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You are here: Home / 2019 / Archives for June 2019

Archives for June 2019

For a Crucial Key to Small Business Success, You Won’t Want to Miss this Event

June 29, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment


Digital technology has improved virtually every aspect of business operations. This includes the customer side.

Being able to listen and respond to what customers say about your company is an invaluable edge. When used properly, the information can provide great insights into improving the products and services you offer.

In today’s business and information technology environment, the Voice of the Customer (VOC) is an in-depth process of capturing what customers expect, prefer and dislike.

“Listening to the Voice of the Customer” is a workshop by Applied Marketing Science (AMS) which will teach you how to listen to your customers. The workshop will be held from October 16-17, 2019 at the University Club of Chicago.

The workshop is a two-day event which will cover ways you can use customer information. This includes identifying customers for interviews and asking the right questions.

It also teaches how to analyze the information you have gathered about your customers to determine what they are most concerned about. This will be achieved with machine learning and journey mapping techniques, which will be explored in the workshop.

You can download the course overview here (PDF).

Get $100 off the course registration price by entering Discount Code SMALLBIZ.

Click the red button and register.

Register Now



Featured Events, Contests and Awards

Listening to the Voice of the Customer Listening to the Voice of the Customer
October 16, 2019, Chicago, Ill.

Led by veteran product development and market research experts, this course will introduce Voice of the Customer (VOC) market research and teach you to use it to accelerate innovation in business-to-business markets. The workshop uses a lively, interactive format with numerous hands-on activities and practice exercises to build skills and will also expose you to the latest applications of these techniques in areas such as machine learning and journey mapping.
Discount Code
SMALLBIZ ($100 Off)


More Events

  • Entrepreneurs Cruise 2019
    July 07, 2019, Cape Canaveral, Fla.
  • DigiMarCon Cruise 2019 – Digital Marketing Conference At Sea
    July 07, 2019, Cape Canaveral, Fla.
  • New York School of Real Estate Finance
    July 15, 2019, Online
  • SkySprout Summit – Columbus Marketing Conference
    July 16, 2019, Columbus, Ohio
  • World Blockchain Roadshow
    August 26, 2019, Multiple Cities
  • TECHSPO Sydney 2019
    August 28, 2019, Sydney, Australia
  • DigiMarCon Europe 2019 – Digital Marketing Conference & Exhibition
    September 12, 2019, Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • DigiMarCon Asia Pacific 2019 – Digital Marketing Conference & Exhibition
    September 18, 2019, Singapore
  • World’s Largest MBA Tour is Coming to Philadelphia – Register for FREE
    September 30, 2019, Philadelphia, Pa.
  • DigiMarCon Singapore 2019 – Digital Marketing Conference & Exhibition
    October 02, 2019, Singapore, Singapore
  • World’s Largest MBA Tour is Coming to Miami – Register for FREE
    October 16, 2019, Miami, Fla.
  • World’s Largest MBA Tour is Coming to Austin – Register for FREE
    October 21, 2019, Austin, Texas
  • TECHSPO Dubai 2019
    October 22, 2019, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
  • Rhodium Weekend
    October 24, 2019, Las Vegas, Nev.
  • World’s Largest MBA Tour is Coming to Denver – Register for FREE
    October 28, 2019, Denver, Colo.
  • Small Business Expo 2019 – LOS ANGELES (October 30, 2019)
    October 30, 2019, Los Angeles, Calif.
  • IMPACT>MOBILITY USA 2019
    November 04, 2019, San Diego, Calif.
  • National Small Business Week
    May 03, 2020, Online

More Contests

This weekly listing of small business events, contests and awards is provided as a community service by Small Business Trends.

You can see a full list of events, contest and award listings or post your own events by visiting the Small Business Events Calendar.

Image: Depositphotos.com

This article, “For a Crucial Key to Small Business Success, You Won’t Want to Miss this Event” was first published on Small Business Trends





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Filed Under: Strategy

CloudBooks Will Help Your Small Business Grow – Running Your Business

June 29, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment


CloudBooks is specifically designed to help small businesses and freelancers manage their billing. But what makes this platform truly unique are its additional features that help with successful client management.

Relationships with clients have a direct effect on the growth and success of your small business.

That’s why many small to medium-sized businesses (SMB’s) look for ways to stay connected with their clients through marketing systems. For example many turn to a customer relationship management platform to manage face-to-face meetings between customers and salespeople. These tools can certainly improve the business-customer relationship. However, one area that business owners often overlook in this regard is accounting and billing.

