The 5 most useful online courses for digital marketers

Digital marketing is one of the most promising and exciting careers today. With nearly every business putting in a considerable amount of time and effort into building their online presence to generate awareness and acquire customers, digital marketers are one of the most sought-after professionals in the job market. The good news is that becoming a digital marketer doesn't require one to attend a lengthy, expensive college course. There are plenty of online courses, both free and paid, that an aspiring marketer can use to acquire the varied skills one needs to be considered a professional digital marketer. Even practising marketers who want to develop their skills and propel their careers to the next level can find many online courses that suit their needs. Here are five such courses that can help both novice and experienced digital marketers hone their online marketing knowledge and skills.

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Google AdWords Certification by Udemy

By far the largest and most versatile pay-per-click advertising platform, Google AdWords' reach and features make it invaluable for a digital marketer. Getting certified in Google AdWords seriously bolsters a marketer's knowledge and credibility. One has to take the (free) exam(s) offered by Google to get certified as an AdWords expert. The exams are quite difficult, but this two-day (paid) course by Udemy – which comes with study guides, practice tests, and lifetime access to future updates – makes it seem quite simple.

Google Analytics courses by Google

Analysing campaigns to see if and how your time and money are producing the desired results is an important aspect of digital marketing. However, using Google Analytics, which is the most powerful and popular tool to carry out such analyses, can be quite overwhelming. But these four free courses offered by Google's Analytics Academy simplifies the ins and outs of using the tool – from the basics of setting up an account and integrating the tracking code to using its advanced features for data collection, processing and configuration.

Inbound Certification by HubSpot

This free course offered by HubSpot Academy lays a solid foundation for inbound marketing. It covers all the fundamentals – sales funnels, SEO practices, blogging, landing pages, lead nurturing, conversion analysis, email marketing, content marketing, and social media are all explained with the help of easy-to-understand lectures, infographics, and presentations. HubSpot Academy also offers several other free sales and marketing courses if you ever want to gain in-depth knowledge about a particular branch of marketing.

Social Marketing Training by Hootsuite

Social media is ingrained in online marketing and its importance to marketers is only growing with time. Understanding how to leverage social media to its utmost potential is crucial for digital marketers, and the Hootsuite Academy is the perfect place to start. It offers six courses that cover all aspects of social marketing – from optimising profiles and creating a strategy to the fundamentals of content marketing and social advertising – that are useful for both novice and experienced marketers.

Digital Marketing Specialist by Simplilearn

For marketers who want to earn a professional degree in digital marketing without having to attend a university, this master’s programme by Simplilearn is the best option. In five courses, the programme covers search engine optimization, social media marketing, pay-per-click, conversion optimisation, digital analytics, content marketing, mobile marketing, and email marketing. The course costs Rs 44,999 but is well-worth it since it offers participants real-life practice, individual certificates for each course, and access to Simplilearn's Job Assist programme.

It isn't only digital marketers, but also entrepreneurs, bloggers, photographers, or anyone else who uses the internet to promote their business who can learn a lot from taking these courses.