I decided to brush up on some of my digital marketing knowledge and skill set and this course certainly did a brilliant job at it. I haven’t undertaken a lot of online certification courses, but I enjoyed this one so much that I choose to write this article.

So, here’s my personal experience and take on what you need to know and can possibly learn from one of the Free Certification Course from Google Digital Garage called “The Fundamentals of Digital Marketing” which is also by the way endorsed by European Interactive Advertising Bureau.

What I liked about it ?

Even though it’s a free course, it is an intensive one comprising of 26 modules that covers all the basics of Digital Marketing from how to create an online presence to SEO, SEM, Social Media Marketing, Web Analytics, E-commerce and also International Marketing. The suggested duration by Google is 40 hours for video lessons and tests.

The video lessons are short bite-sized perfect to keep you attentive and they are so engaging with interviews from actual entrepreneurs and business owners who use digital marketing on day to day basis.

You have an option to skip through the video lesson and go directly to topic quiz to compete the module ( not recommended as the video case studies are just too good). However if you are unsuccessful, you can’t retake it and have to take all video lessons under that topic. Noice!!

What I loved about it?

Each video lesson is followed by ‘test your knowledge’ quiz, just to make sure you understood the video content. ( big thumbs up)

The mix of animated content, real life interviews and the narrators make the course lessons very engaging and the interactive use of pop quiz takes the engagement a notch higher.

And they have ‘Badges’ as a marketer and Foursquare/ Swarm app user I love badges.

Thoroughly enjoyed the whole learning process of the course, very informative, user-friendly and not boring at all.

Who should take this course?

Marketers: Being in the digital marketing profession, I know the funda’s, but this course was a great way to hone some of the very basics that are missed out while going about your day to day job.There were many interesting tips that I came across which I wasn’t aware of. So, I recommend it for all marketers, digital or not.

Students: A great way to make use of the time to learn the basics, if this is your career aspiration, yes would recommend it even if you have degree in marketing.

Small Business Owners: This is your ultimate self-help guide to learning tricks of digital marketing and also listening to experiences from fellow peers/ business owners about how digital marketing helped their business grow, without having to depend on advertising agencies and well save costs.

Freelancers: Why not learn how to promote/market yourself and your website, learn how to make use of free tools offered by Google. This course is perfect to add to your digital skills set.

Bloggers/E-Commerce Enthusiasts: The course covers range of topics that can actually help business owners or anyone who basically wants to grow digital audience and drive international sales too.

When to take the course?

Anytime!! The course and tests aren’t time bound, so you can literally take it whenever you want, since its very modular in its format it saves your progress.

Given the situation we are all in, we are now accustomed to the new normal of ‘work from home’ and if you have moved past making all the possible recipes you saw off Youtube, over the weekends ( and weekdays too 😉) well maybe you can focus on learning something new. 😊

Why take this course?

Because why not? When it is this engaging and interactive, the course makes learning something new or for marketers, even something old, a pure joy. It touches upon the essentials of digital marketing by providing case studies, interactive quizzes and modular approach to learning and yes because badges!!

Kudos to Google Digital Garage and The Open University for offering this free course and providing us learners with an environment that is rich with not only knowledge but engagement.

P.S- There are so many other new, relevant, affiliated, small duration courses that you can also undertake within Google Digital Garage.