RELATED ARTICLE: CRM FORECAST FOR 2019: 5 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT TRENDS

The way you handle finances between your business and your customers is incredibly important for creating a good relationship. For instance, if you should happen to bill a customer incorrectly or send them an inaccurate estimate report, you could damage the trust you are trying to build with them.

On the other hand, if they miss a billing cycle or are late on a payment, it could cause you frustration and eat into your profitability.

Therefore, it is important to keep all of these financial forms organized and accurate. Also, in order to simultaneously help your business grow, it is best to utilize an online system to support all of your billing and accounting processes.

CloudBooks is a great cloud-based option that is specifically designed for small businesses and freelancers for managing their billing. But what makes this platform truly unique are the additional features that help with successful client management.

Here’s how.

CloudBooks Helps You Nurture Relationships with Clients and Partners

Relationships with customers is typically an area where SMB’s shine. This is because smaller organizations can truly focus on individual customers.

CloudBooks can help to ensure that the financial side of these relationships remains organized and available. All finance-related items are accessible from anywhere, thanks to the cloud system. This includes invoices, estimates, reimbursements, and expense reports.

Therefore, if a client needs an updated copy of an invoice, for example, you can instantly email it to them or share it with them online. What’s more, if anything changes, all of the numbers will automatically adjust in real time.

Image Source: CloudBooksApp.com

CloudBooks also offers forecasting capabilities. This allows for accurate estimates and time-tracking. In this way, your clients will know exactly how long a project will take as well as how much it will cost them.

Estimating a project is always tricky. If you overestimate, you might lose a sale. On the other hand, under-estimating could cause major issues with your client later on. CloudBooks can help you keep all of your estimates organized and itemized. Consequently, you can look to past quotes. This will help you to create more accurate estimates based on proven numbers.

Easily Schedule On-Time Payments

It is difficult for a small business to grow financially if they are
failing to collect payments in a timely manner. Furthermore, if you charge late
fees on missed payments, failing to catch these charges leaves money on the
table.

Maintaining a regular billing cycle is important for client relationships. Obviously, a customer will not be happy if they are suddenly hit with additional late fees without warning.

This is why your small business needs to utilize an organized, regularly scheduled payment system. What’s more, you need a system that will accommodate your clients’ payment agendas while keeping you on top of due dates for your accounts receivable.

With CloudBooks, it will be far easier for your small business to stay on top of client payment schedules so that you don’t miss anything. You can even send out automatic reminders to notify a client that a bill will be coming soon.

Moreover, to make things smoother for international transactions, CloudBooks offers auto billing. Plus, it is integrated with PayPal and 2checkout.

Late Payment Reminders

Image Source: CloudBooksApp.com

With CloudBooks You Will Get Better Feedback

Establishing a trustworthy reputation is essential for small
business growth.

According to BrightLocal’s latest report, 86% of customers read reviews when they are considering a new small business. Also, 91% of people trust online reviews as much as they trust a personal recommendation.

Therefore, gathering lots of feedback from your clients is crucial for generating new leads. You must also pay attention to feedback you get from clients. This will help you to improve clients’ future experiences.

However, most customers are unlikely to leave a review of their own accord, unless their experience was either exceptionally great or incredibly poor. Therefore, it is best to use a review gathering system that invites all of your customers to share their honest opinions.

Ask for Review

Image Source: CloudBooksApp.com

To this end, CloudBooks offers an automated follow-up email requesting reviews from all of your customers. This greatly increases the likelihood of receiving feedback. Post positive reviews online as social proof that your business is trustworthy. Also, be sure to scrutinize all reviews, both positive and negative, to make improvements to your business.

Monitor Your Growth for Financial Responsibility

Just because your business is attracting more clients or closing more deals does not necessarily mean that it is growing and succeeding. If your profit margins are shrinking or you are spending more on marketing in order to generate leads, your small business may actually be reverting in terms of profitability.

Staying on top of financial growth is key for every single business. CloudBooks is designed to help you stay on top of all aspects of your company’s margins. It does this by generating financial reports based on your accounting information. These reports will provide you with up-to-date and instant information about where your money is coming from and where it is going.

Expense report

Image Source: CloudBooksApp.com

CloudBooks offers five main types of accounting reports:

  • Expense reports to show where your money is being spent
  • Payments collected
  • Profit and loss
  • Tax summaries
  • PayPal payments for summaries of all online transactions with this platform

In short, CloudBooks takes the guesswork out of financial reporting by breaking down the most important metrics into easily readable reports. Use these reports for smarter planning.

