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Do you offer consulting services or create info products?
Or do you want a new job but don’t have any digital or social media marketing certifications?
Have you ever stopped to ask yourself…
Why would anyone to hire me or learn about marketing from me?
Some customers need to see more than results…
They want to see that you have a formal education/training in your area of expertise.
Being labeled as professional certified marketer can help you get customers, sell products, and even get a new job.
What Will I Learn?
So how do you get certified in marketing space without spending four years in college or racking up a $50k in student loans?
You get certified by recognized entities in the marketing industry!
In this post, you will learn.
The following are the best content marketing certification programs you can gain to boost your credibility and reputation. There are all accessible online so no need to move on any campus locations.
DigitalMarketer is one of the top companies for marketing certifications.
With a mission to double the size of 10,000 businesses and a focus on customer success, these products can help you run effective digital marketing campaigns that drive more traffic, sales, and profit for your company.
They help take the guesswork and secrets out of digital marketing to make rapid business growth available to everyone. In other words, they help you build an efficient marketing strategy as well as marketing plans that suit your business.
From content marketing and conversion rate optimization to their newest community management course, these trainings provide the best bang for your buck when it comes to learning how to to promote your business by producing killer content marketing.
This marketing certificate is also renowned by digital marketers all around the world.
Average Course Cost & Exam: $495 USD
This course is also one of the most recognized by marketing professionals.
The American Marketing Association (AMA) offers a Certified Professional Marketer program. To be eligible to take this exam, you must have a bachelor’s degree and four years of professional marketing experience, or a master’s degree and two years of professional marketing experience.
Once you have applied for the American Marketing Association’s program, you will have 90 days to study the materials, learn best practices and pass the accreditation exam.
The costs for the certification are as follows.
Your American Marketing Association’s certification lasts for three years, during which you must acquire 40 additional hours of continued education in online marketing from online coursework, instructor-led classes, conferences, seminars, and research.
Bing offers search advertising training for Bing Ads Certification. It’s a free program for active Bing Ads users. Simply study the training material they provide and take the exam.
There aren’t any ‘eligibility requirements’. It’s free and open to anyone using Bing.
Once you are a professional certified marketer, you will receive an official badge, placement in the Bing Ads Pro directory, and a certificate.
Content Marketing Institute offers online training and certification for content marketers. Anyone can join, study the training materials, and take the exam when it is most convenient.
Thanks to the course you’ll learn how to produce high-quality content marketing that catches people’s attention.
The costs for certification are as follows.
Annual Subscription: $995 USD
Once you study the training materials and pass the exam, you will be a professional certified marketer.
The certification never expires, and you do not need to maintain your subscription unless you want to continue learning about marketing strategies & best practices.
The Copyblogger Certified Content Marketer program is a part of the Copyblogger Authority membership.
To apply for the certification program, you must comply with the eligibility requirements:
The program is only offered a few times per year.
The costs of this certification are as follows.
Annual Authority Membership: $399 USD
Certification Program: $495 USD
Once you have completed the training program, you become certified by submitting samples of your content marketing.
These samples are reviewed by Copyblogger. If approved, you will receive your certification, which never expires as long as you maintain your Authority membership.
You also get the chance to be listed in the Certified Content Marketer directory on the Copyblogger website and become eligible for master-level training on an invitation-only basis.
But it’s not all, this certification will give you a little push if you’re trying to get access to the digital media industry.
Google offers certification exams for individuals to become AdWords certified.
To become Google AdWords certified, you need to set up an Academy for Ads accounts and then, take the Google Ads Fundamentals exam plus an additional exam on search, display, shopping, or video advertising.
While Google recommends that you have hands-on experience using Google Ads, it is not required. You can review their study materials, learn the best practices and take the exams for free. If you do not pass an exam, you can re-take it again in seven days.
This Google Ads course is one of the best free courses you can find on the market to get certified in digital and social media marketing. It’s also a quite popular certificate among digital marketers.
