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Do you struggle with marketing your brand or business online?
Are you looking to earn a certification in digital marketing but worry you can’t afford it?
Or perhaps, you’re looking to build a sustainable income online but unsure how to get started.
In today’s fast-paced world, one of the most convenient and flexible way to learn digital marketing is through online courses.
I’ll break down the most common types of digital marketing to date, and explain to you how to use each of them.
Then, I’ll show you the best digital marketing courses you can learn (free & paid), that are packed with valuable resources. These programs will help you reach your marketing goals and clear your doubts – like the ones mentioned above.
So, let’s not waste time.
Featured image: Photo by Elios Santos on Unsplash
Navigate to where you wanna go
What are the most popular types of digital marketing in use today?
- SEO
- Content Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Influencer Marketing
- Affiliate Marketing
- Video Marketing
Top SEO Courses
- SEO Crash Course by Semrush
- SEO Bootcamp by ZTM
- Google Analytics 4 Course by Google
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Specialization by UCDavis
Top Content Marketing Courses
- Introduction to Content Marketing: Win Customers with Content Marketing
- Content Marketing Masterclass: Create Content That Sells
- Content Marketing for Business: Elevate Your E-Commerce Brand
Top Social Media Marketing Courses
- Social Media Marketing Crash Course
- Social Media Marketing: Top Tips for Growing Your Followers & Going Viral
- Understanding TikTok and Its Users
- TikTok Marketing 2023 | Go Viral With Authentic Videos!
Top Email Marketing Courses
Top Influencer Marketing Courses
- Social Media Success: How to Become an Influencer
- Influencer Marketing 2023: Win in Branding – Beginner to Pro
- Influencer Marketing: Launch Powerful Campaigns In 10 Steps
Top Affiliate Marketing Courses
- The Ultimate Affiliate Marketing Course for Beginners 2023
- Finding Affiliate Marketers: Tips for Selecting the Right Affiliate Marketing Platform
Top Video Marketing Courses
- YouTube Success: Script, Shoot & Edit with Marques Brownlee (MKBHD)
- Marketing Strategy: Relatable Video Content
Conclusion
What are the most popular types of digital marketing in use today?
1. SEO
It’s short for Search Engine Optimization and involves keyword research, on-page optimization, content structure optimization, link building, and other techniques to increase organic (free) traffic.
How to use SEO?
They are one of the most popularly used and cost-effective way to improve website and content visibility in search engine results.
SEO is still relevant in 2023 and it’s a core approach used by over 90% of marketers across multiple industries to rank at the top of organic searches in major search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo! Search.
2. Content Marketing
Content marketing involves creating and sharing valuable and relevant contents to attract and retain a target audience. It can include blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, e-books, and more. The goal is to provide value and establishing a strong brand.
How to use Content Marketing?
To effectively use content marketing, you should first identify your target audience and understand their needs, interests and values.
Then, create high-quality contents that align with their needs and distribute them across various channels such as social media, email newsletters, and your blog or website.
Thirdly, analyze the performance of your content marketing efforts with metrics such as website traffic, click-through rates, and conversion rates. These data will help you understand what content resonates best with your audience and allow you to make informed decisions for future content creation.
3. Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing brings a whole new level of interaction and engagement. SMM lets you engage with your customers and followers, build customer relationships, and increase brand advocacy.
On a less lighter note, popular social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest are constantly tweaking their algorithms to find new ways to make money. To keep up with all these changes, learning how to create an effective social media strategy is key to ensure your marketing campaigns continue to be successful.
How to use Social Media Marketing?
It includes creating engaging content, running paid ad campaigns, interacting with followers, and leveraging influencers to reach your target audience on social media platforms.
4. Email Marketing
Email marketing is often used to promote products, share updates and events, as well as to build customer relationships. Unlike the other types digital marketing, this one won’t be affected by any changing algorithms.
While e-commerce sites and retail businesses have seen great success with it, you can use email marketing to build mutually beneficial relationships with your prospects or customers. This can be achieved by adding value to your email content and through personalized communication.
How to use Email Marketing?
