What are good marketing courses to take?

What are good marketing courses to take?

I’m Janet Granger and I’m answering the question: what are some good marketing courses? 

There’s a great roundup of the names of different courses to take and great marketing resources at https://apollodigital.io/blog/learn-digital-marketing/. There’s a whole array there.

Obviously, if you Google, you can find other courses, but they (Apollo) have some great advice. They’ve done a really good job of curating a lot of what’s out there, when it comes to digital marketing courses. 

I want to start with that – and add that there are lots of marketing positions that are not necessarily digital that you might think about, too. As I mentioned in other questions, think about product packaging: any product that comes in a package – that package design needs to be created, at the point of sale. If you go someplace and there are displays holding product, those have to be created too. 

Granted, they’re created digitally, but you may not think of that when you think about digital marketing. 

Think about when you go to conferences and events, people who put those on. 

Think about people who attend people, who “man the booth.” There are lots of other positions, that you may not think about. Those who place ads, who create print ads, who create billboards. Again, they’re created digitally – but a lot of the work around them, even things like what’s called traffic, managing all the projects that happen at an ad agency. The “traffic job” is not digital,  necessarily. 

So having said all that, I want to make a recommendation to you.If you are looking at some good marketing courses, consider more of a ‘big picture’ question. And that is, I want you to look at a variety of these digital courses, see what interests you, maybe check a few out and see what matches your interests in your skillset.

It’s really important that you’d be interested in what you’re doing, and it’s not just a chore, but something that you actually enjoy doing – whatever that is.

I recommend that you attend some webinars and listen to some leaders in the marketing area, talk about what they do, how they do it, and what’s going on. 

I recommend that you get an internship and find out what it’s really like, “boots on the street,” every single day. 

Again, see if this is something that you really want to do. I’ve talked to people who say, “Well, I don’t want to sit in front of a computer all day long.” Then, maybe you need to be involved in an area, even sales, or maybe doing videos, where you’re not sitting behind a desk and you’re out and about doing things. Sales is actually a great area for people who like to be out and about and talking to people.

I recommend that you attend a conference, even if it’s online, and listen and watch all the content, and hear what’s being said. 

Create a Google alert for what interests you – and read it – and read the articles that come up every single day. 

Subscribe to marketing newsletters – there are lots of them out there. People who are leaders, like Ann Handley, MarketingProfs, eMarketer, et cetera. Find out what’s going on at Content Marketing Institute, for example. 

Find some leaders and thinkers that you really like. 

I latched on early to Rand Fishkin, who’s sort of the father of SEO (as far as I’m concerned). And I will read anything that he writes and I will test any new product that he creates.

I think it’s important that you find leaders that you follow – and that you learn from – because they’re always learning – which means you should always be learning. 

And once you find those leaders, you might do an old-fashioned thing, which is look up their books online. Even if it’s just an ebook to download. Read what they have to say. Learn from them. 

Someone like Gary Vaynerchuk, who basically started doing one thing in the wine business and ended up being a motivational and inspirational guru and leader. 

I think it’s really important that you let these people into your life and try them out. Like you try on a set of clothing to see – does this work for you? Do you find it exciting and interesting? You work, usually, a lot of the hours of your life – so it would be nice to find something that you enjoy doing. 

I will end the way I’ve ended other questions – about getting marketing courses or information or an MBA – and say that marketing changes daily. It’s really important that no matter what courses you take or what education you get, you realize that you need to be a lifelong learner, if you’re in marketing. Because it changes all the time. 

So don’t just take a course and then sit back and think, “I know what I need to know.” And leave it at that.Because you’ll be left in the dust within a year. I promise you. 

I’m Janet Granger, answering the question: what are some good marketing courses?