Google offers certification exams for individuals to become Analytics certified. To become Google Analytics certified, you must take the Google Analytics Individual exam.
While Google recommends that you have hands-on experience using Google Analytics, it is not required. You can review their study materials and take the exam for free. If you do not pass, you can re-take it again in seven days.
This free course would definitely help you to define a clear and efficient marketing strategy to grow your business by showing all the tips you need to know about Google’s tool.
Moreover, Google Analytics is one of the most used tools in search engine optimization (take a look at these lists of SEO certifications or/and SEO courses). Indeed, it is essential to know how it works and how to take advantage of it – for everyone who makes money online thanks to a website.
Following this course would make you understand how to measure campaign metrics and monitor KPIs to improve and scale-out your marketing efforts.
So this course is ideal not only for marketing professionals but also for search engine optimization professionals that want to get data insights and improve their digital sales management.
Bonus: If you’re looking a for a more general course about digital marketing, you should know that Google Digital Garage has recently launched a new course called ‘fundamentals of digital marketing’.
The main difference between the Digital Garage course and the other Google training programs is its independence from Google’s tools.
Don’t trust Google? Check out my list of Google Analytics alternatives!
HootSuite offers a certification program for their product for social media managers and strategists. Anyone can sign up for the HootSuite University, review the course materials, and take the exam.
The costs – per month – for the HootSuite marketing certifications are as follows.
HootSuite University Membership & Exam: $21 USD per month
Once you pass the exam, your certification never expires. You will receive a badge and a listing in the HootSuite Social Media Consultants directory.
In addition to their platform certification, HootSuite partners with Newhouse School at Syracuse University to offer an Advanced Social Media Strategy Certificate.
Anyone is eligible to take the course and exam to receive this certification.
The costs for the Hootsuite Social Media strategy certification are as follows.
Course Tuition: $999 USD
The course is comprised of fifteen lessons & assessments and will definitely help you increase your marketing social media knowledge and skills.
The main difference between this and the HootSuite certification is the advanced level of training and independence from the HootSuite platform.
HubSpot is a web analytics tool that offers several certifications – including the inbound marketing certification.
Everyone is eligible to take the HubSpot Inbound Marketing Certification course and exam for free.
This program, released by the HubSpot Academy, will help students demonstrate knowledge of sales management and inbound marketing best practices, independent of their platform.
This certification is great for any online marketer as it covers how to attract visitors, convert leads, close customers, boost marketing ROI and delight customers into promoters.
If you ever wanted to take classes from an Ivy League school – without worrying about admission requirements, money and college credits – then this is your chance.
Harvard offers a professional certificate in Marketing Management. To obtain this certificate, you must take four classes, all of which you can take online.
While you won’t be a Harvard alumni, you will have received a great certificate from a respected name in education & will be recognized in the marketing world.
The costs of this certification are as follows.
Four Courses Average Cost: $11,000 USD
You must complete the four courses for this certificate within three years. There are no admission requirements to get this certificate and become a marketing specialist.
With this digital marketing course, you’ll learn how to overcome digital marketing challenges by using different marketing tools. You’ll also become an expert in sales management (online) and in marketing management (online).
If you want to develop your skills in coding for the web, W3Schools offer several certifications that can help. These come in handy for marketers that offer website design, WordPress consultation, or similar information products or services.
W3Schools offer courses and exams for certification in HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, and XML.
The costs for these certifications are as follows.
Cost Per Language: $95 USD
You can register and study for as long as you like, then take the exam up to two times per language. You can take the exams alone or have a supervisor of your choosing proctor your exam.
Once you pass an exam, you will be W3Schools Certified in the language you chose as well as receive a badge and certificate.
It would be remiss of me not to mention my own course which offers a Private Blog Network Special Certification.
Now enrolment is rarely open but if you do get lucky and take part in this course you will get access to:
Price: $497
But in the meantime you can check out these four free videos which will teach you to build high-quality backlinks using free tools.
