Content marketing is an online strategy focused on creating helpful and relevant content for a specific audience. It's one of the most critical processes for establishing brand awareness and engaging with your target audience in the different stages of the digital marketing sales funnel.
To succeed with content marketing, you must build a range of skills, including content strategy, content creation, editing, copywriting, and SEO. The best and fastest way to gain the necessary knowledge is through structured learning provided by an online course.
What You Should Know About Content Marketing Courses
- Upon completion, many courses offer a content marketing certification, which is a great addition to your CV.
- The cost of premium courses is between $19 and $1,395 (for AMA Certification).
- The average duration to finish a course is less than 10 hours.
- Google, Semrush, Ahrefs, and Hubspot offer free courses worth exploring.
- Our top picks are Content Marketing Course By Reliablesoft, Content Marketing Certification by Hubspot, and Semrush's free course.
10 Content Marketing Courses Worth Your Time
These courses will help you learn content marketing without wasting time on theories that cannot be applied in practice. They are actionable and will teach you practical skills you can use to elevate your expertise and become a content marketing expert.
- Content Marketing Course by Reliablesoft
- The Strategy of Content Marketing by Coursera
- Content Marketing Course By Ahrefs
- Scaling Content Marketing By CXL
- Content Marketing Foundations by LinkedIn Learning
- Content Marketing Masterclass by Udemy
- Content Marketing Certification Course by HubSpot
- Promote a Business With Content by Google
- Advanced Content Marketing by Semrush
- Content Marketing Certification By AMA
1. Content Marketing Course by Reliablesoft
- Best For: Beginners to Content Marketing
- Cost: $149 (part of a bundle that includes 14 digital marketing courses)
- Duration: 10 hours
- Certificate: Digital Marketing Certification
- Instructor(s): Alex Chris (Digital Marketing Manager)
The first content marketing course worth considering is the Content Marketing Course by Reliablesoft.
The course will teach you both basic and advanced content marketing techniques, including:
- Introduction to content marketing
- How to design a winning content marketing strategy
- How to find content ideas for your content marketing campaigns
- How to create content that can get you links and social shares
- How to create pillar pages and rank higher in Google search results
- How to SEO optimize your content
- How to promote your content so that it gets the attention it deserves
- Which content marketing tools to use
- A content marketing checklist to follow
Why enroll in this course?
The course suits beginners in content marketing and people who want to build the necessary skills to become professional content marketers.
It starts from the beginning and explains step-by-step how to use content marketing to create high-quality content constantly.
It's a highly actionable course based on the proven blueprint we use to drive thousands of visits per month from Google to our website and clients.
The course is part of the Digital Marketing Full Course, and with your purchase, you get access to 14 courses that cover all areas of digital marketing, including:
- SEO
- Keyword research
- Facebook Ads
- Google Ads
- Digital Marketing
- Email Marketing
These courses will help you design and implement a content marketing strategy to increase your traffic and sales and take your business to the next level.
The course has 5-star ratings in course reviews and comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee.
Upon completing the course and passing an exam, you can get a certification to enrich your CV and showcase your content marketing skills.
2. The Strategy of Content Marketing by Coursera
- Best For: Intermediate Learners
- Cost: $49 /mo
- Duration: 20 hours
- Certificate: Yes
- Instructor(s): Sonia Simone (Chief Content Officer)
The Strategy of Content Marketing Course is offered by UC Davis through Coursera. The instructor, Sonia Simone, was the Chief Content Office of Copyblogger, a famous blog on content marketing.
It’s not a course for beginners, but it’s more suited to people who know the basics of content marketing and want to learn how to create a content marketing strategy.
It’s the longest course on this list (in duration) and takes approximately 20 hours to complete.
The course covers the following topics:
- The Content Marketing Ecosystem
- The Strategic Context (The 7A Framework)
- Mapping the Journey: Crafting a Content Marketing Strategy
- The Strategic Types of Content
- Managing Your Content
Why enroll in this course?
This is the course to follow if you work for a company and aim to learn how to use content marketing to build a professional brand and authority.
I wouldn’t recommend this course for freelancers or solo professionals, but this is one of the best courses for big companies who want to train their employees on content marketing strategies.
