Here is a list of 8 free online courses you or your staff can take to beef up your marketing skill set. Many are self-paced so you can work on your schedule.

1. Advertising Foundations (LinkedIn)

Learn the fundamentals of effective advertising and marketing communications. Former NYC ad executive Jane Barratt provides an overview of the current media landscape and the building blocks and relative costs of a basic advertising plan. She outlines the basic process of getting your message to market and provides tools to help you refine your market focus, define your customer profiles, and establish your overall media strategy. Whether you want to do it yourself, partner with ad agencies, or work in a corporate marketing department, this course will help you understand what the ad footprint of any company, regardless of size, needs to succeed. (START HERE)

2. Email Marketing Course (Hubspot)

This email marketing course will teach you how to create an email marketing strategy that grows your business, and your career. From contact management and segmentation to email deliverability and analyzing your email sends, you’ll learn how to build an email marketing strategy that is human and helpful and builds trust with your contacts. At the end of this course, apply what you’ve learned with the email marketing tools that come free in your account. (START HERE)

3. Social media mastery (Canva Design School)

In this course you’re going to learn how to master social media. Likes. Shares. Hashtags. Algorithms. The world of social media can seem pretty complex, but it doesn’t have to be! (START HERE) You can get more marketing information on the portal’s blog HERE

4. Viral Marketing and How to Craft Contagious Content (Coursera)

Ever wondered why some things become popular, and other don’t? Why some products become hits while others flop? Why some ideas take off while others languish? What are the key ideas behind viral marketing? This course explains how things catch on and helps you apply these ideas to be more effective at marketing your ideas, brands, or products. You’ll learn how to make ideas stick, how to increase your influence, how to generate more word of mouth, and how to use the power of social networks to spread information and influence. Drawing on principles from his best-selling book, “Contagious: Why Things Catch On,” Professor Jonah Berger illustrates successful strategies for you to use buzz to create virality so that your campaigns become more shareable on social media and elsewhere. By the end of this course, you’ll have a better understanding of how to craft contagious content, build stickier messages, and get any product, idea, or behavior to catch on. (START HERE)

5. Instagram Training Course (Hubspot)

It’s easy enough to use Instagram, but harder to use it successfully. Learn how to put together an Instagram marketing strategy that will make a real difference for your business. In this course, you’ll learn what a successful Instagram strategy looks like, how to develop and analyze Instagram content and how to promote that content with Instagram ads. (START HERE)

6. The Strategy of Content Marketing (Coursera)

This course is a partnership between the leading content marketing authority, Copyblogger, and UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education. In this course, you will learn the core strategies content marketers use to acquire and retain customers profitably. Specifically, you will learn how to develop, organize and implement a content marketing strategy, analyze and measure the effectiveness of content marketing, write compelling copy, use a strategic framework when writing, and build your professional brand and authority through content marketing. You will also learn how to put the ideas presented to you into action and build your own personal brand through content marketing. (START HERE)

7. Fundamentals of digital marketing (Google)

Master the basics of digital marketing with our free Interactive Advertising Bureau-accredited course. There are 26 modules to explore, all created by Google trainers, packed full of practical exercises and real-world examples to help you turn knowledge into action. (START HERE)

8. Facebook Marketing Blueprint (Facebook)

Explore fast, free, self-guided courses to help build your marketing skills across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. (START HERE)

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