While formal education or apprenticeship training is important, ‘schooling’ is only one type of learning. There are many other opportunities to further your knowledge and develop the skills you need throughout life. Take a look at what has happened over the past year. I have even learned how to repair my washing machine thanks to YouTube. I find I learn best in the moment – when I need it, and not only how to improve my skills but how to apply the learning to real-world situations.
This year we are having to adjust to a world where corporate training budgets have shrunk and we must self-direct our own learning in order to protect our careers. Thankfully, today there are many ways to re-skill or up-skill for free. Here are some of the ways to upskill for free to enhance 5 of the key marketing skills you need in 2020 and beyond:
- Search Marketing
- Google offers a comprehensive self-tutorial to learning how to use their products. To take the certified courses as they are designed, visit https://skillshop.withgoogle.com
- Microsoft offers similar self-learning courses on how to advertise on their networks. To see an overview of the courses they offer visit https://learninglab.about.ads.microsoft.com/catalog/
- HubSpot’s Academy offers a course on Inbound marketing that can also be helpful
- And our own Introduction to Search Marketing MasterClass for Beginners can also be valuable for non-profits and social enterprises. These courses are free to our clients and while there is a small fee for others, we donate all our course proceeds to Cdn. charities.
- Data Analytics
- Within the Google Skillshop above you will also find a range of training tools on Google Analytics.
- Check out what free sessions key Marketing Conferences are offering for free online due to the pandemic. For example, MarTech happens this Fall and is offering free elements.
- Check out as well the training offered by the various platforms you are using. There are free analytics training courses offered by Facebook, Hootsuite, Buffer etc. Or check out general social media analytics courses such as this Free Social Media Analytics course by Quintly.
- There are a number of online learning platforms that offer paid and free courses from Universities or Companies like Coursera. eDX for example offers a range of free courses such as Marketing Analytics and you can also get very specific as you search. Udemy’s free courses for example (use the “Free” search criteria checkbox to filter) results in a “Salesforce CPQ Intro” course. Setting up an account for these sites is always free and this year the number of free options has increased greatly.
- Content Marketing
- Similar to their Inbound Marketing certificates, the HubSpot Academy also offers courses on Content Marketing or specific forms of Content like YouTube
- This Fall via Coursera, The University of California offered a free course on Content Marketing.
- edX is offering Strategic Social Media Marketing
- Emerging Platforms / New Technology.
- Coursera also offers a range of learning from basic to emerging technologies. For example, this Fall the University of Toronto offered a free “Learn to Program” online course and DeepLearning AI offered a free course on AI for Everyone, while IBM offered a free course on “Building AI Powered Chatbots without Programming“
- There is so much to cover here you might need to google to find just what you are looking for. For example, HubSpot has an article on Alexa / Amazon Skills Marketing, along with articles on a diverse range of marketing tools and skills.
- Online Advertising
- Most of the online platforms offer free training to learn how to best optimize your online advertising efforts. Facebook Blueprint for example, offers a range of courses to improve your digital marketing knowledge.
- The Toronto Library offers a range of courses on digital design such as Adobe Creative Suite Classes (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc.
- Linkedin Learning offers a diverse range of online advertising courses and you can register for a free first month.