CIM Foundation Certificate in Professional Marketing

I completed the Level 6 Diploma in Professional Marketing between 2022 and 2023.
The reason I didn’t go for the Digital marketing course was that I thought I had more choice between topics that are more relevant to my role and there was a digital element in it anyway. I am a generalist marketer and have always worked in manufacturing industry and I started the diploma course to refresh my knowledge. It was by far the best thing I could have done.

In tandem with what the CIM learning platform is providing, you get a lot of insights and access to learning material to support your learning and get you through the assignments.

The first one can be challenging but with the tutor feedback you will quickly get the hang of it. Especially the eBooks on the CIM learning platform are of great help, which you will get access to once you start the course in addition to other great resources. There hasn’t been a topic where I thought that I won’t be needing it in future, they are all very much up-to-date but there is a lot that you need to research and I would still recommend purchasing a few marketing books in addition to what you can find on the net. They also help as you will need to provide a list of references and a bibliography at the end of each assignment.

I started to improve and implement things in work straight away even whilst being on the course as it forces you to think about your work environment.

I can highly recommend.

Loved this course.
It’s so relevant and topical. It’s really helped shape the way I think about purpose, marketing strategy and campaigns moving forward.

I’ve already used what I learnt to implement our companies purpose, mission and vision!

Big thanks to the course director and supporting team.

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!

I have been working in a marketing role since years. I have built a very good marketing experience. I thought this was enough proof of knowledge and practice until I joined CIM qualification program. The added value that I collect from the program was tremendous. It fine tuned my practice, and polished my daily activities. The program has made me think deeper and brought new ideas to my working environment and I started talking a new language. Instead of repeating myself, I started innovating. This is why I am now confidently investing in continuing to get a professional diploma. This is a worthy investment for sure.

I completed this course in 2020 as I wanted to take a different approach to my learning following the completion of various CIM qualifications and courses.

The CIM courses gave me a great base knowledge that I use day to day, but for my learning style, I often found the language the tutors used a challenge to digest, especially with my dyslexia. This may have been more about my confidence at the time though to not speak up and engage with the tutor and wider group.

The Mini MBA however was the COMPLETE opposite. Clear, concise and easy to digest and great additional content. Not to mention, the team were great with me despite some really challenging personal circumstances at the time. I am now part of the Alumni programme that has recently launched and excited to see how this evolves in the future.

I do value the CIM, their membership and opportunity that Chartered Marketing status offers and will continue to use their courses if they are right for me in the future.

This is a fantastic foundation and great for your CV and confidence. It is solid theory, and not tactical, and will help put you on an even footing with peers who know all the acronyms and have formal training. Won’t tell you what the current trends in tiktok are or how to build an ad funnel or web page!

I successfully completed the Level 4 CIM certificate back in 2015 and then started working towards the CIM Level 6 Diploma shortly after. However, after completing several hours of study the balance between raising two young children and work was just too much so I decided to ‘park’ my studies. Roll forward 6 years, during a time of the COVID pandemic, and I took the decision to restart my studies once again in 2021.

It took me almost two years, on and off, to complete balancing full time work and family life but it was worth it. Yes it was hard work with sacrifices to be made but even if, like me, your current job role isn’t purely marketing focused I would still advise this as part of your continual personal development.

Key skills you’ll develop are marketing theory and concepts, tools and principles of project management, research skills, current and extended marketing knowledge, self discipline and writing concisely. Personally I found my elective and final module The Digital Customer Experience the hardest but this was because there was no CIM module text book (mainly as the subject is ever changing) which I had found extremely useful as a guide during the first two modules.

Since completing the course, a few months ago, I have already secured a new job role aided by an industry recognised qualification and a greater confidence in my marketing knowledge and abilities.

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.

After doing all prior CIM qualifications, to me it wasn’t complete without the CIM Marketing Leadership Program! My experience was great, the content was high quality and felt applicable to my role. After being in marketing for 11 years so far, I still learnt a lot during the three modules and it challenged me to keeping looking for innovate ways to overcome marketing challenges and make the most of opportunities. It has given further confidence in my abilities too.

Worth a mention too is the fantastic study centre I chose (for all qualifications), which is Oxford College of Marketing as the quality of their tutors and process is second to none.

I complete this course with Cambridge college srilanka and the staff and lecturers are very helpful. i especially like to mention that CIM’s learning materials are very useful to complete this PGD.

I started learning CIM at Cambridge College, Sri Lanka. I enrolled the program at the peak of COVID19 when public movements have restricted in the province I lived. But I managed to join CCBM’s virtual classes and concluded all 9 modules in 18 months. The modules and the assignments helped me to gain new knowledge on different industries and learnt how Marketing is done in various industries. During my 18 months I really enjoyed learning and building strategies on different themes on the assignment including Differentiation and Sustainability, also I worked hard to invest more hours in the assignments daily basis with my heavy work schedule. So the experience I had with CIM studies were really interesting and I enjoyed a lot.

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.

The thing I loved about the Mini MBA in Brand Management is how thorough it was, as well as catering to all kinds of learners.

There were weekly modules (released weekly so you can’t work ahead), extra reading and resources to learn more around the topic, often from The Harvard Business Review and other highly reputable publications, as well as a brand plan (optional) that ran throughout the course and a final brand simulation (optional) that brought all your learning to life in a ‘real-world’ simulation. Mark even read some of the extra material aloud to make it easier to listen when commuting (all the participants have busy lives and are studying alongside work and family).