Send subscription newsletters, customer welcome emails, seasonal product promotions, tips or a series of emails for customer nurturing.
5. Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing leverages popular social media personalities or content creators (influencers) to endorse or promote a brand or business.
The influencers’ personal connection with their huge following helps build credibility for brands. Suffice to say, working with influencers can help you reach a larger audience and significantly boost sales.
How to use Influencer Marketing?
I think it’s better to rephrase this question to – “How to work with influencers?”
The process of finding an influencer to work with isn’t a walk in the park. It’s a time-consuming process but one that will be worth your time if you have a marketing strategy in place.
The following checklist can get you on a right track:
1. Define your goals
2. Define your budget because; more followers = higher fees
3. Ask yourself – What type of audience do I want to reach?
4. Reach out to relevant influencer
5. Collaborate!
6. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is much like influencer marketing, whereby other people advertise your products or services on their own websites, blogs, or social media pages.
Affiliates receive payment for each lead or purchase that is generated as a result of their promotion. As opposed to paying influencers a large upfront fee, you only pay when desired results are achieved through commission payouts.
It’s also a great way for anyone who has a blog, social media or a YouTube channel to generate passive income.
This form of marketing provides a win-win situation for both the affiliates and businesses from increased exposure and sales.
How to use Affiliate Marketing?
You typically start by setting up an affiliate program. Affiliate networks like Impact, CJ Affiliate and ShareASale provide a platform for businesses to connect with potential affiliates.
Once the program is set up, affiliate marketers can choose products or services to promote by generating unique affiliate links. These links are then shared with their audience through their channels.
When someone clicks on an affiliate link and makes a purchase, the affiliate marketer earns a commission from the sale.
7. Video Marketing
It’s a content strategy that focuses on using videos to engage and promote products or services. It can be in the form of advertisements, tutorials, product demos, testimonials, or branded content.
How to use Video Marketing?
Video marketing should be part of your content marketing strategy as it allows you to engage with your audience on a deeper level.
Embed them into your social media campaigns, website landing pages, blogs and even email marketing.
To optimize your video marketing efforts, consider also using video analytics to measure viewer engagement, so that you can make data-driven decisions to effectively communicate your brand’s message and stand out from the competition.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. You can read more about our affiliate disclosure in our privacy policy.
Top SEO Courses
1. SEO Crash Course by Semrush
SEMRUSH is a leading provider of marketing analytics software. Their platform offers a comprehensive suite of tools for SEO, content marketing, social media management, and more.
This completely free crash course is a great starting point to begin your SEO learning journey.
Your course instructor is Brian Dean and speaking from personal experience, he is the best person to learn SEO from. Brian delivers one of the best digital marketing resources you’ll ever find. His work has since appeared in Fast Company, Success Magazine, Vox, Forbes, and many other big media publications.
In this course, you will learn no-nonsense, tried-and-true SEO marketing strategies from him.
Recommended for: Absolute beginners to intermediates
Course duration: 2.0 hours
Price: Completely free
Certificate: Yes, if you take the exam.
2. SEO Bootcamp: Learn Search Engine Optimization by ZTM
If you’ve established a foundation in SEO, this course will transform you from a beginner to an SEO specialist, preparing you to work for corporations or apply SEO best practices to your own website.
This course is a step-by-step training guide for increasing Google traffic to websites through SEO keyword research, link building, content optimization approaches, cutting-edge tools and methodologies. You’ll be learning all of these and so much more from Scott Stockdale, an industry expert practitioner who has developed and implemented SEO strategies for businesses all around the world.
Recommended for: Beginners to intermediates
Course duration: 11.0 hours
Price: $39/mo – Sign up to learn
Certificate: Yes, and can be added to your LinkedIn profile
3. Google Analytics 4 Course by Google
If you’ve been using Google Analytics (I’m sure most website owners do), you’ve most probably been advised to switch to the next-generation analytics solution known as Google Analytics 4.
Google created this course to help you to smoothly migrate your Universal Analytics to GA4, get to know the new platform, and earn an official Google Analytics Certification upon completion of the course.
Take this course to learn and make the most of GA4.
