How to market training programmes to get real impact

Let’s be blunt: most training doesn’t fail because it’s bad. It fails because no one knows why it matters. Or worse, they don’t even know it exists.

And that’s not a learning problem. It’s a marketing problem.

If you want people to show up, stick with it, and apply what they’ve learnt, you don’t need another platform. You need to market your learning – with purpose, punch and designed with impact. Which means it’s time to take a leaf out of marketing’s book. But that needn’t be daunting, and in this blog, we’ve boiled it down for you, into 5 simple steps:

1. STOP ANNOUNCING LEARNING, START CAMPAIGNING IT

You’ve put the time, energy and effort into creating a fantastic new learning experience. And you want people to know about it, right? So what do you do?

Send one email to all employees. Right? Job done.

Wrong. In fact, this is one of the biggest, most detrimental mistakes L&D teams make. One email is never going to grab the attention of the masses. Neither is one lonely banner on your LMS. So instead of this one-and-done approach, it’s time L&D started thinking about learning campaigns.

A learning campaign is a planned set of activities that promote your learning product, programmes and brand. They’re designed to grab attention and keep it for the long haul. This means you need to start marketing, or promoting, your content long before launch day — and long after it. It means considering the entire decision making journey, and crafting unique touch points at each stage. You want to start by sparking intrigue and then make your learning impossible to resist. From emails all the way through to marketing-grade videos, it’s easy to see why the campaign approach works more effectively than one email, one time.

2. FOCUS ON WHAT YOUR LEARNERS CARE ABOUT

When it comes to publishing training programmes, L&D are fond of overlooking two important areas: The title and the description. These are the ideal places to highlight the ‘what’s in it for me?’ (WIIFM) i.e. What is your audience going to get from the programme?

That means instead of “Management Essentials: Conflict”, name your programme on the area of the training that is going to mean the most to the learner. In this case, you might name your programme “Handling employee disputes” or “Conflict management for the new leader”. Remember, the title might be the first thing that your audience will see about your programme, so you must grab their attention.

The description of the training is critically important too, because if you’ve caught their attention with the title, they’ll want to know more! So what will they get from the programme? And how much will they have to commit to? Tell them the time commitment and answer the WIIFM!

Then carry this thought process through to your marketing. “Learn how to give feedback” is a snooze. Whereas “Tired of awkward 1:1s? Learn one sentence that makes feedback land”, well that grabs attention.

Every element of your pre-training material should answer one question: Why should this person care right now? Frame it in their world, by using their language and telling them how you’ll solve their problem.

3. SEGMENT YOUR AUDIENCE WITH LEARNER PERSONAS

Ok, so your learners likely have one uniting factor: they’re all employees at the organisation you work for. But does that mean they all have the same interests, hobbies and habits? No. It doesn’t.

So it also means that across your employee cohort, you’ll have a range of people with different ambitions and motivations. And these will not necessarily be linked to their job role either. And that’s where learner personas step in. Personas enable us to market learning to our audiences, in a personalised way, en masse.

But just having personas isn’t enough, you’ve got to put them to work. That means that you should tailor your communications to each persona – speaking to their unique pain points, and addressing how your training programme helps them achieve their goals, or alleviates their pain points.

4. LOOK BEYOND EMAILS TO MARKET YOUR TRAINING

Email is the go-to marketing tool for L&D pros. And for good reason, it is one of the most effective internal communication tools. However, relying on it for all of your marketing will certainly put you on the backfoot. So expand your reach by looking at the rest of the channels you have at your disposal. And trust us, you have more channels than you think, in fact on the Marketing for Learning® Podcast, Caroline Fitzpatrick of L’Oreal told us her L&D team utilise over eighteen channels!

So the next time you’re promoting your training content, consider channels such as:

• Slack or Teams (or similar). Instant messaging channels are a great way to share microclips or teasers of your learning, or quotes from alumni, or shoutouts to your star learners!

• Workvivo, Workplace for Business or your intranet. These channels are where employees typically go to find things out. But unfortunately, they don’t often integrate very well with our learning platforms! So make sure you’re marketing your content there!

• Screens, posters and other dwell-point marketing. One of the biggest benefits of being in the office is connecting with your colleagues. Which usually means our audiences are spending time in ‘high-dwell areas’, like kitchens, meeting rooms, breakout rooms and so on. Market your training content there! Think posters on walls or videos on screens.

• Manager engagement. We often think of managers as a blocker, but we don’t consider how they can be used as a communication channel. Design manager packs that give leaders a plug-and-play approach to talk about training and get their teams learning more.

And if you are going to use email marketing in L&D (which you should, alongside the above!) Remember…

• Use attention-grabbing subject lines.

• Keep the copy tight and answer the WIIFM always.

• Make the call-to-action (CTA) clear – and when possible, stick to just one CTA!

5. UTILISE LEARNERS TO PROMOTE YOUR TRAINING

Word of mouth works — yes, even at work. In fact, a survey by Nielsen found that 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family over all other forms of advertising. And that goes for training content too! No matter how great your marketing is, people will expect you to focus on the positives. But their colleagues? They have no reason to promote your training. So when they do, it lands differently.

So, when marketing your training programmes, make sure you:

• Utilise early adopters to sell the story and benefits of your programme.

• Feature quotes from alumni and use them in your other marketing channels.

• Capture wins and great reviews – even better if you can get them to record a video sharing their experience!

WANT TO BOOST IMPACT? YOUR TRAINING DESERVES MARKETING.

If your training deserves to exist, it deserves to be marketed — not announced with one boring email. So to truly transform your L&D function, and market your training to get real impact – it’s time to start thinking like a marketer, answering the WIIFM and campaigning your content.