6 Best Email Marketing Courses & Certifications in 2026

Last updated: November 2026. Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. See our review methodology.

Email marketing still pays back well, but only if you can build a list, write emails people open, automate the sequences and stay out of the spam folder. A good course shortens that learning curve. We checked the leading options on their course pages in November 2026 and kept the six that are current, well reviewed and suited to a distinct need.

QUICK PICKS

The best email marketing courses at a glance

Ratings, review counts, lengths and update dates were read on each course page in November 2026. The Udemy courses include lifetime access and a certificate of completion. If you would rather start free, jump to free email marketing courses and certifications.

How we picked these courses

We do not rank by commission. Each course was opened on its own page in November 2026 and checked against four criteria: a rating of 4.2 stars or higher from a meaningful number of reviews; a recent update (email platforms and deliverability rules change quickly, so we flag anything older); a curriculum that covers a distinct need (all-round, credential, platform-specific, copywriting or ecommerce); and teaching you can apply by building a real list.

One course from the previous version of this guide, Mastering Email Deliverability, has fallen to 3.6 stars from 417 ratings, so we removed it. Deliverability now has its own section below, built on Gmail’s published sender rules.

1. Email Marketing: Increase Sales With Email Marketing — best all-round starter

Udemy · Anton Voroniuk and SendPulse Academy · 4.5 stars (1,340 ratings) · 97,310 students · 6h 32m · 124 lectures · updated March 2026

If you are new to email marketing and want one course that covers the whole picture, start here. It runs from why businesses need email through building a customer database, GDPR and privacy policies, email types, segmentation, the elements of a good email, keeping messages out of spam, and measuring performance, including Google Postmaster Tools and UTM-tagged links.

One thing to know: the course is made by SendPulse’s academy, and the hands-on lessons build your first email and signup form in SendPulse. The concepts transfer to any platform, but expect the screens to be SendPulse’s.

Best for: complete beginners who want one practical foundation. Skip if: you already run campaigns and need copy or platform depth.

2. Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Professional Certificate — best credential

Coursera · Google · 4.8 stars from 51,571 reviews across the program · 1,562,312 enrolled · about 6 months at 10 hours a week

If you want a certificate that hiring managers recognize, this is the strongest option with real email depth. Course 4 of the program, “Think Outside the Inbox: Email Marketing,” is about 19 hours on its own, and it sits alongside courses on digital marketing foundations, customer engagement, social media, measurement and e-commerce. Coursera describes the program as more than 190 hours of instruction and practice-based assessments.

The trade-off is time and a subscription: you work through it on Coursera Plus, which costs $59 a month, or $239 a year (normally $399). The email course is no longer sold on its own page; you take it inside the certificate. Read our take on whether Google certificates are worth it before you commit.

Best for: career changers and juniors who want a résumé credential. Skip if: you only need email skills for your own business.

3. The Complete Mailchimp Email Marketing Course — best for Mailchimp

Udemy · COURSE ENVY · 4.4 stars (4,295 ratings) · 29,821 students · 4h 20m · 31 lectures · updated January 2026

Mailchimp is a common first platform for small businesses, and this is the most-reviewed course built around it. You set up lists and signup forms, build segmented lists and squeeze pages, create and A/B test campaigns inside Mailchimp, and read the metrics that tell you which version won. It is hands-on: you work in the platform rather than watching slides about it.

Best for: anyone who has chosen Mailchimp. Skip if: you use another tool, because the workflows are Mailchimp-specific.

4. HubSpot for Beginners — best for the HubSpot platform

Udemy · Thalita Milan · 4.6 stars (2,348 ratings) · 7h 25m · 75 lectures · updated October 2026

HubSpot bundles email with a free CRM, forms and automation, which makes it a popular all-in-one choice as you grow. This is the highest-rated pick here and the most recently updated. It teaches the platform from scratch: contacts and segments, capturing leads with forms and imports, emails, reports and workflows, and HubSpot’s built-in AI features. It pairs naturally with HubSpot’s free Email Marketing Certification (below). If automation is your next step, see our best marketing automation courses.

Best for: people building on HubSpot or who want email and CRM in one place. Skip if: you only need a standalone email tool.

