CIM Certificate in Professional Marketing

Taking the Certificate in Professional Digital Marketing in the first 1-2 years of my marketing career was a very good decision! It compounded a lot of my existing understandings, and gave me the tools and confidence, as well as the theory and resources, to channel my efforts and deliver real results in my current role. On top of this, it demonstrated to my employer that I was committed to developing, which I’m certain has supported my career progression already.

I will say that it’s not something to undertake lightly though, and you need to be willing to put time into understanding the concepts and doing extra reading for the learnings to really sink in. I studied entirely virtually, and found that support was a little further out of reach at times than I would have liked it to be, but if you’re a strong independent learner you’ll thrive.

Overall, I’d definitely recommend the course. I’m sure I’m a better marketer as a result, and look forward to taking more advanced levels. Just take the time to consider which learning format suits you best!

Overall I really enjoyed this course, it took around 12 months to complete. Having never studied marketing formally before, I liked learning about marketing theory and applying it to my day to day job. My only negative is that it became quite difficult when revising for the exam for one module, finishing my coursework for another module and having a full time job. However juggling two modules simultaneously only lasted for about a month so was manageable.

Excellent course for really focusing on marketing more in-depth and great that you have the opportunity to focus on digital marketing too.

Like most things, you will get out of this course what you put in and it really is worth the reading time.

I would say that it really helps to already be in a marketing role during this course as this will really help with putting things into action and make sit much easier when writing about examples and case studies.

I had excellent tutors and great guidance. A CIM qualification is always worth it and something I always look for when I have recruited too.

I completed this course over the past year, with modules in “Applied Marketing” “Planning Campaigns” and “Digital Techniques” through the Cambridge Marketing College.

It was entirely self-funded and I wasn’t given study leave by the organisation I was working at at the time, so I completed it remotely in my evenings and weekends. I had ~2 years of marketing experience when I started this qualification, and my formal academic training was in an unrelated subject, so I needed to cover the basics.

Applied Marketing was my favourite module, learning the theory which backed up what I knew from my experience, and I found the exam played to my strengths. The other two modules were more difficult for me personally, but I think that’s the nature of remote learning and not having a cohort to lean on, like my previous studying experiences.

I think it’s been a great addition to my working marketing knowledge and my CV, but it was a lot of hard (and sometimes lonely) work for a year!

I took the CIM Certificate in Professional Marketing early in my Marketing career (c. 1-2 years in) with the Oxford College of Marketing.

My 3 stars is not perhaps reflective of everyone’s view as for me, I’d learned a number of new things, but a lot of the course covered topics I’d done as part of my Business Studies degree and so was going over old ground.

That said, a lot of my cohort who didn’t have the theoretical background that I did seemed to find it very useful and so I would simply say that it’s probably not the right course for people who’ve done more Marketing theory at University.

However, it is perfect for those who have perhaps not done a lot of Marketing theory and are starting their career with a few years’ experience.

It’s also worth being aware of the time commitments – I opted for in-person (pre-covid days!) and found that at times it was draining as I was working a full day and then spending 3 hours of that evening (with a 1.5 hour round trip) on the course. However, I also knew I learn better in person as I get too distracted with virtual. There is also a part time option which would have helped with workload.

I completed my CIM cert in prof marketing during mat leave with the Cambridge Marketing College (all from a distance). I thought the course was excellent.

I used real projects I’d been working on to give it more relevance to me (which was a very useful exercise!). I was worried about the time required with two babies at home, but it was certainly manageable (though it was quite stressful in the lead up to assignment deadlines so do be mindful of your schedule).

Furthermore, I’ve found great value from being a CIM member and having access to their resources and guides, which we used during the course work as well.

There are useful resources throughout the courses and you can choose one elective from an interesting mix, for added industry knowledge.

I really took great value out of the course and came out of it a better marketer with a great interest in continued education. I also used the course as CPD towards Chartered Marketer status, so that was beneficial as well.

The only negative was it can be a little faceless if you’re studying virtually, but Cambs Marketing College were very helpful and the tutors were good too (though you may have to stay on top of them as they get busy).

I completed this course in 2020 after two years in my role. This really consolidated a lot of my practices, gave structure to my work and fuelled confidence in my decisions as a one-person marketing department.

This was a lot of work, don’t underestimate the amount of time it takes weekly.

The only reason that this didn’t get 5 stars is I found that CMC’s guidance was a bit hit and miss depending on the module I was working on, with varying quality and quantity of feedback from different tutors making the first written assessment a very stressful experience. Alongside this, a lot of content was regurgitated from one module to the next, which I found disappointing, but admittedly did save studying time in my final module.

Nonetheless, the value this has added to my CV, and overall breadth of marketing knowledge is brilliant, especially if you’re a single marketer with no mentor or guidance.