If the headline didn’t give it away, let me make something very clear:

I hate online marketing certifications.

My list of reasons are pretty standard for everyone who also hates them.

They don’t prove anything. Online certifications, particularly those of the free or cheap variety, don’t prove anything regarding your skill, knowledge, or aptitude when it comes to marketing. Seriously. Most of the exams are easy to “cheat” just to get a badge and there is zero guarantee of any kind of retention. Thankfully organizations like Hubspot Academy make that abundantly clear. Other companies bury their caveats in legal jargon.
I don’t recommend employers use these certifications as proof of ability. Although, I would recommend weighting the certifications as an indication that the person is at least somewhat serious/interested in their marketing career. But keep the voice in the back of your head that says “is this all for show?” because it quite possibly (and quite easily) is.

It’s almost impossible to pass the exams without taking their courses. Okay, so platforms like Hubspot make it easier, because some of their certifications are free. (All of them are free if you’re a customer.) But still, DigitalMarketer? American Marketing Association? OMCP?**

You could feasibly have 20 years of experience in the industry and 17 academic acronyms after your name and still not be able to pass simply because you don’t know their jargon.

I’ve said before marketing language is complicated because so much of it depends on context. What are the stages of the Buyers’ Journey? What’s a Buyer Persona? How do you define a conversion: when an anonymous visitor converts to a lead or when a lead converts to a buyer or is it both? What does your sales funnel look like? Or is it a sales pipeline? So many of these online exams are contingent on each individual platform’s glossary of terms, so even if you have the knowledge and experience to take the test, you still need to sit through (or at least skim) the course work.*

*One caveat: Many are still intuitive if you’ve been around the block a few times. But you’re likely to get a lower or barely passing score.

**Another: I’m not intentionally lumping AMA and OMCP in with the likes of Hubspot and DigitalMarketer. They aren’t totally comparable, and the earned clout the former has is worth something. But the same basically holds true, just to a lesser degree.

Um, Steph? Don’t you have a gazillion certifications and counting?

Yep. I absolutely do. And I will keep getting them. I know, I sound ridiculous. But here’s the thing:

Online certifications tell other people absolutely NOTHING about you. But online certifications CAN give you a ton of really useful information. You get out of it whatever you put into it.

If you take your time and pay attention to the coursework and truly study, then you’ll definitely learn something. You may learn a ton of things. Right now I’m going through DistilledU’s program and I’m learning more about SEO in this course than I’d ever have the patience to read from a textbook. And the best part is it’s only $40/month to do the program.

More Reasons I’ll Keep Getting Certified

1. I want to keep learning and there are only so many degrees I can afford with college prices constantly rising.
2. Even though it’s often the same information just in a different way, it helps to have multiple perspectives on the language. It makes collaborating and networking with other marketers way easier.
3. Gamification works, and I am the poster child. My mom loves to earn badges on Facebook games. I prefer my badges on LinkedIn. It makes me feel accomplished (even if I’m hoping a future employer will take them at face value). Even Gartner says I’m not alone.