It’s no secret that individuals who hold a bachelor’s degree or higher are more likely to find employment and earn higher incomes than those who don’t. But did you know that earning a certification can follow this same trend?

Given the rate at which new digital marketing technologies and software are developed, it can be overwhelming to learn through blog posts and ebooks alone. That’s where self-paced online courses come in — but which do you choose?

Below are the best free online courses you can take to strengthen your digital marketing skills.

• Content Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• SEO Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Web Development and Site Design
• Online Advertising Courses
• Other Digital Marketing Courses

Want to learn more about brands and organizations that offer the courses on the list below? Scroll to the end of this post, or jump to the section.

Free Online Marketing Courses

Free Content Marketing Courses

1. HubSpot Inbound Marketing Certification – HubSpot Academy

2. HubSpot Content Marketing Certification – HubSpot Academy

3. Internet Marketing for Smart People – Copyblogger

4. Viral Marketing and How to Craft Contagious Content – Coursera

5. The Strategy of Content Marketing – Coursera

6. Copywriting Blunders – Udemy

7. Content Marketing for B2B Enterprises – Udemy

8. Semrush Content Marketing Toolkit Course – Semrush

9. Copywriting Quick Start: Top FREE Writing Tools & Hacks – Udemy

Free Social Media Marketing Courses

10. Free Social Media Certification – HubSpot Academy

11. Developing an End-to-End Instagram Marketing Strategy For Your Business – HubSpot Academy

12. Diploma in Social Media Marketing – Alison

13. Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate – Meta BluePrint

14. Social Media Analytics – Quintly

15. Social Media Quickstarter – Constant Contact

16. Semrush Social Media Toolkit Course – Semrush 17. Become a Social Media Marketer – LinkedIn Learning (one month free)

Free SEO Marketing Courses

18. SEO Training Course – HubSpot Academy

19. Digital Marketing Course – Google Digital Garage

20. SEO Training Course by Moz – Udemy

21. SEO – QuickSprout

22. SEO Specialization – Coursera

23. Semrush SEO Toolkit Course – SEMRUSH

24. Online SEO Training – Yoast

Free Email Marketing Courses

25. HubSpot Email Marketing Certification – HubSpot Academy

26. Email Marketing Course – Sendinblue Academy

27. Email Marketing Made Easy for Beginners – Udemy

28. Email Marketing for Beginners – Skillshare

Free Web Development and Site Design Courses

29. Make a Website – CodeAcademy

30. Learn Javascript – CodeAcademy

31. Learn Ruby – CodeAcademy

32. Learn Python 3 – CodeAcademy

33. Learn HTML & CSS – CodeAcademy

34. Learn to Code Awesome Websites – General Assembly

Free Online Advertising & PPC Courses

35. What Digital Advertising Is and How to Do It – HubSpot Academy

36. How to Build a Paid Media Strategy – HubSpot Academy

37. PPC University – Wordstream

38. Advertising Your Business Online – Alison

39. Advanced Competitive Research Practices with Semrush

40. Copywriting 101: Crafting Your First Ad Campaign – Skillshare

41. Semrush Advertising Toolkit Course – Semrush

Other Free Digital Marketing Courses

42. Graphic Design Basics – Canva

43. Graphic Design Specialization – Coursera

44. Photoshop 2020: One-on-One Fundamentals – LinkedIn Learning

45. InDesign 2020: Essential Training – LinkedIn Learning

46. Video Marketing Course- HubSpot Academy

47. Event Marketing Course and Certification – Eventbrite

48. Event Sponsorship Course and Certification – Eventbrite

49. Affiliate Marketing for Beginners – Udemy

50. YouTube Ads Certification – YouTube

Benefits of a Digital Marketing Certificate

The most well-known benefit of earning a marketing certificate is the potential for better pay and career advancement, but there are plenty more rewards to reap by honing your skills. Here are a few of the top advantages of earning a digital marketing certificate.

1. Specializing in a Marketing Niche

The “jack of all trades, master of none” mantra is the marketer’s enemy.

Any experienced marketing professional will advise someone looking to enter or grow into the field to narrow their focus.

There are simply too many roles within marketing to specialize in all of them.

Certifications come in handy because they’re narrow enough in scope to give you a high-level overview of how the skill fits into a larger marketing strategy but tactical enough to show you exactly how to execute the skill in your day-to-day work.

2. Communicating Advanced Marketing Concepts

Whether you’re interviewing for a marketing role or pitching a client, one thing’s for sure — you’ll need to sound like a skilled marketer.

Sure, you can fake it ‘till you make it, but I don’t advise this route. Shibboleths will only get you so far before someone notices a gap in your experience.

Certification courses are comprehensive education tools that will teach you essential marketing lingo and exactly what it all means.

Best of all, you’ll be able to communicate advanced concepts confidently without over or under-explaining which can undermine your credibility.

3. Building Your Resume

When it comes down to it, your resume will almost always precede your presence.

Before an interview or a client meeting, people will look to your resume and portfolio first to verify your skills.

Adding the certifications you’ve received after completing marketing courses is a smart way to get picked up by resume scanners and it’ll catch the attention of human eyes, too.

Even if you have several years of experience, a certificate can still help get your foot in the door so you can speak in detail about your experience during an interview.

Where to Find Free and Affordable Courses

The free courses we mentioned above are amazing resources for budget-conscious marketers. They’ll teach you the basics of the subject and give you some tactical knowledge you can apply right away.

