You’ve come across an interesting job posting, clicked to read through the job description, and when you’re just about to apply, you freeze in your tracks.
Your self-doubt is at it again, holding you back with a ton of “what ifs”:
What if I don’t have what it takes to get hired? What if I apply and never hear from the team because, well, my skills aren’t off the charts? What if I get the job but can’t deliver results?
And with a sigh of frustration, you give the job a pass.
A huge part of your self doubt has a lot to do with how knowledgeable and skilled you are as a content marketer. Here, you have two options: Take online courses and get certified, read books, or use free online learning resources like StuDocu to access a vast library of educational material.
Since this is a post about content marketing certifications, an obvious answer from me would be going for online certifications.
But let’s dive deeper…
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For starters, here are the top skills you need as a marketer:
There are a ton of books on SEO, social media marketing, and content strategy.
However, we both know that content marketing is evolving so what worked two years ago might not work today. That means you need to keep up with these changes to have the necessary knowledge and marketing skills to deliver the results your clients need.
Books are good at covering basic principles in a given discipline. However, things are moving faster than the pace at which authors can update and republish their books.
Secondly, depending on the skills that you need to learn, you may need someone to walk you through using videos, mind maps, and checklists to help you understand how to do it.
“This can be especially important if there is a significant knowledge gap between what you currently know and what you need to know to master the skill.” — Subramanian Viswanathan, CEO of disprz.
Take a skill like analytics.
If you want to learn how to identify a popular blog post in Google Analytics, then you need more than just “do this and that.” A thorough walkthrough on how to do it works best to help you understand how to identify the amount of traffic each post is bringing in.
That said, we’re going to look at eight content marketing certifications. They will help you acquire the knowledge and skills you need so you can apply for jobs you’ve given a pass before, get paid what you’re worth, and deliver results.
Julia Mccoy is the founder of Content Hacker, where she teaches marketing strategies that help brands create content that drives business objectives. She is the lead instructor of this course and has partnered with eight more instructors who teach different lessons on content marketing strategy.
Best for:
The Content Strategy and Marketing Course is ideal for Content marketers who want to understand how to create and implement successful content strategies for the companies they work with.
Course content: The course has 6 modules covering different elements of a successful content strategy such as:
Course Format: the course comes in video format, PDF Worksheets and exercises to practice what you learn.
Course duration: 6 weeks
Availability: Open for enrollment
Pricing: $997 as a one-time payment or $99 – 12 payments.
Student reviews:
Russ Henneberry, who is the former Head of Editorial at Digital Marketer created this certification program and has updated it to keep up with the changes happening in content marketing.
Before that, he worked with SaaS companies such as Salesforce and Crazyegg to build their audiences using content.
Best for:
Content Marketing Mastery is ideal forcontent Marketers who want to learn how to develop content campaigns.
Course content:
The course has 6 modules teaching you how to:
Once you finish the course and take the final exam, you will receive a certificate and a badge which you can display on your website and LinkedIn profile;
Course Format: The course comes in both video and audio formats. Each module has a slidedeck and worksheets to help you implement what you learn.
Course duration: 3–7 days
Availability: Open for enrollment.
Student reviews:
In addition to Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose, this course has 55 more instructors, most of whom are content marketing thought leaders. However, we’ll look at the two main instructors here: Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose.
Joe is the founder of Content Marketing Institute and has written several books on content marketing such as Content Inc. Robert Rose, on the other hand, is the Chief Content Advisor at Content Marketing Institute. Together with Joe, they’ve written a book called Managing Content Marketing.
Best for:
Content Marketing University is ideal for marketing teams in agencies, B2B and B2C companies and nonprofits who want to cross-train in different elements that make up a successful digital marketing strategy.
Course content:
The course has a new curriculum for 2020 with six core modules by Robert Rose and 38 other courses by other instructors teaching you how to:
Course Format:
To help students navigate through the course, it has learning tracks that guide them through the core modules and elective courses. The course is in video format, further learning resources and quizzes to help students sharpen skills in specific areas.
Course duration: It is self paced but learners have access to learning materials for 12 months.
Availability: It’s open for enrollment every quarter.