Recommended for: Anyone interested in learning GA4
Course duration: 10 hours
Price: Completely free
Certificate: Yes
4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Specialization by UCDavis
If you want to advance your digital marketing skills and earn a certificate in SEO, this course from the University of California, Davis will benefit you a great deal.
You’ll learn the theory behind Google search and other search engine algorithms, as well as practical skills such as – content development, on-page & off-page optimization for local and international audiences, and conducting search-focused website audits which you can apply to a career in digital marketing.
Recommended for: Employees, students or anyone who wants to further develop their digital marketing skills and obtain a specialist certificate in SEO.
Course duration: 3 months at 10 hours a week
Price: Single Learning Program: $61/mo – $98/mo | Coursera Plus: $59/month (free 7-day trial)
Certificate: Yes, and can be added to your LinkedIn profile
Top Content Marketing Courses
1. Introduction to Content Marketing: Win Customers with Content Marketing
Conducted by content marketing expert Colleen Jones, you’ll learn how to develop a smart content marketing strategy, how to correctly identify an audience and build effective content marketing programs that drive traffic, engagement, sales, and more.
After completing this course, you will be able to launch a content marketing program that will leave your employer or client wanting more.
Recommended for: Beginners, copywriters
Course duration: 2.0 hours
Price: $17 or learn on LinkedIn Learning with 1-month free trial
Certificate: Yes, and can be added to your LinkedIn profile
2. Content Marketing Masterclass: Create Content That Sells
Content Marketing Masterclass will be your ultimate guide if you want to use content marketing to grow your business.
Whether you’re a business owner or just a freelancer, you’ll learn exactly learn what it takes to create and implement a content marketing strategy that will propel your business forward.
Upon completion of the course, you’ll have all the resources and tools you need to create content that sells.
This course is also ideal for advancing your marketing career. Don’t forget to check out the course content on Udemy.
Recommended for: Entrepreneurs, employees, freelancers or anyone who wish to grow their business with content marketing.
Course duration: 3.5 hours
Price: From $9.99/course
Certificate: Yes
3. Content Marketing for Business: Elevate Your E-Commerce Brand
Do you own an online store or an e-commerce brand?
Communicating your business values to influence buying decision is getting more challenging but all the more important in the digital age.
Colin Scotland, a marketing coach who have built successful online businesses will teach you how to craft exciting and compelling customer experiences for your brand with content marketing specifically to drive e-commerce sales.
Recommended for: Entrepreneurs, beginners, seasoned marketers
Course duration: 30 minutes
Price: Sign up to learn with 30-day free trial
Certificate: No
Top Social Media Marketing Courses
1. Social Media Marketing Crash Course
If you want to learn more about social media best practices, I highly recommend taking SEMRUSH’s free course.
Janet Machuka, a social media marketing specialist and strategist, will teach you about social media algorithms, competitive benchmarking, audience analytics, influencer basics, and measurement strategies.
This course also contains insights into the best tools you can use to implement your social media marketing strategies.
Recommended for: Anyone in any industry
Course duration: 75 minutes
Price: Completely free
Certificate: Yes
2. Social Media Marketing: Top Tips for Growing Your Followers & Going Viral
Are you an artist or a creativepreneur looking to leverage on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter to grow your followers and reach massive success with your social contents?
You’ve got to first learn essential tips from Cat Coquillette. She will teach you the exact steps and strategies to craft the perfect post, boost your engagement, grow your followers and so much more – so that you can turn your hobby or side-hustle to a full-blown business.
In addition to growing your followers, you will learn how to strengthen your brand presence, and drive more traffic from social media to your website, blog, or online shop.
Recommended for: Entrepreneurs, designers, artists and artisans
Course duration: 66 minutes
Price: Sign up to learn with 30-day free trial
Certificate: No
3. Understanding TikTok and Its Users
Whether you are new to TikTok or a pro-active TikTok-er, this course is for you – if you want to transition into understanding the business side of this fun, engaging and ever-growing social platform.
