Free Marketing Training - Is it Worth the Cost?

One of the main focuses of the Association of Strategic Marketing is to provide relevant, timely and affordable training options for marketers. As a marketer for the last 10 years, I have found training to be an indispensable part of my career growth and continued education. Some of this was in the form of free training, but the vast majority was in the form of paid training programs. I have gone to conferences, seminars, networking events, exhibit halls, webinars, teleconferences... and that is just the live stuff. I have also read marketing related trade publications, newsletters, whitepapers, blogs...!

The amount of marketing information out there can actually be a little overwhelming and figuring out which of it is most worthy of your time is a chore in and of itself.  Let's be honest, time is a valuable commodity these days as we all try to do more marketing with less marketing dollars.  Two hours spent on a poorly put together training program is a waste of the price of the program, but more importantly, it is a waste of your valuable time.  Free marketing training comes with the opportunity cost of your time and often the free programs are more likely to have a higher cost in that regard.  Keep in mind, that does not mean the paid programs can't be a waste of time either.  I have gotten pretty good at spotting the good from the bad and without doing an ASM pitch here, I will point out a couple of rules I have found to be true over the years.  This may not apply as much to a marketer new to the field, but I think they hold true the majority of the time.

Rule #1 - Does the company putting on the program have a product related to the topic of the program and the program is free?  Unless you are looking for the product they will inevitably be pitching you, don't waste your time.  You will always be disappointed by the content of this program.

Rule #2 - The largest providers and conferences are not always or even usually the best training options available.  I stopped going to the DMA conference for training sessions years ago.  Not because I knew it all, but because I got a lot more value out of the exhibit hall and vendor meetings than I did out of the training sessions.  I would highly recommend the DMA Conference for continuing your marketing education, just don't do it in the training sessions.

Rule #3 - Are you listening to a program on SEO from someone who has a website that ranks poorly amongst competitors?  The speaker of any program is going to be the most important variable to look at when determining how good the program will be.  Is it a respected and experienced speaker or an associate being sent out for his first time to speak.  Don't pay good money for a program without doing  a little digging on the speaker.  There is nothing worse than listening to a program and wondering whether you know more about the topic than the speaker.

I hope these help you make good decisions going forward.  We all have limited training budgets, so let's make sure to use them wisely.  Remember that the cost of the program is not just the price, but the cost of your lost time!