How to Learn Content Marketing

Creating relevant content your audience finds helpful builds a relationship with your customers and increases sales. Learning how to get this content to the people who need it is an important skill. The number of options for learning content marketing might be overwhelming at first glance. There are books, video tutorials, classes, and more to choose from; it all depends on your learning style and personal preferences. 

Here, we’ll discuss the various methods of learning content marketing so you can make an informed decision about how you’d like to get started.

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing relies on content created with a specific audience in mind and designed to appeal to the interests or problems of that audience. This could be blog posts, articles, reports, ebooks, videos, podcasts, or other media. The content builds and supports a relationship with the audience through social media, email, or websites.

Content doesn’t push a product, service, or brand. It focuses on what the audience is interested in, and Content Marketers learn that through data analytics. The content is relevant and valuable to the audience and rarely mentions the brand or product. Relevant content tells consumers a relatable story and gives them a sense of belonging to a group.

Read more about what content marketing is and why you should learn it.

What Can You Do with Content Marketing?

Content marketing helps you connect with your audience, improve brand loyalty, generate leads, and increase sales. Unlike traditional marketing, which makes a direct pitch for products, content marketing is based on storytelling and rarely mentions a brand or sales. The content appeals to readers by helping them with a problem or issue. 

The first step in content marketing is to determine your audience and what they care about using Google Analytics and social media analytics tools. Once you know your audience’s interests, you can begin to draft content that addresses those needs. This helps build a relationship with your readers, which is crucial to improving brand loyalty. 

Although content rarely mentions the brand or product, relevant content tells a story that consumers relate to best. It gives them a sense of belonging to a group. Content marketing creates more customers than traditional marketing, and these customers are also more loyal. They feel connected to the company or brand and are more likely to buy again. This connection develops through storytelling that resonates with followers.

Content marketing also generates more leads than traditional marketing. Consumers prefer to learn about companies and products through articles and blog posts rather than advertising. Finally, content marketing costs less than traditional marketing and leads to higher conversion rates.

In-Person Content Marketing Training

When you think about learning a new skill, do you imagine going to a school or training center and taking a seat among other students? Do you look forward to interacting with the teacher, asking questions, and discussing finer points? You can find in-person content marketing classes that meet those expectations. Of course, you will need to find a class that fits your current schedule. You will also need to spend time commuting and finding parking or paying for transportation.

Noble Desktop offers a Digital Marketing Certificate in person in New York City from a state-of-the-art campus in Midtown Manhattan. Instructors are experienced digital marketing professionals, and class sizes are small, so you can get the attention you need. Students use Noble’s classroom computers equipped with the necessary tools, so there is no need to purchase anything extra. Other in-person training options include Brainstation’s Digital Marketing Certificate, General Assembly’s digital marketing course, and Georgetown School of Continuing Studies’ Digital Marketing Strategy Bootcamp.

Live Online Content Marketing Training

You might prefer in-person instruction, but maybe you can’t find a class near you or don’t want to face the hassle of commuting. Live online content marketing classes and bootcamps give you the same top-quality, interactive instruction when you can’t travel to in-person classes. You can master content marketing from the comfort of your home, office, or anywhere with internet access and a quiet environment. These virtual options allow you to learn content marketing no matter where you live and change to a new career.

You can take Noble Desktop’s Digital Marketing Strategies Bootcamp or Digital Marketing Certificate in person or live online to start a new career in content marketing. You have a real-time virtual instructor, and you can ask questions and get help when you need it. Other options for live online classes include Thinkful’s Digital Marketing Flex, Jelly Academy’s Digital Marketing class, and Digital Marketing Ops from The Bridge.

Free Online Courses & Tutorials

Maybe you aren’t sure what content marketing is all about or if it is for you. You can take some free courses and tutorials to find out. Check out Noble Desktop’s free seminar, The Pillars of Digital Marketing Success, to learn about content marketing and other digital marketing topics.

There are many free video courses to give you an idea of how content marketing works. Udemy offers Content Marketing 101: A Free Guide for Beginners and Pros. Hubspot has the Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing in 2022, and many free tutorials are available on YouTube to get you started.

Read about more free content marketing videos and online tutorials.

