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Free Digital Marketing Education: Online learning resources for Instructional Designers

Learning Experience Designers (LXDs) are unique professionals who often come from many diverse disciplines. This multidisciplinary background is not just a feature of the field; it’s a key strength. By drawing on various areas of expertise, LXDs can create more nuanced, effective, and engaging learning experiences.

Among these diverse disciplines, digital marketing stands out as a particularly valuable field to explore, as it offers insights and strategies that can significantly enhance the design and delivery of educational content.

Digital Marketing Education Online

  • Fundamentals of Digital Marketing

    • by Google

    • The course covers a broad spectrum of digital marketing aspects, making it an invaluable resource for instructional designers looking to incorporate digital marketing strategies into their educational content and delivery methods.
    • Topics:
      • Understanding steps to online success
      • Building and planning a web presence for online business strategy
      • Basics and improvement of search engine visibility
      • Strategies for local and social media engagement
      • Advanced social media tactics
      • Mobile marketing and strategy tailoring for mobile audiences
      • Techniques in email marketing and advertising on various websites
      • Creating impactful video content
      • Leveraging video for marketing
      • Introduction to web analytics and transforming data into actionable insights
      • Building and enhancing an online store for e-commerce
      • Strategies for global business expansion
  • Inclusive Marketing Practices

    • By Google Inclusive Marketing

    • Google’s Inclusive Marketing practice is an initiative aimed at improving representation and belonging in creative work. It focuses on integrating underrepresented perspectives throughout the creative process. This initiative is built on insights from Google teams, experts, and community leaders, aiming to create a media landscape that reflects the world authentically and positively.
    • Topics:
      • Building Diverse Teams: Include underrepresented talent for varied perspectives.
      • Inclusion in Strategy: Apply inclusive principles at every execution stage.
      • Inclusive Creative Choices: Tools to make inclusive decisions and avoid stereotypes.
      • Accountability Measures: Set goals and track progress for inclusive practices.
      • Audience Insights: Insights to eliminate stereotypes, covering diverse groups like Asian Americans, Black people, LGBTQ+ people, and more.
      • Guiding Principles: Focus on team makeup, early inclusion, avoiding stereotypes, story authenticity, and understanding the brand’s role in inclusion.
  • Content Marketing Certification Course: Grow better with content

    • By HubSpot Academy
    • This free certification course offered by HubSpot Academy is designed to unlock the full potential of content marketing. It covers crafting appealing, share-worthy content that engages audiences and drives conversions. The course provides insights from industry experts on content optimization frameworks, SEO tactics, and influencer collaboration, aiming to make learners proficient in content marketing.
    • Topics:
      • The power of storytelling in content creation
      • Building a content creation framework
      • Planning a long-term content strategy
      • Generating innovative content ideas
      • Creating quality blog content
      • HubSpot’s blogging strategies for ranking on Google
      • Extending content value through repurposing
      • Developing topic clusters and pillar pages
      • Successful video marketing strategies
      • Building a guest blogging strategy powered by SEO
      • Effective content promotion techniques
      • Measuring and analyzing content performance
  • Communicate your ideas through storytelling and design

    • By OpenClassrooms

    • Ideas become more powerful when they’re shared. In this module, you’ll discover how simple tools like mind maps, storyboards, images and storytelling can help you share your ideas and capture the attention of your audience. We’ll also show you how to create engaging and fun presentations that bring your ideas to life.
    • Topics:
      • Using Mind Mapping to explore ideas
      • Using Storyboarding to bring ideas to life
      • Creating engaging presenations
      • Strategical image use
  • Social Media Strategy

    • By Google Digital Garage

    • Google Digital Garage offers a comprehensive session focused on developing a social media strategy, which plays a pivotal role in helping businesses measure the success of their online engagements. This session is especially beneficial for those looking to integrate social media into their business plans effectively.
    • Topics:
      • Understanding the Role of Social Media in reaching new customers
      • Building blocks of a simple social media strategy
      • Tools to save time when creating social posts
  • Business Communication

    • By Goodwill Community Foundation

    • This course focuses on enhancing skills in business writing, emphasizing the importance of clear and direct communication in professional settings. It offers practical tips and guidelines to make business communications not only easy-to-read but also engaging, aiming to improve the effectiveness of written interactions in the business world.
    • Topics:
      • Tips and advice on writing for businesses.
      • Techniques for concise, clear, and engaging communication.
      • Guidelines for various forms of business writing including emails, memos, presentations, and reports.
  • Plan an event

    • By Google Applied Digital Skills

    • The “Plan an Event” curriculum is designed to guide learners through the process of event planning using various digital tools. It includes creating to-do lists, assigning tasks, and promoting an event.
    • Topics:
      • Overview and introduction to event planning
      • Selection and research of an event
      • Event planning using spreadsheets
      • Communication coordination via Gmail and Calendar
      • Logo design for the event
      • Creating advertising flyers
      • Building a website for the event

What can we learn from the marketing world as learning professionals?

As learning experience designers, diving into different disciplines, such as UX, LXD, Graphic Design and Instructional Design offers a plethora of benefits. Delving into marketing offers a fresh perspective and a suite of strategies that can enhance the way LXDs approach their craft. This integration not only brings in new techniques and ideas but also opens up opportunities for more innovative, engaging, and impactful educational design.

What we can learn and harness as learning professionals lies in the core objectives that both fields share – engaging an audience, delivering a message effectively, and motivating action. Marketing, with its emphasis on understanding consumer behavior, creating compelling content, and strategically positioning products, provides valuable insights that can be translated into the creation of more engaging and effective learning experiences.

Some of the strategies we can integrate from Marketing:

  • Enhanced Engagement: Just as marketers captivate their audience, instructional designers can use similar tactics to grab and hold the learner’s attention.
  • Data-Driven Insights: The use of analytics in marketing for understanding audience preferences can be applied to instructional design for tailored learning experiences.
  • Persuasive Communication: The art of persuasion used in marketing to influence consumer behavior can help in designing courses that motivate and inspire learners.
  • Creative Storytelling: Marketing is known for its creative storytelling techniques, which can be used in ID to create memorable and impactful learning narratives.

 

Strategic Marketing Topics appliable to Instructional Design

As we delve deeper, several strategic marketing topics emerge as particularly relevant for instructional designers:

Understanding  your audience: Just as marketers segment and understand their target market, instructional designers can benefit from a deeper understanding of their learners’ needs, preferences, and challenges.

Content strategy: Learning how to create and curate content that resonates with the audience, much like a marketer would, can lead to more engaging course materials.

Brand building: Instructional designers can learn how to build and maintain a ‘brand’ for their courses or educational programs, ensuring consistency and quality.

Digital presence and SEO: With e-learning, having a strong digital presence is key. Understanding SEO and online marketing strategies can greatly increase the visibility and accessibility of educational content.

Social Media engagement: Utilizing social media platforms for educational purposes, drawing from marketing strategies to boost interaction and learner engagement.

Analytics and Feedback: Using data analytics tools to gather feedback and measure the success of learning programs, similar to how marketers measure campaign effectiveness.

 

Tags: Courses, Digital Learning Experience Designer, Digital Marketing, Free Courses, Instructional Design, Instructional Designer, Learning and Development, LXD Toolkit, Online learning, Professional development
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