Free Marketing Resources Are Everywhere
If you’re new to marketing or looking to sharpen your skills, I can’t recommend HubSpot Academy enough. As someone who works with aspiring marketers every day — and someone who’s personally completed all of these courses at some point or another — I can confidently say they’re some of the best free resources out there.
At The Marketing Trainer, we actively encourage all our apprentices to complete as many HubSpot certifications as possible during their programme. Why? Because these courses cover the fundamentals and the practical skills that employers actually value.
Some Of The Benefits
- HubSpot’s certifications are completely free, providing high-quality training without any cost barriers.
- The courses cover real-world skills that can be directly applied to marketing roles.
- HubSpot certifications are well-respected in the industry, boosting credibility and employability.
- With flexible online access, apprentices can learn at their own pace, fitting education around their schedules.
We also tag these into our apprenticeship programmes because they give learners a competitive edge and help during their EPAs — and because they’re created by one of the most respected names in the marketing world.
The Course Catalogue
Here are six of Hubspot’s certifications that I would recommend to anyone new or early on in their marketing career:
🔹 Inbound Marketing
This course is a brilliant intro to the why behind modern marketing. It covers the inbound methodology in detail — attracting strangers, converting leads, closing deals, and delighting customers. You’ll learn how marketing, sales, and service work together to create a seamless customer experience.
🕒 Duration: Around 2–3 hours
📌 Best for: Understanding buyer journeys, marketing foundations, and customer lifecycle thinking.
🔹 Content Marketing
This one goes deeper into planning and managing content that actually delivers results. From idea generation and storytelling to repurposing and measuring content, it’s packed with practical tips. It even includes SEO basics and editorial calendar planning.
🕒 Duration: 6+ hours (spread across multiple lessons)
📌 Best for: Anyone writing blogs, emails, social posts or web copy — especially those managing content strategies.
🔹 Social Media Marketing
This course helps apprentices feel confident managing social platforms with purpose. It covers everything from creating social strategies and setting SMART goals to social listening, influencer outreach, and paid advertising basics. It also touches on crisis management and community engagement.
🕒 Duration: Around 4 hours
📌 Best for: Early-career marketers who need to plan, post, and manage social media channels professionally.
🔹 Email Marketing
Perfect for beginners, this course demystifies email marketing. It goes over building email lists the right way, segmenting audiences, personalising content, creating effective campaigns, and measuring results — all while staying compliant with GDPR.
🕒 Duration: 3–4 hours
📌 Best for: Those using platforms like Mailchimp, HubSpot, or Campaign Monitor for newsletters or automated emails.
🔹 Digital Marketing
A great all-rounder. This course ties together all key channels — SEO, PPC, email, content, and social — into one coherent strategy. It covers how to develop digital campaigns that align with business goals and make better use of analytics tools.
🕒 Duration: 5+ hours
📌 Best for: Apprentices or junior marketers who want a big-picture understanding of digital strategy.
🔹 SEO
It takes you through on-page, off-page, and technical SEO in digestible chunks. You’ll learn about keyword research, link building, how to improve your site’s authority, and how to audit and optimise content to rank better.
🕒 Duration: Around 3 hours
📌 Best for: Content creators, blog writers, or website editors wanting to drive organic traffic.
These certifications are completely free and come with genuinely useful, up-to-date training materials. They’re bite-sized, practical, and great for building confidence — whether you’re brand new to marketing or looking to brush up on best practice.
✨ Tip: They also make your LinkedIn profile look good as you can share your achievements.
Wrapping It Up
So, as I say, if you’re looking to upskill or add some strings to your marketing bow, I cannot recommend these certificates highly enough. With a huge catalogue of certifications and general training, you can definitely get from zero to thirty and add some real clout to your CV. Stuff like this makes all the difference in showing you’re proactive in making a real effort to get into marketing rather than just spam applying in the hope that someone will give you a shot.
