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Want to pursue a career in the digital marketing world? Here at Clicks and Clients, we pride ourselves on being geeky about what we do. This core value truly sets us apart from our competition in many ways, but I will focus on the two that are most important to me. First, our clients get to experience firsthand that our knowledge is up to date. The digital marketing world is constantly evolving and requires that agencies be on their toes at all times; keeping up can be difficult, but it is absolutely necessary for success. Second, being able to work for an employer that is invested your continued growth and education in the industry makes you feel valued as an employee. Throughout our normal workweek here, we are scheduled time to research and analyze changes and trends in online marketing. We are encouraged to self-direct this task in order to hone in on topics we are truly interested in. Here is a list of 4 valuable courses I have taken, or plan to take in the future.

  1. Hubspot’s Inbound Marketing Training Program and Certification

This is a very well-known and respected marketing certification. Hubspot’s certification offers a basic, overall view of a term Hubspot coined: Inbound marketing. Training includes simple explanations about SEO, blogging, conversion analysis and reporting.  It includes 12 classes and four and a half hours of video time. Once completed, you receive a badge that you can use for your website or social media platforms. The great news about this course is that they continually update it so that you can be assured you are getting the most up to date knowledge.

  1. Google Partners Certifications

This is where you can take the Google Adwords certifications and Google Analytics certifications. Google analytics is the most widely used web analytics service so understanding how their reports work would be a great step in educating yourself about digital marketing. Google Analytics is one of the key components to building strategies for campaigns. Google Adwords certifications requires that two out of six of their courses be completed for certification. The certifications cover the paid advertising side for Google including search, display and video campaigns. In my experience, the mobile advertising exam was the most difficult.

  1. Social Media Quickstarter

This is a social media training program for beginners. It is offered by the email marketing company, Constant Contact. This program has an incredible amount of knowledge about Instagram, LinkedIn, Google +, Pinterest, Facebook, Youtube and more. They are all organized so that you can choose which social media platform to start with. These chapters are very thorough and detailed, but the downside is there are no videos.

  1. Copyblogger

Copyblogger offers ebooks, webinars and forums for those involved in online marketing. Their education areas are split into four areas: design, content, traffic and conversions. It is a great resource to those looking to understand more about how all of these aspects work together to create success. While all of these courses are free, you will have to register to receive the information.

 

Courses are a great idea to gain fundamental knowledge about any topic. The great thing about the online marketing world is that there is so much knowledge offered for free online (shocker). It’s also a good idea to follow people who are considered experts in the industry. For SEO, I personally follow Matt Cuts, Neil Pattel, Danny Sullivan and Rand Fishkin.

If you are also geeky about what you do, check out the rest of our core values and open positions here.