Can I Learn Digital Marketing For Free?

Yes, you can learn some basic digital marketing concepts for free, but mastering advanced skills will require more formal training. Free seminars and tutorials are a good introduction, but classes are the best way to learn digital marketing skills. 

What Free Resources are Available for Learning Digital Marketing?

Free resources can help you start in digital marketing. Seminars, step-by-step tutorials, podcasts, and blogs provide a good introduction.

Free Seminars

Watching free seminars can help you understand the basics of digital marketing and its processes. Noble Desktop offers many free videos on its website, including Intro to a Career in Digital Marketing, Intro to Social Media Marketing, and Intro to Google Analytics. 

Tutorials

Companies like Google, HubSpot, and Meta--the owner of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram--offer free tutorials to help users learn their products. Some of these platforms offer certifications like the Google Analytics Qualification exam.

Podcasts

There are many digital marketing podcasts to choose from. Some are generally focused, like "The Digital Marketing Podcast," "Online Marketing Made Easy," and "Duct Tape Marketing," while others are more specialized like "The Savvy Social Podcast" and "The Copyblogger Podcast." These presentations are useful for keeping up with new developments in the field.

Blogs

Blogs are another free resource for people who are looking for an introduction to digital marketing. Like podcasts, blogs are also a good way to follow changes in digital marketing. Some of the top digital marketing blogs are from HubSpot, Moz, Content Marketing Institute, Search Engine Journal, Copyblogger, and Neil Patel.

How to Make Use of Free Digital Marketing Resources

While free materials won't get you into a new career as a Digital Marketer, they are still useful. In addition to providing an introduction to the field, you can use them to prepare to take a class, delve deeper into a subject, or find out about new developments.

If you would like to explore what digital marketing is about, you can watch prerecorded seminars and listen to podcasts to get an overview of the field. Free resources can help you learn what terms mean, like SEO, PPC, or organic reach, which can give you a head start when your class begins. 

Another use for free resources is to dig deeper into a subject that might be a challenge, like Google Analytics. You can find numerous brief tutorials on Google's website to give you extra practice in learning this tool.

The Internet is a vibrant and constantly changing community. Podcasts and blogs can be helpful for keeping up with changes to platforms, tools, or procedures. Digital Marketers need to stay up-to-date to run successful campaigns.

Limitations of Free Resources

While they are free, seminars, tutorials, podcasts, and blogs can only go so far when your goal is to change to a new career as a Digital Marketer. In some cases, their focus is too broad to cover topics completely, and in others, they are too specific.

Introductory videos can give you an idea of what Digital Marketers do, but they don't go into enough detail for you to learn how to plan your own campaigns. There is no one to answer questions if you don't understand something or rephrase points you don't understand. 

Podcasts and blog posts can have the opposite problem. The audience for these resources is often experienced Digital Marketers and the topics can be beyond beginners. This isn't true of all podcasts and blogs, but you can spend a lot of time sifting through material to find something relevant to you.

What to Do After Utilizing Free Digital Marketing Resources

After watching some introductory seminars, your best bet for gaining the digital marketing skills you need to switch careers is to take a class. You can choose between shorter bootcamp classes and certification courses that are designed to take you from beginner to experienced marketer in two to four months.

Classes like Noble Desktop’s Digital Marketing Certification can help you learn digital marketing more easily than trying to teach yourself for free. In-person classes have instructors who can answer your questions and give you help when you need it. They are easy to find in large cities, but if you live in a smaller town or rural area, it might be more difficult. Live online classes run at the same time as an in-person class but are available from anywhere, with some students in the classroom and others logging on via video conferencing.

You can also find self-paced classes on subscription platforms like LinkedIn, Coursera, and Skillshare. These videos are prerecorded, like the free tutorials, but go into much more depth. The drawback of these classes is, as with free seminars, the lack of a live instructor.

While classes with a live instructor do have a cost, they are worth it. Instructors are seasoned marketers who know the best techniques and can steer you clear of pitfalls. Class assignments are designed to reinforce what you are learning and when completed will make up a digital marketing portfolio to help you find a job. 

Learn Digital Marketing Skills With Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop offers both bootcamp classes and certificate programs on digital marketing topics. The Digital Marketing Certificate offers 120 hours of hands-on instruction on digital marketing strategy and web fundamentals, SEO, content marketing, email marketing, Google Analytics, Google Ads, and bootcamps on individual platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and TikTok. The certificate includes additional courses in social media content marketing, streaming for social media, and a portfolio course.

If you are looking for a course that focuses on social media platforms, Noble's Social Media Marketing Certificate will boost your skills. This course includes 72 hours of instruction on different platforms and how to choose the ones that are right for your campaign. You will also learn about creating content for social media and how to use the analytics tools offered by the platforms. The course concludes with a class on the social media industry and portfolio preparation.

Noble's Google Analytics Bootcamp provides a deep dive into this important marketing tool. Understand key terms, find out what to track, how to understand reports, and how to assess the success of a campaign. The 6-hour course will also look at the differences between GA4 and the new Universal Analytics.

Learn all about keywords and searching with SEO Bootcamp from Noble Desktop. This 12-hour class introduces search engine optimization and how search rankings work. You will learn how to use keyword research tools, techniques for writing SEO content, link building strategies, and optimization techniques.

Google Ads Bootcamp will teach you how to plan a paid advertising campaign for Google searches. This 12-hour class from Noble will teach you how to set up an account, how auctions work, and how to create ads that convert. The course will also cover best practices for landing pages, how to set up call and conversion tracking, how display ads work, and automating your campaign. 

Noble's Digital Marketing Strategy & Web Fundamentals is an introductory class for anyone who wants to find out what digital marketing is all about. This 6-hour class covers the key skills you need to increase traffic to a website, generate leads, and close sales. You will learn how to develop a digital marketing strategy and analyze your campaign to improve your return on investment. The course also covers techniques for optimizing your website to increase conversions.

High-quality content is the best way to market a product or service and Noble's Content Marketing Bootcamp will teach you how to do it. Learn about strategies and solutions for content marketing, develop an understanding of content creation and best practices, and create a plan to promote, track, and optimize your content in this 6-hour course.

Learn how to build an effective email list, create compelling emails, and optimize your campaign for success in Noble's Email Marketing Bootcamp. This 6-hour course covers the important role of email in a marketing strategy, the qualities of a successful campaign, and how to get the most out of your email marketing.