Pricing:
Student reviews:
Tim Soulo teaches this course and he is the CMO at Ahrefs, a company that grows its user base through blogging. He also runs Bloggerjet.com, and has managed to build an engaged audience through blogging.
Best for:
Ahrefs Blogging for business is ideal for experienced content marketers who want a refresher of how to build an engaged audience through blogging. If you’re new to content marketing, take the course to understand how blogging for business works, so you learn how to do it right.
Course content:
The course has 10 tutorials teaching you how to:
The course also has guest Interviews from popular bloggers such as Noah Kagan, Bryan Harris and Ramsey Taplin.
Course Format: The course comes in the form of videos and further reading resources for students.
Course duration: 4 hours
Availability: Open for enrollment
Pricing: Free
Student reviews:
SEMrush is an all-in-one content marketing platform, popular among SEO professionals and marketers. It comes with a couple of different toolkits each with a course.
Ashley Ward, VP of Operations at TopHatRank, teaches this course. She is also speaker at a couple of marketing events such as Content Marketing World, Search Marketing Summit and PubCon.
Best for:
SEMrush Content Marketing Toolkit Course is ideal for marketers who just bought the platform and want to learn how to get maximum value for it, or those already using it and want a refresher.
Course content:
The course has four modules teaching you how to use the SEMrush content marketing toolkit to:
Course Format: Video Lessons, quizzes, and further reading resources.
Course duration: Three hours
Availability: Open for enrollment
Pricing: Free
Managing remote teams across different time zones is challenging to content marketing managers and learning how to handle these challenges determines how well your team performs.
Fortunately, CXL has created a course on the same topic. Kevan Lee, VP of Marketing, Buffer is teaching the course. Since its inception, Buffer has had a remote team, and Kevan Lee was able to take the company from $5 million to $25 million in annual revenue.
Best for:
Managing a remote team is ideal for content marketing managers leading a remote team of writers. If you’re new to management, this course might not be what you need.
Course content:
The course has five modules teaching you how to:
Course Format: The course comes in video format together with templates to help you implement what you learn.
Course duration: Three hours
Availability: Open for enrollment
Pricing: CXL offers a ton of courses on digital marketing, and you can get for $1 for 7 days trial, then upgrade if you want to access more courses.
Student reviews:
Chris Mercer created this certification course and is also the founder of Measurement Marketing. He’s known for simplifying analytics to help marketers understand their numbers and make better decisions.
He is also a speaker at popular marketing events such as Traffic and Conversion Summit and Social media Examiner.
Best for:
Measurement Marketing Certification is ideal for content marketers who want to learn how to use Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Google Data Studio to know their numbers and ROI of their marketing efforts.
Course content:
The course teaches you everything you need to know when it comes to marketing analytics such as:
Course Format: Videos, templates, and further reading resources. There is also a private Slack channel and feedback from Chris Mercer every week. Once you’re done with the course, you’ll get a measurement marketing certificate, valid for 12 months.
Course duration: 13 weeks
Availability: Open for enrollment
Pricing: You apply for the course, and once you’re accepted, you pay a non – refundable fee of $97 then you choose the class you want to join. From here, you can either pay in full or choose a payment plan.
Student reviews:
Aaron Orendorff built his career as a content marketer through guest blogging. Today, he is the VP of Marketing, Common Thread Collective. He is also the founder of Iconicontent, where he builds B2B content marketing strategy for brands.
Best for:
Master of Guest Blogging is ideal for content marketers who want to build their authority and that of the brands they work for. The relationships you build over time compound and start paying back through having other marketers link back to your content, promote it to their audience, and open doors for new opportunities.
Course content: The course comes in five modules that teach you:
Course Format: The course comes in video format, worksheets, templates, and quizzes.
Course duration: The course is self-paced.
Availability: Open for enrollment
Pricing: $297
Student Reviews:
As a marketing professional, you’ll never stop learning if you keep an open mind. In addition to acquiring new knowledge from courses, you also learn what’s working and how to implement it to get the results you want, saving you weeks and months of trial and error.
So, what about calling off your search for the perfect content marketing course and focusing on what we’ve discussed here?
Then identify the skills you need, identify the certification that will help you acquire it and start learning.
And when you do that, you’ll find yourself applying for positions that seemed intimidating before, because you’ve got what it takes and you’ll get paid what you’re worth.