Conclusion

Most small businesses feel like the cards are stacked against them when it comes to staying competitive with larger organizations.

It’s true that bigger businesses have bigger budgets for targeting more customers. They also have the ability to serve more customers due to their larger facilities and greater numbers of employees. However, small businesses do have one distinct advantage over large corporations: their ability to focus on each individual customer by creating personal relationships.

With CloudBooks, it is far easier for small businesses to nurture their financial relationships with their customers by staying on top of all payments and bills.

This platform offers truly great features for both businesses and their clients. With these features, small businesses can create a better customer experience. And this will help your company grow financially.



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'Summer Fridays' Are Enjoying a Chill 43% Boom in 2019. Here's Why.

June 28, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment



CEOs and HR chiefs across the country say the practice boosts productivity and employee morale.





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No State Has More Women Than Men With Tech Degrees

June 27, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment


While more women are getting STEM degrees and jobs than ever, they still lag behind the number of men. The lack of jobs may be the biggest problem down the road.


June
27, 2019

2 min read


This story originally appeared on PCMag

If it’s not common knowledge that women in the United States earn cents for every dollar a man makes (89 cents, according to Pew Research), it should be. That’s not the only place where the gaps between the genders remain. For the STEM gap, new research shows the state-by-state differences.

The research, entitled Mind the (STEM) Gap, was performed by Typing.com, a free service for teachers and students all about teaching typing and other tech skills — like coding. They looked at the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Surveys from 2015 and 2017 to determine where the gaps were widest and narrowest.

The chart shows the gaps by state, according to the number of bachelor’s degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. It underscores one serious fact: Not a single U.S. state has a population where more women than men have STEM degrees (though only 65 percent of STEM workers even earned a bachelor’s). This data does not take into account the medical field — if you count that, woman do indeed have more bachelor’s degrees — but the debate rages on whether medical counts as STEM.

The states with the smallest gap: the District of Columbia (6.8 percent) and New York (12.9 percent). The worst gaps are in New Mexico (22.5 percent) and Montana (22.3 percent).

Compared to 2015’s numbers, the gender gaps have narrowed in some states (North Dakota was down 5.7 percent) and grown in others (Alaska was up 3.0 percent). The District of Columbia’s small gap for 2017 also came from a narrowing since 2015 of 3.6 percent.

The overall numbers of workers vs. those who earned bachelor’s is also a little troubling. While the number of women earning a STEM degree increased by 10 percent, the number increased for men, too. And the number of workers in STEM fields increased — men by 8.1 percent compared to 5.3 percent for women.



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Instagram Head Denies Widely-Held Belief That Instagram and Facebook Listen in Through Smartphones

June 26, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment


There’s a widely held belief that Facebook and Instagram listen in on people’s smartphones, and then serve advertisements based on their speech.


June
26, 2019

2 min read


This story originally appeared on Business Insider

Whether you’re the famous host of a popular morning news show on CBS or a little-known tinfoil hat aficionado, there’s a strong possibility that you think Facebook and Instagram are listening to you.

It’s an extremely persistent, widely-held belief: You were talking to a friend about X, then an advertisement about X pops up hours later on your Facebook or Instagram feed.

CBS This Morning co-anchor Gayle King is among the cohort who believe as much, and King grilled Instagram head Adam Mosseri about it during an interview on Tuesday.

“Can you help me understand how I can be having a private conversation with someone about something I’m interested in seeing or buying, and an advertisement for that will pop up on my Instagram feed?” King asked. “I haven’t searched for it. I haven’t talked to anybody about it. I swear, I think you guys are listening. I know you’re gonna say you’re not.”

As expected, Mosseri said Instagram and Facebook aren’t listening.

“We don’t look at your messages, we don’t listen in on your microphone. Doing so would be super problematic for a lot of different reasons,” he said.

Mosseri explained two potential ways this could happen. “One is is dumb luck, which could happen,” he said. The second, more likely explanation, is a bit more complex:

“The second is you might be talking about something because it’s top of mind, because you’ve been interacting with that type of content more recently. So maybe you’re really into food and restaurants. You saw a restaurant on Facebook or on Instagram and maybe like the thing. It’s top of mind. Maybe that’s subconscious, then it bubbles up later. I think this kinda happens often in ways that are really subtle.”

