CIM Diploma in Professional Marketing

I did the CIM Level 6 because I had gotten into a rut in the way I approached marketing and I needed a kickstart. Boy did I get it! For years I thought that marketing theory had no place in the “real world” – until I did my CIM Level 6 Diploma in Professional Marketing.

I did my undergrad in Marketing 15 years ago, which absolutely helped me to learn about the principles of marketing, but failed to teach me how to implement the concepts in the workplace as I had never actually been in the workplace.

Because your CIM assignments are based on your workplace, you are putting the theory into practise in a very real way, and at the end of each assignment, you come away with a plan that you can actually implement in your business!

Since completing my CIM, I have started using marketing theory in my day to day work (who would have thought) and it has changed my relationship with marketing.

It’s hard work – don’t underestimate how much time and effort it will take – but it is 100% percent worth it.

I did level 4 and level 6 CIM courses. I’m a PMM at Redgate and I completed the courses between 2020-2022
Pros:
– brilliant foundation to build your marketing knowledge of models and frameworks and formally introduce you to the wider world of marketing
– big confidence boost and helps you understand how to break down and tackle marketing challenges
– looks good on a CV!
– nice to meet and chat to other people in marketing and understand what marketing looks like in other organisations

Cons:
– feels a little taught to get you to complete and pass the assignment, rather than how to apply these things in your role and ‘real life’
– feels very classical, potentially outdated, teaching the most widely accepted fundamentals of marketing. This is a pro and a con – it’s a great intro and gives you a good jumping off point to start questioning these things yourself
– as well as this, it feels as though their courses/models are taught as THE way to do things – marketing framework overwhelm & knowledge paralysis was real when I was trying to apply it to the real world
– not a very diverse range of teachers and therefore experiences and views!