Best Online Marketing Courses: Become a Pro Today

1 Simplilearn’s Digital Marketing Specialist Program

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Best for Users Seeking a Marketing Managerial Position

About Simplilearn

Simplilearn is one of the world’s leading online learning companies, having helped over one million professionals and companies across 150+ countries gain new skills and certifications. In a nutshell, Simplilearn offers one of the best digital marketing courses around.

Simplilearn boasts over 40 global accreditations, including the Training Industry’s Top 20 Online Learning Library Companies for 2019. Its Digital Marketing Specialist course is also accredited by the OMCP (Online Marketing Certified Professional).

What Does the Course Include?

Across six courses, you’ll gain a detailed understanding of eight key digital marketing disciplines: SEO, social media, PPC, CRO, digital analytics, content, mobile, and email marketing. 

You’ll get individual certificates for each course you complete. The courses are as follows:

1. SEO, Content Marketing, PPC, and Digital Analytics
2. Social Media, Mobile Marketing, and Digital Strategy
3. Advanced Web Analytics
4. Advanced SEO
5. Advanced PPC
6. Advanced Social Media

Once you’ve completed the six courses, you’ll gain a Master’s Certificate, which will confirm your ability to spearhead the digital marketing campaigns in your company. 

During your course, you’ll dive into 45+ projects, including simulation tasks created by Mimic Social in which you’ll create virtual digital marketing campaigns using virtual money, providing a virtual hands-on approach. Virtually amazing, huh?

2 Coursera’s Digital Marketing Specialization

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Best for Flexible Studying Hours

About Coursera

Does Coursera kick butt in the online marketing course world? Of course! Founded in 2012, Coursera now offers over 3,800 online courses in partnership with leading universities around the world.

What Does the Course Include?

Exploring several new developments in digital marketing, you’ll learn about social media marketing, 3D printing, digital marketing analytics, and much more. 

Designed for beginners, each course takes about 32 to 40 hours over four weeks to complete. Once you’ve enrolled, you can subscribe to any or all of the seven courses, which are:

1. Marketing in a Digital World – Examine how digital tools such as smartphones and 3D printing are revolutionizing the world of marketing.
2. Digital Analytics for Marketing Professionals: Theory – Learn the strategy and theories behind effective data analytics.
3. Digital Analytics for Marketing Professionals: Practice – Focuses on the practical application of the theories you learned in Course 2.
4. Digital Media and Marketing Principles – Understand the most important processes of digital communication and how to engage with consumers.
5. Digital Media and Marketing Strategies – Learn how to plan a brilliant digital marketing campaign.
6. Marketing in an Analog World – Interactive online courses exploring how non-digital marketing methods have adapted to the rise of digital marketing.
7. Digital Marketing Capstone – A six week project offered by the University of Illinois where you’ll put your learnings into practice and apply them to a real business problem.

Aimed at beginners, this course is much cheaper than the Simplilearn course above, charging between $39 and $79 for each of its seven classes. However, the Coursera online course does not include on-demand support, mentored guidance, or access to thought leaders in Digital Marketing, which are all features you’ll find on the Simplilearn online digital marketing course.

3 Udacity Digital Marketing Nanodegree

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Best for Real Life Digital Marketing Campaign Experience

About Udacity

Founded in 2011, Udacity’s name comes from the brand’s desire to be ‘audacious for you, the student’. And, given the 360-degree approach within the nanodegree – allowing it to leave no digital marketing campaign stone unturned – you’ll be most impressed by the company’s audaciousness.

What Does The Course Include?

The nanodegree is a full-immersion learning experience – Udacity actually offers the chance to work on real-life projects, where you get to run your own PPC and Facebook campaigns for products from your own existing company.