But King wasn’t having it.

“I don’t believe you!” she said. “I don’t know how this happens repeatedly. Does it happen to you?”

When Mosseri wasn’t able to come up with an example (“I can’t think of a good example.”), King rounded back to where the exchange started: “You guys I swear are listening,” she said.

Check out the full exchange right here:



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Here’s How Long It Took the World’s Super-Rich (Infographic)

June 25, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment


This is the average age Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and the rest of the world’s wealthiest earned their first million.


June
25, 2019

1 min read


The millionaire’s club is adding members fast. In 2018, there were upwards of 19.6 million people with six-zero-sums to their name; by 2023, that number is projected to rise to more than 23.4 million. The world’s billionaires are a much more tight-knit group — upwards of 2,200, according to an Oxfam International report — and their fortunes increased by $2.5 billion a day in 2018.

But when did the world’s wealthiest set off on this trajectory? They — including household names such as Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk — made their first million at the average age of 36, according to an analysis by online casino guide Slotsia. The company used the annual Forbes Billionaires list, along with a smattering of online sources, to determine the point at which their net worth reached $1 million or more. If Slotsia could not determine a specific age or date, the team estimated based on the individual in question’s career and company milestones. For a deeper dive into how and when the wealthy made their millions, check out the below infographic. 



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Our Planet: Our Business, and our conversations

June 25, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment



A commentary by Richard Oldfield inspired by Our Planet: Our Business — a new film that sends out a call to action for private enterprise to play a leading role in the innovation, recovery, and restoration needed to avoid environmental collapse. Whether or not you believe that human activity is responsible for climate change, the reality of environmental crisis is inescapable. Because of their technological and managerial acumen, and their capacity for innovation, businesspeople are being called upon to take the lead in finding solutions.



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Best Practices for Hiring New Employees – Running Your Business

June 25, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment


Looking to add someone to your team? Fantastic! However, before you do, here’s a word of advice: Be careful. A hiring mistake could waste time, cost you thousands, and hurt your business. You can’t just hire any person. You need to hire the right person. But how do you find someone who will be a long-term asset to your business? Follow these best practices for hiring new employees and you’ll be covered.

RELATED ARTICLE: HIRING GREAT PERSONNEL: HOW TO GET IT RIGHT

Outline the Role of New Employees

From the outset, your goal is to bring in a fresh face who will supplement the company rather than detract from it. The benefits of new employees must eventually outweigh their cost. If they don’t, why are you bothering to hire?

Want to do it right? Then you need to know where you need help the most.
You’ll also need to clearly articulate the demands of the job to potential
candidates. Carefully consider what the job entails and what the right
candidate would look like. To aid you with this, list the following:

  • Expected duties
  • Educational minimums
  • Ideal skills
  • Work environment
  • Everyday responsibilities
  • Ideal outcomes
  • Salary range

A pointed recruitment strategy for new employees starts with
developing a comprehensive job description. This way, both you and the
candidate know exactly what you’re looking for.

Post the Job

Once you’ve crafted a thorough job profile, post it to as many
places as possible. By casting a wide net, you increase your candidate pool.
The more people that apply, the better the odds that you’ll find the perfect
fit. Therefore, post to:

  • Recruiting services – Zip Recruiter
  • Job boards – Indeed, Monster
  • Social Media – LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram
  • Classifieds – Craigslist, local classifieds 

Review Applications and Start Initial Screening

Cover letters and resumes are your first layer of screening. If a candidate checks the boxes for minimum requirements, have one of your employees perform initial phone or video screenings. Doing so cuts down on time needed for physical interviewing and selection.

Phone interviews allow you to gauge their fit within the company,
especially when it comes to the culture, salary expectations, and personality.

Interview Smartly

On average, in-person interviews for new employees last anywhere
from 30 to 120 minutes. However, you have limited time in your workday. There
are emails to send, calls to make, meetings to conduct, and problems to solve.
You simply can’t afford to spend too much of your time interviewing. Therefore,
narrow down your candidate list to 5-10 people and then be smart about the
process.

Try to create a uniform interview procedure so it’s easier to compare one candidate to another. Prepare a set of pointed interview questions that you can ask each interviewee. Try to be creative. Ask questions that are thought-provoking, reveal something about their character or skill set, or help you see whether they’d be a good culture fit.

