5 FREE Online Courses to Level Up Your Career

I love getting mail from readers! A lovely copywriter reached out to me about marketing-specific skills you can get with a free online course or certification. My first reaction was “Boy, do I ever”. My second reaction was “wait, didn’t I write about this already?”

As it turns out, I did not. What I had was a draft that has been languishing for months. So let’s fix that now!

Why Get Career Certifications

Now, I’ve gotten my fair share of weird LinkedIn messages urging me to take a fancy course or little-known certification. The reason these messages are so prevalent is because getting a certification does help… as long as you’re getting one that aligns with your chosen career path and aspirations. When your current role doesn’t give you much room for growth or progress, certifications is a legitimate way to get keywords on your resume.

This is exactly what this reader is facing. They want a marketing role with a data focus and a higher salary, which I wholeheartedly encourage. Marketing covers a vast amount of roles in an organization, from content-focused tasks like copywriting to the more strategy-focused ones that tend to command manager/director job titles. But this doesn’t mean getting a certification is only applicable to marketers. Anyone working within a particular software platform can benefit massively from being able to say they’re bona fide certified.

And hey! You might be surprised to learn what doors a particular certification will open for you. I’m a great example: while I’m not certified in HTML/CSS coding, I am skilled enough in it to mention it on my resume and LinkedIn profile. Having that in my skillset led to a recruiter connecting me to my current six figure job. Woohoo!

If you’re waffling over what certifications to get, I’d definitely look at the free ones first before the ones that cost a pretty penny. Earning a free certification will help you clarify what roles you most want if you’re unsure; if you are sure, then the free ones still provide a great benefit and diversify your career options should you need it.

So in answer to my reader, and everyone else curious, here are the courses/certs I’d recommend:

1. Salesforce certification

This is the most common marketing/sales platform and the go-to CRM platform for big businesses; if you plan to only do one course on this list, I’d recommend this one to be it. Salesforce has a free training site (here!) that goes over the ins and outs of the platform. Salesforce is a monster of a platform that’s used across many teams, not just marketing. This means they’ve got capabilities some of their most seasoned users have no idea about; this also means that, by taking their course, you can become the go-to Salesforce person for your team or company.

You can take the certification exam here once you feel confident in what you’ve learned, but it looks like the exam costs $200 to actually take. (Yuck!) If you’re committed to doing everything for free, you have the option to just do the course and add Salesforce to your LinkedIn profile and resume under the “Skills” section. You just don’t want to say you’ve been certified; in my experience, it’s fine as long as you can show you actually do know Salesforce.

Additionally, ChooseFI (fantastic podcast with god-tier guides) has a free 5-day Salesforce challenge they’ve made with a podcast guest. If getting daily emails helps a lot to stay focused, I’d give this a go here.

2. Google Analytics course

Every good marketing team has someone on it who knows how to best use Google for traffic. As a marketer, taking the Google Analytics course makes you an expert on website and app engagement. It’s completely free to take, too!

Finance author Grant Sabatier credits learning how to manage Google ads with getting a digital marketing jobs in less than two months. In his own words:

I learned how to run Google ad campaigns by watching YouTube videos and within 45 days, I had a job at a digital marketing agency in Chicago making $50,000. Within a year I was making $300,000 with my full-time job and side hustles (11 different income streams at one time!).

If you’re not in marketing, Grow With Google offers a slew of other certifications including cybersecurity, project management, and UX design. These cost $49 a month, but the site itself is a great starting point if you’re thinking about similar roles.

3. HubSpot certification

I first learned about HubSpot because they’re headquartered just outside of Boston, and I LOVED attending their free events when I was first starting out in marketing. I got certified for Inbound Marketing back in 2016 and was blown away at how thoughtful and informative the offered course was. They also offer loads of courses in other marketing disciplines if you have a specific interest. Every single one of these courses are completely free; they are committed to offering free courses as part of their organizational ethos. This introspective approach means almost 200,000 companies worldwide trust their platform. Definitely an excellent choice!

4. Coding certification

As I mentioned before, one of the biggest reasons I got my current role is because I am a marketer who can code in HTML/CSS. This is a bit of a rarity in the marketing space, but highly useful when you need someone who can code landing pages and email messages. Coursera has a solid number of results for coding courses/certifications here. Besides HTML, I can confirm that SQL and Python can also be fantastic for a marketing professional.

5. Software/platform-specific courses

Look at the job ads you’re most interested in so you’re familiar with what skills they’re looking for. Do they specify the name of a software platform, either as a requirement or as a plus? If so, get proficient at it. I’m not looking for a new job, but I’ll still check out roles on LinkedIn or Google Jobs for an idea on what they’re looking for. In my case I normally see Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, Iterable, or Braze mentioned. If you consistently see a specific software name pop up, copy/paste that bad boy into your search engine of choice and see what free courses are available on it.

The Crucial Step After the Course

Once you get one or more of these courses under your belt, the crucial next step is updating your LinkedIn profile to reflect the new skills. That is how recruiters find you and how hiring managers know you’ve got these skills! It’s also very important to tell LinkedIn you’re open to recruiters contacting you about new opportunities. You’ll get a lot more messages about potential roles that way. Sound off in the comments of other free online courses/certifications you know of that I should add!

Cover image credit: Jonathan Ybema via Unsplash