Digital Marketing Courses To Enhance Your Career


I get asked all the time if getting a degree in digital marketing or an MBA in digital marketing is helpful or required for a successful career in digital marketing. I tell them that you can spend $250,000 on a 4 year degree in Digital Marketing or $100,000 on an MBA in Digital Marketing and end up having little or no good job opportunities. Or you could teach yourself about digital marketing, volunteer, or do an internship (all for free) and open up a plethora of lucrative career options. It's all about where you're at, what makes the most sense for your situation, and what you get out of it. It's about what opportunities you can create from your experience. 

With a successful website called "Bootstrap Business" and another even bigger one named "Frugal Fitness" I think you know which direction I personally lean toward and what path I've chosen over the years. Remember the movie "Good Will Hunting" when Will tells the Harvard undergrad "You're going to have a $150,000 education that you could have gotten for $1.50 in late fees from the public library". And that was in 1997... Harvard is about $255,000 now for 4 years, ouch. Barely high school graduate and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk has also been very passionate about the power of free educational opportunities in favor of debt-saddling college courses. Online entrepreneur extraordinaire Neil Patel is of a similar mindset. And let's not forget about famous college dropouts like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Michael Dell just to name a few.

Like anything else, it’s all about giving it 110% and becoming the best at your craft. Digital marketing is a popular and growing field with several areas of expertise including social media management, community management, email marketing, SEO, Google AdWords, eCommerce, UX, content creation, and more. It’s important to have at least a basic understanding of each component of digital marketing. Quora, LinkedIn, Medium, and plenty of free blogs (Moz, HubSpot, Adage, Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Watch, Inc, Fast Company, Forbes, and Neil Patel just to name a few) are all excellent resources. 

Industry certifications are also helpful to teach you the ropes in business and give you some concrete credentials that employees will want to see. I have free guides to some of the best affordable and free certifications that I’ve completed with pretty universal applications: 

HubSpot Academy Inbound Certification Guide (free course, annual renewal) 

HootSuite Social Media Certification Guide ($200 course, no renewal needed) 

Google Analytics Certification Guide (Free course, 18 month renewal needed) 

Google AdWords Certification Guide (Free course, 12 month renewal needed) 

There are plenty other great courses and you can find them easily here or with a Google search. Courses on Udemy or LinkedIn come to mind quickly as well. Because digital marketing is a rapidly growing and evolving field, you’ll need to stay on top of industry news and educational opportunities. No resting on your laurels or getting stagnant in this industry! 

If you're new to the industry, I’d recommend working on your digital marketing skills and freelancing part time in addition to your current full time job. Once you know the basics, you’ll need to volunteer to help entrepreneurs, small companies, and/or non-profits. Show them the value that you can bring and start building up recommendations and a portfolio. Then I’d recommend either trying to find a small business that needs somebody to handle a wide variety of digital marketing responsibilities (baptism by fire), or a large corporation that needs a specialized role (focusing only on Email Marketing for example, or only Social Media Marketing). If you pick the former option you’ll learn a bit of everything. If you pick the latter, you’ll be trained to be an expert in that specific area and you can grow from there. 

I could go on and on because I essentially made this career switch into digital marketing full time several years after going to college (which was also for a completely different program). In hindsight I'd most likely have even more money and financial success if I had forgone college to work instead and study independently... but I guess we'll never know for sure. Changing careers or taking yours to the next level is hard work but it can be done and it will be worth it. Best of luck!





I hope you enjoyed this article about how digital marketing courses and free online resources can help to grow your career.

Interested in more articles about frugal education?

Read My Posts:

- Could Social Media Damage Your Career?

- 6 Tech Training Courses To Keep Your Employees Safe Online

Published by Michael J Schiemer
Owner of Bootstrap Business
Money - Marketing - Motivation
Digital Marketing | SEO | Social Media
Mike Schiemer Builds Better Business

Share This On Social Media:

Official Bootstrap Business Blog Newest Posts From Mike Schiemer Partners And News Outlets