Mark’s delivery is highly engaging and the course is loaded with case studies, which I always find incredibly helpful. The Mini MBA is both practical and theoretical, fun yet intense. You walk away far more knowledgeable than you began with some useful frameworks to bring into your work.

It’s a lot of work, but it’s absolutely worth the time and money. And take advantage of the private LinkedIn group to run ideas off peers and learn alongside.

The Mini MBA is something I won’t shut up about, to fellow marketers as well as anybody I know who runs a business.

We live in a world where people go on about emails, being social first, customer personas.

Whilst all valid, they miss the key first steps to any marketing strategy.

And that’s what Mark’s course changed for me. The education and understanding of how to take time, think strategically and then take action has been a game changer.

What also helps is the engaging level of the lectures, the way the education is delivered, the LinkedIn group support of others on the course and the practical way you get to put all that knowledge to work in the end of course assessment.

Part of me wishes I could do it all again for the first time – 100/10

Absolutely brilliant course.

Really comprehensive course. Mark is an engaging and knowledgable lecturer which makes this course really easy to digest.

Informative, street-wise, funny and highly-memorable. With every module, a lightbulb goes off and you can almost hear the ‘click’ in your head.

I just wish Mark’s teaching techniques had been adopted by the national education system – my geography would be so much better now:-)

Both courses get my top marks for a delightful experience and a tsunami of lingering inspiration!

The world of Marketing is notorious for serving up distractions that pull practitioners away from the guiding light of professionalism, and into the darkness of charlatans or silver bullet pipe dreams. Mark’s MiniMBA program not just distinguishes between the light and dark, but also charts a path for marketers stuck in the ambiguity of the latter to bring themselves to the realm of clarity.

Great course (both the Mini MBA and the Brand focused one). In depth, chock full of insight and useful information. This is a must do course to get up to speed with what is happening in the marketing world right now.

I have put my whole team through it, and I thoroughly recommend you do so with yours.

This course is intensely insightful, expertly delivered, and immediately useful.

I had been considering doing the Mini MBA in Marketing for 2 years, before I took the plunge. I then wished I had done it sooner. It is great for all levels, consolidated all my learnings and experience over my many (25+ years) in marketing. I really enjoyed the entertaining videos by Mark, the examples and tools are very useful and practical.
In my opinion this is the best course. And you must take the exam at the end. It is a really good way of putting the learnings into practice in a safe environment with feedback from the alumni and Mark along the way.
All in all a 5 star marketing experience which will help any marketer in their career wherever you are.

This course was such an eye opener, a very logical approach to learning all about marketing, at the same time a balanced view between theory and practice and how to execute in practice. Having taken the exam, I must say, it really was worth it as it made me realise how when it comes to applying the learnings, you really do need to keep going back to the theory and learnings to make sure you apply them properly. Only someone who knows their stuff though and through can really level and teach well – that is Ritson! No fluff, all solid practical advice also to your very own problems you face in your everyday job. I have been to many courses and this is the best – all around it fully delivered. And I have just signed up for the continued access to those golden resources that I can keep using and keep checking and reminding myself I am on the right track. I did the marketing course, next I want to do the branding too. Well worth the money.

I decided to do a marketing apprenticeship to get myself into the industry at the age of 26. I’d just returned from 2 years in Australia and wanted to start a career in something I was passionate about and thought an apprenticeship would be the best route to do that. I had already completed some courses during lockdown on social media strategy, how to build websites and how to use Photoshop, and following up that learning with some real-life experience made sense as the next step of the journey. My training was with Baltic Apprenticeships who were (mostly) amazing from start to finish.

Would I have been able to get into marketing without completing the apprenticeship? Probably. But the initial theoretical part, learning marketing principles, coding and Google Analytics (and the quick timeline of 12-15 months) all helped solidify my foundations in a marketing role, and the opportunity to essentially ‘self teach’ myself on the off-the-job learning gave me the freedom to explore my strengths and weaknesses and mold my role to suit me.

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.

Mini MBA in Marketing review –

I thoroughly enjoyed this course and thought it was delivered in a practical, well-structured way. I found the content easy to digest and very useful.

The materials were delivered by video presentations, readings, audio files and Q&As. I liked that you can top up the training materials with a curated reading list of extra resources available each week also.

I found the optional extra final assessment to be something I really wanted to do and enjoyed doing.

This course for me gave me a greatwork framework and clear process for doing what I do in marketing.

Hands down one of the most comprehensive and strategic marketing courses out there.
With a mixture of academic learning, real-world case studies and an array of practical tools to start using in your marketing immediately.

I have previously done the CIM Level 6 in Professional Marketing but found the Mini MBA far more practical and relevant.

It also works really well alongside working, with on-demand videos and voice recorded key readings that can easily be digested on the commute.

Not to mention the amazing Alumni network you become a part of from some very interesting marketers across the board.

Highly recommend it and Prof. Ritson is hilarious and insightful as always!

The best course I’ve done! It’ll equip you with the skills needed to independently think about marketing and your business challenges! Mark is fun, engaging and informative and gives you not just a great course but further resources to learn and develop from after. This course unlike some others is also updated for the modern marketing world!

An excellent course that goes back to marketing basics, fills in the knowledge gaps you may have and cuts through much of the noise about marketing should be done.

The course is designed to give you confidence to level up and I felt it did just that.

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.

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!