These backlinks are the type that brings you to the top of the competition in your niche.
Many of the above-mentioned programs and courses allow you to get your digital media certification after studying their training and taking an online exam.
I have some tips on how to pass these exams.
Most online exams are timed, but no one is watching you and how you get your answers unless it is specified as a proctored exam.
While you can’t pass any online exam without some basic knowledge on the topic, you don’t have to be an expert either.
Here are the keys to passing most of the online exams in one or two tries tops.
If you follow these steps, you should be able to pass most of your certification exams, if not all of them, in one to two tries and get your certifications.
Once you gain the professional certified marketer status, you will want to make sure everyone in the marketing world knows it – especially businesses that are looking for hiring managers well trained in digital marketing.
Here are some ways to mention and use your certifications to ensure you get recognition.
Effectively, if you are a HubSpot Certified Inbound Marketer, you want the world to know it.
People looking for someone to handle their inbound marketing and boost their marketing ROI will come to you over other marketing professionals without that certification.
If you want to improve your marketing skills, get listed with other qualified professionals in your industries, and get recognized as an expert, online certification and training programs from well-known sources are your best bet.
There is a range of certifications to choose from and they really help you to stand out from the crowd.
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Well, this article does cover all the list of courses need to be covered by any digital marketing professional. Nice one
Happy I could help
DigitalMarketer training is very good. Their courses go on sale a few times a year, generally for $95. I have 3 of them.
Completely agree Mike
There are many different types of online courses and finding good ones that offer exceptional value are few and far between. It is important you choose the right courses and check all the reviews.The Internet Training College offers online training courses meaning it’s easy for you to study at your own pace and in the comfort of your own home or office.
Very true Gerri.
It’s pretty much awesome cool. Thanks!
Thanks Sameer.
Hi Matthew,Thanks for the above information regarding different types of digital marketing certification exams.
No problem, it can be a bit over whelming when searching yourself.
Thanks John
To get a job sometimes graduation isn’t enough ,you need to upgrade yourself with some new technologies so i have been looking for certifications that are in demand and found out this article which i think is great help for people like us.Thank you.
No problem, pleased you found this post useful
Woah this website is a plus i love examining your content regularly google adwords. Continue to be within the terrific do the job! You currently know, a great deal of folks want circular with this information and facts, you could assist them to greatly.
Thanks for your comment
I think the best thing about this list is that most of the certs offer content for free before you test and only charge you when you test. In other words, if you are a self-starter with your own website, you can learn a lot for free… and then not pay for it because you work for yourself. Just saying… But the coding certs are something I’m definitely going to pay for.
That is true indeed 🙂
Thank you For this good article
No problem
So helpful. Thanks!
No worrys!
Insightful. Thanks for the killer list.
No problem!
Goof info about Marketing certifications !!!Google have more certitications like:-Google Educator Certification-Google Tag Manager Certification Don’t forget DoubleClick Certifications (9)https://doubleclick-elearning.appspot.com/And DoubleClick Studio (7)https://getstudiocert.appspot.com/studiocert/certificationHootsuite now have two new certifications (2) :-Hootsuite Platform Exam Certification (About Hootsuite platform) -Hootsuite Social Media (About social media)And you can add to the list Woorank certification.Finaly I pass my Certifications in http://www.certificationanswers.com/en/
Thanks for the extra resources 🙂
Thanks for sharing,But actually i’m looking for some online MBA o Master Degree courses,I know some, I would be grateful to let me know 🙂
Everyone I have hired that had a university based digital marketing education, I have sacked because they are useless in the real world.
Thank you For this good article!I have requested for Hubspot Certificate 😉
Good luck Danial!
I think the HubSpot certification is definitely worth considering, as It’s not just about how to use the HubSpot platform, it’s the whole philosophy on inbound marketing, in which you use social media and email marketing, as well as PPC, so it could be a good launch pad and rationale for taking all the other certifications as well.
