No Training Budget? No problem!

Tweet

If your marketing budget is being squeezed (and whose isn't?) your training budget was probably one of the first things you probably saw go down the drain. Of course, that assumes that your employer actually values on-going learning and people development. Sadly, not every organization does.

If I were in marketing management twenty years ago, I would have seen this as a problem. Now, I’m not so sure it is. Thanks to the current trend of generating leads through thought-leadership papers and webinars, and the internet, most of us have easy access to tons of free learning materials.

Here are a few marketing organizations that have free downloaded webinars on marketing:

• Hubspot
• Marketbright
• Jigsaw – The webinars on this site tend to be oriented more toward sales, but since many marketers have a hybrid role, some will find it helpful. Plus, what better way to understand sales than by studying what they study!
• http://www.eloqua.com/resources/webcasts/
• 1to1media
• Conversion University – I just found this one while Googling a few phrases to see what turned up. It has free tools and information developed by Google designed to help you use their other free tools better. Looks pretty cool.
• Pragmatic Marketing

If any of you have a site you would like to plug, just leave us a comment.

Those are just a few sites that offer webinars and white papers. Blogs are also a great place to gather inspiration, ideas for improving your marketing and building your career. Almost all of these sites have their own blogs and there are many, many independent blogs. Think of any well-known (or not so-well-known) marketing guru, Google them, and you will undoubtedly find their blog.

Of course, there are many sites that also offer webinars as part of a subscription to their service. MarketProfs and MarketingSherpa are two that come to mind. These both offer excellent content, often deeper and less salesy than the typical free webinars, for a very reasonable price.

Finally, some of you may be asking, “Is it right for me to take advantage of someone’s free content if I’m not a prospect?”

Hopefully, these organizations have a well-defined sales process that will quickly qualify you out and you won’t be bombarded with sales pitches. By downloading their materials, however, you are inherently giving them permission to continue marketing to you. Hopefully, they do this in a way that “nurtures” you into someone who believes in their product offering, their expertise, and gives you a reason to become a customer someday.

All the best!

Melissa