Learning never stops, especially if you work in communications and marketing. The ever-changing landscape demands that professionals stay on top of the latest tools, tips and trends. Whether you’ve just graduated or are a few years into your career, anybody can benefit from certifications and courses that teach new skills or refresh existing ones and they look great on your portfolio.
There are many certifications and courses available online, including some at no cost. However, this list would never end if we included them all so we will focus on those that meet the following criteria:
- Aimed towards entry-level professionals
- No post-secondary courses that require payment
- Costs do not exceed $2,000 CAD
…in the following categories:
- PR and communications
- Digital marketing
- Social media
- Content and SEO
- Email marketing
Some courses are hosted on the creators’ websites, while others are on online learning platforms. Depending on the platform, you’ll need to pay a subscription fee to access all their courses, pay per course or sign up to access a free course. Some certifications and courses we’ll list are available on these platforms and we recommend checking them out to find more:
Last few things to consider about certifications and courses before we dive in:
- Read reviews before investing time and money, which you can find on the course website or sites such as CourseCompare.
- So much good advice is available for free on YouTube, podcasts or blogs. Don’t feel pressured to spend money if you can’t afford to.
- Some courses were made years ago and may not account for a platform’s newest features. Try finding a course with similar content that is more up-to-date.
- Ask your employer if they’d cover the cost of a course as part of your professional development.
- If you had a good experience with a course missing from this list, reach out to us and we’ll add it.
Now, let’s look at what certifications and courses are currently available, what they offer and how much they cost.
PR and communications
Muck Rack – Fundamentals of Media Relations
About: Muck Rack is a software that helps PR professionals find and connect with media contacts. They offer a course that is geared towards helping you understand the media landscape and how to craft a successful pitch. This suits someone who has not already gone through a post-secondary PR program. This self-paced course takes 2 hours to complete and you must pass the exam to achieve certification.
Cost: Free.
Managing Brand Reputation (LinkedIn Learning)
About: On LinkedIn Learning, B2C marketing expert Goldie Chan walks you through how to manage negative criticism and online reviews of your organization. The course is just under 30 minutes long with 3 quizzes. You’ll receive a certification of completion that will show up on your LinkedIn profile.
Cost: A subscription to LinkedIn Learning costs $34.99 CAD a month.
Canadian Public Relations Society – New Practitioner
About: CPRS offers this certification for PR professionals who have 1–5 years of experience. You will be tested on your knowledge of PR fundamentals, critical thinking and writing skills in an exam. This program exists strictly to obtain certification; it does not involve a course. You do not need to be a CPRS member to take the exam.
Cost: $100 CAD for the readiness program (an optional purchase) and $150 CAD + HST to take the exam.
International Association of Business Communicators – Crisis Planning
About: IABC is an association with chapters all over the world, including Canada. This course teaches you how to handle a major crisis at your organization, managing the crisis itself as well as public opinion. You will obtain a certificate from the IABC Academy upon completion after completing the 60-minute course.
Cost: $149 USD.
Canadian Marketing Association – Integrated Branding
About: The CMA mainly offers marketing courses, but this certification program includes communications teachings. Learn how to develop a brand from the ground up and execute marketing and communications campaigns. There are three cohorts a year so make sure to apply by the deadline. The course is 10 weeks long and includes a final assignment.
Cost: $1,895 CAD for non-members and $1,395 CAD for members.
Digital marketing
Google – Fundamentals of Digital Marketing
About: This beginner-level, self-paced course from Google covers what you need to know about digital marketing if you know nothing yet. Learn how to make a great website, rank better in search results and get noticed on social media. Complete the 40-hour course and take the 40-question exam to get certified.
Cost: Free.
Google Ads
About: Google ads are everywhere so as a digital marketer, it is crucial to learn about how to create and use them. This certification program provides different certifications for Google product areas such as search, video, and apps. Complete the course and achieve a score of 80% or greater on the final assessment to achieve certification.
Cost: Free.
Google Analytics
About: Learn to analyze and understand website traffic with six courses on Google Analytics. The course will take 4–6 hours to complete and you must score 80% or greater on the final exam to achieve certification.
Cost: Free.
Twitter Flight School
About: Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced user, there is a wide range of courses available on Twitter’s online academy specifically for advertising. Watch all the video lessons included in any given course. Courses range from 15 minutes to 2 hours long. You’ll receive a badge of completion that you can display on your LinkedIn profile.
Cost: Free.
