Do you know someone in college studying to graduate with a marketing degree?
I hope not!
Most marketing education from universities aren’t as relevant as many online course providers.
I heard countless stories of employers’ regrets of hiring marketing graduates because they had to spend unnecessary money to retrain their new employees.
Why?
Well, the graduates’ marketing education has little relevance to the employers’ requirements for marketing employees.
I’m not implying that you can’t get a highly relevant marketing degree.
Although, free online certifications are becoming more valuable to marketers than university courses.
The first obvious reason is that these courses can be completed from home. The second obvious reason is that they are free. Finally, these courses have about the same credibility as the universities. For example, Google offers free certifications in digital analytics, online advertising, and digital marketing.
Below are three popular resources to earn online certifications for free.
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Google Digital Garage
Google offers a Fundamentals of Digital Marketing course that results in a certification for successful students.
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HubSpot Academy
HubSpot offers several marketing courses, including social media, content marketing, and email marketing, that results in a certification for successful students.
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SEMrush Academy
SEMrush offers a beginner’s course and intermediate to advanced course on search engine optimization, which results in a certification for successful students.
The Final Word
I have a college degree in technology. I didn’t become interested in marketing until several years ago. Although, I didn’t even consider to return to college to learn about marketing.
I don’t need 40 courses (or 120 credits) to get a bachelor’s degree to prove enough marketing knowledge.
I have done content marketing for Entrepreneur Magazine and The Huffington Post without a marketing degree. Even then, I didn’t claim to know everything about marketing, but I knew that I needed to know more.
Last year, I graduated with certifications from Google and HubSpot, which happened before my work with Entrepreneur Magazine and The Huffington Post.
So, stop obsessing over getting a degree. For marketing, you don’t need it!