To ask if there are any reputable online marketing courses I could do?

[HighlandSpring101]

They don’t have to be free.

I’m thinking about a potential career change after all this and have always liked the idea of working in marketing. I did a bit of marketing in my old job, updating the companies website and social media etc. I now run my own business and do all my own marketing for that, but I’ve no degree or formal qualifications in marketing and I’m just wondering whether anyone knows of any that you can do online?

TIA

CIM are the professional accreditation for marketing, you can do their courses through a range of providers and most offer online options - will find the page on their site for you. They’re expensive though, I’ve only ever done them when sponsored by my employer. I probably wouldn’t bother with anything outside the CIM but I’m in a niche marketing sector (professional services (legal) marketing), it may be different in other sectors.

www.cim.co.uk/study-centres/

Sorry, posted too soon - at your level even with some experience you’re probably looking at the Foundation Certificate. Here’s the summary of the course from CIM Academy, which is I think is the CIM’s own course provider, though as I mention there are a number of them available and they’re all accredited equally.

cimacademy.co.uk/qualifications/marketing/foundation-certificate-in-professional-marketing/

Thank you Dolly, that’s really kind. I’ll have a look now!

No worries! If you have a particular sector in mind or you’re interested in or a particular role (eg social media/digital) then I’d definitely seek out someone in that area to ask their view on the usefulness of a qualification as I’m guessing it varies. Like I say all my experience is in legal marketing (generally on the marketing planning side) which is a bit different to running digital marketing for a toy shop for example!

There are a lot of very poor marketing courses out there. As Dolly says CIM is the official body so are a good place to start. IDM ( another institute) are also good and credible and often have more niche digital courses than the CIM. I've done courses from them both ( both digital with in in person exams) and had good experiences with both.

I've no idea if they're any good, but the Digital Marketing Institute is currently offering 3 months free membership including access to courses, articles etc.

So for what it la worth - I have worked in marketing for years and now have an agency and what I’ll say is this. In the corporate world - generally they will want to see a CIM qualification.
However as an employer (and having got the CIM diploma though years ago now), I personally value experience over the qualification - that doesn’t necessarily mean experience at work either. It depends on the type of role you want to do. So for example for a social media manager - that could be a case of looking at any accounts that they have worked on - even if for themselves.