RELATED ARTICLE: 8 QUESTIONS YOU SHOULD ASK WHEN HIRING AN ANSWERING SERVICE

Perform a Background Check

So, you’ve found your new employee? Congrats, you’re almost there, but there’s still legwork left to do! One of the most critical pre-employment solutions for your business involves conducting a background check. This lets you search for any previous criminal or employment issues that weren’t picked up during the interview process.

A proper background check will look at:

  • Work references
  • Employment confirmation
  • Educational credentials check
  • Credit check
  • Criminal history profile

Knowing who you’re hiring is an essential way that you can protect
your employees, customers, and business from harm or liability.

Report Your New Employee to the Government

You’ve made an offer and it has been accepted. What do you do now?
You’ll have to report your new employee to your state’s department of labor.
Other steps include:

  • If this is your first employee,
    you’ll have to get an EIN
    (employer ID number)
  • Pay unemployment taxes
  • Obtain worker’s comp

Failure to do these tasks could result in serious penalties, fees, and
lawsuits.

Fill Out New Employee Documentation

After any new hire, your first task is to have all the legal employment paperwork filled out and signed. Your new employee can’t get paid until this step has been completed. Forms that require signing include:

  • Form W-4 – Tax withholdings sheet
  • Form I-9 – Employment Eligibility Verification
  • Job Application Form – Contains verifiable info such as education history and previous employment

Hang Workplace Posters

Want to avoid being sued? That can be as simple as hanging some
posters. Businesses are legally required to post federal workplace infographics
in visible locations where employees congregate. The posters you need are:

  • Occupational Safety and Health
    (OHSA)
  • Fair Labor Standards Act
  • Notice to Workers with
    Disabilities Act
  • Minimum Wage poster
  • Employee Polygraph Protection
    Act

Put New Employees to Work

Breathe a sigh of relief. You’re done! You’ve dotted your I’s and crossed your T’s. It’s time to begin the onboarding process so that you can put your shiny new employee to work.



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How to Get More Backlinks for Your Small Business Website

June 24, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment


Infographics, media coverage and online tools are some of the strategies you may not have considered to obtain backlinks.


June
24, 2019

5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.


As the owner of a small business website, you may find it hard getting your site noticed online when it’s up against the big guys, especially if you’re not an SEO master.

Related: How Real Marketers Create Backlinks That Matter

While you may know that you need  more backlinks pointing back to your website, actually figuring out how to get those links is another story.

Of course, creating great content like useful blog posts is a solid way to grow organic search traffic. But guest-posting content on other websites is just the tip of the iceberg of strategies to boost your rankings.

In fact there are other ways to get more backlinks for your small business website you may not have considered. Plus, with many of these tactics, there’s no need to bother with complicated SEO if that’s not your forte.

Here are those ways to get more backlinks for your small business website.

Create infographics.

Infographics are one of the most widely shared forms of content online. Not familiar with infographics? Infographics, Wikipedia says, are “graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly.”

Because infographics are so easy to consume and so fun to look at, they get shared a lot on social media. Plus, other companies and bloggers in your niche/industry will add your infographic to their own content, linking back to your website. In fact, according to Hubspot, infographics can increase web traffic by up to 12 percent.

As an example, one of the most shared infographics online is this one from Nationwide Insurance (which a local pet store could easily replicate for a viral response online):

Image source: Infographic Design Team

You can create an infographic on pretty much any topic. Choose one related to your business that’s also interesting and entertaining to your target audience. No design skills? Don’t worry, there are a number of free online tools that make it easy to create an eye-catching infographic.

Related: How to Build SEO Backlinks: A Beginner’s Guide

Get media coverage.

Local media coverage is not only great for promotion and getting new customers through your doors, but it can help you get more quality backlinks for your small business website as well. For instance, if your business is participating in a local event or holding a giveaway, let local news outlets know about it. They might pick up the story for their websites and include a link back to your website.

Aside from sharing your company news, you can also do a little “newsjacking.” Newsjacking is when you seize breaking news opportunities to inject your own business story. For example, if there’s a record-setting snowstorm about to roll in, a local snow removal company might provide expert advice on the subject in a news article. So, start building relationships with the local media to get your business splashed all around the web.  

Offer a free online tool.

Another way to get a lot of backlinks and traffic to your website is by offering a free online tool.

For instance, CoSchedule offers a free headline analyzer targeted towards marketers and content creators.

 

Image source: CoSchedule

This tool is linked to in many articles about how to write better headlines. So, if you can create a free online tool on your own website, it could potentially get linked to in many related articles online as well.

