by

These are the 5 best digital marketing courses if you’re stuck at home [2021 list]

These are the 5 best digital marketing courses if you’re stuck at home [2021 list]
by

Post updated: January 2021

The 5 best marketing courses to complete while you’re in isolation

    1. Blogging for business by Ahrefs

    2. Moz Academy Courses

    3. DigitalMarketers Lab Plus

    4. Harmon Brothers video ad course

    5. Skillshare digital marketing courses

The prevalence of the global Coronavirus pandemic has significantly shifted the working landscape across all industries. Self-isolation has not only forced teams to start working remotely, but has also meant our social lives have become restricted.

Throughout these unprecedented times, it’s hard to recognize the unique opportunities to make the most out of this period.

Without the necessity of commuting to an office, or even having the freedom to spend time outdoors, most of us will have a surplus of time confined within our homes.

As most of the population turns to Netflix to fill this void, others are beginning to harness this opportunity to upskill their professional development from the comfort of their home.

A digital marketer studying online while at home.

Throughout this pandemic, the harsh reality is the potential of digital marketing teams to start cutting costs by reducing their headcount. In this unfortunate scenario, many will be left without jobs until businesses start reopening.

The silver lining at the end of every economic downturn is the profusion of new job opportunities that will eventually become available. 

For strategic digital marketers, now is the right time to start leveling up your skillset to become the most talented, employable version of yourself. Those who use this period as a time to strengthen themselves as professionals will inevitably benefit in the long-term.

Whether you’re interested in using your time to learn some core digital marketing skills, or you’re a seasoned professional keen to expand your existing skillset, what are the best resources to invest your time?

Thankfully, there’s currently a stack of incredible brands offering their support to the digital marketing community throughout this period. As brands across the world begin reducing costs on products or services for their customers, the online learning landscape has followed in their footsteps.

There was previously no shortage of great online alternatives for digital marketing courses. With platforms like the Google Garage and Facebook Blueprint series, learning fundamental digital marketing skills was already accessible to anyone.

Over the past few weeks, however, a flurry of course creators have generously removed their costs to support those looking to stay productive throughout this period.

Within this post, I’ll be summarizing the top 5 digital marketing courses that have previously incurred a cost, but are now currently free. 

As a digital marketer myself, these are resources I’d handpicked from reputable creators and publishers.

By taking the time to complete these courses in your downtime, you’ll not only remain ahead of the curve in the industry, but you’ll keep your sanity throughout this time in isolation.

1. Blogging For Business
Creator: Ahrefs
Original price: $799 – currently free
Course content: 10 tutorials, 39 modules, 5 hours total
Key area: SEO, Content Marketing

Ahrefs is a reputable brand embedded within the digital marketing landscape. Their suite of SEO tools harnesses the power of big data to provide actionable insights for brands looking to effectively scale their website traffic.

When CMO, Tim Soulo, joined Ahrefs, their content marketing team was competing against the biggest brands in the industry to acquire users. By formulating a thoughtful blogging strategy, Ahrefs has managed to scale their organic blog traffic from 10,000 users per month, to now over 160,000 user per month in just 2 years.

The team takes pride in this growth as their sole objective was to leverage content marketing as a means to drive tangible value to their business – not just vanity metrics.

Throughout the blogging for business course, Tim thoroughly articulates the step-by-step process Ahrefs use when creating and executing their own content marketing strategy. It shares actionable examples about using the most effective tools and strategies to begin increasing traffic. Above all, it highlights how to prioritize quality traffic that converts into real business.

In total, the course features 10 tutorials with 39 modules – roughly 5 hours of content. The duration of each module is succinct and packed with plenty of value, making it the perfect resource to consume in your lunch break, or even over the course of a weekend.

The course topics include:
  1. The compound effect of content marketing
  2. Two major strategies of growing a blog
  3. How to analyze the traffic potential and ranking difficulty of a keyword
  4. How to find great content ideas with high business value
  5. How to optimize your article for a target keyword and generate maximum search traffic with it
  6. How to create great content that promotes itself
  7. How to create link-worthy content (and stop worrying about link building)
  8. How to promote your content & make it rank high in Google
  9. How to build backlinks to your blog content
  10. How to build links & promote content via blogger outreach

As a bonus, the course also includes access to exclusive interviews with seasoned SEO professions like Noah Kagan, Bryan Harris, and Ramsay Taplin.

