7 Best Content Marketing Courses (Learn from Pros)

If you want to get better at content marketing, you need to learn from the pros.

I have hand-picked every course on this list, with one simple criteria in mind: only showcase courses taught by people that are obviously real, bona fide content marketing professionals.

These courses are taught by VPs, CMOs, agency founders, and editing pros. I know every person on this list, and will personally vouch for their skills and experience (and loveliness).

These courses include video courses, communities and cohorts, with prices ranging from free to... well, very not free (but still worth every cent, if you can swing it).

And yes—I have created two of the courses on this list. (And who the hell am I? I'm Ryan, Director of Content Marketing at Ahrefs). Call it shameless narcissism or simply a content marketer doing content marketing, but I'm pretty darn proud of my courses and think they more than warrant inclusion (and over 500 students will back me up).

Now let's go: onto the courses.

1. Superpath Pro

Instructors: Jimmy Daly and others
Course Type: Self-paced video course, with access to premium community
Price: $50/m or $500/y
Link: https://pro.superpath.co/membership

Why it's on this list: Jimmy is content marketing royalty, the original marketing director at legendary content agency Animalz, the founder of Superpath, and something of a mentor to me.

Jimmy has tapped into his network of content pros to put together a very detailed syllabus, covering a bunch of the challenges content marketers face every day, from product-led content marketing through to understanding regex queries.

As a big ol' bonus, choosing a membership plan gives you access to the Superpath community, a Slack group that's probably the single most popular hangout for content pros anywhere on the internet.

2. How to Edit (and Self-Edit)

Instructor: Ryan Law, Director of Content Marketing at Ahrefs
Course type: Self-paced video course
Price: $199
Link: https://courses.ryanlaw.me/how-to-edit

Why it's on this list: I built this course to answer a simple question: How do you actually edit? When a skilled editor reviews an article, what are they looking for? What are they mechanically doing, beyond fixing typos and bad grammar? What heuristics do they apply? What frameworks do they use?

This course contains everything I've learned from editing hundreds of articles over the past 13 years. This course will teach you how to:

• Understand and talk authoritatively about the role of "editing" in modern content marketing.

• Build a world-class editing process using the concepts of the editing hierarchy, context acquisition, and the 30%/90% framework.

• Use 7 developmental editing frameworks to improve the structure of written content.

• Apply 8 line-editing concepts to refine individual sentences and paragraphs.

3. Content Marketing 201

Instructor: Amanda Natividad, VP of Marketing at SparkToro
Course Type: Cohort
Price: $1,000 (not currently open for enrolment—click the link below to subscribe and get notified when a new cohort launches)
Link: https://maven.com/amandanat/content-marketing

Why it's on this list: I've seen Amanda's marketing brilliance first-hand at both SparkToro and her previous company, content marketing agency Growth Machine.

Amanda is a pro content creator: she makes incredible use of original experimentation and data collection, and if you've ever heard of zero-click content, you'll know that she's no slouch when it comes to writing thought leadership content either.

The lessons in Amanda's cohort are designed to help you elevate your thinking and practice to become the CEO of your own content marketing.

4. How to Write Thought Leadership Content

Instructor: Ryan Law, Director of Content Marketing at Ahrefs
Course type: Self-paced video course
Price: $199
Link: https://courses.ryanlaw.me/how-to-write-thought-leadership-content

Why it's on this list: Much has been written about "content marketing", but there's a big ol' gap in the discourse on one crucial topic: thought leadership content.

It's generally regarded as the hardest type of content marketing. It requires original, interesting ideas; the ability to articulate and advocate for them; and the confidence to learn and share in public spaces. (Not to mention that we can't fall back on keyword research to save us...)

Over the past thirteen years as a content marketer, I have had to overcome these challenges, and this course is a product of introspection into the lessons, processes, and mental models that allowed me to do so. Writing thought leadership didn't come naturally to me. If I can learn how to do it, you sure as hell can too.

5. Content Strategy Course

Instructors: David Ly-Khim, Alex Birkett, Allie Decker, Irina Nica
Course Type: Self-paced video course
Price: $1,196.40
Link: https://beomniscient.com/content-strategy-course/

Why it's on this list: This strategy-focused course is created by the founding team of content agency Omniscient Digital. They are HubSpot alums, and I've seen their content chops in action, most notably through the "surround sound" content strategy that has been a game changer for HubSpot.

Based on their experience leading content for companies including Jasper, Order, and Hotjar, this syllabus is my best recommendation for a comprehensive grounding in applied content strategy. With that in mind, the price tag is pretty darn affordable.

6. Content Editing 101

Instructor: Erica Schneider, Rob Lennon
Course Type: Self-paced
Price: $399
Link: https://contentediting101.com/

Why it's on this list: Erica is a smart, wonderful human-being with a knack for simplifying writing best practice. I knew her from her work with content agency Grizzle, but she had so much success with her educational side hustle that she went full-time course creator and educator (to our benefit).

Erica has edited millions of words, and accompanied by AI educator Rob Lennon, she's devised a syllabus that combines theory with practical adive and prompt creation. If you follow her on social media, you'll also see that she's a plain great human being.

7. Blogging for Business

Instructor: Tim Soulo, CMO at Ahrefs
Course Type: Self-paced video course
Price: Free!
Link: https://ahrefs.com/academy/blogging-for-business

Why it's on this list: Ahrefs' legendary CMO (and my boss, no less) Tim Soulo walks through everything he's learned growing Ahrefs blog to millions of pageviews through the humble power of organic search.

Tim used to charge hundreds of dollars for this course, but it's currently available for free. I worked through it when I joined Ahrefs, and even this jaded old content dog learned a few new tricks. If you're looking for the clearest introduction to content marketing that actually works, work through Tim's sessions.

Final thoughts

The internet is full of snake oil and sham courses, but these are the real deal, created by legit content pros and vouched for by another content pro.