Many employers aren’t aware of this, but there are no degrees in content marketing. There are classes and a couple of certificate programs, but most universities are woefully behind in training content marketers.

That’s why we developed our program Kickstart. We’re not a university (… yet), the program was designed to be similar to a nursing program at a hospital. Students go through extensive training, and then they get real-world experience by “coming to work with patients in the hospital,” so to speak. Smart Blogger is that “hospital.”

In other words, it’s NOT your typical online course with a few videos and some easy quizzes. Students submit dozens of assignments for review. Our instructors give them individual feedback and either give them a thumbs up to move forward or suggest they go back and try again.

In total, there are three classes all students must complete:

• Content Writing: An in-depth class about how to create content that outranks the competition. Students learn about content frameworks, on-page SEO, and competitive analysis
• SEO Strategy: An in-depth class about how to audit website content and develop a content plan that will produce results for a business. Students learn how to spot competitive opportunities, create content plans, and write content brief to guide other writers
• Editing and Management: An in-depth class about how to evaluate freelance writers’ work, give constructive feedback, and manage a team of writers.

Each class ends with an exam that includes a practical component where the student must prove their skills. For instance, in the content writing class, students must write and submit a 2000 word article that is perfectly optimized for Google. We don’t pass them until their work is at a standard where we would happily pay them to come to work for us.

In other words, the only way to progress through the program is to demonstrate their skills, time and time again. By the time students graduate, they’ve invested hundreds of hours into practicing their craft, received feedback dozens of times, and proven themselves by passing a final exam that requires them to prove their skills.

We believe this educational experience is superior to anything else in the industry. There are three primary advantages:

• Our curriculum was developed directly from our experience growing Smart Blogger into a brand that receives millions of visitors from Google. We continue to update this curriculum over time, keeping students at the cutting-edge of what’s working right now in content marketing. Shortly, we’re also launching a program to give graduates the option of receiving continual education directly from our editorial team, keeping them up-to-date on algorithm changes and how to respond.
• The training students receive is focused on making them productive from the moment they step into a company. Not only can they write well, but they can develop the content strategy for a brand, large or small, and they can manage a team of writers. In other words, the training is focused on helping them excel in the real world, not on general principles and theories. This will significantly reduce your “ramp up” time after hiring.
• Students do homework assignments and test projects and then receive feedback directly from content strategists on our team. This “feedback loop” gives them the opportunity to improve their skills during the training program. When they graduate, not only do they have the “book smarts” from studying cutting-edge curriculum, but they have “street smarts” from testing their skills in real world scenarios and improving over time.

Because of these differences, we believe our graduates will outperform other candidates. They will be productive faster, get better results, and ultimately make your company more money than anyone else you could hire.

This is especially true when comparing students against graduates from traditional universities. Specifically, Universities don’t train students on up to date search engine optimization strategies, nor do they give them practice writing the types of content Google prefers. In other words, someone with a journalism degree might be a good writer, and someone with a marketing degree might be a good marketer, but they don’t have any training or practice around the types of writing and marketing Google wants.

Our students do have this training. What’s more, we keep it up-to-date with all of the changes to the Google algorithms and best practices around ranking in extremely competitive industries. We then give our students practice that mirrors the work they do in the real world, meaning they complete our certifications with not only the “book smarts” but also the skill to work at an elite level when they graduate.

And this classroom practice is only the beginning. When they complete their certifications, we then have them come to work for us and do the precise work they were trained to do, getting true real-world experience before they graduate.