One of the best ways to teach yourself digital marketing is to follow an online digital marketing training course. A good course will help you build the skills needed to become a successful digital marketer fast and boost your career.
In this post you’ll find the best digital marketing courses available online. The list includes both Free and Paid courses from reputable organizations.
Who should follow a digital marketing course?
Digital marketing skills are critical not only for digital marketing professionals but for anyone working in a business that has an online presence. This includes entrepreneurs, marketing managers, marketing specialists and small business owners.
Why are these the best online courses on digital marketing?
If you search Google for ‘Digital Marketing Courses’ you’ll find a lot of courses covering different digital marketing disciplines. For example, there are courses that focus only on SEO or social media marketing but that does not give you a complete picture of all digital marketing channels.
My goal with this guide is to showcase those courses that are complete and cover a wide range of digital marketing concepts and not just one area.
I have included in the list different types and levels of courses suitable for beginners, intermediate and advanced users.
Most of them are Free and you can get started right away and boost your digital marketing career.
Top 10 Digital Marketing Courses
These are the most reliable digital marketing courses you can take online and get certified in digital marketing.
1. Google Digital Marketing Courses (Free with Certification)
Google has an online course platform (Digital Garage) offering free courses on a number of subjects related to career or business development.
One of the areas that is covered in detail is Digital Marketing. In particular, Google offers the following online courses:
All courses include both video and text materials and some can be completed in 3 hours while others can take up-to 40 hours.
The digital marketing fundamentals certification is accredited by Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe and The Open University.
Why enroll in this course?
If you are new to Digital marketing and want to get a good idea on and how the different components work together, then this is a good course to follow.
The certification is also globally recognized which is a great way to boost your career.
2. SEMRUSH Academy (Free with Certification)
SEMRUSH is the company behind one of the most successful digital marketing tools. To serve their users and audience better, they have created an academy with a number of free digital marketing courses.
Their courses cover all digital marketing disciplines including:
Courses main language is English but many of the courses are also available in Spanish.
Registration is free and upon completion of the course and the exams, you get a certification.
The course material includes both Video and text and all courses are taught by reputable digital marketing professionals.
They cover both basic and advanced concepts and while some courses are specific on how to use , there are courses that cover general concepts like SEO fundamentals, PPC fundamentals, technical SEO and social media marketing.
Why enroll in this course?
The nice thing about these courses is that they are taught by industry experts and besides explaining the different concepts, they also teach you how these can be applied in practice.
In addition, you’ll get to learn how to use SEMRUSH correctly and this can increase your chances of running successful digital marketing campaigns.
3. ClickMinded Digital Marketing Course (Free and Paid with Certification)
ClickMinded is a company created by Tommy Griffith. Tommy is an experienced and SEO trainer. He has done SEO work for companies like Paypal and AirBnB.
They offer a number of marketing courses covering all online marketing channels and a digital marketing course bundle that includes everything you need to know to become a digital marketing professional.
In particular the bundle covers 7 topics:
The nice thing about the Click Minded bundle is that each course is taught by professionals who work in the industry or worked in big organizations.
You can register for free to their Digital marketing framework masterclass but to gain full access to the bundle, you have to pay $997 (once off fee). The course comes with a certificate and a 14-day money back guarantee.
Here is a tip for you: While the course is offered at a discount (normal price is listed as $3,479), you can get it with a further discount by registering for their masterclass course. After you register for the free course, you will get emails with better discounts on the paid courses.
Why enroll in this course?
Obviously, this is not a course for all individuals. The price is high for a freelancer or a solo professional but not a problem if you work for a big company.
If you are willing to spend the amount, there is definitely value to be gained from this course. If you already know the basics and worked through Google Garage and SEMRUSH courses, you can use this course to go deeper and explore all bits and pieces of digital marketing.
I also recommend to register to their newsletter since they provide high quality content (on various digital marketing topics) through their blog.
4. HubSpot Online Marketing Courses (Free with Certification)
Another option to and get certified from a renowned company is Hubspot Digital Academy.
Hubspot is one of the leading companies in the digital marketing industry with a range of tools including CRM, SEO tools, content marketing and sales.
Hubspot’s Digital Marketing Courses cover the following topics:
Registration is Free and you get a recognized certification upon completion of the course.
Besides the above courses, they also offer a number of courses (without a certification) that cover Search engine optimization, blogging, Facebook ads and other online marketing channels.
Why enroll in this course?
Even if you don’t plan to use HubSpot’s tools in your marketing campaigns, they did a very good job with their online courses and they worth spending some time and going through the ones that interest you.
All courses are taught by experts like Sujan Patel and Matthew Barby, who are recognized digital marketing professionals with years of experience in the industry. The learning environment is easy to use and the courses are free.
I suggest you also go through this course, which explains how HubSpot is using blogging to get thousands of visitors per day from Google organic search.
5. Udemy Digital Marketing Course (Paid with Certification)
Udemy is one of the biggest online learning platforms. They offer courses on a number of subjects covering all areas of marketing from SEO to Google Ads and Sales.
