10 Best Digital Marketing Courses for Students

10 Best Digital Marketing Courses for Students

A career in digital marketing can be quite lucrative. Each day, you’ll have to deal with exciting challenges and contribute to the growth of the company you’ll be working for.

Besides, the demand for digital marketing professionals will keep growing. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the need for digital marketers will keep increasing by 6% each year till 2029.

So, if you’re a marketing student, you should consider digital marketing an option for your future career. To help you out, we’ve prepared a list of 9 free and 1 paid digital marketing course to help you get started.

1. Google’s Fundamentals of Digital Marketing

If you want to learn digital marketing but don’t know where to start, Google’s Fundamentals of Digital Marketing is the perfect option.

The course has 36 modules covering topics like running a website, building an online strategy, tracking customer behavior, doing search engine optimization, setting up search ads, creating a social media strategy, etc.

After completing the course, you’ll build skills in data analytics, SEO, social media marketing, etc. The course ends with an exam, after which you’ll get an official certificate from Google as proof of your knowledge.

2. Ahrefs’ Blogging for Business

Blogging is one of the important components of a successful digital marketing strategy. Every business that wants to build an online presence has to have a blog. If a business’s blogging efforts are successful, it will help a brand’s discoverability in SERPs.

Ahrefs’ Blogging for Business course focuses on teaching digital marketers how to set up a blogging strategy for a business, which growth strategies to employ, how to target the right keywords, find blogging ideas, etc.

At the end of the course, you’ll also get to listen to some expert tips on starting a blog and finding the right audience. And, of course, you’ll be getting a certificate.

3. HubSpot Academy Courses

HubSpot Academy is known for its outstanding courses run by digital marketing experts. You’ll be able to learn about a variety of digital marketing topics, like digital advertising and social media marketing.

The best thing about HubSpot’s courses is that they are all personalized. Once you sign up for a course, you’ll receive tasks tailored specifically for your learning needs. HubSpot also gives you access to the library.

4. Digital Marketing Specialization by the University of Illinois

This is a great option for those students whose current program is not connected to digital marketing but who’d like to get this knowledge for their future careers.

The course covers all basic and advanced digital marketing aspects, starting from setting a marketing strategy to building brand recognition on social media and beyond. You’ll also learn insights from a visiting professor and the Head of Analytics at Google, how to get more leads, and use data to outrun your competitors.

RelatedMaking Your Mark on Online Marketing: Six Proven Methods to Amplify Your Skills

5. WordStream Digital Marketing Academy

Similar to HubSpot, WordStream also offers a set of free digital marketing courses on different topics.

You can start from the basics and learn what paid search is, how to launch a social media strategy, optimize conversion rates, and read the important brand growth data. There are also more specific courses on building a lead generation strategy, selling products online, or running a PPC campaign.

6. SEMrush Digital Marketing Academy

If you’re looking for one place with digital marketing courses on any topic, SEMrush is the best option. All courses are broken down into five main categories:

  • SEO
  • content marketing
  • PPC
  • SMM
  • competitive research

Also, for those, who want to learn how to use SEMrush’s tools, there’s a set of specifically designed courses. You also get trial access to these tools to practice your knowledge.

For instance, in the SEMrush Keyword Explorer course, you can try this tool for yourself and see what it offers in terms of keyword analysis. In the example below, we tried analyzing the keyword do my essay for me and create a list of related keywords using this tool:

digital marketing courses - SEMrush

SEMrush also offers different certification exams. These exams only take around 15 minutes, but, in the end, you’ll get an official certificate which will give you a competitive advantage.

7. OptinMonster University Courses

In digital marketing circles, everyone knows OptinMonster as one of the top lead generation tools. However, OptinMonster also has its own learning hub with a couple of dozens of digital marketing courses both for beginners and professionals in this field.

Once you sign up for the OptinMonster University, you’ll get access to different courses, such as introduction to email marketing or how to create a lead magnet.

OptinMonster also offers more specific courses. For example, you can learn how to reduce shopping cart abandonment, increase sales or create a welcome email series. All courses are evidence-based and include various case studies.

8. Quick Sprout Online Marketing University

One more learning hub is Quick Sprout University that offers different topics for beginners in digital marketing:

  • online marketing 101
  • starting a website
  • starting a blog
  • digital marketing for e-commerce

When you complete all the beginner’s courses, you can get to more advanced lessons on social media, email marketing, SEO, and conversion optimization. There’s also a section on technology in marketing, which you can browse to learn more, how to automate different digital marketing processes.

9. Internet Marketing for Smart People by Copyblogger

Copyblogger is known for its breakthrough content on copywriting. But apart from that, this resource also offers a course on content marketing for those who want to do it for a living.

There are several highlights of this course:

  • how to create content that builds relationships
  • what is direct response copywriting, and how to excel at it
  • how to write a copy that sells

Copyblogger’s course focuses on teaching you how to create an engaging copy that fosters a positive customer experience and also drives profit and brand awareness.

10. Digital Marketing Fundamentals by the University of Edinburgh

Lastly, as we’ve promised, we’re sharing one paid course on digital marketing. However, compared to many other courses, this one is quite affordable for a student -$350 for the entire course. Also, it is created by one of the U.K.’s leading universities – the University of Edinburgh.

The course focuses on digital marketing fundamentals and teaches practical skills, such as creating a content strategy and content map, analyzing competitor data, doing customer segmentation, etc. All these skills form the basic set of abilities of a digital marketer, and you’ll need all of them to perform daily tasks. So, even though this course is paid, it’s absolutely worth the investment.

Wrapping Up

As you can see, there are many digital marketing courses you can sign up for completely for free. These courses cover various topics, helping you learn digital marketing from start to finish.

But keep in mind – digital marketing is changing very rapidly. The information you’ve learned today might already be irrelevant tomorrow. So, it’s important to keep learning and improving your skills continuously to do your job properly and remain competitive.

📝 Author bio:

Mark Blackwood is a professional writer and editor. He also works as a freelance content marketing specialist for several agencies helping small businesses build solid and effective digital marketing strategies.