Want to Learn Marketing?

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If you’re not a marketer, but you want to learn marketing because it will help you accomplish something, the good news is that there are lots of resources out there to help you. The bad news is, there are lots of resources out there to help you, so finding the right one(s) may be difficult.

The keys:

  • Do your best to know what you’re looking for. The more specific you can be, the better.
  • Define your goal before getting started. Maybe you just want more general knowledge, maybe you want to be a better salesman, or maybe you want to start a social media program for your company. Again, this helps you narrow down your options.
  • Know where to look. A Google search, while it may be the simplest starting point, is not necessarily going to work every time.

I can honestly say that I don’t know the best sources for marketing knowledge, and I’m in the business. But, I do know where to look when there’s something I want to learn.

Here are the best places to begin your research:

  1. Bloggers – Use Alltop to find a marketing blog that discusses the topic you want to learn more about. Read through their past posts and articles. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, email the authors or owner of the site asking for help. If they can’t help you directly, they can point you in the right direction.
     
  2. YouTube – You may be surprised to hear it, but YouTube is an incredible resource for “How To” videos. If you know what you’re looking for, and you’re looking for instruction on how to do something, searching YouTube is very effective.
     
  3. Amazon – Again, if you know what you want to learn, you can usually find a book on the subject. Most of the fundamental skills and techniques in marketing don’t change as drastically as you might think. And many books written on a wide variety of marketing topics are still worth your investment.
     
  4. Online Courses – If you’re looking for more direct training, you can try your luck with companies like Coursera and Udemy. These hubs of online courses offer video training for free or at a low cost. You can find all kinds of subjects from teachers in various industries, or college-level courses taught directly by professors.