5. Email Marketing: AI Copywriting — best for writing emails that convert

Udemy · Jun Wu · 4.4 stars (1,337 ratings) · 12,323 students · 5h 54m · 68 lectures · updated May 2026

Strategy gets people on your list; copy gets them to buy. This course concentrates on the writing side, with a two-week plan for a simple email system, copywriting basics, using AI to draft faster, and a large set of copy-and-paste templates, subject lines and headline formulas. One caveat: the course description still frames its strategies as “the most successful marketing strategies of 2022,” so treat the platform examples as dated even though the course was updated in 2026. For broader writing skills, see our copywriting courses guide.

Best for: founders and marketers who can run the tools but want better open and click rates. Skip if: you need platform mechanics first.

6. Klaviyo Email Marketing For eCommerce — best for online stores

Udemy · Jonathan Ng · 4.4 stars (313 ratings) · 4h 57m · 44 lectures · updated September 2025

Ecommerce email runs on automated flows such as welcome, abandoned cart and post-purchase, and Klaviyo is built around them. This course moves from the email channel itself to Klaviyo setup, the essential ecommerce flows (its longest chapter) and manual broadcast campaigns. Add Klaviyo Academy’s free practitioner certificate to learn the current interface. Store owners should also see our Shopify courses guide.

Best for: Shopify and DTC store owners. Skip if: you do not sell products online.

Best free email marketing courses and certifications

You do not have to pay to start, and two of the best-known credentials in the field are free. The platforms run them, so we earn nothing from these; we list them because they are good.

• HubSpot Email Marketing Certification (free). 12 lessons, 31 videos, 9 quizzes and a practical exercise, about 3 hours 59 minutes. It covers strategy, segmentation, automation, design, data privacy, metrics and A/B testing. In the Reddit threads we read, this is the free course people recommend most often.
• Klaviyo Academy (free). Courses, live trainings and the Klaviyo practitioner certificate, listed at about 5 hours 13 minutes. Best if you run an online store.
• Mailchimp & Co (free). Mailchimp’s program for agencies and freelancers, with training and tools for people who run email for clients. Mailchimp’s old standalone academy page now returns “page not found.”
• Coursera previews. Coursera lets you preview courses, including the Google certificate’s email course, before you pay.

The trade-off: free vendor courses are shorter and focus on their own tool. A paid course usually goes deeper and stays vendor-neutral. For more free credentials across subjects, see our free certifications for your résumé.

Email deliverability: what every course should cover in 2026

The best campaign is worthless in the spam folder. Gmail’s email sender guidelines set the floor every course should teach:

• Authentication: every sender needs SPF or DKIM, and anyone sending 5,000 or more messages a day to Gmail needs SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
• One-click unsubscribe: bulk senders must support it in marketing and subscribed messages.
• Spam rate: Google says to keep the rate reported in Postmaster Tools below 0.10% and never reach 0.30%.

Two of our picks cover this directly: the all-round course teaches spam avoidance and Google Postmaster Tools, and HubSpot’s free certification covers email health. If your open rates are sliding, check authentication and list hygiene before you rewrite a single subject line.

A four-week plan to learn email marketing

Courses work best when you build alongside them. Here is a plan that fits around a job, using the picks above:

• Week 1, foundations: work through the first half of the all-round course, open a free account on the platform you expect to use, and publish a signup form with a simple lead magnet, such as a checklist or template.
• Week 2, your first sequence: write a three-email welcome series. Take the HubSpot Email Marketing Certification lessons on segmentation and design as you go, and set up SPF and DKIM on your sending domain.
• Week 3, measurement: send two campaigns to your small list, A/B test one subject line, and read opens, clicks and unsubscribes. Finish the HubSpot quizzes and claim the certificate.
• Week 4, specialize: pick the course that fixes your weakest spot (Mailchimp, HubSpot, Klaviyo or copywriting) and rebuild your welcome series with what you learn.

By the end of the month you have a certificate, a working list and a sequence you can show a client or employer, which is worth more than any number of finished videos.

Are email marketing certifications worth it?

