eLearning is More than you Thought
eLearning is not just for classrooms anymore – it is a way to engage your audience. It is an efficient way to increase customer loyalty, build brand awareness and increase revenue.
eLearning has grown up and is now far beyond the education market. Yes, it is a great tool for employee and vendor training however it is even more than that. It is a great content marketing tool that will help you successfully build your brand, increase your customer loyalty and bring in new streams of revenue.
eLearning offers a way to stand out from your competitors. Your company has an expertise – you are experts at what you currently do. This internal knowledge can be capitalized on to your advantage. It will differentiate you from your competitors and help you shine in front of your consumers.
We all know that content marketing through social media, blogs and articles, successfully builds brands and customer loyalty. The more engaged the stronger the loyalty. So, now is the time to try eLearning. If you have eLearning already built for your employee and vendor training you can adapt those courses into interesting and interactive courses for your existing and potential customers. And, if you do not, now is the perfect time to build for both internal and external use.
eLearning Saves $$
Creating eLearning for training saves big: Lower Travel Costs – Travel expenses are eliminated. Employees can sign in from anywhere in the world Venue Costs Eliminated – No need to book meeting spaces, hire event managers, rent AV or deal with food and beverage expenses Printing – course schedules, workshop materials, handouts – are all eliminated Decreased Salary – no need to hire a trainer to travel and present each course. Once created the course can be reused indefinitely without the need to pay a trainer • A financial institution offers a free gamified course for school children to learn the very basics of investing and banking. The certificate offered at course completion is a small financial gift to be used when opening their first account at that bank. • A gardening tools manufacturer offers a variety of free and paid courses on lawn and garden growing and maintenance. • A medical equipment company offers interactive patient education programs along with a portal for tracking goals and personal accomplishments during their care. • A tool manufacturing company offers on line training for the use and safe operation of their tools. Upon successful course completion a one year extended warranty is offered.You can be as creative as you would like. What knowledge is your consumer thirsty for? Are they willing to pay to gain the knowledge? Are you willing to reward them for learning it through your brand?
How to get started
You most likely already have a wealth of content ready to be repurposed. Here are some examples of the assets you may already have in‐house: • Sales and Other Written Materials: Most every company has these. Corporate brochures, sales literature, marketing materials even newsletters and consumer publications. • Presentations: Existing presentations can be easily enhanced with animation and voice overs. • Photography: visual learning is one of the strongest methods of learning. All your images and those from your vendors and manufacturers will be very useful. • Video: If you already have one that’s great. If you don’t, no need to worry, creating video has become amazingly affordable even on a small budget.Depending on your business model courses can be free or you can charge a nominal fee. With the DIY trend running so strong consumers are very much interested in learning how to develop a skill or solve a problem. Here are just some examples of the many varied ways courses can help build your brand:
• A publisher transformed their existing rich content into a large variety of online learning products including webinars, guides, programs and courses. With their already established marketing and distribution channels they were able to quickly launch, and begin selling, to their existing and to new audiences.
Consider all of it: your sales publications, presentation, webinars, blog articles and any existing in‐house training materials. Depending on your business, your vendors will also have a great deal of resources available for your use. And do not overlook all your "subject‐matter experts" – those team members that can serve as credible sources. So, start by taking inventory of what's already available.
What are the Challenges?
As with any new venture there are challenges and they are the ones we are most familiar with. First is the content creation, next is the technology and last, but needed throughout, are the resources. As we have already discussed much of your content can be repurposed. The biggest issue here is resources. Your existing team knows the content and what needs to be done – they just need the time to do it. The best solution is to dedicate a project manager and budget the time needed for each team member.
Next is technology. You need a solution that can generate digital courseware and, as needed print publications, effortlessly. It needs to be collaborative with a multichannel content authoring platform, and ideally, one that was designed for eLearning. With the right technology in place you will ensure all your approvals, version tracking, distribution and access will be quick, efficient and easily managed. Additionally, with proper technology, you can ensure content
integrity and usage control ensuring your authors; editors and managers are able to successfully develop rich interactive content.Audio
Text Content Objects Assessments Images Video Interactivity Search Organize Reuse Assessments Engine Control Audit Share Edit Digital Distribution Print Distribution
integrity and usage control ensuring your authors; editors and managers are able to successfully develop rich interactive content.
Including a Digital Asset Management solution will add additional features such as remote sharing and reuse of all elements, ensuring consistency.
Most of these challenges can be mitigated by selecting a technology partner with expertise in eLearning Publishing, one who can help point you in the right direction and one that will help keep your project in profitable operation.
What's Next? Audience Engagement
Let’s assume you already have the proper analytics in place so that you can do the basics measuring and metrics. If not, start there and then continue on with these steps: 1. Quality versus Quantity Audience engagement is about the quality of your content and not the quantity. This gets overlooked quite often as rich media is applied. Don’t jump right into the fun part – establish the quality of your information and then play around with the delivery method. 2. What are they looking for? What problem do you solve for your customers? What do you do better than your competitors? What knowledge can you share that no one else has? How does your company solve a problem for your customers? Now is the time to speak with your team’s subject‐matter experts and determine what makes you unique and how best you can deliver that information to your audience. 3. Try again ‐ What else are they looking for? Think you solved on your first try? Probably not. On part 2 above you were probably focused on the basics such as how to get someone that knows nothing about you engaged. Now you need to determine how to keep your current customers and prospects engaged. What else are they looking for? How can you differentiate yourselves from the current market place? What additional knowledge can you share with your audience? This is the group that is already engaged, the group that wants to learn more.
You need to create content that demands a high level of interaction. Your users are engaged because they want to learn more. Whether you are presenting information on how to improve the current position within your company, improve their career or increase their knowledge in a hobby or general interest their engagement has both a purpose and a curiosity. It is your job to fulfill that expectation.
Additionally, you need to offer more than what they can easily get by searching the web. Their engagement with your company and brand should include a variety of elements to keep them engaged longer. Video, audio clips, quizzes, slide shows, discussions with other learners, and even downloads lead to a high quality experience, and a longer time with your brand.
Summary
We live in a world of constant change and most organizations are already practicing continuous innovation. Now is the time to expand this innovation from new products and services to creating an eLearning environment for your employees, vendors and customers.
In most industries the future of your customer base is comprised of individuals using technology to access information and make decisions on how and where they will spend their time and money. This is a generation that is constantly looking for both instant gratification and methods to increase their productivity ‐ a generation that will not hang around if they do not get what they want. You need to design to cater to all these needs and to get there quickly.
Superior Media Solutions, SMS, understands your business challenges and goals because we have lived them ourselves. Our core value is to help you “enrich your content to better engage your audience.” Based on your specific requirements, we will work together with you to design the optimum solution to add value to what you bring your audience.
SMS clients hire us for our experience and expertise in providing the right solutions that address their challenges. Using our solutions, our clients reduce their costs and increase their revenue opportunities.