Hi MatthewGreat article, thank you. What would you advise about acquiring a US qualification vs a British qualification – in your experience, do you think the training/content differs in different geographies, or that one has more or less credibility than the other?
Well the digital marketing world is very much a global market, so I wouldn’t worry about those pesky country’s 🙂
Hey, thanks for the list.What about this SEO certification: http://www.seocertification.orgDo you recommend it because it seems to be good and thanks.
I have never heard of it myself sorry
Which is pretty much everyone that goes to university to study internet/digital marketing
Hi MatthewWhat about DigitalMarketingInstitute.com? Great post btw 🙂
True. I can imagine also how funny it would be getting certified/trained on SEO knowledge that is already 2 years out of date when you get tested – helpful-not!
Excellent list Matthew. Pity there are so few decent cert.s for SEO – I am always a bit skeptical when I see SEO companies relying on PPC related certification for credibility – but it is certainly better than nothing.
Yeah its not ideal but SEO changes a lot as well
Very good article for internet marketing.Internet Marketing certifcation is helpful to increase knowledge.
Thanks Jack
Wow that sounds pretty bad, I suppose the qualification is only as good as the company issuing it.
Hehe. You and me both. That was funny man, but totally true at the same time. You learn by doing, not by studying. You speak much sense Matthew.
I’m pretty sure some of these “certifications” wouldn’t be taken seriously by a lot of people. Then again, maybe I’m in the minority here.”I’m certified by DigitalMarketer.com!””Who?””Err…”The Bing, Google, Hootsuite and W3 certifications are all great ones to have though.
Interesting article and some interesting courses. As you say I would think they are probably of more benefit if you are offering digital marketing services or indeed working for an agency
Yes it’s certainly geared towards the agency side of things
The big question which comes to mind: do you think it’s worth doing these kind of qualifications, bearing in mind you have none and you’re very successful…I just wonder if there is a commercial cost benefit number here?
It depends, I know very talented people – much more so than me, that for one reason or another want to be employed and will never take that step to pursue their own ventures. So if your the type that will be applying for jobs it helps you stand out from the crowd.Equally the smart marketer will know how to stand out from a pile of 500 job applications without any certification/qualification for less than a dollar.
Very cool list. I tried taking the Google analytics one a year or so ago and got too distracted with work and never finished it. I should reconsider trying it again at some point as I know there’s a ton I could learn from it.
Yeah I thought about that one as well 🙂
Did you take any of these certifications? I personally think that AdWords certification for example doesn’t mean much. I don’t think it can represent your ability to run a successful campaign.
Nope or any kind of university. In fact if someone has gone to university to study anything to do with internet marketing, I wouldn’t employee them.
Hi Matt,Very cool list of marketing Courses.It’s really helpful especially for people like me.this certificate is free or paid?
Depends which ones you do
Ha Ha.. I am sure you would pass if you attempt one!!Thanks for the motivating words. I will surely give it a try in near future 🙂
Touché 😛
These do seem worthwhile however it’s a little pricey in an industry that you can excel in with a portfolio and past results.
That is very true!
Nice list!! I have been planning to try my hand on Google Analytics Individual Certification since ages!! I have been working as SEO since 3 years and using Analytics on daily basis so i think i should clear it, at least on second try if not first.What do you think?
Why not? To be honest I don’t think I would pass a hard core exam – certainly a lot of people out there that know more than me!
Hi Matt,Now that’s like a coolest of blog about marketing certifications. It’s really helpful especially for people like me that aiming to grab few of these.
Hope it helps you reach your goals Girish 🙂
Mathew, I heard you didn’t take any marketing or business course. So where can I read a out how you starred this business.Your list is helpful and I know it worthwhile if a person can try it. Thank you so much.