The course is offered with Coursera Plus ($49/mo), which gives you access to 7000+ Coursera courses and certifications. You can enroll for a 7-day free trial to go through the material and decide if this is the best course for your needs.
3. Content Marketing Course By Ahrefs
- Best For: Content creators looking for an overview of what content marketing is all about.
- Cost: Free
- Duration: 2 hours
- Certificate: No
- Instructor(s): Sam Oh (VP of Marketing at Ahrefs)
The Content Marketing Course by Ahrefs is a free collection of video tutorials on content marketing related topics. You can watch the lessons without having to register on YouTube.
Instructor Sam Oh does a great job of explaining how content marketing works and giving practical tips on how to get the best possible results from your campaigns.
It covers essential topics such as creating a content marketing strategy, optimizing content for SEO, content hubs, and content audits. In particular, it includes the following lessons:
- Content Marketing For Beginners: Complete Guide
- Content Marketing Strategy That Gets Leads and Sales
- Content Promotion Checklist for Beginners
- Content Writing for SEO: How to Create Content that Ranks in Google
- Product-led Content: How we Do Content Marketing at Ahrefs
- How to Create Content that's “Better” than Your Competitor’s
- Content Hubs: Where SEO and Content Marketing Meet
- Republishing Content: How to Update Blog Posts For More Organic Traffic
- How to Increase Organic Traffic with a Content Audit
Why enroll in this course?
The pros of this course are that it's free, practical, and easy to follow. The videos range from 8 to 15 minutes, and the content quality is very good. Each video has slides and examples you can follow and replicate.
The cons are that it's not regularly updated. Some videos were produced four years ago, and SEO and content marketing rules have changed since then.
If you're new to content marketing and want to learn the basic and advanced concepts, allocating 2 hours to go through the lessons of this course is definitely worth your time. It will help you understand what it takes to work as a content specialist and what results to expect from your campaigns.
4. Scaling Content Marketing By CXL
- Best For: Learning how to scale content marketing.
- Cost: $289/mo
- Duration: 1h 35 min
- Certificate: Yes
- Instructor(s): Ross Hudgens (CEO Siege Media)
Scaling content marketing is a premium course by CXL. The course instructor is Ross Hudgens, an experienced SEO and content marketer.
The reason we included this course in our top-10 list is that it teaches an important aspect of content marketing, which is scaling. Everyone can create a few pieces of content, but scaling the process to get real results is a different story.
The course includes 6 lessons that take around 1.5 hours to complete, covering the following topics:
- What is SEO driven content marketing?
- Prioritizing Topics for Rankings
- How to layer content over product pages
- Upgrading the Skyscraper Technique
- When (and How) to Link Build
- How to scale content
Why enroll in this course?
While this is a paid course ($289/month), it's the only one on our list that describes what you have to do to generate content at scale. It's for people who already have some understanding of SEO and content marketing and want to advance their skills.
In addition to content creation, it touches on topics like link building, which is essential if you want your content to rank high in organic results.
Upon completion of the course, you get a certificate from CXL. With your registration, you can access 120+ courses and mini-degrees CXL offers.
5. Content Marketing Foundations by LinkedIn Learning
- Best For: Beginners.
- Cost: $39.99 / month
- Duration: 1 hour
- Certificate: Yes
- Instructor(s): Brian Honigman (Professor of Marketing)
LinkedIn Learning offers the Content Marketing Foundations course, which is mainly suited for beginners in content marketing.
It starts by explaining what content marketing is, how to set up a content marketing team, how to identify the content needs of your target audience, and how to create and implement a content marketing plan.
In particular, it covers the following topics:
- Defining Content Marketing
- Creating a Foundation for Content Marketing
- Creating Your Content Plan
- Creating Your Content
- Promoting Your Content
- Measuring Your Content
It’s a video course, and the duration is only 1 hour.
Why enroll in this course?
The American Marketing Association approves this course, so if you want to pass the exams and earn a Digital Marketing Certification from the AMA, this course will help you cover the content marketing aspect of the exam.
The content was released in 2020 and has not been updated since then, but the main concepts are still valid. It has 4.7/5 star reviews from LinkedIn Learning users.
6. Content Marketing Masterclass by Udemy
- Best For: Beginners looking for a quick course.
