2023 Guide to Free Digital Marketing Courses and Certifications

After earning a master’s degree in literature, I realized I didn’t have any practical skills in digital marketing, the field I wanted to work in. What I discovered are quality FREE classes and certifications by well-known brands. 

Perhaps you are a recent grad who is somber to realize your résumé has no practical skills. You might be wondering how every entry-level position you find already wants you to have at least three years of experience. Or maybe you daydream about quitting your job and never looking back. You may even be starting or changing a career in midlife. 

Whatever the case, if you are ready to dive into digital marketing in 2023 but don’t know where to start, here are some free options to prepare your mind, kick-start your education, and eliminate your fear. You got this! 

HubSpot is Ready to Crush Your Digital Marketing Fears for FREE!

As a woman with a healthy skepticism about the word “free,” I can confidently recommend HubSpot because I completed the Digital Marketing Certification course. Initially, I worried because the online courses felt like boring, shallow learning from my time in grad school. But guess what? It’s practical knowledge you can add to your résumé.

HubSpot is the teacher you wished for when you yearned to gain foundational knowledge. This module-style teaching is excellent and exceeded my expectations for an online course. Each module contains high-quality videos that are informative and well-executed. HubSpot is user-friendly and offers website-building options based on its own curriculum. Though created by Hubspot, the concepts apply to digital marketing generally. Also, you learn at your pace, and with focus, can earn a certificate in a day or two.

I’ve returned to HubSpot often to continue my digital marketing education and revisit the resources listed beneath each video with helpful checklists and industry tools. For instance, I plan to earn another free certificate for email marketing to add to my résumé. When you pass Hubspot’s timed mastery quiz — which isn’t too bad if you listen and take notes during the videos —  you can gain knowledge and show off your newly earned certificate on LinkedIn! 

Honorable mention: Convertkit is another email provider that offers creators tons of webinars and includes a free basic plan, so you can sign up for their live and on-demand webinars, tech tutorials, and email marketing tips.

Google Garage Opens Its Door to Free Courses!

Google Garage is one of my favorite free resources as an aspiring digital nomad, and it offers a free digital marketing certificate course. Google is a great teacher of digital marketing because — well, it is the number one search engine. Many of the topics beneath the umbrella of digital marketing teach you how to work in tandem with Google to best reach your target audience via Google Analytics and other tools in its suite, so anything Google offers directly is worth considering.

The module-style videos are followed by regular knowledge checks that are simple if you pay close attention. I highly recommend Google Garage if you’re ready to be held accountable for attention to detail because you will learn directly from Google experts. 

Also, Google Garage also offers a course about developing a healthy relationship with your tech habits, a valuable resource in a highly digital world.

Honorable mention: Canva (woman-founded) is a simple way to design emails, business cards, logos, infographics, and appropriately-sized social media graphics. You don’t need design experience to use Canva. You can use their free version, or sign up for a 30-day free trial where you will find tutorials on everything design-related. The pro option for $12.99 a month gives you thousand of pre-made templates, millions of pictures, sound, and video.

Stay the Course with Coursera!

I took Coursera’s strategy of content marketing class. The lessons are convenient to my schedule so I can fit them in around my part-time jobs, and the deadlines are easily extendable. I like that videos have a time-stamped table of contents for easy navigation through each lesson if I need to revisit a concept. 

Coursera offers free module-style learning with an optional certificate available for purchase at completion. So, you can take all the classes to become certified but the actual certificate is what you may choose to pay for. Many courses are free and some are college credit courses, but it’s simple to determine whether a class is free. If the class requires payment, Coursera asks for it upfront, so you can’t accidentally sign up for something you’ll owe money for.

The Coursera classes had an in-person college-professor feel where each instructor has a little something different to offer because of their personal experiences. I enjoy the depth of information the course offers and the instructors are knowledgeable, so I recommend Coursera as a great use of time. My only complaint was that the instructors spoke too slowly, but this is remedied by easily changing the playback rate.

Coursera offers a free seven-day trial to experience paid classes, which you can use as a seven-day all-you-can-eat pass to the courses. You may find a course worth investing in or you may get all you need with the free courses; either way, Coursera is a great friend to make.

Connect with an Energizing Community of Women! 

I didn’t grow up with an overwhelming number of positive female role models who had words of wisdom as I navigated my young adult life, and maybe you didn’t either. Shameless plug: SheVentures podcast starts again in January 2023 with one-on-one interviews with down-to-earth, full-hearted, talented, educated, impressive, and professional women who were all once where you are now. 

If you need some inspiration to convince yourself that your career goals are possible, make some tea, get cozy, and tune into an episode. I recently listened to “Beat Fear, Guilt, and Self-Doubt as an Entrepreneur” with Kristen Guillory, Ph.D., as she speaks confidently and unapologetically. 

Listening to this episode gave me a window into the SheVentures podcast community, and I found strength in hearing the real-life ups and downs of other women. 

Guillory describes herself and other women in a warm, powerful, and loving manner. Her confidence is contagious, and I am elated at the idea of more episodes of women describing their journeys authentically, encouraging their daughters, nieces, friends, and colleagues to find and use their voices to tell their stories and inspire more women.

The hardest part of a big, new change is the first step, and now you have plenty of suggestions. You don’t need to get everything right on the first try to be capable of an exciting future. The best part about these resources is they give you the feeling they want to help you learn and they are working with you! 

I encourage you to give your time to do things that will help you grow. At a minimum, you will learn something about yourself!