Unlike Simplilearn’s digital marketing course with its virtual campaigns, Udacity lets you build real campaigns that deliver real results. The Udacity modules and their corresponding projects are as follows:

1. Marketing Fundamentals – Market either your own company’s product or a fake product provided by Udacity, and build a business model.
2. Content Strategy – No assignment included.
3. Social Media Marketing – You’ll write a blog about yourself, and share it on three social networks.
4. Social Media Advertising with Facebook Blueprint – Similar to module 1, you’ll create, test, and improve a Facebook advertising campaign for your chosen product.
5. SEO – You’ll audit either your own company’s website or a Udacity website to recommend a list of target keywords and evaluate the UX of the site.
6. Search Engine Marketing with Google Ads – Create a Google Ads PPC campaign for your chosen product.
7. Display Advertising – Evaluate the results of a display advertising campaign, and create a presentation on how to improve the campaign.
8. Email Marketing – Plan and prepare an email campaign for your chosen product, writing emails and evaluating the results.
9. Measure and Optimize with Google Analytics – Summarize all the digital marketing campaigns you’ve completed, and suggest improvements.

Throughout the nanodegree, you’ll also benefit from live Q&A sessions and forums with industry experts to provide personalized feedback on the projects you complete.  This course is more hands-on than Coursera’s choice, and less expensive than the Simplilearn course.

4 Digital Marketing Institute’s (DMI) Masters in Digital Marketing

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Best for Becoming an Industry-Leading Expert

About Digital Marketing Institute (DMI)

Some of the Digital Marketing Institute’s 55,000 members work for Google, Facebook, Nike, Coca-Cola, Twitter, IBM, and other small brands. Need we say more?

This course demands much higher prerequisites than the other courses on this list, and charges far more money, but it does help you dive that much deeper into the realms of digital marketing expertise. This course is for professionals who want to become the go-to expert for other professionals.

What Does the Course Include?

Strap yourself in. Part one of the program consists of 90 hours of on-demand e-learning content, including video lectures and downloadable slides. On top of that, you’ll need to write two 5,000-word assignments and complete six modules, which cover:

1. Communications and Consumers
2. Search Engine Marketing
3. Social Media Marketing
4. Mobile Marketing
5. Digital Strategy and Planning
6. Ecommerce and Email
7. Marketing and Services Management
8. Digital Innovation

And that’s just part one. Part two involves writing a 15,000-word thesis, with help from academic mentors and a variety of webinars. This takes 52 weeks to complete.

As you can see, this course isn’t for the faint of heart. However, this course has been crafted by the Syllabus Advisory Council (filled with members from Google and Facebook) to help turn a professional marketer into a digital marketing guru, goddess, or god.

5 Google Ad Grants Online Marketing Challenge (OMC)

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Best for University Students

About Google Ad Grants

You’ve probably heard of Google, so we shouldn’t need to convince you that this online marketing course oozes credibility. But how does it work?

Once a university professor has first registered, students form teams of two to five members and appoint a Team Captain. In order to qualify for the challenge, your team must complete seven modules, and then pass two exams: the Google Ads Search Certification and Measurement Certification. You’ll then request your chosen non-profit partner, who you’ll be running the four-week Google Ads campaign for.

It’s a lot of hurdles to clear, but it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity for budding digital marketers undergoing any undergraduate or graduate program. Your team will be competing with others, with the team in first place winning a $15,000 donation from Google to the team’s non-profit partner.

What Does The Course Involve?

Using your Google Ads credit (up to $250), you will plan and execute online advertising campaigns for your chosen non-profit partner, over a period of at least four weeks.

Once the campaign is done, you’ll analyze your campaign’s performance and make recommendations to the non-profit partner on how they can continue to thrive in the digital space.

As mentioned earlier, your team will need to complete seven learning modules before taking on the two exams. Those modules are as follows:

1. Google Academy for Ads – Bitesize courses on Google’s ad products, and an assessment to become Google Ads Certified.
2. The Digital Garage – Free courses covering 26 topics; once you’ve completed them all and unlock each badge, you’ll earn the Digital Garage Certificate of Online Proficiency.
3. Google Best Practices – Killer tips and advice on search engine marketing tactics.
4. Tips for Success with Google Ad Grants – Tips on how to structure your Google Ad account, and how to create effective ads.
5. Analytics Academy – Free courses on Google Analytics.
6. Primer App by Google – Free mobile app offering five-minute lessons to complete whenever you like.
7. Think with Google Tools – Learn about Google’s tools, such as Google Trends and Shopping Insights.

This online digital marketing course from Google is free to enroll on, has a competitive edge, offers real-life digital marketing experience, and helps non-profit organizations build an online presence – it’s the full package. However, it’s only eligible for university students.