- Cost: $19
- Duration: 3.5 hours
- Certificate: Yes
- Instructor(s): Brad Merrill (CEO of Merrill Media)
One paid course worth considering is the Content Marketing Masterclass: Create Content that Sells from Udemy.
It’s a popular course on content marketing with more than 47,000 enrolled students and a 4.6/5 star rating.
It covers the following topics:
- Classic Marketing Fundamentals
- Content Marketing Essentials
- Web Design
- Generating Content Ideas
- Copywriting
- Types of Content
- Content Formats & Repurposing
- SEO Content
- Content Promotion
- Email Marketing
- External Marketing Channels
- Measuring Your Results
The course creator is Brad Merrill, a veteran content marketing specialist and highly-rated instructor.
Why enroll in this course?
What makes this a good content marketing course is that it is actionable.
It starts by explaining what content marketing is and why you need it, then goes deeper to explain how to implement it in practice.
So, if you are new to content marketing and want to learn how to write content that sells, this is the course for you.
In addition, the course is updated frequently to consider new content marketing techniques and strategies, and it comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee in case you are not happy with the material.
7. Content Marketing Certification Course by HubSpot
- Best For: Getting a free content marketing certification.
- Cost: Free
- Duration: 8.5 hours
- Certificate: Yes
- Instructor(s): Justin Champion, Lindsay Thibeault
The Content Marketing Certification Course: Grow Better With Content is offered by Hubspot Academy. For beginners in content marketing, this is a good course to follow. Hubspot is one of the leading companies in content marketing and inbound marketing.
Besides having a great blog that covers content marketing and content writing topics, they also offer a range of free courses.
This course has 14 lessons that teach you everything you need to know about content writing, copywriting, and content marketing.
The course covers the following topics:
- The Power of Storytelling
- Building a Content Creation Framework
- Planning a Long-Term Content Strategy
- Generating Content Ideas
- Creating Quality Blog Content Your Audience Loves to Read and Share
- How HubSpot Uses Blogging to Rank #1 on Google
- Extending the Value of Your Content Through Repurposing
- Creating Topic Clusters and Pillar Pages
- How to Create a Successful Video Marketing Strategy
- Building a Guest Blogging Strategy Powered by SEO
- How to Effectively Promote Content
- Measuring and Analyzing Your Content
The course format is video, and the duration is 8.50 hours.
Why enroll in this course?
There are many reasons why you should take this course. First, it’s free to test it without any risk. Second, you can achieve a content marketing certification from a trusted company. Third, it covers several topics beyond traditional content marketing, like video marketing, the concepts of pillar pages and topic clusters, and content promotion.
Regardless of what you already know about content marketing, I strongly suggest watching lessons 6 and 8 about HubSpot’s content marketing strategy and how to rank for highly competitive keywords on organic search using topic clusters.
8. Promote a Business With Content by Google
- Best For: Small Business Owners.
- Cost: Free
- Duration: 20 hours
- Certificate: No
- Instructor(s): Google Skillshop
Promote a business with content is a free course Google offers through Google Skillshop. Google Skillshop is an online training platform offering many free courses covering all aspects of digital marketing and Google products.
The course does not have a certification but is part of Google’s Digital marketing certification course.
The course has 4 modules that cover the following topics:
- Get noticed with social media
- Deep dive into social media
- Make the most of the video
- Get started with content marketing
The module specific to content marketing talks about content marketing in general and explains how to write and promote content for online audiences.
Each lesson has video content and a section with questions to test your knowledge. In the end, you can also take a quiz and get recommendations on areas you need to improve.
What is nice about Google courses is that you also get the video transcript so you can read the content, and there is also a key learning section that gives you an overview of what you will learn in the video.
Why enroll in this course?
It’s always good to know how Google approaches content writing, content promotion, and online marketing in general.
Although these courses are not produced by Google engineers, they are aligned with Google practices.
You can sign-up for this course for free using your Google account, and the overall duration is 3 hours.
This is a course for beginners, so if you already know the fundamentals of content marketing, you can only watch the lessons and topics you are most interested in, not necessarily the whole course.
9. Advanced Content Marketing by Semrush
- Best For: Experienced content marketers.