The course has historically sold for $799, but is currently free for the foreseeable future.

With plenty of actionable tasks at the end of each module, you’ll complete the course having built a solid end-to-end content marketing & SEO strategy of your own.

Note: As the course was built by Ahrefs, it does lean on their product throughout most of the practical examples. You’ll benefit if you have access to an Ahrefs account. Their 7 day free trial is just $7.

Overall, I enjoyed that the course shares real-world strategies that Ahrefs use themselves throughout their day-to-day work, making it a reliable source.

Unfortunately, there’s no certificate for completing this course, but there’s plenty of actionable takeaways to help you upskill your content marketing and SEO game.

As it’s currently free, you’d be crazy to turn down this opportunity. You won’t need an access code for to claim this deal, you can simply register and get started.

2. Moz Academy Courses
Creator: MOZ
Original price: $1,700 in total – currently free until 31st May
Course content: 13 courses – 18 hours total
Key area: SEO

Moz is also no stranger to the SEO landscape. As another reputable tool used by SEO teams across the globe, the brand remains at the cutting edge of the latest industry trends.

Additionally, Moz has also created their own repository of world-class resources – known as the Moz Academy.

The Moz Academy is a collection of valuable courses covering everything you need to know across the SEO landscape. From basic SEO fundamentals, through to core topics like performing technical audits and backlink best practices, the breadth of MOZ’s resources is unprecedented. 

In total, the Academy features 13 valuable courses with over 18 hours of collective content. The original total of these courses is worth over $1,700, but are now completely free until May 31st.

Course content includes:
  • SEO fundamentals 
  • Keyword research
  • Page optimization
  • Backlink basics
  • Reporting on SEO
  • Local SEO fundamentals
  • Perforing technical SEO site audit
  • Backlink audit and removal
  • The fundamentals of SEO client prospecting
  • Finding potential SEO clients
  • Preparing for the SEO client pitch
  • Selling the value of SEO
  • Client onboarding

After completing the fundamental courses, their advanced tutorials go a step beyond and share how to immediately start monetizing your new-found SEO knowledge. From learning how to find SEO clients, pitching them your value proposition, and managing the onboarding process – you’ll comfortably understand how to begin growing a business of your own.

In a time where digital marketers are susceptible to the risk of losing their current full-time positions, learning these skills can prove invaluable when looking to maintain additional streams of income.

After completing each course, you’ll also receive a Moz certificate to add to your resume or LinkedIn profile.

Whether you’re new to the industry and are eager to learn from the ground up, or you’re a seasoned SEO looking for a single advanced course, there’s something valuable for everyone.

“I would highly recommend MOZ training. Covers all the questions you are afraid to ask. Gives an informative insight into SEO and helps you discover how to read and relate to what’s in front of you. How it impacts to your business and most importantly how to put it into practice. Bravo! Will definitely sign up for more. Thanks 🙂 “

– Brian Childs

3. DigitalMarketers Lab Plus
Creator: DigitalMarketer
Original price: $95/month – free until 31st March
Course content: Countless templates, guides and courses
Key area: Social Media Marketing, SEM, Analytics, Content Marketing, Email Marketing

The DigitalMarketer is an industry-leading platform built to nurture passionate digital marketers throughout any stage of their career. With a community of over 10,000 marketers and founders, the platform aims to share valuable courses, checklists, templates, and support to keep you on the cusp of the digital landscape.

The DigitalMarketer has always welcomed new members into their free, entry-level community tier. Their paid Lab Plus membership, however, is a prominent resource for sourcing the best digital marketing content.

Access to their Lab Plus membership originally costs $95/month, but is currently being offered for free until (at least) March 31st.

Note: If this free period is extended, I’ll be sure to update this post with the latest details.

The Lab Plus membership includes:
  • Access to a growing toolbox of 30+ marketing guides, reports, scorecards, and audits
  • Invites to weekly live training sessions with some of the brightest minds in marketing
  • Unlimited access to Insider-Only articles on the DM site
  • 36 business “checklists on steroids” and execution plans
  • Access to the private members-only community
  • Special “DM Deals” on useful software & services
  • Access to 11 master classes and certifications
  • Badges and certifications for all completed trainings

As you can see, the content includes tonnes of actionable guides and playbooks that you can immediately use to implement new strategies. In total, there’s a collective value of $380 in templates and guides, as well as $5,400 in online courses.

