Top 3 FREE Digital Marketing course to take your small business to the next level

Digital marketing has become more important than ever. Utilizing online platforms is the key way for small businesses to be found in Canada. Knowing how to utilize digital marketing effectively is key. We have carefully hand-picked 3 FREE Digital Marketing courses that will give you the knowledge you need to take your business to the next level on digital platforms. These 3 courses will equip you with general digital marketing knowledge and a more in-depth scope into developing a social media and advertising strategy. These courses are key in making your business visible on the internet.

Fundamentals of Digital Marketing by Google

This course by Google will offer you general marketing knowledge into the ins and out of digital marketing. Google basically dominates the internet industry and is the place where most people use to surf the internet. No wonder they are experts in optimizing it!

Their course on the Fundamentals of Digital Marketing contains 26 modules. Google says that the time commitment for the entire course is 40 hours. The course covers search engine optimization (SEO), advertising, content marketing, social media, mobile optimization, email marketing, analytics, e-commerce, and international expansion.

The Google course is self-paced and you can start at whichever module piques your interest first. Google has done a really great job designing an engaging course. Their course includes videos with written transcripts in the lesson. The course also includes a Check your Knowledge checkpoint and end of lesson quizzes to make sure that you understand the topics they talked about and make the most out of the course.

After completing the course, you receive certification for your achievement to showcase your expertise. Start your digital marketing journey through this course with Google!

Social Media Marketing Course by Hubspot

With the Fundamentals of Digital Marketing in your belt, the Social Media Marketing course by Hubspot is meant to help you effectively boost your business through social media.

This social media Hubspot course has 8 lessons. Hubspot says that the time commitment for the course is 4 hours and 15 minutes. It will cover developing a social media strategy, social media listening and monitoring, relationship building, an intro to social media advertising and how to set your continued success on social media.

This course works much like Google’s. They teach you through video content and offer downloadable transcripts so you can follow along. Unlike Google, they do not have end lesson quizzes, but they do have something similar to the Check Your Knowledge checkpoints called Quiz Yourself. These quizzes are embedded after every other video or every couple of videos. This course offers a certification and to get certified you have to complete a one hour exam. Moreover, these courses are much more structured than the Google course and offer a suggested way to go through the course.

Ready to get started on a social media strategy? Give this course a try with Hubspot! 

PPC University by WordStream

PPC stands for Pay-per-click. PPC is the most common and popular ways sites like Google and Facebook Ads use as their digital advertising model. In this advertising model, you would only be responsible for paying for ads that people have clicked on, thus why it’s called pay-per-click. But do not let me tell you about it, let experts of WordStream do it!. PPC University by WordStream is a great resource that really breaks down PPC and lets you know how to properly optimize ads you put up!

Instead of videos, PPC University offers content filed articles that will give you an in-depth understanding of PPC. The articles are well categorized which make it easy to read and sometimes include fun infographics to help you understand the material better. You are free to go through these courses at your own pace and easily refer back to different materials. First we recommend going through the PPC 101 & PPC 102 courses. Then continue to other courses called Advance PPC and Social Media Ads 101. They all have a structured flow in how they are completed and each topic adds onto your knowledge for the next topic. Additionally, they also have on-demand webinars with experienced professionals and whitepapers to offer you guidance on your PPC advertising journey.

Visit the PPC University webpage and get all their resources! Though, if you are looking for webinars specifically, the links on the webpage are broken and do not take you to the webinars. Use this link instead or you can find it, by clicking on ‘Webinars’ in the menu bar. The whitepaper links work on the PPC University webpage, but there are new ones released that were not included in the webpage. It can be found using this link or by clicking whitepapers on the menu bar.

It’s going to take some time and patience to implement all this knowledge, but there is no doubt that your business will grow. Although, if learning digital marketing is a bit too much and not in your forte or you just want to leave it to people who have the experience, we can help with that! We can lend a hand in trying to strategize, plan and execute digital marketing strategies. Our team is filled with trained individuals who have helped many small businesses in Canada with their digital marketing. Contact us, we are here to help!