Free Learning Roadmap

How to Become a Marketing Manager

Owns brand, growth, and performance marketing. Balances measurable acquisition with the harder-to-measure long-term brand equity.

Topics
11
Resources
37
Cost
Free
Most resources are free or freemium
Format
Self-paced

1. Marketing Foundations

core
Positioning & Segmentation

Who is it for, what does it replace, why is it better. April Dunford's positioning framework is the modern default.

Brand vs Performance

The 60/40 rule (Binet & Field). Long-term brand pays for short-term activation. Getting the ratio wrong is career-limiting.

2. Growth Marketing

core
Growth Loops & Funnels

Reforge's thesis: loops compound, funnels leak. AARRR pirate metrics as the entry framework.

Marketing Experimentation

A/B tests on ads, landing pages, subject lines. Statistical significance, MDE, power. Same rigour as product experiments.

3. Performance Channels

core
Paid Search (Google, Bing)

Keyword strategy, quality score, bid management, conversion tracking. Google Ads certification is the ticket.

Paid Social (Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok)

Audience targeting, creative iteration, attribution. Creative is the biggest lever — iterate fast.

SEO

Technical SEO, content SEO, link building. Slow, compounding, defensible.

4. Content & Editorial

core
Content Strategy

Not blog posts — a strategy. Audience-first, distribution-first, editorial calendar.

Email & Lifecycle

Onboarding, retention, winback flows. Own the channel — don't rent it from social platforms.

5. Analytics & Attribution

core
GA4 & Analytics

Post-cookie world. Server-side tracking, first-party data, consent management. GA4 is the industry default.

Attribution Modelling

Last-touch, multi-touch, MMM (media mix modelling). MMM is having a comeback as tracking gets harder.

6. Brand Strategy

core
How Brands Grow

Byron Sharp's Ehrenberg-Bass research overturned decades of received wisdom. Reach > loyalty. Mental & physical availability > differentiation.

Creative Briefing

The brief is the deliverable. If the brief is wrong, the campaign is wrong. Learn Contagious's frameworks.

7. B2B vs B2C — Pick Your Depth

core
B2B Demand Gen

ABM, MQLs, SQLs, pipeline velocity. Longer cycles, fewer decisions makers, higher deal size.

B2C Consumer Marketing

Emotional buys, shorter cycles, mass reach. Different playbook, different metrics.

8. Product Marketing Basics

recommended
Launch Frameworks

Positioning, messaging, sales enablement, launch tiers (T1/T2/T3). Product marketing is a discipline, not a task.

9. Marketing Tools & Stack

recommended
Martech Stack

CRM (HubSpot/Salesforce), CDP (Segment), ESP (Klaviyo/Braze), analytics, attribution. Know the modern default stack.

10. AI in Marketing

recommended
AI for Marketers

LLM-assisted copy, image generation, prompt engineering, workflow automation. Increasingly non-optional.

11. Career & Voices

optional
Marketing Voices to Follow

Podcasts, substacks, blogs where working marketers actually read.

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Curated by WhatTNext Ai · methodology · all roadmaps · last updated 2026-07-29