One of the courses that covers Digital Marketing in detail is the Complete Digital Marketing Course Bundle that includes 12 courses. Topics include:
The course comes with a certification but it’s not Free. The price is $199 but you can get it with $19 if you are patient enough. Sign up with Udemy, add the course to your wish list and wait for the discount period.
Why enroll in this course?
I’m not a big fan of Udemy courses, I have tried a number of courses in the past and they seem to me that the courses are made for the masses without giving attention to detail.
Also, sometimes the course description promises more than what is actually delivered in the course.
Nevertheless, if you can get this course for a reasonable price and not $199, it’s worth the money. If you are a beginner you can get a very good idea on how the different components work since it covers everything from website marketing to social media promotion.
6. Digital Marketing Certified Associate Certification Training (Paid with Certification)
This Digital marketing course is offered by SimpliLearn and covers a number of Digital Marketing disciplines and tools.
It’s a course for beginners and includes:
The Digital Marketing Certified Associate (DMCA) is a premium course and comes with a premium price. There are two pricing options, you can either take the course online using the self-paced material or enroll into an online class. The cost ranges from $750 to $1350.
Why enroll in this course?
The nice thing about this course is that it includes walkthroughs of more than 35 digital marketing tools so by the time you complete this course, you’ll have a very good idea of what tools to use in your digital marketing campaigns.
Also, besides getting certified for this course, it prepares you to pass and get certified for Google Ads, Facebook, Google Analytics and YouTube.
If you are working for a company and want to convince your boss to invest in a Digital Marketing Course, then this is a very good option from a trusted company.
7. Digital Marketing Transformation (Free with Certification)
Google Academy for Ads is the primary resource to learn and get certified using Google Ads but they also offer a number of Free courses on other digital marketing topics.
One of those courses is Digital Marketing Transformation which focuses on:
Upon completion of the course, you get a certification.
Why enroll in this course?
This is not the typical marketing course and it’s not for beginners. To be able to follow the course you need to have a basic understanding of digital marketing concepts.
If your job role is more into Google Ads and paid advertising then this is a course for you. The courses are free and it won’t take you more than 10 hours to complete.
8. Copyblogger Online Marketing Course (Free)
One of the most successful websites on Internet Marketing, especially when it comes to content writing is Copyblogger.
Brian Clark is the author behind copyblogger and the creator of the most successful WordPress framework, Genesis.
Although copyblogger, studiopress and Genesis are now part of WPEngine, Brian’s free Internet Marketing course is still a great resource to learn how to write great content.
This course is through email and downloaded ebooks and it’s free. All you have to do is register using your email address.
Why enroll in this course?
Writing great content is essential for the success of any digital marketing campaign. Whether it’s ad copy, articles or landing page copy, you need to learn how to write engaging content and this course is a great place to start.
It is suitable for both beginners and advanced users.
9. Udacity Digital Marketing Course (Paid with Certification)
Another premium option to learn digital marketing, is Udacity’s Digital Marketing Nanodegree program.
It covers everything you need to know to become a digital marketer including:
Why enroll in this course?
What is different about this course compared to other online courses is that besides getting access to the course material, you also get access to a technical mentor and a personal career coach and career services.
This is particularly useful if you are a beginner to digital marketing and want to have someone to talk to about technical issues and need advice on how to build your digital marketing career.
Of course, you don’t get the above services for Free. To maintain your access to the course material and services, you have to pay a premium price of $399 per month. It is estimated that you will need at least 3 months to go through the material.
This is definitely a good course for beginners but it’s not for everyone. Paying $399 per month for a course subscription is a lot for freelancers or self-employed so this is more suited to marketers working with big companies that can afford it.
10. Optinmonster Digital Marketing Training (Free)
Optinmonster is one of the most successful tools for increasing website conversions. To educate their users, they created a number of free courses covering topics related to email marketing and conversion optimization.
Why enroll in this course? Although the optinmonster digital academy does not include courses on all digital marketing topics, it is worth taking a look because once you manage to get traffic to a website, you will need conversions and this is exactly what you’ll learn in these courses.
Registration is free and the courses are easy to follow, suitable for both beginners and advanced users.
You need to acquire a range of skills to become a successful digital marketing professional.
Digital marketing is not a single discipline but it includes a number of principles that cover all online marketing channels.
At the end of the day, when you apply for a digital marketing job, you need to prove that you have knowledge of at least the following:
Following a digital marketing course, is one of the best ways to acquire those skills fast. You can then concentrate on building your real-world experience by either working on your own websites, getting a job in the field as a freelancer or in an established digital marketing agency.
Most of the courses listed in this guide are free and perfect for beginners. You can check out the courses in the order listed above and enroll into the ones that best fit your needs.
If you found this guide useful, you can also check out our SEO training guide which includes a list of courses you can follow to become an SEO specialist, which is usually the first step taken by anyone wanting to start a career in digital marketing.
Any good digital marketing course missing from the list? Let me know in the comments below and if meets our quality criteria, will update this post to include it.