Knowing your target audience is important but Anke Audenaert, professor of Marketing at UCLA, will take you on a deep-dive into understanding the TikTok culture, what contents are being created there, how the TikTok community are connecting with one another and so much more in this 2-module program.
Recommended for: Beginners
Course duration: 4.0 hours
Price: Single Learning Program: $61/mo – $98/mo | Coursera Plus: $59/month (free 7-day trial)
Certificate: Yes, and can be added to your LinkedIn profile
4. TikTok Marketing 2023 | Go Viral with Authentic Videos!
Want more of TikTok marketing training? This latest course by Skyler Chase is geared towards helping you stay ahead of your competition with your TikTok video marketing campaigns.
Skyler has but one goal for you – to bring thousands of users to your TikTok business page consistently without spending any money on advertising.
Once you’ve completed this 10-episode course, you will have an in-depth understanding of TikTok marketing, algorithms, and updates in 2023.
Recommended for: Beginners, social media marketers of all-levels
Course duration: 2.0 hours
Price: Sign up to learn with 30-day free trial
Certificate: No
Top Email Marketing Courses
1. Email Marketing Course: Get Certified in Email Marketing
Get Certified in Email Marketing by HubSpot Academy is my top recommendation – to get you started and on the right track with email marketing campaigns. You will learn how to approach email marketing strategically and holistically.
The course provides certification and covers email marketing strategy, lead nurturing strategies, contact management, segmentation, and identifying trends in your email deliverability metrics.
Recommended for: Beginners
Course duration: 3.5 hours
Price: Completely free
Certificate: Yes
2. Think Outside the Inbox: Email Marketing by Google
An online course by Google, Think Outside the Inbox will teach you how to craft an effective email marketing strategy, write effective email copy, build and maintain email lists and measuring campaign results.
You will learn how to use mailing lists, automation, and workflows, with hands-on examples provided by Google employees.
This course will also equip you with the skills needed to apply for entry-level positions in digital marketing and e-commerce, even if you have no prior experience.
This course is also part of the Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Professional Certificate. When you enroll, you’ll also be enrolled into its program.
Recommended for: Beginners, digital marketers of all-levels.
Course duration: 25.0 hours
Price: Single Learning Program: $61/mo – $98/mo | Coursera Plus: $59/month (free 7-day trial)
Certificate: Yes, and can be added to your LinkedIn profile
Top Influencer Marketing Courses
1. Social Media Success: How to Become an Influencer
If you want to become an influencer, gaining a large number of followers and fans is just the tip of the iceberg.
Social media and Influencer marketing coach, Margaux Rathbun believes that the secret to becoming a successful influencer is having an outstanding relationship with your audience through building meaningful connection, sharing your passion with them and making a difference in their lives.
This is what she will teach you in this comprehensive 25-lecture course.
Recommended for: Beginners, bloggers, YouTubers, entrepreneurs and direct sellers
Course duration: 3.0 hours
Price: From $9.99/course
Certificate: Yes
2. Influencer Marketing 2023: Win in Branding – Beginner to Pro
Whether you’re an absolute beginner or a digital marketing pro, this course is for you, if you’re interested to tap into the power of influencer marketing to promote your brand. You’ll have fun learning from Influencer and digital marketing expert himself; Dolunay Özeren.
This hot and new comprehensive course covers everything you need to know about working with influencers at scale on TikTok, YouTube, Twitter (X), and Instagram.
The course also teaches you how to locate and reach out to thousands of influencers, how to spot low- and high-quality influencers and develop viral influencer marketing strategies you can pitch to influencers.
Also included in the training program are 30 downloadable resources, a real-world case study assignment and more!
Recommended for: Absolute beginners, aspiring digital marketers, entrepreneurs, professionals and anyone who wants comprehensive knowledge in the field of influencer marketing
Course duration: 6.0 hours
Price: From $9.99/course
Certificate: Yes
3. Influencer Marketing: Launch Powerful Campaigns in 10 Steps
Next, let’s double down on leveraging the power of influencer marketing. To launch powerful campaigns, you need a strategy.
This course provides result-driven influencer marketing strategies for 2023 campaigns.
