing of classes cover all the core elements of the Inbound Methodology, along with basics on SEO, content marketing, contextual marketing, social media strategy, email marketing and more.

The business world moves fast. Each certification is composed of on-demand classes taught by inbound experts, ready to get you on the track to career success. After all, knowledge is power; harness yours.

In addition, HubSpot has courses covering Inbound Sales, Sales Enablement, Growth-Driven Design, and HubSpot-specific training for developers.

2. Google’s Fundamentals of Digital Marketing

Located in The Digital Garage, Google offers the Fundamentals of Digital Marketing certification, which contains 26 modules of content, covering the following topics (and more):

• Build your web presence
• Plan your online business strategy
• Get discovered with search (SEO)
• Be noticed with search ads (SEM)
• Get noticed with social media
• Connect through email
• Get started with content marketing
• Find success with analytics

Not only will this certification teach you the basics of using some of Google’s tools, like search, Google Ads, and Google Analytics, but it’s inclusive of all digital marketing topics, so you’ll also learn all about social media marketing, email marketing, content marketing, and more.

3. Constant Contact’s Social Media Quickstarter

The Social Media Quickstarter offers free, step-by-step instructions on building your social media presence across all of the top social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Snapchat, etc.). This is a great, cover-the-basics training curriculum and will get you managing your social communities like a pro.

4. Facebook Blueprint

Through its short, online courses, Facebook Blueprint allows you to build your business or marketing career with free online training in social media. Offering 12 courses covering topics like “The Essential Guide to Facebook Ads” and “How to Advertise on Instagram“, you’ll earn verified credentials once completed, which can help you boost your resume, or your business’ presence on Facebook and Instagram.

5. Google’s Analytics Academy

The Analytics Academy courses provide a solid foundation for marketers to learn the principles of digital analytics and how to better manage business performance through key performance indicators. You’ll learn about Google’s measurement tools so that you can grow your business through intelligent data collection and analysis.

6. Udemy

Udemy is a really cool site. They offer courses in almost every topic you could ever think of (10,000+!), some of which cost $10, $50, or are even free. They have a massive “Marketing” course category which includes over 6,000 courses such as the Digital Marketing Masterclass, Instagram Marketing 2020: A Step-by-Step to 10,000 Followers, YouTube Masterclass, etc.

You can filter courses by rating, duration, or level (beginner, intermediate or expert), so there is truly something for even those students with digital marketing experience. If you do purchase a paid course option, Udemy offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

7. Copy Blogger’s Internet Marketing for Smart People

Copy Blogger’s “Internet Marketing for Smart People” is a free, 20-part course and ongoing email newsletter, delivered directly to your inbox. Their course topics provide training on content marketing and copywriting, as well as keyword research for SEO best practices.

8. Moz SEO Learning Centre

Although the majority of courses offered through the Moz Academy are paid, they do still offer free training through the SEO Learning Centre. Whether you’re a beginner, need advanced on-page tactics, or a refresher on building better traffic, you can find great guides here.

You can also sign up for access to the Moz Community, for the ability to connect with other online marketers, browse the Moz Q&A forum, and be notified of new content on the Moz blog, all of which offer additional learning opportunities.

9. Think With Google

Think With Google isn’t exactly an online course, but we do like to think of it as a collection of education tools that will help you to better understand your customer and trends in your industry. These tools are designed to help improve your brand’s marketing, web performance, analysis, digital experience, and more. Here are a few examples of what they offer:

• Culture & Trends: What’s trending in my category or market? I want to find out what my potential customers are engaging with and searching for.
• Competitive Analysis: How do I stand up against the competition? What can I do to differentiate my company? I want to see how my brand compares against industry benchmarks.
• Consumer Insights: Who is buying my product and why? What are they searching for and where are they shopping? I want to make better decisions about my marketing campaigns and ad spending.
• Diagnostic Tools & Industry Benchmarks: Am I fast enough? How is my site performing? Am I using the right platform? I want to measure my brand’s performance and get tips on improving key metrics.

10. Wordstream’s PPC University

Wordstream offers a mix of free (PPC 101) and paid (PPC 102,  Advanced PPC, Social Ads 101, etc.) guides that cover all of the basics of implementing a PPC strategy and running successful PPC campaigns.

They also offer access to regular webinars which cover a range of topics to help you get more from your search marketing. In addition, you can explore their library of free guides, e-books and white papers to learn more about PPC and other web marketing topics.

11. Yoast SEO For Beginners

Yoast offers a free option to their curriculum of online courses: SEO for Beginners. The course offers lots of training videos, reading and challenge tests. Yoast wants you to truly understand how their WordPress plugin works and how you can optimize your content to be SEO-friendly, which is why they are offering this course for free.

12. (Paid) Online Marketing Institute

The Online Marketing Institute offers some really great, in-depth courses for a reasonable monthly fee (starting at $27/month or test it out with a free 10-day trial). They have a massive e-library of digital marketing classes, and you’ll earn a certification upon completion of a program.

They also offer “Series”, which are curated collections of related classes designed to quickly increase your knowledge. Check out the “Think Like a CMO” series, aimed at both young and more seasoned professionals all of whom are facing the challenges of being a modern marketer.

—

Online learning and self-paced education can be a challenge if you’re not typically a self-motivated person, but you get out of it what you put into it. Go through the course options we’ve listed above, and pick one or two that you currently feel a bit challenged by — maybe you’re having a tough time understanding PPC-lingo and running successful campaigns, or you just can’t get the hang of posting engaging content on social media. Whatever the case, invest some time in a course or two, and you’ll see that you’ve also invested in yourself and your career goals.

For even more free access to learning, check out our downloadable Guide to Google Ads, or some of our other downloadable resources.