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Coronavirus caught the world by surprise. In an attempt to flatten the curve and slow the spread of COVID-19, many governments around the world are putting restrictions in place. Stay-at-home orders are very common, and you’re not supposed to leave your home unless you’re an essential worker or under certain circumstances.
In some countries, the government has implemented community quarantines to slow the spread of the virus. Whole companies went from working in an office to working remotely from home, and this disruption can lead to restlessness and stress.
But, some entrepreneurs and marking professionals have embraced this quarantine and more downtime by taking advantage of free social media marketing courses and marketing training. Big companies are offering courses for free that would normally cost hundreds of dollars, and you can use them to learn a brand new skill set or hone your existing ones.
Not sure where to start? We’ll outline the biggest free social media marketing courses available right now due to the COVID-19 pandemic and link you to them so you can take advantage of them right now.
1. Moz Academy
First up on our list of marketing training is Moz Academy. Since 2004, Moz has been an industry leader in SEO and marketing training for people new to the field and industry veterans alike. Due to COVID-19, they’re offering all of their courses free now until the end of May. They divide their courses up by category, like SEO, analytics and ranking factors.
Once you pick out a course, you can go through the comprehensive videos. These videos cover everything from the basics to in-depth marketing training. There’s also a host of marketing tools you can learn to use to improve your website and ad campaigns.
2. Class Central
Class Central is a comprehensive hub for free online college-level courses. You can browse through Ivy League marketing courses, and several of them offer free certifications. You can study at your own pace. Class Central handles all of the class materials you need to complete each course. For example, if you type in “marketing” into the search box, there are over 743 free courses.
If you want to find courses that have certifications at the end, you can sort and filter those out. At the time of writing them, there were 620 marketing courses with certifications available. Social media marketing offers 21 courses, and 20 of those have certificates.
3. Coursera
Coursera is another platform that allows you to take free social media marketing courses. It offers certificates, courses and whole degrees all online. Dozens of world-class universities have courses listed here, and big companies also have their courses available. To date, there are over 1,985 free courses offered by this site, and you can work at a pace that is comfortable for you.
This site allows you to focus on one area at a time, or you can spread out and pick different topics. For example, you could take a course on analytics and then take another course on marketing or advertising. They offer software classes for applications like Excel and WordPress, and there are project-based courses that teach you to build apps and websites.
4. LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn is another big company that currently has free marketing training due to the coronavirus pandemic. You gain access to over 14,000 different courses, and you get a month-long free trial to take as many as you’d like. They offer personalized learning experiences, and the people who lead the training videos and classes are industry professionals who love to teach.
Once you sign up, LinkedIn Learning will use your LinkedIn profile to pull personalized courses based on your information. If you have SEO and marketing strategies listed, expect to see classes related to these two topics. They also have skills-based videos available like how to write a formal business email or letter, learn Word, and learn advanced SEO.
5. Facebook Blueprint, Google Analytics Academy and HubSpot Academy
Although these are three different entities, we’re going to put them together because they’re always free, and they’re not just free due to the coronavirus. They’re all very popular and widely-used platforms that offer a host of marketing training and useful tools. Facebook Blueprint offers courses on how to find the best images for your ads and how to create ads that convert on Facebook.
Google Analytics Academy walks you through every aspect of Google Analytics. It has everything from basic 101 courses up to advanced ones, and you can learn how to use Google Tag Manager and Data Studio. HubSpot Academy has several video courses on sales, marketing, service and in-depth tutorials you can watch and learn from on your own time.
6. Ahrefs Academy
Ahrefs is a comprehensive tool you can use to perform a digital marketing analysis. Due to COVID-19, they’re now offering free premium educational courses in Ahrefs Academy. When you sign up and log in, you can watch step-by-step tutorials on topic research, SEO, outreach, and many more topics. This is a huge savings because this course typically retails for $799.
You get 10 lessons that are video-led, and it’ll walk you through the process of creating and promoting content that catches peoples’ attention and converts them. The total course time is just under five hours, but you can break it up into manageable sections around your schedule.
7. MindEdge
The CEO of MindEdge thinks that a quarantine is a great time to brush up on your marketing skills and check how well your current strategy is doing. This is why they’re offering a Digital Marketing Strategy course through Skye Learning for free.
This course is an excellent refresher for marketing professionals. It’ll outline the five stages of digital marketing, including planning, researching, executing, analyzing/adjusting and measuring. You’ll get dozens of useful tips and techniques that you can apply to your current marketing strategy.
Bottom Line
If you want to learn from free social media marketing courses, there’s no time like the present. COVID-19 is giving everyone a chance to immerse themselves in new courses, whether free or at a fraction of their original cost. You can use some of your downtime to earn a few new certifications or to refine your current skill set.
Whatever your needs, you can find a course to match you online. Make the most of this time to enroll yourself or your entire team into marketing training so you can come back stronger once the restrictions lift and you go back to your daily routine.