If you want to become more competitive in the job market or if you have a bit more time and resources to dedicate to furthering your education, check out the following platforms. They’re not all free, but they’re affordable and will provide you with up-to-date course material.

1. HubSpot Academy

HubSpot Academy offers certification and training courses to teach people how inbound marketing and HubSpot software work. Classes are often taught by marketers at HubSpot and are made up of video lessons, quizzes, and tests.

Most HubSpot Academy classes are available free of charge, and if you pass the certifications, such as the two below, you get a nifty certificate and badge to share on your social media profiles.

2. Copyblogger

Copyblogger is a content marketing company that creates content about content (so meta).

Its blog provides a ton of great resources about digital marketing, and this class, “Internet Marketing for Smart People,” is made up of ebooks and emailed lessons, and other course materials.

Copyblogger adopts four pillars of content marketing success, which it delves into over the course of this class.

3. Coursera

Coursera offers MOOCs (massive online open courses) created and taught online by universities such as Northwestern University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of California system.

These courses start at various times throughout the year, so browse the catalog to see when one lines up with your schedule.

4. Udemy

Udemy is another online learning platform that focuses specifically on courses related to skill building for working professionals.

One thing to note about Udemy: The classes we’ve highlighted are free, but the site features a myriad of other paid options for as little as $10, in some cases.

If you have a good experience with a free course, try a paid one to get even more value from the content on this site.

5. WordStream

Wordstream is a search engine and social media marketing software company that helps marketers drive the greatest ROI from their paid search and social media campaigns.

These free guides and ebooks distill learnings and best practices for users with varying levels of expertise running pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. Here are some of its topics and offerings:

6. Social Lock

Social Lock is a social media consulting, management, and strategy agency that also provides educational content and courses.

The Standout Social Content Course is a comprehensive guide for small business owners who want to grow sales through social media. Although this course isn’t free, it’s available at an affordable rate and can even be paid in installments if you’re on a tight budget.

If you need free resources that can teach you how to generate revenue that can pay for a course like this, Social Lock offers a Hustle with Hashtags eBook and Social Media Post Ideas.

7. edX

edX is another MOOC provider that features courses offered by top-tier universities, including Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Boston University.

Like Coursera, classes are taught online and start at specific times throughout the year. Here are just a few of the many courses you can find on edX:

8. LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com)

LinkedIn Learning hosts hundreds of courses taught by industry experts from all around the world.

The best part of LinkedIn Learning is that the course suggestions are customized to your profile.

If you have content marketing as a skill in your LinkedIn profile, the algorithm will suggest relevant courses, such as how to start a podcast or track the ROI of a content marketing strategy.

Similarly, your role will also influence the suggestions you see. As a marketing writer, I get recommended copywriting, SEO, and social media marketing courses. If I were a data scientist, I may be recommended courses on programming languages and machine learning.

To access the platform, the first month is free then up to $39.99/month.

9. Alison

Alison offers over 4,000 online classes in various professional skills users can take at their own pace.

This content repository includes courses that lead to certificates and diplomas — you choose which is best for your goals.

For an even more rigorous curriculum, you can choose a learning path that combines several lessons and courses into one learning track that gives you a well-rounded learning experience.

10. Meta Blueprint

At this point, you probably already know what Meta is (formerly Facebook) and what it does.

What you might not know is that the platform offers several training and certification programs.

Meta Blueprint offers self-paced and live e-learning courses for marketers seeking to grow their organizations using Facebook.

Blueprint offers classes in different languages on how to use Facebook and Instagram.

11. quintly Academy

quintly is a social media analytics tool that offers courses through quintly Academy.

The self-paced course provides an overview of social media analytics, benchmarking, and goaling using downloadable written materials and video lessons. These courses are available to take at no cost — simply sign in to enroll for free.

12. Google Digital Garage

Google is another company you’ve probably heard of before, and its digital marketing course offers a ton of valuable information if you plan to advertise on the search engine.

You can even take a Google AdWords certification at the end of the process that helps you beef up your resume.

Google has expanded its course offerings to include other types of digital marketing, too, so check out the site for up-to-date insights in the marketing world.

13. Codeacademy

Codeacademy offers free, interactive coding classes that take you from bare-bones to building a fully functioning website.

The courses we’ve highlighted below just scratch the surface, though. Codeacademy offers a variety of course topics so you can truly focus on your niche.

These classes include lectures and a workspace in the same browser window so you can see the effect of your work as you create it — how cool is that?

14. General Assembly

General Assembly offers live online courses that can be accessed for free or for a fee.

These courses specialize in technical skills and disciplines like the fundamentals of HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript.

Each one is categorized as one of five types that range from full-time immersive learning to on-demand learning. Once you choose your time commitment, simply find a course that works with your schedule.

15. Canva

Canva helps people easily make beautiful images for web design, and Canva Design School offers design courses that are valuable for any kind of storyteller.

The Creativity course explores the challenges of constant creation and innovation and how to do it well — with visuals, of course.

Become a Marketing Powerhouse with These Free Certifications

I’m sure all marketers (myself included) can agree that furthering our education in this field is a worthwhile way to advance our careers or businesses.

Earning a certificate from a reputable online course is one of the most convenient ways to accomplish this.

Whether you want to take a free online marketing class or you’d like to devote more time and resources to a paid one, you can’t go wrong with one from this list.

Just remember to focus your studying on a specific sector of marketing and develop a niche skillset — you’ll be well on your way to success as a consummate marketer.

Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally published in May 2018, but was updated in July 2020 for comprehensiveness and freshness.