Whether you want to land a marketing job at your dream company, launch your own business, or build a side hustle for some extra spending money, one thing’s for sure: you’ll need to know a lot within the digital marketing field.
Being successful in digital marketing is a lot like being an orchestra conductor—there’s a ton of moving parts, and they all need to work together in harmony. From automation to HTML, SEO to content, social media to e-business, there’s a lot to learn in your journey to becoming a full stack digital marketer.
Luckily, there’s also plenty of free online marketing courses out there to help you build your skill set (as well as our paid digital marketing bootcamp).
Our Favorite Free Online Marketing Classes by Category
SEO
SEO Training Course by Moz, via Udemy
SEO can feel a bit like black magic. The truth is, it’s not, and this free breakdown of SEO best practices by Moz shows you why. If you want your blog posts, landing pages, and lead gen resources to perform well on Google (of course you do), you’ll need a basic understanding of SEO. Get it in this popular guide.
Free SEO Learning Path by Springboard
Created by the SEO team here at Springboard, this learning path provides nearly 50 hours of free resources to get you up and running when it comes SEO best practices. From onpage optimization to link building, the free marketing class will provide you with the foundation to start improving your organic traffic ASAP.
Related: SEO Best Practices & Optimizing Your Website
Data Analysis
Google’s Analytics Academy
If you’ve got data to analyze, chances are you’ll be using Google Analytics—at least in part—to do it. Google wants you to use their tools, though, so they offer plenty of free resources to help you gather up data, understand it, and analyze it to make better marketing decisions—and drive revenue.
Free Data Analysis Learning Path by Springboard
A bit more in-depth than the Google Academy, this course is for marketers looking to get their hands dirty with their company’s data. You’ll learn how to organize, clean, and model data from multiple sources in order to help your team make informed decisions.
Marketing Automation
Hubspot’s Email Marketing Certification Course
You’ve drafted the most incredible email, and are ready to hit send on that puppy. But wait: have you thought about your list? How to segment it? What your CTA is? Where your readers will go? If they’ll even open the thing? Hubspot’s free course will help you master lifecycles, segmentation, content, deliverability, and much more within email marketing.
Content Marketing
Hubspot’s Content Marketing Certification Course
Could your words use some work? Maybe you have great content but don’t know how to best get it in front of your audience. Maybe you’re struggling with how to build replicable processes for creating impactful content. Or maybe you just want to get the most out of every piece of content you create. This course has you covered.
Related: How to Create Great Content With Buyer Personas
HTML/CSS
Udacity’s Intro to HTML and CSS
As a digital marketer, you don’t need to be able to build a web page from scratch. It does help, though, to have a basic understanding of the fundamentals that make up the pixels and interactions you see on every screen. This free online class will teach you how to think like a designer and a developer, which can give you deeper context around your marketing initiatives.
A Beginner’s Guide to Front-End Programming by Springboard
Over 15,000 learners have taken this free class with the goal of improving how they create and manage web pages With over 40 hours of free resources, this course is perfect for anyone looking to take a more hands-on and agile approach to their marketing.
Pay-per-click (PPC)
Google Ads Academy
Adwords is the most popular PPC platform out there, and as mentioned, Google is undeniably important when it comes to being found online. Their free help center will provide you everything you need to know about PPC marketing, from the absolute basics to the nitty gritty details.
e-Business
E-Commerce – Introduction to Internet Marketing Strategies for Businesses by Alison
If you’re looking for a free training program specifically around the business of internet marketing, look no further than Alison. This program teaches the basics of successful internet marketing techniques, used by today’s most powerful businesses. You’ll gain insight into building a cohesive marketing strategy in order to reach your customers, and how to measure your program’s effectiveness.
Social Media
Social Media Marketing: Optimization by LinkedIn
Okay, so technically this isn’t a free course, but if you are new to LinkedIn’s online marketing training, you can sign up for a free month and take this handy course in social media marketing. Analyze what’s working via SWOT analysis, discover how to create a strong social presence that highlights your strengths, and gain inspiration by exploring the most cutting edge opportunities for social media to achieve even greater reach.
Bonus: General Online Marketing
Google Online Marketing Challenge
Get the most bang for your buck (though technically it’s free, so not exactly!) with this course/challenge from Google. You’ll cover everything from the basics of digital marketing, fundamentals of SEO, search and display advertising, social media, basic analytics, video, and more. It’s one of the most comprehensive trainings out there, perfect if you’re looking for something all-encompassing on a single easy-to-use platform.
Digital Marketing Learning Path by Springboard
This learning path will teach you the basics of digital marketing with nearly 20 hours of free curriculum. Users have leveraged this course to help improve their foundational knowledge of online marketing and familiarize themselves with topics like marketing channels, defining and measuring metrics, as well as building and optimizing campaigns. This is the perfect course for anyone looking to get their feet wet with digital marketing.