Importantly, your online tool doesn’t have to be this complicated. If you own an accounting business, for example, you could offer a simple income tax calculator. Example: A fitness center could offer an online calorie counter. Tools like these will be extremely helpful to your target audience and get a lot of shares online.

Create content with customer data.

Data and statistics boost the credibility of blog posts, and many writers use them to strengthen their arguments. What if those many writers could use data provided by your business? That would get you a ton of potential backlinks. Don’t have any customer data? Create some!

You can easily create your own original research by surveying the people on your email marketing list. Choose a survey topic that is not only useful information for your audience, but relevant to your industry as well. You can present this original data in an infographic or a blog post or report that includes some easy-to-understand graphs and charts.

Related: 5 Tips for Getting High Quality Backlinks In 2016

Over to you

The topic of SEO can overwhelm many small business owners. But, with these easy and actionable tips for how to get more backlinks to your website, business owners can enjoy a boost in search engine rankings. The more users online that discover your business through these types of content, the more potential leads you’ll have.



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Wondering How to Make Your Digital Marketing Rock? See These 5 Free Online Courses

June 24, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment


Free Online Courses for Digital Marketing

Digital marketing skills are critical not only to those actually working in the field but also to entrepreneurs. Even if you’re past your very early startup days and have a marketing team, the most successful founders have a working knowledge of each aspect of the business and can provide knowledgeable oversight of digital marketing campaigns.

Free Online Courses for Digital Marketing

Check out these five top free online courses to build your digital marketing skills:

1. Google Online Marketing Challenge

Over the past 8 years, more than 100,000 people from over 100 countries have participated in Google’s Online Marketing Challenge. It’s an online course with modules covering introductory digital marketing, search engine marketing, search advertising, display advertising, mobile, social, analytics, and video, making it one of the more comprehensive courses for beginners. However, it’s also unique in that Google gives learners a $250 AdWords budget to use over a three-week period, to run an online advertising campaign for a business or not-for-profit. The most successful learners can even win prizes from Google.

If you’re looking for a free online digital marketing course with a competitive angle and a real-world experience element, this is a great option.

2. WordStream’s PPC University

PPC University is a totally free online learning resource created by my own company, WordStream, to help build your PPC and digital marketing skills. We have access to thousands of accounts spending billions of dollars on PPC advertising, and over the years consistently found that small to medium-size businesses struggled to manage their accounts in a way that was cost effective and earned them the best results. Three streams offer lessons for beginning to advanced users, with additional modules for social advertising.

You can also access a number of webinars and white papers to enhance your digital marketing education, and best of all, everything’s mobile-friendly so you can learn on the go, whenever you have time!

3. Social Media Quickstarter Digital Marketing Course

Constant Contact’s Social Media Quickstarter emphasizes opportunities to integrate email with social media marketing, to maximize the impact of both channels. In a series of step-by-step lessons, learners can study digital marketing tactics for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, YouTube, blogging, and online listings and reviews sites. The way the courses are structured makes them perfect for beginner-level marketers, with components such as glossaries and how-to guides, combined with practical examples of the lessons at hand in action.

4. Inbound Digital Marketing Course Plus Official Certification

HubSpot Academy offers an incredibly comprehensive digital marketing course that currently has more than 3,000 students participating at Udemy. Over 4.5 hours of instruction in 38 lectures are included in the low, low course price of completely free.

Participants will learn the basics of inbound marketing, SEO, landing pages, blogging, conversion optimization, lead nurturing, and email marketing, as well as how they all work together for a cohesive and more effective inbound marketing strategy. After the certification exam, graduates receive a badge for their résumé or LinkedIn profile to show they’ve expanded their marketing skills with HubSpot Academy.

5. Alison Free Diploma in E-Business

Alison is a massive online learning community of more than six million registered users, with standards-based and certified courses offered absolutely free of charge. Developed by free online courses pioneer Mike Feerick, Alison was founded in 2007 and was the first MOOC (massive online open course) provider.

Today, you can take the free digital marketing course Diploma in E-Business to build skills in search optimization, Google Analytics and AdWords, campaign tracking and integration, revenue metrics analysis, digital measurement, and more.

And, of course, if you want to make yourself truly invaluable to any organization (including your own startup), you need to learn how to code!

Republished by permission. Original here.

Image: Depositphotos.com

This article, “Wondering How to Make Your Digital Marketing Rock? See These 5 Free Online Courses” was first published on Small Business Trends





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