If you’ve got a few professional development hours piling up, and are looking for some ways to enhance your marketing skills and make sure you’re keeping up with the constant changes in the world of digital marketing, here are the top 5 free courses we recommend:
1. Google Analytics 4 Certification
With the relatively recent changeover to GA-4, updating your knowledge on this incredibly powerful marketing analytics platform is kind of a no-brainer. Google has a free online course dedicated to introducing the new platform, showcasing how it collects and processes data, account set up, navigating the interface, the many options for reporting, and how you can use the data in all of its forms. It accumulates into a new Google certification at the end, a handy one to pop in your toolkit.
2. Google Ads Certification
Next up we’d recommend Google's Ads Certification. It builds on the skills you learn relating to GA4, and overall helps you understand how to run digital advertising on this platform.
It’s slightly longer than the analytics courses, but covers search, display, retargeting, and video advertising, giving you a bunch of ideas and strategies to be able to use right away. And if you’ve already done it, it’s still helpful to keep ahead of the changes and keep your marketing skillset up to date.
HubSpot
3. Inbound Marketing Certification
If you’ve worked with us you’ll know we are big fans of HubSpot. So one of their courses will always make this list.
The Inbound Certification programme teaches marketers inbound strategies for lead attraction, nurturing, and conversion. You’ll learn how to:
- Create content that educates and nurtures leads through their purchasing journey.
- Offer relevant content and lead nurturing experiences to leads and customers.
- Optimise marketing processes using automation strategies and AI tools.
We love how this course emphasises the creation of buyer personas, mapping the buyer's journey, and using impactful content to convert prospects into customers.
4. Social Media Marketing Certification
Another goodie from HubSpot, their Social Media Marketing Course covers key aspects of building an effective social media strategy, creating engaging content, expanding your reach, and measuring results. The course also helps you keep on top of new trends in the everchanging social media space, something we should all be doing… all the time.
Semrush
5. Keyword Research Course
Another one of our favourite tools, and another high value course. Although we will caveat a lot of the learning Semrush Academy offers relates to using their tool, we rate the Keyword Research course, as we know how vital keyword research is for shaping marketing strategy and activity.
The course covers the fundamentals of SEO keyword research, including understanding business context, query intent, creating keyword lists, utilising Semrush tools, handling 'not provided' keywords, analysing competitors, and optimising content for search engine rankings.
Professional development in the world of marketing is really important, it’s an investment in your career, and it will genuinely help inspire new ideas and strategies. Put aside an hour a week, make a cup of tea or pour a wine, and take on one of these courses, or any other courses out there. You will not regret it!
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