3 Takeaways From HubSpot's Inbound Marketing Certification Course

I've recently started adding freelance clients, and I knew I needed to brush up on my digital marketing skills. Enter HubSpot Academy's Inbound Marketing Certification program. It's a 4.5-hour, 12-video course that teaches the Inbound Marketing Methodology. This starts with getting to know your target sales demographic, continues with creating quality content and getting it seen, and ends when you know how to delight your customers ... forever.
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Here are three things I learned:

1. SEO Isn't So Scary.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can be a scary term because most people know just enough about it to realize they don't know enough. An entire section of the certification process is dedicated to breaking down SEO and detailing how writers and copy editors enhance page performance through keywords and their placements. Another facet of achieving optimal search results relates to the psychology of knowing your ideal customer and attracting them through targeted content. 

2. Content is King.
SEO is great and all -- it's a critical piece to implement in writing for the web -- but what I love about inbound marketing is that what really matters is helping people. This is the crux of all sales games: You need to solve problems. Do that, and you win. Great content, delivered to the right people at the right time will lead to happy sales teams and engaged customers. 

3. Landing Pages are Mighty.
Landing pages are the make-it-or-break-it part of the marketing funnel because this is where visitors to your site become leads. Your website needs a good landing page to further your relationship with your target customers, and it does this by collecting information via a form in return for a quality piece of content (an eBook, video or email that delivers something useful and relevant to your target customer demographic). I'm loving this explanation of landing pages because it all comes back to -- you guessed it -- helping people. You give them great content, and their belief in your brand goes up. This is good.

I recommend HubSpot's Inbound Marketing Certification to anyone getting into brand representation, eCommerce, blogging or even sales in general. I learned a lot more than what I noted above, and I'm planning to take more of their free courses.

Contact me if you want to know more about the course. I'm happy to answer questions about its worth, time commitment or content. 
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Morgan Kent Molden is a writer and copy editor. She loves AP Style, slicing up run-on sentences and the paradox of a red pen's destructive and constructive powers. Contact her here. Check her out on LinkedIn. Find her on Upwork.