One of the many conveniences of the Internet is the opportunity for ongoing learning, in your own time and at your own pace.
This brings with it the additional benefits of studying anywhere and without the requirement for travel. Business owners, executives, and their staff can choose from a range of online marketing tutorials to learn whatever they need to promote their companies, products, and services.
Here are some of my favorite options for video training covering a wide range of marketing channels.
Even if you’re completely new to marketing, you can gain valuable knowledge in minutes using these resources.
Related Article: How to Use Video Marketing to Promote Your Small Business
1. Inbound Marketing Certification (HubSpot)
For anyone who wants to go the whole hog and become a certified marketer, there’s little to compete with HubSpot’s (@HubSpot) Inbound Marketing Course. Ever since the company’s CEO Brian Halligan (@bhalligan) developed the concept of inbound marketing, it has spiraled upwards to become the marketing method of the new millennium. In this course, you’ll learn how to use different aspects of inbound such as content marketing, lead generation and nurturing and search engine optimization to create a comprehensive marketing strategy.
2. Social Media Marketing Magic
- HootSuite University - The use of social media marketing is high on every marketer’s list of essential skills, and it isn’t as simple as posting daily tweets. Fortunately, there’s valuable, on-demand video training available from HootSuite’s (@hootsuite) online university. The videos teach you everything you need to know to maximize your use of the HootSuite platform for marketing purposes, for the low price of $9.99 a month PRO subscription plus $21.99 a month for the duration of the course.
- NISM – Social Media Marketing - Alternatively, you can get certified as a social media practitioner by taking a somewhat more expensive strategist exam course through the National Institute of Social Media (@nismpulse). Whatever course you decide to choose, the end result will be a higher level of ability than you’d have otherwise.
3. Digital Advertising (Google Partners)
Google is much more than just a search engine, and for anyone interested in learning marketing the Google Partner exam study guides are a great source of educational tools to use. Whatever type of advertising you need to learn about there’s an exam study guide and training for it, including:
- AdWords
- Search advertising
- Display advertising
- Video advertising
- Shopping advertising
- Mobile advertising
Each option consists of modules that include training videos, detailed written information and graphics and best of all, it’s completely free to take part.
4. PPC (Wordstream’s PPC University)
> Within the broader arena of Google Partners’ digital advertising, the complex world of Pay-per-Click gives many people headaches. Wordstream’s (@WordStream) PPC University offers a variety of online marketing tutorials that drill down to the specific heart of PPC. Three levels of learning (101, 102 and Advanced) cover every aspect from basics such as how to set up an account, through bid management and optimization right up to remarketing and advanced geotargeting.
Related Article: Essential Negative Keywords for Almost Any Marketing Campaign
5. Content Marketing (CMI)
Content marketing is the probably the most important aspect of inbound marketing, according to Seth Godin (@ThisIsSethsBlog). It might seem like rocket science, what with all the intricacies involved in producing “quality” content, but the training available from the Content Marketing Institute (@CMIContent) founded (and headed) by Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) has marketers covered. It offers more than 46 lessons spread over 19 hours of learning and focused on seven key areas, which are:
- Planning
- Audience
- Story
- Channels
- Process
- Conversation, and
- Measurement
At a cost of $995 for the full curriculum it’s hardly a steal, but when you consider that you have a year in which to complete it the price averages out at less than $100 a month. The instructors are top-notch, too, with names like Orbit Media’s Andy Crestodina (@crestodina) and Contently’s Shane Snow (@shanesnow) presenting modules in their areas of expertise.
6. General Marketing Courses (edX Online)
All the institutions covered so far focus on one or more specific aspects of marketing, but what happens if you need a broader approach? Well, then there’s edX.org (@edXOnline), an online learning destination founded in 2912 by MIT and Harvard that offers courses gleaned from more than 85 global partners, which includes the best universities and other learning institutions in the world. With 172,000 Twitter followers, edX holds a sizeable share of the online learning market. With a huge variety of courses, you’ll have to hunt a bit to find marketing-focused courses but when you do, you’ll be able to graduate with a real certificate from a verified source.
7. Professional Marketing Certificate (Market Motive)
Since online marketing is really all about the digital aspects, if in-depth learning on topics such as web analytics, conversion optimization, email marketing or pay-per-click advertising is what you’re looking for, then Market Motive (@MarketMotive) might be your alma mater. The courses cost anywhere from $49 a month for self-paced learning, up to $1995 per year for coached marketing tutorials with fixed schedules.
You’ll get structured courses compiled by industry experts, live webinar events, supplementary learning materials, web-based tests and quizzes and an interactive student forum. Provided you do the work, you’ll graduate with a certificate recognized as an exam preparatory for the Online Marketing Certified Professional (OMCP) industry qualification.
8. SEO Training (Yoast Academy)
Without optimizing your website for search and doing other things necessary to get found by Google such as offsite SEO and link building, your marketing career is pretty much dead in the water. Thankfully, one of the primary Wordpress plugin providers, Yoast (@yoast), has created an academy offering basic SEO training at a reasonable price.
9. Technical Training (Lynda.com)
This subscription-based service costs a little more than some of the free resources, but Lynda.com (@lynda) offers quality training for anyone wanting to learn the technicalities of marketing.
With around 50,000 courses available on topics such as video filming, production and editing from beginner to advanced levels, website design using various content management systems (Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, etc) technical web development, graphic design, photography, 3D and animation, much of the content is marketing-focused even when it doesn’t fall into the Marketing category.
Related Article: If You Build It, They Won't Come: 11 Truths About Online Traffic
10. Email Marketing (OMI)
For a subscription of $27 a month, the Online Marketing Institute (@OMInstitute) offers a range of courses on marketing topics, including comprehensive training on email marketing. With 21 video tutorials of around an hour each in length, it’s possible for you or your employees to learn everything from database segmentation and management through driving response and tracking results.
The flexible, self-paced learning paves the way to various levels of marketing certification accredited by organizations such as The Internet Advertising Bureau (@IABUK) and the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). It’s no longer necessary to spend a fortune and embark on a degree course to fill gaps in your marketing knowledge. The online world brings specific, quality education right to your fingertips in the form of marketing tutorials from recognized institutions with solid track records.