7 Free training courses to improve business during the lockdown

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, quite a few of us have a little more spare time on our hands. If you’ve already had an enough of day time television or have watched your 423rd episode of Peppa Pig then here is some help.

If you run a business or are responsible for a business then now is a great time to relive the monotony and learn something new. There are lots of companies and organisations out there that are trying to help by giving away free courses and training. So here is a curated list we have put together which we think can help you improve your business during this downtime.

• Free Photography Lessons
• Learn SEO
• Improve your Copywriting
• Beginners Guide to Email Marketing
• Get More From Social Media
• 5-Minute Business Lessons
• Online Business Training

Nikon Photography Lessons

If you have a website then take a look at the photography you use on there. Does it really reflect your business and what you stand for? If not then here is an opportunity for you to improve your visual image.

Also if you use social media now is the time to improve your image. It’s a well-known fact that social media posts with an image get viewed and shared more, so if you can produce your own unique imagery, that’s even better.

Nikon is offering free photography lessons until the 30th of April, so you can take your camera and learn a little to help improve your business.

You may not be able to go to your premises or shop, but you can still take images of your products, services or images for social media to promote your business.

Learn SEO and watch your website jump up Google

There are many resources out there to help you with SEO. If you have time and a higher ranking in Google would make a real difference to your website, then learning the basics of SEO could make a real difference. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, and there are changes you can make to your website which makes it easier for Google to understand who you are and what you do. Google can then rank you better and more accurately, and thus you appear higher in the search results for what you do.

Moz does a great SEO guide which you can access here. It covers the basics and gives you a great overview. From here if you find some aspect of SEO of real interest you can go into more detail.

Another good source is Goole’s own SEO guide. Google accounts for over 80% of all searches done in the UK, so consider this guide as being written ‘straight from the horses mouth’.

Even if you do not plan on doing your own SEO, reading the guides and learning more, can only help. Next time you’re talking to your digital marketing company or your web design company. Not only will you be able to ask better questions but you will also have a better understanding of the answer you receive.

Improve the copywriting on your website

Be honest, when did you last update your website? In busier times it’s not something most of us do. So, take a look at the content, try and put yourself in the position of your customer and be honest about how it reads. Could it be clearer simpler and more powerful?

If so, then have a look at this free course on writing copy for landing pages. Basically, landing pages are web pages that tell the visitor all about the product the features and benefits and aim to persuade them to take action, all on one single page. This approach to copywriting can also work for your web pages. If you have a product or service web page, then by following the ideas in this course you can capture a higher percentage of visitors and therefore increase the enquiries from your website. It’s what we do when we produce and create web pages for our client’s websites.

This course is run by Unbounce a company that specialises in providing landing pages.

Email Marketing

Now, more than ever it’s important you keep in touch with your customers and clients. Depending on your business you may or may not be sending them regular email newsletters. If not then now is a good time to start.

Firstly collect the email addresses of your customers together into a spreadsheet. Name and email addresses are the minimum columns required, but if you have other useful information such as postcode or categories of products they have bought before then this could be useful as you can then get more technical and proficient with your email marketing as you learn more. Putting the time in to clean your data at the start will make it a lot easier for you and your business going forward.

Full details on how to go about starting to email market can be found in this course from constant contact. They provide a tool for capturing and delivering emails, but there is also Mailchimp which will allow you to send 2,000 emails a month for free.

How to get more from Social Media

Maybe social media has not been a big part of your business, but since the lockdown use on social media has skyrocketed. More people are using it than ever before and it’s probably something you should seriously think about.

If you have been using social media or are a beginner then this course for Buffer can give you the knowledge you need.

The course is a 10-day email course, so you can take it at your own pace not have to let it dominate your life. Covering content, images and timing for starters the course (coupled with the photography course above) can make a real difference to your business.

5-minute business lessons from Google

All these ideas are great, but with kids being at home and everyday life still to contend with, you may still not have that much spare time to devote to your business learning. That’s where Google Primer comes in.

Google Primer is an app on your phone that gives you 5-minute business lessons. You can learn from a variety of topics and you can use them on and offline, so you don’t always need an internet connection.

Sign-up is free and you can do as much or all little as you want.

Google Garage – online business learning

Google Garage is an online portal which you can use for free. With over 100 topics to choose from you can learn a new skill such as “how to increase productivity at work” through to “Social Psychology”. There is even a course on “decision making in a complex and uncertain world” which seems quite appropriate at the moment.

The courses range in duration from 1 hour through to 40 hours, so choose carefully.