Have you heard about Hubspot? If you are a professional marketer, you probably know. But for beginners in marketing field, I highly recommend you to visit hubspot.com and its free online courses academy.hubspot.com. It is worthy for marketing students and beginners in this field to learn basic concepts about marketing. Also, at the end of the course, Hubspot will grant you a certificate for completing it. Guess what? You can put it in your resume if you plan to work in any marketing field. Among thousands of candidates, adding a certificate to your resume or profile is a bonus. It is free, convenient and very useful!
I have taken Hubspot Social Media Certification for my Digital Marketing class. It took me more than 5 hours to watch videos, review content and took an online exam.
I liked most the structure of content throughout the course. There are many short videos and quizzes so it makes me feel more focused on the content rather than lengthy videos. The content is very clear and precise. The instructors and guest speakers in the content are credible as they are mostly experts in marketing field. There are also reading resources including study guide, slides, transcripts and other related resources. Thus, I did not only have the chance to take the course but also had my eyes on other sources. That enhance the value of the course overall.
There was no disappointment but a little frustration in the calculating part of break-even point. But I was able to review it and search for more information, so it was not that bad.
I learned a lot about social media marketing, what tasks marketers should focus and avoid while engaging with customers and how to build persona, and sustainable relationship with customers through social media. Although content on social media looks short compared to blog posts or landing pages, there are a lot of work to do. Since there are many channels including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Snapchat, it takes time to upload content and engage with the audience, not to mention how to deal with negative comments or even during crisis. There are also a lot of tools for marketers to consider; it matters if you can choose which on is good for your business and persuade your senior executives to spend budget on it. The cost of these tools is actually much cheaper than paying for influencers in you ad. Again, it depends on your strategy and orientation in the long term.
Personally, the certification program is useful for beginners in marketing field rather than professional marketers as the concepts are very basic. However, I think professionals should still refer it as a reminder or even cornerstone in their career. Sometimes we make decisions based on our feelings rather than solid knowledge and trends in marketing. Therefore, enhancing basic conception is important to keep you stayed mindful and strong to deal with turmoil on the Internet.
On the scale of 1-5, I would probably grade 4 to recommend to my friend. As I mentioned earlier, the course is free, convenient and useful, especially with the certificate to enrich resume. Many short videos will not make it boring; instead they make the audience stay focused. Also, there are useful resources to review and save for future reference. overall, the course is necessary for anyone who needs to learn or reinforce essential rules and concepts in marketing.
