This is a guide for both the beginner and the industry veteran who is currently considering a digital marketing course. Here we will explore all of the top online courses available in 2023, as well as all most important related questions like what digital marketing is, who it is best suited for, how long these courses take and how much they cost.
Our guide will be structured as follow.
CONTENTS
- Intro: What is Digital Marketing & who is it for?
- What will I learn in a Digital Marketing course?
- What are the top Digital Marketing courses?
- Is a Digital Marketing course worth it?
- How much do Digital Marketing courses cost?
- Can I get a job with a Digital Marketing course?
- How long do Digital Marketing courses last?
- How do I start with Digital Marketing?
Intro: What is Digital Marketing & who is it for?
Digital Marketing involves the sale of products or services, and the creation and cultivation of a brand, specifically through the use of digital channels. Digital channels are not just websites, but also mobile devices & apps, social media, streaming platforms, and search engines.
For obvious reasons, it is a relatively young industry. It is not to be confused with Internet Marketing, which only utilises websites and is in fact a sub-domain of Digital Marketing.
What will I learn in a Digital Marketing course?
The field of Digital Marketing is huge, and includes multiple domains which make for jobs, professional titles and specialisations in their own right.
Not all courses will therefore teach the world of Digital Marketing as a whole, but may have some form of area of interest, some specialism.
So what are these ‘areas of interest’? What sort of things could your Digital Marketing course teach?
The OMCP, an industry association among the leaders in providing online marketers with vetting and certification, identifies the following topics as fundamental in their Online Marketing Body of Knowledge (a sort of ‘encyclopaedia of marketing’):
- Search Engine Optimization
- Digital Advertising (Paid Search)
- Web Analytics
- Conversion Rate Optimization
- Email Marketing (with Automation)
- Mobile Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Content Marketing (with Video Marketing)
Since the OMCD’s list is about Online Marketing and not Digital Marketing, there are a few more items that can be added to this list which are digital but not necessarily online, such as TV, radio, digital billboards, phone messaging.
Speaking generally, however, the last few items don’t find their way into Digital Marketing courses nearly as often as those in the list by the OMCD. The majority of Digital Marketing nowadays happens online, and that’s what most learning programs are focused on.
What are the top Digital Marketing courses?
This is a list of the most prominent course providers for Digital Marketing in 2023, along with the course options each of them offers. Since we mentioned the importance and value of choosing courses specialised in a subdomain of the field, our list will include learning programs that cover both the topic as a whole and also some of its main individual branches.
Course: Marketing Analytics Bootcamp
Price: €10,500
Duration: 15 weeks
What to know: This learning program focuses on analytics, which the OMCP reported as the most important skill in online marketing. It furnishes marketers with a precise skill-set allowing them to understand modern marketing data and deploy the technical tools to make the most of it.
Who is it for: This bootcamp is perfect both for the beginner who wishes to find a job in the more data-oriented side of marketing, as well as the traditional marketer who wants to update their abilities and learn some of the more modern, technical tools of the trade.
Course: Fundamentals of Digital Marketing
Price: Free.
Duration: 40 hours, self-paced.
What to know: Google’s Fundamentals of Digital Marketing is without question among the most popular of all online Digital Marketing courses, and its certificate will be familiar to recruiters. It’s a beginner-friendly overview of the field, with some practical advice on business applications, but it’s also not among the most in-depth options, and should be treated as an introduction to the field, not as something that will have you job-ready by the end.
Who is this for: Beginners looking to introduce themselves to the field, entrepreneurs who wish to pick up digital marketing skills for their business.
Courses:
- Digital Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Content Marketing
- SEO
Price: Free, but some certifications and/or exercises require paid features.
Duration: Self-paced
What to know: HubSpot Academy offers some of the best customisation options of any resource out there: its courses work together with little or no content overlap, and there are options for short courses as well as more extensive certification programs which come with exercises to be completed. As well, HubSpot is already an important platform for marketing software, so the teaching comes directly from experts in the industry.
Who is it for: Self-learners, particularly professionals, entrepreneurs and marketing managers who are looking to pick up a general understanding of the field.
