It’s a challenging economy right now for marketing professionals. If you’re at risk of losing employment or you’ve been laid off and are job hunting, I’d encourage you to take the time to expand your knowledge of digital marketing beyond your expertise.
Too many professionals in the marketing industry see it only through the lens that they’ve been educated in or the positions they’ve pursued. This does leave gaps that lead to inefficiencies in every business:
Marketing is an ecosystem of overlapping strategies across both traditional and digital media. While you may not be seeking employment for a job that you’ve not been trained or worked in, understanding other strategies and how your work could impact those strategies can be a huge differentiator as you apply for your next position. I’d encourage every marketing professional to take courses, watch informative videos, and pursue third-party certifications.
Rather than spending time on social media or binge-watching Netflix, why not take some personal time out and expand your horizons with some free courses? While I feel well-rounded as a marketer, I continue to take these classes and seek out certifications to make myself more valuable to my clients. You should, too!
I’m not going to focus on all the free resources you’ll find on the internet for digital marketing training. Instead, I’m focusing on free courses that have been well-planned out, are comprehensive, and that also offer certifications. Most of these have a published, external certificate that you can add to your LinkedIn profile… which I’d highly recommend!
Free Digital Marketing Training and Certifications
Paid Digital Marketing Courses and Certifications
Do Marketing Certifications Really Matter?
One of the biggest gaps in our industry is that the curricula of our university system, while comprehensive, are developed and approved years before being taught. A degree in a marketing-related field does an amazing job of providing three differentiators for you:
Unfortunately, though, a traditional marketing degree program is that it doesn’t prepare you for the wide array of mediums, strategies, and platforms that you’ll be expected to deploy, use, and manage on a monthly basis.
This is the gap that vendor-focused or medium-focused training and certifications fill. As we hire our staff, one of our key questions is understanding the strategies they’ve deployed and the platforms they’ve utilized. I’d encourage you to sign up for some of these courses that are outside of your job focus to provide you with a better understanding of the ecosystem that you’re working within. These additional skills will make you far more valuable to a potential or current employer.
Do you have a great resource that provides digital sales and marketing-related certifications? Feel free to comment below and I’ll be sure to include them.
Disclosure: Martech Zone is an affiliate of some of these training resources and we are using affiliate links in this article.
Leave a Reply