On-Demand Content Marketing Classes

Many online content marketing courses are on-demand classes. Unlike live online classes, they are not happening at the time you are watching. These classes may also be referred to as asynchronous because they feature pre-recorded content. One advantage of on-demand classes is that you can watch them whenever and wherever you want. Another plus is that they tend to be cheaper than in-person or live online instruction. However, a drawback to on-demand classes is that you can’t interact with the instructor to ask questions or get help if needed.

LinkedIn Learning has many on-demand classes on content marketing, like Content Marketing Foundations, Become a Content Strategist and Content Marketing for Social Media. Udemy has a Content Marketing Masterclass, Content Marketing: Grow Your Business with Content, and Best of SEO: # 1 SEO Training & Content Marketing. Skillshare offers Social Media Content Creation, Introduction to SEO, and Mastering TikTok, among many others.

You can find many paid and free on-demand videos. Most platforms, like LinkedIn, Udemy, and Skillshare, work on a subscription model. You pay an annual or monthly subscription fee after a free trial period. You can also find plenty of free on-demand courses on YouTube.

Which Learning Method is Right for Me?

Choosing a method for learning content marketing can be overwhelming. Think about your preferred learning style and what has worked in the past. You can experiment with different approaches to see which feels right for you. You don’t have to stick with one way; you can try out free tutorials and on-demand classes before investing in an in-person or live online digital marketing certificate course.

Your current schedule influences your chosen learning method, too. If you have a relatively open and flexible schedule, you may prefer a structured course offered at a set time, like in-person or live online. You can choose to attend part-time or on the weekends if you can’t do weekday classes.

If you have many responsibilities, like a full-time job or family commitments, you may be better off with a self-paced class or video tutorials that you can access when your schedule permits.

Why Learn Content Marketing?

If you have a small business, learning content marketing can help you build a relationship with your customers, leading to brand loyalty and higher sales. This depends upon creating and promoting high-quality content your audience can relate to and get something from. This is because a correctly targeted audience will generate more sales than a broader, more general audience for a much lower cost. Broadcast and print advertising are much more expensive than pay-per-click ads, and organic or earned advertising through content marketing is essentially free.

You can also learn content marketing to change to a new career. If you have strong communication and writing skills, good organization abilities, an understanding of meeting deadlines, and the talent to create content of different types that maintains a brand message, you have a good chance of establishing a successful content marketing career.

Read more about why you should learn content marketing.

Level of Difficulty, Prerequisites, & Cost 

The level of difficulty of any subject depends on your experience and abilities. This is true of content marketing also. Whether you will have difficulty learning content marketing depends on your level of interest, the time you have to devote to study, and your motivation. Then it probably wouldn’t be hard for you to learn content marketing and change careers, especially if you sign up for a certificate course.

There are no formal prerequisites for learning content marketing, but a few skills can make the experience easier. Do you love to write? Are you a good storyteller? If you are comfortable with technology and like working with numbers, learning to use content marketing tools will be easier. Beyond that, creativity, persistence, and the ability to multitask will make learning content marketing smoother.

You can learn content marketing for free, but most people find classes more efficient. The costs of classes vary, with on-demand video courses costing less than in-person or live online sessions. As far as tools go, some of the most widely used tools, like Google Analytics, are free, and others, like Moz, have a free version to get you started. SEMRush is another useful content marketing tool, and while it can be expensive, you get a seven-day free trial to try it out first. 

Read about how difficult it is to learn content marketing.

Learn Content Marketing with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop

You can learn content marketing with hands-on classes at Noble Desktop. Taught by expert instructors, class sizes are small and give you ample opportunity to interact with the instructor and the other students. If you want to learn more about content marketing, sign up for Noble's Content Marketing Bootcamp. This course covers an introduction to content marketing and techniques for content creation and promotion, including how to measure the success of your content marketing.

If you want to go a step further, try Noble's Digital Marketing Certificate course. It covers email marketing, SEO, Google Analytics and Google Ads, and all major social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and LinkedIn Marketing. You also get a Streaming for Social Media course and a portfolio class. If you want, you can retake any class for free for up to a year. To find out more about content marketing and change careers, visit Noble Desktop's digital marketing page.

Key Insights

• Content marketing helps you connect with your audience, improve brand loyalty, generate leads, and increase conversions.

• If you have proficiency in creating content, know how to tell a good story, and are comfortable learning new software tools, you will have an easier time learning content marketing.
• You can choose between in-person, live online, or on-demand classes.
• There are free resources to help you learn content marketing, too.
• You can receive comprehensive content marketing training through an in-person or live online course with Noble Desktop.