Courses and duration:
- Fundamentals of Marketing Analytics (2 hours)
- SEO Principles: An Essential Guide for Beginners (1 hour)
- Social Media Marketing Crash Course (1 hour)
- Content Marketing Principles for Business (1 hour)
- How to Boost Lead Generation with SEO (1 hour)
Price: Free
What to know: As you may have guessed by looking at the above options, Semrush Academy works a little differently than most other providers. Rather than providing broad, all-encompassing courses, they offer ‘knowledge in pills’, with mini-courses targeted towards highly specific topics, of which the selection presented here is only a tiny sample.
Who is it for: Professionals who already have at least a foundation in marketing and wish to pick up specific, industry-relevant skills, or entrepreneurs and marketing managers looking to boost their business.
Courses:
- Digital Marketing Course (bundle)
- SEO Course
- Web Analytics Course
- Content Marketing Course
- Email Marketing Course
- Sales Funnels Course
- Paid Advertising Course
- Social Media Course
Duration: Self-paced
Price: $1999 for bundle, $999 for individual courses
What to know: Clickminded’s options are cleverly designed so that you can either learn the specific skills you need with individual courses, or else get a general overview by purchasing the Digital Marketing Course, which is simply a bundle of the other seven courses (be aware that that will take quite a while to finish!).
Who is this for: This is for the beginner or the intermediate learner who is especially keen on a customisable experience.
Courses and duration:
- Google Digital Marketing & ecommerce certificate (6 months at 10 hours a week)
- UC Davis: The Strategy of Content Marketing (3 weeks at 6 hours a week)
- Meta Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate (2 months at 10 hours a week)
- Meta Marketing Analytics Professional Certificate (2 months at 10 hours a week)
- UC Davis: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Specialization (3 months at 10 hours a week)
Price: Variable by region, generally between €36-€53 per month depending on type of subscription.
What to know: Coursera aggregates courses from a variety of external providers, including prestigious universities and tech giants like Google and Meta. It includes a much broader selection than the representative sample we selected above, from options for the beginner to the advanced. It’s affordable and it lets you customise your learning path, so you can pick up exactly the skills that you want.
Who is it for: Learners of all levels, but it is particularly helpful for independent, self-organized people with a good notion of which skills they want to pick up.
Courses, duration and price:
Post Graduate Program In Digital Marketing:
- 8 Months
- €1499
Digital Marketing Specialist:
- 1 year
- €1049
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Training Course:
- Self-paced
- € 849
What to know: Simplilearn aggregates courses from external providers and has some strong partner affiliations, including with universities and established tech companies. Their courses tend to be self-learning programs with only optional access to live tutors, and they’re pretty long, so you’ll be in it for the long haul.
Who is this for: Definitely for the disciplined student. The courses are comprehensive, but you’ll be doing a lot of independent study for a very long time.
Course: Become a Digital Marketer Nanodegree Program
Duration: Self-paced, estimated 3 months
Price: €359 per month or €927 upfront for 3 months access
What to know: A comprehensive overview of the field of Digital Marketing, mostly intended as a self-learning program but with external support on request. The program is flexible and a good way to learn this topic quickly.
Who is it for: Beginners who wish to introduce themselves to the field and get a general, broad understanding of its sub-domains.
Courses, duration and price:
The Complete Digital Marketing Guide
- Price: €79.99
- Duration: Self-paced
Digital Marketing Mastery 2023 with Dekker Fraser, MBA
- €79.99
- Duration: Self-paced
Digital marketing Course for Beginners
- Price: €19.99
- Duration: Self-paced
Marketing Analytics: Stand Out by Becoming an Analytics Pro
- Price: €69.99
- Duration: Self-paced
SEO Training Masterclass 2023: Beginner To Advanced SEO
- Price: €89.99
- Duration: Self-paced
What to know: While strictly for self-learners (the courses mostly don’t provide tutor support), Udemy is a superb aggregator, as it contains a wide variety of in-depth courses that are constantly updated. Customisation may be a bit tricky, however – since these learning programs all come from different providers, there is a risk of buying overlapping content if you buy two courses on related topics.
Who is it for: Independent self-learners of all levels and backgrounds.