- Cost: Free
- Duration: 3 hours
- Certificate: Yes
- Instructor(s): Brian Dean
The Advanced Content Marketing course by Semrush will teach you how to grow a blog with content marketing. The course is delivered by Brian Dean, a respected SEO and content marketing professional.
The course includes 20 lessons and takes 3 hours to complete. Upon completion, you can take an exam and become content marketing certified.
Some of the topics covered in the program include:
- Content Campaigns
- Blog Campaigns
- Writing Long-Format Posts
- Writing New content
- Choosing Content Formats
- Blog Content Optimization
Why enroll in this course?
It's an advanced course that will teach you strategies, tactics, and techniques that go beyond typical blogging advice.
The lessons are easy to consume with videos, worksheets, and step-by-step instructions.
10. Content Marketing Certification By AMA
- Best For: Getting a recognized content marketing certification.
- Cost: $1,395
- Duration: 15 hours
- Certificate: Yes
- Instructor(s): CMI
The Content Marketing Certification by the American Marketing Association is a premium course that prepares students to pass an exam and earn the AMA Professional Certified Marketer® (PCM®) certification.
The lessons are delivered by the Content Marketing Institute, one of the most successful websites on content marketing.
To get certified, you must pass an online multiple-choice exam with an 80% or above score.
This is not a course for beginners. To enroll, you need a bachelor's or master's degree in marketing and more than four years of experience in the field.
The lessons cover the following topics:
- Modern Content Marketing
- Building Your Team
- Operations and Content Modeling
- Standards and Guidelines
- Audience
- Product Development
- Storytelling
- Measurement
- Story mapping
Why enroll in this course?
Certificates issued by the AMA are globally recognized and an excellent way to boost your career if you're already working in a related field.
The disadvantage is that the cost is high compared to other premium courses and certifications.
Compare Content Marketing Training Courses
The table below compares the top free content marketing courses and certifications:
| Course | Cost | Certification |
|---|---|---|
| Content Marketing Certification Course by HubSpot | Free | Yes |
| Promote a Business With Content by Google | Free | No |
| Advanced Content Marketing by Semrush | Free | Yes |
| Content Marketing Course By Ahrefs | Free | No |
The table below compares the paid content marketing courses and certifications:
| Course | Cost | Certification |
|---|---|---|
| Content Marketing Full Course by Reliablesoft | $149 | Yes |
| The Strategy of Content Marketing by Coursera | $49/mo | Yes |
| Scaling Content Marketing By CXL | $289/mo | Yes |
| Content Marketing Foundations by LinkedIn Learning | $39.99/mo | Yes |
| Content Marketing Masterclass by Udemy | $19 | Yes |
| Content Marketing Certification By AMA | $1,395 | Yes |
Are Content Marketing Courses Worth It?
Content marketing courses are absolutely worth it, especially if you’re looking to save time and resources while mastering this essential skill. Rather than trying to find relevant information from various online sources, a well-structured course provides a proven framework for success.
Content marketing is a critical process for ALL digital marketing campaigns. It’s not an exaggeration to say that all other channels, like SEO, social media marketing, and email marketing, depend on content marketing.
Content marketing lets you decide what and when to publish content to satisfy your audience's needs. If you can publish good content your users like to read, everything else (rankings, traffic, visits, sales) becomes easier.
Our Course Review Process
We've reviewed tens of training programs from the most popular providers to help you find high-quality courses. Courses were selected based on content quality, the training provider's reputation, users' comments, and certification.
Our list includes courses you can take now without joining a waiting list. Some are free, while you have to make a small investment for paid courses. An investment that will pay off as soon as you start implementing all the strategies and techniques you’ve learned in the courses.
Related Courses and Certifications
Content marketing is a critical digital marketing process, but not the only one. To build a complete set of digital marketing skills, you need to expand your knowledge, and the courses listed below are a great starting point.
- Best Digital Marketing Courses - The 10 best online courses on digital marketing (free & paid).
- Best Digital Marketing Certifications - learn digital marketing and get an accredited certification.
- Best Copywriting Certificates - learn how to write great copy for all your content marketing campaigns.
- Best SEO Certifications - content marketing and SEO are best friends. Build your SEO skills and get certified.