The Lab Plus online courses cover everything from:
  • Building and measuring effective Google & Facebook ad campaigns
  • Building engaging landing pages
  • Building email workflows that convert
  • Retargeting best practices
  • Content marketing deep dives
  • Architecting the most effective sales funnel for your business

Additionally, each Lab Plus membership will entitle you to exclusive discounts on useful tools like ManyChat, Hostgator, AdEspresso, and Optinmonster. This will help you get started on building some side projects for your portfolio.

Regardless of whether you choose to remain subscribed after the free period, you’ll be bound to find ongoing value by downloading the initial resources before the 31st March.

4. Harmon Brothers Video Ad Course
Creator: Harmon Brothers
Original price: $197 – now free for 30 days
Course content: 14-day course
Key area: Content Marketing, Sales

The Harmon Brothers are renowned for their previous portfolio, working with laudable brands like Purple Mattresses, Squatty Potty, and Poo-Pourri to create engaging ad assets that drive bottom-line growth through Facebook ads.

After working in the industry for 7 years, they’ve decided to share their key learnings throughout their successful campaigns in their 14 Day Video Script Course. At its core, the course helps you write the most engaging ad copy and video scripts for your paid performance ads.

HBU 14 Day Script Writing Challenge – Ad 1 from Harmon Brothers on Vimeo.

In a time where ad platforms like Facebook are continually emphasizing the importance of using engaging creative assets, it’s never been more important to understand how to optimize your ad copy for conversions.

The course content is delivered by taking you through the teams step-by-step process of creating a real ad for a real client. This structure shares a candid behind the scenes insight with plenty of actionable takeaways.

The structure of the course includes:
  • Day 1: The Harmon Brother structure
  • Days 2-7: Nailing down your ad concept
  • Days 8-12: Building the sale
  • Days 13-14: Writing and refining your ad script

The daily video lessons walk you through the process of researching, writing, and polishing each section of your own video ad script. With plenty of practical workbook exercises, there’s no better way to learn from this hands-on approach.

The course originally costs $197, but is being offered for 30 days for free (without needing to register your credit card).

Harmon Brothers video marketing course testimonial
5. Skillshare courses
Creator: Skillshare
Price: $8.25/month – 2 months of premium access for free
Course content: Countless
Key area: Social Media Marketing, SEO, SEM, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of classes for those who are creative and curious. Each year, millions of people use Skillshare to find inspiration and take the next step in their creative journey.

Skillshare is renowned for the breadth of content it offers across every core facet of digital marketing. Whether it be social media, SEO, content marketing, or even professional learning strategies – there’s bound to be a valuable course for any digital marketer, regardless of their current skill set.

The Skillshare premium membership entitles you to every course across the platform. Traditionally, this membership costs $8.25 per month for an individual subscription. 

Skillshare has always granted an initial 2 week free trial period for new accounts, but due to the current circumstances, they’ve generously extended this initial period to 2 months.

With over 1,000 premium digital marketing courses to choose from, there’s bound to be something to learn! Some of my top recommendations include:

For beginners:
For seasoned digital marketers looking to up their game:
For those looking to start freelancing or building their own business

Having access to Skillshare also encourages you to expand learning beyond the realm of digital marketing. The platform also hosts a myriad of courses within areas like design and development. If you’re looking to spend an extended period at home in quarantine, this is the perfect opportunity to start learning anything your heart desires.

“I’ve been looking for a class like this since last year and it’s great. It makes it easy to organize a marketing campaign. I would recommend this class to any beginning digital marketer or digital marketers who have a hard time executing campaigns.”

– Kayla Jackson – Digital Marketer & Content Creator

There’s never been a better time to level up your digital marketing game. For those feeling anxious about the current uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic, these free resources can be an effective way to keep yourself preoccupied and remain proactive.

If you’d like to share any of these resources with your network, feel free to retweet or tag your friends in the tweet below.

Are you ready to uncover actionable guidance for your career in digital marketing?
Join hundreds of others in getting one practical piece of content a week.

* indicates required

“Actionable advie from a genuine source. ClickThrough posts are spot on!”

Headshot of Digital Marketing Officer, Luke Chapman

Luke Chapman – Digital Marketing Officer

Tweet
Share
Share
Pin
Tweet
Share
Share
Pin