Marketing your Learning Program

Oftentimes, we are called in to consult for clients who show us their current training program with a request to improve it. When we ask them why they’d like to improve it, the most common response is that the program failed to fly, that Learners did not complete all their assignments, that the organization did not realize the effect that was initially desired.

Sometimes, this can indeed be a gap in the training design. But usually, this is because the training program, while very well designed, was not rolled out efficiently using a proper content marketing strategy.

Like everything else in life, Training needs some Marketing love! Personally I like using the Content Marketing Grid below, but you can design your own or customize this one.

I like to start with making stakeholders and end-users aware of the upcoming program. It’s also more helpful to start with emotional marketing and slowly build to a more rational marketing approach. Once the awareness has generated some interest, the momentum can be gradually built up and towards a buy-in. Even during the buy-in phase, both emotional and rational approaches should be used.