Wordstream – Growth Academy
About: Wordstream is an online advertising management software that offers four courses with on-demand video training. If you’re working for a business that needs to boost its sales with online advertising, then start here. Watch all the video lessons to complete a course, with courses ranging from 35 minutes to 2 hours long.
Cost: Free.
University of Illinois – Digital Analytics for Marketing Professionals (Coursera)
About: The instructor for this course is Kevin Hartman, the Head of Analytics at Google. He teaches how data analytics can be used to meet traditional marketing goals. This is marked as a beginner-level course so don’t worry about enrolling even if you’re new to analytics. The course takes approximately sixteen hours to complete with sixteen quizzes included. You will obtain a certificate upon completion.
Cost: Free.
Connecting with Customers Online (LinkedIn Learning)
About: This course is one of the most popular on LinkedIn Learning with over 330,000 views. It covers a lot of sides to online marketing, from content creation to email campaigns. The content will take almost 5 hours to go through and there is an exam at the end. Afterwards, you will receive a certificate of completion you can display on your LinkedIn profile.
Cost: A subscription to LinkedIn Learning costs $34.99 CAD a month.
Facebook Blueprint
About: Become an expert in Facebook’s family of apps and services. There are eight different certifications around the creative, strategy and marketing side of ad buying — each with its own exam. Complete the exam with a minimum score of 700/1000 to achieve certification.
Cost: The course content is free to view for Facebook users, but to get certified there is a cost of $150 USD per exam.
Salesforce Trailhead Academy – Marketing Credentials
About: Salesforce is one of the most widely used platforms for marketers all over the world. They have several courses available at their online academy as well as six marketing certifications. To get certified, you just need to pass the exam. If you’re a Salesforce pro, you won’t need to go through their academy’s courses to prepare.
Cost: The course content is free to view for Salesforce users, but to get certified there is a cost of $200 USD per exam.
Social media
YouTube Creator Academy
About: Many businesses have YouTube channels these days to generate brand awareness, sales leads and more. To help creators make content and get their content seen, YouTube offers several courses at their online academy. To complete a course, watch each video lesson included. Courses can range from 15 minutes to 2 hours in length.
Cost: Free.
Buffer – Introduction to Social Media Strategy (Skillshare)
About: Buffer is a social media management software and their team created this course with Brian Peters, a Strategic Partnerships Manager at Shopify. The course is hosted on Skillshare and is geared towards people with little to no knowledge of social strategy. Watch 9 videos (which equals 45 minutes total) to finish the course.
Cost: A Skillshare subscription is $11.75 CAD per month.
Hootsuite
About: Hootsuite is a social media management platform so they know all things social. They offer nine courses/certifications on social marketing, strategy, advertising, advocacy and more. Complete the course(s) and the exam(s) to achieve a certificate.
Cost: Course pricing ranges from $99 to $999 USD.
Content and SEO
HubSpot – Content Marketing
About: Content is a hugely important way to drive traffic to your website and generate interest or leads in your offerings. This Hubspot certification will help you develop a strategy to create a consistent flow of content and explains how SEO works. Complete the 6-hour course and pass 11 quizzes to earn a Hubspot certificate.
Cost: Free.
SEMrush Academy
About: SEO is king nowadays, but many marketers are still clueless about it. SEMrush is an SEO tool and their certification programs revolve around SEO generally as well as their tool specifically. You don’t need an account to access the course content but you will need one to complete exams and receive certification for any course.
Cost: Free.
Moz – SEO Training (Udemy)
About: Moz is a marketing analytics software for SEO and they created this course on Udemy to provides a background on how SEO works, how to use it and how to report on your results. There are 18 video lectures that will take 3.5 hours to watch.
Cost: Free.
Email marketing
Hubspot – Email Marketing
About: Learn how to manage contacts, set up email campaigns and optimize your click-throughs with this certification from Hubspot. Note that Hubspot has its own email marketing service and the course will show you how to excel on their platform specifically. Complete the 3-hour course and pass 9 quizzes to achieve a Hubspot certificate.
Cost: Free.
MailChimp – Email Marketing for E-Commerce: Tips and Tools to Increase Sales (Skillshare)
About: MailChimp is an email marketing service and in this Skillshare course they explain how to create better emails to help meet your organization’s marketing goals. This course fits learners who want to become better at email marketing and using MailChimp. Watch 6 videos for a total run-time of 25 minutes to pass the course.
Cost: A Skillshare subscription is $11.75 CAD per month.
