What is one course aspiring entrepreneurs can take to learn more about marketing?
The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.
1. Community Management
Community management is often overlooked as a marketing tool, but can be utilized in a number of ways to move companies closer to their business goals. Community managers who learn how to work strategically can identify key trends, test marketing strategies, close the consumer feedback loop and leverage insights into competitive advantages for their companies.
– Lauren Perkins, Perks Consulting
2. Social Psychology
While marketing is largely about influencing people’s buying decisions, excelling at this requires a solid foundation on how people make decisions, what their interactions mean and how they’re influenced. Particularly in today’s digitized world where social influences can be virtual as well as real, this results in purchasing decisions that take into account many explicit and implicit factors.
– Fabian Kaempfer, Chocomize
3. Public Speaking
Public speaking is a must for aspiring entrepreneurs interested in marketing. During this course you will develop and exercise your biggest asset in marketing — yourself! Public speaking classes will force you to think about audience engagement, presentation skills and audience take away’s from your speech — all key points marketers brainstorm and think about everyday for their products.
– Kim Kaupe, ZinePak
4. Digital Media Marketing
I would encourage any aspiring entrepreneur to take a course in digital media marketing. Learning the ins and outs of this area will help any entrepreneur expand their marketing knowledge in a technology-centric world. This allows an entrepreneur to become a sophisticated marketer in an area that is dominating the landscape of marketing at the moment.
– Jason Grill, JGrill Media | Sock 101
5. Entrepreneurial Marketing
Try the Entrepreneurial Marketing course offered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It’s free and you’ll learn about identifying your target market, best practices for marketing on a budget and outperforming the competition.
– Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance
6. Content Marketing World Conference
Content marketing is not just another buzzword. It fuels every channel in the digital marketing ecosystem. Carefully crafted content supports social media, email marketing, landing pages, product brochures and so forth. If you don’t know effective content marketing strategies, you’re not marketing for the digital age. So if you want to become a marketing pro, this three day event is for you.
– Mark Krassner, Knee Walker Central
7. Sandler Bootcamp for Sales
Sales and marketing are closely related. When trying to learn more about marketing, it helps to dive into sales too, especially if you monetize B2B. The Sandler programs teach so much about how to communicate your business ideas clearly, how to build a strong sales and marketing team and how to classify and relate to your prospective clients.
– Doreen Bloch, Poshly Inc.
8. Seth Godin’s Skillshare Class
I’m a big Seth Godin advocate, and his online Skillshare program has great online content for marketers who are just getting started.
– Joe Apfelbaum, Ajax Union
9. Intro to Psychology
Get out of the business school and take Intro to Psych. Marketing is really just a business word for psychology.
– Phil Dumontet, DASHED
10. Online Marketing at QuickSprout University
Neil Patel offers many videos on online marketing and also has a blog loaded with helpful content on the various areas of online marketing. He also runs SaaS companies that directly affect your online marketing campaigns, Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics. He definitely knows his stuff.
– Eric Siu, Single Grain
11. Analytics at Google Analytics Academy
Understanding analytics is the key to being successful in online marketing. The Analytics Academy is thorough and gives a great foundation for understanding Google analytics.
– Josh Weiss, Bluegala