Best Free Content Marketing Resources & Tutorials

Many professionals are eager to learn content marketing but are hesitant because of the perceived up-front costs. However, a surprising amount of free resources are available to help beginners get the hang of this exciting program. You can find many useful free resources to introduce you to content marketing and help you decide if this field is for you. You can find free seminars, tutorials, courses, books, podcasts, and blogs to help you understand content marketing.

Read on to learn more about the different types of free resources and tutorials available to help you learn content marketing. 

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing relies on content created with a specific audience in mind and designed to appeal to the interests or problems of that audience. This could be blog posts, articles, reports, ebooks, videos, podcasts, or other media. The content builds and supports a relationship with the audience through social media, email, or websites.

Content doesn’t push a product, service, or brand. It focuses on what the audience is interested in, and Content Marketers learn that through data analytics. The content is relevant and valuable to the audience and rarely mentions the brand or product. Relevant content tells consumers a relatable story and gives them a sense of belonging to a group.

Read more about what content marketing is and why you should learn it. 

What Can You Do with Content Marketing?

Content marketing helps you connect with your audience, improve brand loyalty, generate leads, and increase sales. Unlike traditional marketing, which makes a direct pitch for products, content marketing is based on storytelling and rarely mentions a brand or sales. The content appeals to readers by helping them with a problem or issue. 

The first step in content marketing is to determine your audience and what they care about using Google Analytics and social media analytics tools. Once you know your audience’s interests, you can begin to draft content that addresses those needs. This helps build a relationship with your readers, which is crucial to improving brand loyalty. 

Although content rarely mentions the brand or product, relevant content tells a story that consumers relate to best. It gives them a sense of belonging to a group. Content marketing creates more customers than traditional marketing, and these customers are also more loyal. They feel connected to the company or brand and are more likely to buy again. This connection develops through storytelling that resonates with followers.

Content marketing also generates more leads than traditional marketing. Consumers prefer to learn about companies and products through articles and blog posts rather than advertising. Finally, content marketing costs less than traditional marketing and leads to higher conversion rates.

Free Resources to Get Started With Content Marketing

When you want to learn about a new field, check out some free resources. This can help you decide if you want to learn content marketing before paying for more in-depth classes. Noble Desktop has a free seminar, The Pillars of Digital Marketing Success, to help you learn more about content marketing and other digital marketing topics. You can also find blog posts on content marketing to get you started. 

Tutorials and Courses

There are many free resources available to help you figure out if content marketing is for you. 

Udemy offers Content Marketing 101: A Free Guide for Beginners and Pros. Learn how to increase sales using content and keyword research, including how to build links, promote content, and optimize for SEO.

The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing in 2022 on Hubspot is an introduction to the field, including the power of storytelling, creating content that your audience will love, repurposing content, video marketing, and more.

You can find many free tutorials available on YouTube, too. AhrefsTV has many videos on digital marketing topics, including a multi-video playlist on content marketing. Simplilearn also has a free content marketing course, including how to get certified as a Content Marketer. The Beginner’s Guide to Content Marketing for Entrepreneurs by Kimberly Ann Jimenez focuses on how small businesses can use content marketing to increase engagement and sales.

Podcasts

Copyblogger FM covers content and email marketing, plus copywriting, conversion optimization, mindset, and other topics.

Marketing Over Coffee presents marketing professionals talking about email, SEO, data, and other content marketing topics.

Everyone Hates Marketers by Louis Grenier is an irreverent and entertaining podcast focusing on how to make your content marketing stand out from the crowd.

Books

While books are not technically free, you can borrow many titles through your local library as physical copies or ebooks. Here are some popular titles.

The Strategic Storyteller by Alexander Jutkowitz discusses the importance of storytelling to content marketing.

Everybody Writes: Your New and Improved Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content (2nd Edition), by Ann Handley. Practical advice on content creation, publishing, and promotion. 

Epic Content Marketing: How to Tell a Different Story, Break Through the Clutter, and Win More Customers by Marketing Less, by Joe Pulizzi. Pulizzi is the founder of the Content Marketing Institute. In this guide, he covers strategies for developing content that resonates with audiences who will want to share it.

Blogs

If you want to know more about content marketing, ask the people who know: the bloggers! Here are a few popular blogs on the subject.

Noble Desktop’s Learn Blog has numerous articles on how to learn digital marketing, including content marketing.

The Content Marketing Institute posts regular blogs and also offers many other free resources on content marketing. They also host webinars and in-person conferences for content marketers.

Hubspot offers blogs, newsletters, video tutorials, and podcasts on a wide range of digital marketing topics, including content marketing.

Copyblogger is a content marketing agency with a collection of very specific and helpful blogs on content marketing topics, such as copywriting, proofreading, building a loyal audience, automation, and more.

Learn Content Marketing with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop

You canlearn content marketing with hands-on classes at Noble Desktop. Taught by expert instructors, class sizes are small and give you ample opportunity to interact with the instructor and the other students. If you want to learn more about content marketing, sign up for Noble'sContent Marketing Bootcamp. This course covers an introduction to content marketing and techniques for content creation and promotion, including how to measure the success of your content marketing.

If you want to go a step further, try Noble'sDigital Marketing Certificate course. It covers email marketing, SEO, Google Analytics and Google Ads, and all major social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and LinkedIn Marketing. You also get a Streaming for Social Media course and a portfolio class. If you want, you can retake any class for free for up to a year. To find out more about content marketing and change careers, visit Noble Desktop's digital marketing page.

Key Insights

• Content marketing helps you connect with your audience, improve brand loyalty, generate leads, and increase conversions.
• There are many free resources to choose from to get an introduction to content marketing, including
• Free seminars
• Tutorials
• Courses
• Books
• Podcasts
• Blogs

• You can receive comprehensive content marketing training through an in-person or live online course with Noble Desktop.