For most people the skill matters more than the certificate, because clients and employers care whether your campaigns perform. Still, a recognized free certificate such as HubSpot’s is a cheap way to signal competence on a résumé or LinkedIn profile, and the Google certificate carries weight with career changers. A Udemy certificate of completion proves you finished a course; the skills are where its value lies. Treat certificates as a bonus, not the goal.

Who should take an email marketing course?

• Small business owners and founders: email is a channel you own, and learning it yourself saves agency fees early on.
• Freelancers and aspiring marketers: email is easy to demonstrate with a portfolio, and the free HubSpot certificate makes a credible start.
• In-house marketers: deliverability and automation depth separate you from people who just press send.
• Ecommerce sellers: welcome, abandoned-cart and post-purchase flows drive a large share of store email revenue.
• Bloggers and creators: your list is the audience you can reach without an algorithm in the way.

Do you actually need a course?

Not always. Email marketing is learnable from free articles and videos if you are disciplined about piecing it together. What a course buys you is order: a path from list building to analytics in the right sequence, with templates and a teacher who has made the mistakes already. If your budget is zero, the free HubSpot and Klaviyo options will get you started. What does not work is passive watching; you learn email marketing by building a real list and sending real campaigns.

How to choose the right email marketing course

• What is your level? New: an all-round course. Already sending: go straight to copywriting or a platform course.
• Which platform will you use? If you have committed to Mailchimp, HubSpot or Klaviyo, a platform course saves time. If you are undecided, stay tool-neutral.
• Do you need a credential? Job seekers should look at the Google certificate and the free HubSpot certification.
• What is your bottleneck? Slow list growth: list-building. Low opens: deliverability. Low clicks or sales: copywriting.

Email sits inside a wider skill set. Our guides to marketing automation, lead generation and product marketing are natural next reads.

What a good email marketing course should teach

• List building: opt-in forms, lead magnets and growing a list you own.
• Segmentation: sending the right message to the right slice of your list.
• Automation: welcome sequences, abandoned-cart flows and re-engagement campaigns.
• Copywriting: subject lines, preview text and body copy that get opened and clicked.
• Deliverability: authentication, list hygiene and the sender rules above.
• Analytics: open, click and conversion rates, and A/B tests that tell you what to change.

Want the whole digital marketing stack, not just email? Our ranking of the best digital marketing courses compares the Google and Meta certificates and free training from HubSpot and Google.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best email marketing course?

For most beginners, Email Marketing: Increase Sales With Email Marketing on Udemy (4.5 stars from 1,340 ratings, 6.5 hours) is the best all-round start. If you want a recognized credential, Google’s Digital Marketing & E-commerce Professional Certificate on Coursera includes a 19-hour email marketing course. If you have already chosen a platform, take the Mailchimp, HubSpot or Klaviyo course instead.

Is there a free email marketing certification?

Yes. HubSpot Academy’s Email Marketing Certification is free: 12 lessons, 31 videos and 9 quizzes, about four hours in total. Klaviyo Academy also offers a free practitioner certificate for its platform.

Are free email marketing courses any good?

The free vendor courses from HubSpot and Klaviyo are solid and current, because the companies keep them up to date. Their limit is focus: they teach their own tool. A paid course usually goes deeper on strategy and stays tool-neutral.

How much do email marketing courses cost?

Udemy sells single courses with lifetime access, at prices that change often, so check the course page; Udemy refunds eligible courses within 30 days. The Google certificate is taken through a Coursera Plus subscription (current price in the Google section above). HubSpot Academy and Klaviyo Academy are free.

Is an email marketing course for beginners worth it?

Usually, yes. Email is learnable from free articles, but a course gives you the steps in the right order: list building, forms, segmentation, deliverability and reporting. The value comes from building a real list and sending real campaigns while you take it.

Is an email marketing certification worth it?

A free, recognized certificate such as HubSpot’s is worth an afternoon if you are job-hunting or freelancing, because it adds a checkable line to your résumé and LinkedIn profile. Employers and clients still care most about results you can show.

How long does it take to learn email marketing?

The courses here run from about four to seven hours of video, and the Google email course is about 19 hours. You can run a competent campaign within a few weeks of practice; deliverability and advanced automation take a few months of hands-on work.

Related guides: growth hacking courses, social media marketing courses and Facebook (Meta) ads courses. How we evaluate courses: our review methodology.