Students and professionals always look to acquire additional skills and expertise to enhance their employability. You will want to explore opportunities at international universities, but you may not be in a position to travel overseas due to time and money constraints. Fortunately, it is possible to upskill without travelling or spending money on an overseas degree. You can start a degree programme online, that too for free.
If you are in the marketing or business fields, online marketing courses make a worthwhile endeavour for your career growth. Many options offer insight into customer expectations and growth strategies. You can also find relevant ones covering your fields of interest rather than tying you down with a conventional and structured curriculum. Some of the top US universities have these free programmes on offer on platforms such as edX and Coursera. Here is a list of the most popular ones in 2021.
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK/ BRANDING
Course- Strategic Self-Marketing and Personal Branding
The online Strategic Self-Marketing and Personal Branding programme approaches branding at a micro-level. It picks the traditional branding concepts and goals and applies them to self-branding. You can study concepts like professional imaging, impression management, and relationship marketing and apply them in the professional world. Apart from this top-rated free branding course, the State University of New York (SUNY) offers many more free online courses covering interesting subjects such as Principles of Management, Advanced Manufacturing Process Analysis, and International Cyber Conflicts.
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY/ CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT
Course- Engagement & Nurture Marketing Strategies
Northwestern University brings a free nine-hour online marketing course for customer engagement as a part of the social media marketing series. It teaches popular methods and strategies to engage with and nurture customers. From the basics of customer engagement to detailed concepts such as infographics, ideal landing pages, and success metrics, there is a lot to learn with the course. The free course is available through Coursera and gives you the opportunity to be associated with the famous Kellogg School of Management, which ranks as one of the top business schools in the US.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA/CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
Course- Viral Marketing and How to Craft Contagious Content
As content becomes the mainstay of online marketing, this free content development course by the University of Pennsylvania can add value to your resume. The course guides you on picking the ideas that catch on and applying them effectively in the marketing environment. You can learn to leverage these ideas for word of mouth, influence, and social networking. The university collaborates with Coursera to bring a host of online marketing courses that teach subjects like Business Foundations and Entrepreneurship, Introduction to Marketing, and Customer Analytics.
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO BOULDER/DIGITAL MARKETING
Course-Introduction to the Digital Advertising Landscape
The University of Colorado Boulder offers an innovative programme in digital marketing for students and professionals looking to add the new-age marketing skill to their portfolio. Introduction to the Digital Advertising Landscape picks the major digital platforms and trains learners on using them to market their business. The thirteen-hour course is meant for beginners and can give the kick start that your career needs. Once you complete this introductory programme, you can explore advanced offerings in Digital Advertising and Social Media Advertising.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY/MARKETING ANALYTICS
Course- Marketing Analytics
Columbia University collaborates with the edX platform to provide a free online course on Marketing Analytics. Essentially, marketing analytics involves making sense of the data and using it to gain a competitive advantage for your business. This free course teaches how analytics can maximize the return on investment. You will learn more about creating quantitative models and using data, stats, and AI to foresee outcomes and understand marketing impact. The 12-week long course requires you to dedicate eight to ten hours per week, so you can well imagine its comprehensiveness.
RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY/ INFLUENCER MARKETING
Course- Influencer Marketing Strategy
Rutgers is another American university that offers a free online marketing class with Coursera, covering Influencer Marketing as the core subject. It requires a 26-hour commitment over a period of six weeks. The programme takes a two-pronged approach, with students trained on customising their approach to business and consumers. The second approach covers influencer marketing tactics. Rutgers has many offerings on Coursera, including programmes on Analytics and supply chain-related concepts.
BABSON COLLEGE/ CUSTOMER ACQUISITION
Course: Marketing Fundamentals: Who Is Your Customer?
Babson College brings a unique course that covers the fundamentals of customer acquisition, one of the most overwhelming aspects of marketing in the current landscape. This free online marketing course emphasises the importance of finding and targeting customers for your business. It teaches the tactics to assess the value businesses provide to the customers. You can complete the course by devoting four to six hours per week for four weeks. The course is available on EdX, which also has many more offerings from Babson. These include Digital Strategy and Action, Conscious Capitalism, Financial Accounting Made Fun: Eliminating Your Fears, and Customer-Centric Marketing for Entrepreneurs.
ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY/ MARKETING AND SALES
Course- Business English: Marketing and Sales
Another interesting offering you can explore on Coursera is Business English Specialization in Marketing and Sales by Arizona State University. The programme is a part of a four-course offering of the university and requires thirty hours over six weeks to complete. The primary goal of the class is to teach students the effective use of English while dealing with professionals and consumers. It lays stress on communication through marketing processes, such as product brainstorming, promotion, sales pitches, and persuasive techniques. The university has more free online classes on Coursera, including certificates in Big Data, AI and Machine learning, Cybersecurity, and Software Engineering.
You can pursue one or more of these online programmes according to your interest and career goals. The best part is that you can ramp up your skills and resume for free.
If you are considering studying abroad why don’t you discuss your prospects and opportunities with experts at Lurnable’s dedicated study abroad counselling division LurnPathways?
