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Marketo Engage isn’t like other platforms—you can’t really dabble in it. Unless your company is paying the premium for the platform, you can’t even get Marketo Certified. So how does a marketing operations professional go from aspiring to practicing without already having a job in the industry?

The answer is simple—practice. This article will outline several of the free resources available to anyone looking to improve their Marketo skills without paying a premium.

Marketo University

Despite their best efforts, Adobe’s acquisition of Marketo has made the discovery of training resources difficult. Luckily, Marketo University not only contains up-to-date Marketo training, but it also includes links to help you quickly find any additional information on the specific topic.

Marketo University training is interactive, in-depth, and best of all free. If you’re new to Marketo, this is one of the best ways to learn the basics. There are a dozen or so modules each with six to 10 trainings and each training includes four phases: learn, watch, do, check. The four phases really help you understand the concept while also testing you on it once you’ve seen how it works within the product.

It’s not uncommon to hear Marketo Experts swear by the Marketo docs. One thing we love about these training modules is that they link directly to the most relevant section of Marketo’s docs in order to give additional context and answer any questions the videos left unanswered.

As is the case with all of these free resources, it’s tough to learn Marketo without using the platform. So even though you can become an expert in theory, you’ll want to get access to Marketo in order to put your skills to the test.

Marketo On-demand Webinars

Another popular recommendation in Marketo forums for beginners is the On-Demand Webinars. These webinars are reliable because they are taught by handpicked marketing operations experts. Many of them are even taught by the Marketo Engage Team at Adobe. Although some will require you to fill out a form, most of the webinars are free and ungated videos. If you sign up for upcoming webinars, you can join live and participate in the Q&A to answer your mhttps://docs.marketo.com/display/public/DOCS/Welcome+to+Marketo+Docsost pressing questions.

Marketo Engage Product Documentation

Even though learning through videos can be effective, it’s tough to beat going directly to the source. Marketo Engage product docs are the most extensive library of Marketo knowledge anywhere on the internet.

Whether you’re just getting started, looking to master core concepts, or taking web personalization for a spin—it’s all in the docs. The documentation is incredibly thorough, with relevant videos, screenshots, and links throughout. Just look at this article on creating a smart list. It’s concise, easy-to-follow, and full of in-product screenshots.

 

If you’re just starting out, it might be helpful to gain some perspective on the theory behind Marketo. Not all marketing operations platforms are built the same, so it’s important to understand how Marketo approaches marketing automation and how it’s different from other platforms out there.

For this type of problem, you might be better off waiting to dive into the product docs until after you’ve gotten some context from an experienced Marketo mentor or interactive training videos.

 

Marketo courses on Udemy

With more than 100,000 courses, Udemy offers the largest library of instructional content on the internet. As a result, they have a variety of trainings on different aspects of Marketo. Several of the top Marketo courses give specific over-the-shoulder instruction on how to create a live event or run a webinar for example.

One of the most in-depth courses available, Marketo Foundations by ShowMeLeads, features more than 1 hour and 50 minutes of in-product Marketo training.

This course is totally free, however, most of the courses are paid. If you see one that looks particularly interesting, wait a week or two and see if it goes on sale. Udemy is famous for drastically discounting their content on a regular basis.

Marketing operations experts on YouTube

If you really can’t afford to spend a dime on a Udemy course, YouTube channels are an excellent alternative. While most YouTube videos are for entertainment, these marketing operations channels are focused almost entirely on Marketo. Of course, if you find Marketo entertaining, then you’re in the right place.

These three YouTube channels combine education, insights, and just the right amount of entertainment.

If you’re still not convinced that you want to spend your free time watching marketing operations on YouTube, enjoy this refreshingly quirky intro to The Automation Geeks YouTube channel.

https://youtu.be/dDITThMea2I

Marketo training starts with you

Everyone approaches Marketo training a little bit differently. For some, nothing beats getting your hands dirty in your own instance of Marketo. For others, it’s dipping your toes in a few webinars or product docs before you’re ready to really dive in. But there’s no wrong way to start learning marketing operations. Hopefully, this list of free resources will get you started in the right direction. If there are other resources out there we missed, please let us know in the comments.