33 Free Online Marketing Classes to Take This Year

I don't know about you, but I miss taking classes. I miss taking notes, studying, and most of all, learning a ton of new skills.

That's not to say I don't learn a lot on the job here at HubSpot -- because I absolutely do. But sometimes, there's nothing quite like listening to a lecture, taking notes, and doing homework.

Given the frequency at which new technologies and software are developed, it can be overwhelming to try to keep up your knowledge by only reading blog posts and ebooks. That's where self-paced online learning comes in.

I've taken a few awesome courses and certifications through HubSpot Academy, including an inbound marketing certification and a content marketing certification. These classes helped me be better at my job, so I started making a list of other classes I could take to learn more skills. When I finished the list, I realized that you, dear readers, might have similar skill gaps, so I wanted to share it in a blog post.

Below are 33 free online courses you can take to beef up your skill set. These offerings vary in time commitment, but many are self-paced so you can work on your own schedule. Below are the topics these courses cover:

1. Content Marketing
2. Social Media Marketing
3. SEO Marketing
4. Other Digital Marketing Courses

A brief explanation of each course creator accompanies their first mention on the list.

Free Online Marketing Courses

1. Inbound Marketing Certification -- HubSpot Academy
2. Content Marketing Certification -- HubSpot Academy
3. SEO Training Course -- HubSpot Academy
4. Internet Marketing for Smart People -- Copyblogger
5. Viral Marketing and How to Craft Contagious Content -- Coursera
6. The Strategy of Content Marketing -- Coursera
7. Copywriting Blunders: Do You Make these 10 Common Mistakes? -- Udemy
8. Blogging: Generate 100s of Blog Topics and Headlines -- Udemy
9. Content Marketing for B2B Enterprises -- Udemy
10. Content Marketing -- QuickSprout
11. Email Marketing Certification -- HubSpot Academy
12. Email Marketing -- QuickSprout
13. Social Media -- QuickSprout
14. Paid Advertising -- QuickSprout
15. PPC University -- WordStream
16. Social Media Marketing -- edX
17. Diploma in Social Media Marketing -- ALISON
18. Social Marketing Training -- Hootsuite
19. Blueprint -- Facebook
20. Social Media Analytics -- quintly
21. Social Media Week of Webinars -- Buffer
22. Digital Marketing Course -- Google
23. SEO Training Course by Moz -- Udemy
24. Advanced SEO: Tactics and Strategy -- Udemy
25. SEO by QuickSprout
26. Growth-Driven Design Certification -- HubSpot Academy
27. Make a Website -- Codeacademy
28. Learn Javascript -- Codeacademy
29. Learn Ruby -- Codeacademy
30. Learn Python -- Codeacademy
31. Learn HTML & CSS -- Codeacademy
32. Learn to Code Awesome Websites -- General Assembly
33. Creativity -- Canva

Content Marketing Courses

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. Check out mine on LinkedIn:

1. HubSpot Inbound Marketing Certification

2. HubSpot Content Marketing Certification

3. SEO Training Course

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

4. Internet Marketing for Smart People

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. Below are a couple courses that are perfect for content marketers -- here's what a module for #4 looks like:

5. Viral Marketing and How to Craft Contagious Content

6. The Strategy of Content Marketing

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 it offers a myriad of other paid options for as little as $10, in some cases. If you have a good experience with a free course, it could be worth a small investment to deepen your skills, too.

Here are a few all content marketers will find useful:

7. Copywriting Blunders: Do You Make these 10 Common Mistakes?

8. Blogging: Generate 100s of Blog Topics and Headlines

9. Content Marketing for B2B Enterprises

QuickSprout

QuickSprout is Neil Patel's content and business marketing blog, and QuickSprout University features a ton of helpful videos breaking down and explaining a myriad of concepts and best practices. Each video also includes a transcript in case reading is more your learning style than watching a video. Here's what one course video looks like:

10. Content Marketing

Social Media Marketing Courses

QuickSprout

13. Social Media

14. Paid Advertising

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:

15. Wordstream PPC University

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's a class we think you'll find valuable:

16. Social Media Marketing

ALISON

ALISON offers free online classes in various professional skills users can take at their own pace. In the Diploma in Social Media Marketing course below, students can get into the nitty-gritty and big picture views of different skills of different topics -- just check out one of the many modules:

17. Diploma in Social Media Marketing

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a social media management platform that offers free trainings (plus a paid certification course) to help marketers beef up their social media skill set. Hootsuite Academy offers courses at varying skill levels and features video lessons and step-by-step breakdowns of how to use different software.

18. Social Marketing Training

Facebook

At this point, you probably already know what Facebook is and what it does. What you might not know? It has a training and certification program. Facebook 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 -- here's a peek at the course catalog.

19. Facebook Blueprint

quintly

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.

20. Social Media Analytics

Buffer

Buffer's Social Media Week of Webinars isn't exactly a course -- it's a series of live webinar recordings on YouTube -- but the videos are chock-full of current and valuable information for social media marketers from the experts. Topics include Instagram and Facebook marketing and how to do public relations on social media.

21. Social Media Week of Webinars

SEO Marketing Courses

Google

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 and rank 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 (and your Google+ profile).

22. Google Digital Marketing Course

Udemy

23. SEO Training Course by Moz

24. Advanced SEO: Tactics and Strategy

QuickSprout

25. SEO

Other Online Digital Marketing Courses

HubSpot Academy

11. HubSpot Email Marketing Certification

26. HubSpot Growth-Driven Design Certification

QuickSprout

12. Email Marketing

Codeacademy

Codeacademy offers free, interactive coding classes that take you from lesson one to building a fully-functioning website. The courses we've highlighted below are just a few of the courses; Codeacademy offers many more, depending on your organization's needs. Codeacademy classes feature lectures and a workspace in the same browser window so you can see the effect of your work live, as it's created.

Check it out:

Source: The Next Web

27. Make a Website

28. Learn Javascript

29. Learn Ruby

30. Learn Python

31. Learn HTML & CSS

General Assembly

General Assembly offers live and online paid and free courses for a variety of technical skills and disciplines. General Assembly's Dash offers a free online coding class that teaches the fundamentals of HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript -- watch the course overview below:

32. Learn to Code Awesome Websites

Canva

Canva helps people easily make beautiful images for web design, and Canva Learn 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.

33. Creativity

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