Courses, duration and price:
Digital Marketing Fundamentals
- €278
- 4 months at 3-5 hours per week
Digital Marketing and Customer Engagement
- $79 per month
- 2 months at 5-8 hours per week
Copywriting for Digital Marketing
- €620
- 6 weeks at 7-10 hours per week
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
- €591 EUR
- 10 weeks at 8-9 hours per week
What to know: The course selection is not quite as wide as it is with some other course aggregators, but edX boasts some very reputable partners, including universities from all over the world. It’s a good way to get a professional certification from a trusted institution, while studying on a flexible schedule.
Who is it for: While there are some exceptions, courses on edX are generally geared towards the beginner who wishes to start learning a topic in their own time.
Courses:
- Meta Certified Digital Marketing Associate
- Digital Marketing Trends
- Digital Marketing Tools: Create a Marketing Campaign from Start to Finish
- Generative AI for Digital Marketers
Duration: Self-paced
Price: €39.33 per month for a monthly subscription, €19.99 per month for an annual subscription
What to know: The courses on LinkedIn Learning should be used as a way to get a fast introduction to any given topic. They are time-efficient and entirely self-paced, but you should not expect to be job-ready by the end of one.
Who is it for: Professionals and entrepreneurs who wish to expand their knowledge and find out what Digital Marketing is and how it works.
Now that we’ve got that in place, let’s have a look at some of the most important and frequently asked questions related to Digital Marketing.
Is a Digital Marketing course worth it?
Digital Marketing as an industry is certainly growing very quickly. The market research company Global Industry Analysts Inc. expects it to grow from its current size of $531 billion to $1.5 trillion by 2030, so there will unquestionably be more and more demand for skilled professionals in the field.
The most common problem with Digital Marketing courses is that they are perishable: this is an industry that changes extremely quickly, with new technologies emerging all the time. Whichever course you take, then, you want to make sure that you start applying any skills you learned right away, because in the space of a couple of years – or even less! – they may no longer be relevant.
Because Digital Marketing is such an expansive world, any course that offers a general overview of the field can only be an introduction. Such courses will be worthwhile for people learning how to manage a business, who are in need of extra knowledge and skills.
For people looking to find a job in marketing, on the other hand, it’s probably best to select a course that teaches a domain of Digital Marketing, like analytics, SEO, or content writing. The courses will go more in-depth on the topic and will give you more skills that are immediately applicable.
Our verdict, then, is that a Digital Marketing course is only worthwhile if it is customisable to your profile. Entrepreneurs and managers can get much out of a general course, while beginners, job-seekers and career changers should look for courses teaching more targeted skills.
How much do Digital Marketing courses cost?
Digital Marketing courses come in a wide variety of prices, ranging from totally free online tutorials to full-fledged bootcamps that cost several thousand euros. Of course, you get what you pay for – a free course will generally not be as in-depth as a paid one, and perhaps most importantly, they will not offer comparable levels of personal support.
Bear in mind the more expensive courses can often be funded by means of a government scheme (here in Germany, for example, there is the Bildungsgutschein). Always ask your provider which options are available in your country.
Can I get a job with a Digital Marketing course?
Most Digital Marketing courses will not get you a job by themselves, and are intended rather to complement or expand your existing skills. However, some of the more in-depth bootcamps are more job-oriented, and those will set you up to start looking for a job right away.
How long do Digital Marketing courses last?
Digital Marketing courses really do come in all shapes and sizes, and their duration ranges from Semrush’s one-hour lessons to Simplilearn’s year+ programs. University degrees, of course, will take even longer.
How do I start with Digital Marketing?
Before you get started with Digital Marketing, you want to make sure Marketing itself is what you want to do. To that end, we have written a guide on whether marketing is a good career in the age of AI, which the more technical-minded reader may want to follow up on with our blog ‘What is MarTech and why you should know about it’, which is all about the new technologies entering the industry.
Once you’ve got these topics down pat, kick yourself off with a handful of short free courses and YouTube tutorials to get a feel for how the industry works. If you find that you like it, that’s when you can start thinking of one of the more detailed courses among those we have listed above.
And after that – go forth and conquer!