In under 2-hours and in 10 easy steps, Nik Swami will teach you how to plan your influencer marketing strategy – including finding the best influencers, contacting them effectively, defining promotion terms, negotiating deals, paying influencers securely, and optimizing performance to ensure improved results over time.
Recommended for: Beginners, bloggers, YouTubers, entrepreneurs and direct sellers
Course duration: 6.0 hours
Price: From $9.99/course
Certificate: Yes
Best Affiliate Marketing Courses
1. The Ultimate Affiliate Marketing Course for Beginners 2023
Affiliate marketing is a growing business worth over $12 billion, making it easier to learn about than ever.
If you’ve been wondering how to make money through affiliate marketing, this comprehensive course by Joshua George will set you up on the right track.
Among the things you’ll learn are – affiliate marketing basics, how to build a niche website, finding the right affiliate partner network to collaborate with and generating affiliate sales through various online channels.
This course also provides step-by-step guidance on how to put the aforementioned techniques into practice.
Recommended for: Bloggers, and anyone who wants to be self-employed and make money online
Course duration: 11.0 hours
Price: From $9.99/course
Certificate: Yes
2. Finding Affiliate Marketers: Tips for Selecting the Right Affiliate Marketing Platform
If you want to run affiliate marketing campaigns for your products and services, then you’ll need to plan ahead.
There are several high-quality affiliate networks available with a variety of features. When choosing an affiliate marketing platform for your company or brand, there are a few things to keep in mind.
Just take this short course on LinkedIn Learning for some tips on:
- Selecting the right affiliate marketing platform and networks to join
- Finding the right and relevant affiliate marketers to promote your products and services.
Recommended for: Marketing managers, brand managers
Course duration: 2.0 hours
Price: $25 or learn on LinkedIn Learning with 1-month free trial
Certificate: Yes, and can be added to your LinkedIn profile
Top Video Marketing Courses
1. YouTube Success: Script, Shoot & Edit with Marques Brownlee (MKBHD)
You probably know who he is on the Internet!
Marques Brownlee, a.k.a MKBHD, is a self-taught YouTube creator who has grown his love of tech into a channel with 17.4 million subscribers. He started in his parent’s basement, creating videos on his computer’s built-in camera, and slowly built a following on YouTube.
This class aims to help you translate your passion and opinions into engaging, authentic, and wildly watchable videos!
Drawing on a decade of experience, Marques guides you through every stage of content creation for YouTube, from scripting and storyboarding to shooting and editing.
The course covers planning a video that is true to you, shooting compelling content with your gear, editing footage to grab attention, and growing your channel strategically.
If you have aspirations of becoming a YouTube star, or wish to improve the quality of your productions, this course is for you.
Recommended for: All YouTubers and content creators
Course duration: 1 hour 13 minutes
Price: Sign up to learn with 30-day free trial
Certificate: No
2. Marketing Strategy: Relatable Video Content
Think about how you can use videos on your website or social media to reach your audience more precisely, as well as how you can use films to create benchmarks and deliver targeted messaging.
Deirdre Breakenridge, a media and marketing professional, will teach you how to improve the authenticity, relatability, and persuasiveness of your video content.
You’ll learn effective techniques to create product videos for use in advertising campaigns, and tips on how to look your best for the camera so you can showcase your business to the world.
Recommended for: Anyone looking to enhance their video marketing strategy, small business owners, social media influencers, marketing professionals.
Course duration: 1.5 hours
Price: $17 or learn on LinkedIn Learning with 1-month free trial
Certificate: Yes, and can be added to your LinkedIn profile
Conclusion
Learning never ceases. Digital marketing has been such an interesting subject for me since founding YDJ. I realized it’s a must for the continued growth of the startup. I’m continuing my learning, and I think you should, too.
Whether you want to learn how to improve your search engine rankings, make attention-grabbing contents, or learn about new trends in social media marketing, I hope you like my course recommendations.
Rest assured, you will gain the necessary knowledge and skills to excel in various types of digital marketing and take your business and career to new heights.
Do leave some comments for me below and…happy learning!
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. You can read more about our affiliate disclosure in our privacy policy.
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