Aha!! You think as you find a tasty looking deal on a marketing or management course, I’m no fool! Why should I pay more for my course when I can quite clearly study it here for less?

You go to click the purchase button thinking your education and future awaits…

STOP!!!

Because you’re about to make a terrible mistake.

Particularly in the current climate, it can be very tempting to head straight for the option that shaves a few pounds off, after all, no one wants to pay more than necessary for any product.

However, they say money makes the world go round and believe it or not, the cheapest deal isn’t always the best.

They might look like they’re just good Samaritans trying to help you out and save you a few bucks but have you ever stopped to question the real reason why some course providers might charge less? Despite what you might believe, they’re not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts! 

Often courses can only be offered for a cheaper price if the provider ‘cuts corners’ in terms of creating the product, and so less expensive deals might not actually be as good value for money in terms of what you actually get for your cash.

While most course providers aren’t out to swindle you, you might not be getting the best service either.

Here’s why you could be in danger if you fall into the trap of choosing a cheaper deal on your course.

A cheaper course might only be able to charge less because they’re not hiring the best tutors. If you’re going to invest in a professional qualification, you want to choose one that’s going to give you the very best tuition from experienced and knowledgeable teachers. 

MMC Learning cultivates relationships with and employs top experts and key players in the field of marketing and management as tutors on our courses, alongside some of the best academic teachers in the field from right next door at Manchester Metroplitan University. Our teaching staff include the likes of Dave Chaffey, a best selling digital-marketing author and consultant who teaches exclusively at MMC Learning.

Finding a study centre with courses taught by world class tutors and industry professionals is even more important when you consider that some cheaper courses might not even have tutors at all. Some cheaper courses might be charging less because they don’t actually include any live teaching and are designed to be made up entirely of self-directed study. This can be fine if you are relatively experienced in the industry already and you feel you are able to self-motivate and conduct your own learning, but if you’re a relative new-comer to marketing or management and you want to be assured of having expert guidance if and when you need it, and dedicated time with your tutor to ask those burning questions, a slightly more structured course can be the way to go.

Some learning centes will be able to charge less because they are investing less in their course materials and going for more basic, less expensive software such as power-points with voice recordings and PDF’s which cost less to produce than, say, professionally shot videos.

It can significantly enhance your experience to choose a study centre which is highly experienced and doesn’t shy away from using the latest innovations in technology and digital techniques to deliver its courses.

Unlike many other learning centres, MMC Learning works with many industry experts in marketing and management to create our comprehensive courses, ensuring we have the most up-to-date and relevant content.

We also ensure our content is delivered in an engaging way. We’ve always put development of new technologies at the heart of what we do, we work with e-learning and design specialists to design our course using the latest software and digital tools, and we’re the only CIM centre that’s been creating videos and digital content since 1999.

Less expensive courses also may not offer the same extras and added bonus content that more expensive courses afford you. Some cheaper centres won’t be able to offer any more than what they say on the tin, but with MMC Learning, you get a whole wealth of extra resources such as a vast library of videos from experts and hundreds of e-books.

Everybody’s got to start somewhere and often newer, less experienced study centres will charge less because they need to get some students onboard quickly to kick things off and it’s the only way they can compete with the more established names.

While going with a newer study centre might actually bring some fresh insights as they’re newer to the industry and may even be more up-to-date and ‘with the times’ in terms of their thinking, it’s important to consider if you really want to be a guinea pig for an as yet unknown provider. Rightly or wrongly, a more established name can serve you better on your CV.

What’s more, newer providers don’t tend to be specialists in one particular field, preferring to hedge their bets and deliver courses in multiple disciplines to maximize their revenue and chances of success. But, naturally this can lead to a jack of all trades but master of none situation, where they are less experienced and less competent in teaching any subjects.

It can pay to choose a study centre with more years of experience in online learning who have an established reputation for delivering the best online learning courses.

MMC learning have been in the business of online learning for over 20 years and are specialists in marketing and management courses.

We have been pioneers in online learning since 1996 and were the first CIM study centre to break the technology and make online learning happen back in 2000, in 2003, we developed the first ever online marketing qualification – the online professional certificate in marketing- and we  even created the world’s first CIM qualification in digital marketing the e-marketing award. We also took over the world’s first MSc in Digital marketing in 2007.

When you choose to study with us you choose a study centre which has been at the forefront of educating digital marketers from its inception.

Counter intuitively, more expensive course providers, are often actually thinking of you and your best interests, more so than cheaper providers. As mentioned previously, by charging a little extra, they’re able to provide you with the best possible service, most of the time your money is going towards developing the best product they can, with added bonuses which you will then benefit from.

Remember that learning centres don’t have to do this, in fact it would be easier for them to be like many other cheaper providers and not invest as much in creating quality courses, (as a lower price can entice more people and take less work for them to create) they do it because they genuinely care about helping learners succeed.

Some less expensive courses are only interested in getting the sales and not what’s best for the individual, they won’t have any qualms about selling you one of their courses, even if it isn’t 100% right for you, because they need to sell as many courses as possible to make up revenue.

In contrast, because they know that choosing the right course is a big deal and constitutes a real commitment, and they don’t need to sell as many products to break even, more expensive providers often are much more inclined to want to support you as a professional and on a human level even if that means losing a sale. They recognise paying that bit extra is a tough decision and they won’t try to lure you into a course just to try and make money off you if it isn’t the right course for you and if you do decide to go with them, you know you’ll get the 5 star treatment as they want to deliver on what you’ve paid for.

Many more expensive providers like MMC, will even offer personalised calls to help you make sure you have all the information you need to make an informed decision.

It’s important to choose a study centre which is genuinely trying to help you and won’t try to trap you into a course which isn’t right for you.

Often less expensive providers aren’t quite as cheap as you’d think because they aren’t always transparent about their pricing from the start. You may find that they only appeared such a good deal because they omitted extra costs like membership fees to accreditors or overhead costs from the initial price. You could be in for a nasty shock further down the line.

In addition, more expensive learning providers often offer far more financial support and some of their deals and payment plans may actually mean their course is more affordable to you than the deal you initially thought was cheaper.

For example, at MMC we will always make sure you get value for your money and we promise to always be clear about costs.

Because we want every marketer or manager to achieve their potential and we don’t want cost to be a barrier to your success, we also do all we can to make our courses affordable and we offer many different payment options to suit different needs.

Firstly we offer a 14 day money back guarantee, so that you can start studying any of our courses with no financial risk to you, if within 14 days you realise the course isn’t for you, no problem, we’ll refund you no questions asked.

We also offer payment plans to split the course fees into manageable installments.

If you feel cost is going to present a significant problem for you, you can also talk to one of our team about learning support vouchers or scholarships which can give significant discounts on courses for those who need it most.

We also offer more affordable, shorter bitesized courses and module awards as well as online webinars and other shorter training courses for those who don’t necessarily want or need a full qualification and will find the cost of a shorter qualification or course more affordable.

Simply put, less expensive provi