Here you go https://searchlogistics.com/about/
This is a great list of potential certification options Matthew which I would never have considered had you not gone to the effort to highlight these.This is something I will certainly look into for my business, anything that improves your credibility is certainly a good idea as you have highlighted.Keep up the great content
More credibility never hurt anyone 🙂
I’ve done all the certifications (listed above) that cost $ ZERO. 😀 (including, Google Adwords, Google Analytics, Bing and HubSpot) and I can say these are not the courses designed to create a highly skilled user, but help you to get a better job. These FREE certifications helped me to get a better job and since I work as a freelancer too, so these certifications make my client feel secure in choosing me.
That’s awesome to hear – glad they paid off for you, I should probably do them right 😛
Matt, Thanks for sharing these credential resources. Sometimes having a credential will help a freelancer that may not have the clips in their resume. Another place to look around for great credential options would be a local University and their Extended Studies programs. I received a credential in Grant Writing from mine! Another place to look around is free, open-sourced institutions such as Coursera. They offer a digital marketing course as well as a paid credentialing service that is much more in-depth. Thanks again for sharing!
Exactly, people look for them 🙂
Me neither. Clients never ask, and as long as I can deliver the goods I very much doubt it would even occur to them to ask.
I was talking about the really rubbish qualifications that cost about £3k and only took one week of ‘boot camp’ to pass. I spoke to a trainer once who told me he had a tractor driver in his class who didn’t even own a computer. £3k and one week later he had an ‘official’ qualification in IT. Fortunately I don’t think things are quite so bad these days. At least I hope not!
I thought we were nearing April 1st when I first read your latest post. If you’re working in IT then perhaps and MCSE or a Cisco qual would always underpin your experience. However, small business startups that deliver I.T. don’t require qualifications to seek more work. The same principal applies with IM. 99% of internet marketers don’t need additional qualifications to boost profile or attract more customers. Its a very small percentage of large advertisers that may want to see a piece of paper from some u.s. college saying you have passed some test. As you know yourself, hard work, learning from your mistakes and a sprinkling of luck wins the race 🙂
Oh yes I know that, but certification holds a high level of credibility on the corporate world.
Where’s the like button? 😉
This is probably the best resource I’ve found for marketing certifications. Nice work Matt.Will be coming back to this within the next few months :)P.S. Just curious, if you had to choose, would you rather display awards on your site (like you have) or certifications? Basically, which do you think would be more effective social proof?
Why not both if you’ve got them =D
Hahah, that was an awesome tip for the Harvard courses. I am tempted to do it. Though I am not sure If i’ll pass the courses lol.
Nah me neither haha
All very well…But some of these are still expensive…Have you done any of them?
Nope never had any formal training or education in anything to do with marketing, computers, business or sales.
How many of these exams are really worth taking? Some of these are laughably expensive. Really annoying are certifications for which you have to keep paying “you will receive your certification, which never expires as long as you maintain your Authority membership.” Nice.Certifications should be to showcase one’s knowledge or a product/topic, but some of these companies have turned it into a easy business. This sounds counter intuitive to me – if I were a software product maker (like tableau for example), I’d charge just enough to cover my exam administering expenses a I’d want as many people to learn and take the exam as possible.Most of these exams are out of reach for people who are not in the western world earning in dollars. :/
Yes granted some are easier to complete than others which in my opinion devalues them some what, however that’s not the case for a lot of them.
There are some certifications I may question on here, but you need to know that almost every credible professional certificate will require you to obtain a certain amount of credits annually. I’m not sure if they all require an annual membership fee to do so, but even a person I knew who became a certified arborist had to do it.It’s the certified professionals equivalent in “uptrainings”, “new training modules”, etc. And, this is a growing and fast paced industry. It’s a career similar to other job postings (like call center work) I.e. “fast paced changing work environment”.Some of these are really reputable, industry leading certifications. If you just research it and compare to credible job postings asking for qualifications you’ll figure it out.
Good list Matt, nice to see some of the big names like Google taking certification seriously, the training niche used to be chock full of sharks.
Used to be?
Hi Matt,Cool list of Professional Courses, definitely gonna check one of these.Just curious though, did you took any of these course?Eric
Nope never had any training/education except for the basics science, maths and english