The Best HubSpot Certifications For Marketers

If you’re like many of our clients (and even some employees), ongoing training is something that’s always on your to-do list but forever getting pushed to the back burner.

It’s one of those Catch-22s. It’s hard to take the time to step back and improve your skills, but tasks become harder to do when you’re not used to using key functionality. In addition, software like HubSpot’s is always releasing new features and making marketer’s lives easier with increased automation. But, you won’t know how to take advantage of them to optimize and improve your program if you aren’t staying up to date.

Even if you use an agency to manage your work or software, we think it’s important and valuable to know your way around your own business. Why?

1. It allows you to effectively spot check your agency’s work
2. It will allow you to pop in to your software to perform simple tasks, such as run a report that your boss needs quickly
3. It will help you ask more effective questions of your team when you are familiar with the terminology and how your data functions
4. It will allow you to more effectively plan for new functionality
5. It will help you defend your marketing program internally because you’ll know it better and can answer specific questions that come up in meetings when your agency partner isn’t present
6. It will give you new ideas as you’re poking around and seeing gaps or opportunities

As we start a new year, this is a great time to work continuous learning into your schedule. We challenge our employees to aim for 2-3 hours a week and to schedule the time into their calendars, whether it’s 30 minutes a day or a big chunk on a Friday.

The truth is, there’s no better time to improve your marketing skills than right now. You’ll be able to keep up with the latest trends and techniques and avoid being stuck in a rut where your marketing is starting to feel stale. It’s also a great opportunity to learn from the best in the industry. Depending on your platform, this training is likely free, like the HubSpot Academy. You might be surprised at how much you can learn from the marketing team in your organization or even the experts at your favorite marketing software.

We think these are the five core HubSpot certifications that all marketers should achieve, whether you’re managing your own work or working with an agency.

• Inbound marketing — Learn about inbound marketing techniques and develop an understanding of the core tactics.
• HubSpot marketing software — To do inbound marketing well, you need to start your journey with the marketing software the right way. It’s a big platform with a lot of tools, and to get the most value out of them, you need a foundation of knowledge and an understanding of how they all work together. These lessons will equip you with the fundamental understanding you need to do marketing well using HubSpot.
• HubSpot sales software — Improve your ability to execute an inbound sales process using HubSpot CRM and Sales Hub.
• Content marketing — This certification course will give you an overview of how to become an effective content marketer. 
• Growth-driven design — In the growth-driven design (GDD) certification course, you’ll learn how to build and optimize a peak-performing website that delivers user value and drives business growth. This approach is a specific methodology for web design, but we think that the GDD mindset can — and should — be easily applied to all aspects of marketing and is worthwhile for most marketers.

If you’re looking for more, these bonus trainings are also extremely useful:

• HubSpot reporting — Learn how to incorporate data-driven decision making at your organization with the use of the HubSpot reporting tools. 
• Social media marketing — Help shape the conversation around your business, build loyalty, and attract new customers and partners; it's the only social media training you'll ever need. Building an effective social media strategy will expand all of your other inbound marketing efforts as well as build brand awareness, drive word of mouth, and attract buyers. In other words, social media is the ultimate way to do inbound marketing.
• Email marketing — Learn how to build an email marketing strategy that is human, helpful, and builds trust with your contacts.
• HubSpot CMS for marketers — Learn how to use HubSpot CMS Hub to create a high-performing website. This course requires a CMS Hub Professional account or above to complete.

Whatever your role, we think you will do better work, manage your team (or agency) better, and improve your overall marketing strategy with a proactive approach to ongoing training and development in 2022.  

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