What L&D gets wrong about marketing tactics and how to do the things that work

The headlines for the last 5-ish years have constantly been around ‘learning needs to think like marketing’ and ‘L&D professionals need to be more like marketers.

This is admirable and I’m sure the intent is to help our industry but often it hinders us.

Making what I refer to as ‘captain obvious’ statements which tell you to do something but provide no clarity on how to do that very thing is useless.

Why you need marketing skills in L&D

Marketing is not just an industry.

It’s something we each do, every day, in many ways. You market your skills to a potential employer, you market ideas to business leaders and you even use marketing techniques to convince your crush to go on a date with you.

It’s one of those things (like everything on this list) which is woven into the fabric of living.

I’m not the best experience designer, coach or facilitator.

But I’m a damn good marketer.

This and writing give me an edge in my career. I’ve been able to get results and climb that annoying corporate ladder to senior roles because I understand how to wield these skills for performance.

I guarantee it will do the same for you.

How to find the best marketing stuff for L&D

The problem with a lot of the “L&D needs to do marketing” advice I see online can be broken down into 2 areas:

1. Saying “L&D needs to do marketing” is a captain obvious statement. We all know this. How about providing some direction?
2. It’s not specific enough. The world of marketing is huge. So, for the modern L&D pro, what are the most useful areas for you?

Areas of marketing include:

• Outbound marketing
• Inbound marketing
• Email marketing
• Brand marketing
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Stealth marketing (Ok, I might have made that one up)

You get the picture, right?

Not everything under the umbrella of marketing is right for you.

I have marketing as a broad term in my 7 essential skills every modern L&D pro needs. I appreciate it’s covered in mystery. Let’s unpack that.

Here’s the types of marketing that I know will work for you in our crowded industry ↓

4 marketing tactics to steal for L&D

Let’s focus on 4 marketing tools we can apply in the L&D world for improved performance.

1/ Content marketing: Build once, distribute forever

Exactly what it says in the title, marketing your content.

And no, that doesn’t mean the usual “click here to access our new training course email’.

Instead, this is sharing your content like a human.

Now, some of you might be thinking “But. I’m a learning designer. I don’t need to know how to raise awareness of my work”. What are you…crazy? You do!

L&D is no longer about design alone. You need to know how to position a product.

How to use this

You can use a framework of AIDA = attention, interest, desire, and action to solve a problem for your audience through your content.

This helps us shift messaging from ‘we want you to do this’ to ‘Here’s how we can help you’.

Anyone can share a piece of content. Only those who understand the power of marketing can connect people with content and convert them to take action.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to how I deploy content marketing in my L&D work with tech companies:

Plus, get a full guide on the magic of content marketing here.

Content marketing is best placed for L&D because it focuses on maximising awareness of your current assets to deliver value to users.

The important word here is value.

You can use all the marketing tactics you want. But if your experience or product sucks. It will still suck, no matter how many keywords or fancy visuals you used to promote it.

In summary, content marketing does what it says on the tin.

Market your content. Simple.

2/ Build campaigns

You can’t just launch an L&D product and assume people will use it.

This thought has been the downfall of many content libraries launched across many L&D teams. Instead, we need to think about product and content releases like engagement campaigns.

How to use this

As an example, you could build a six-week multi-channel content campaign around the topic of career development which highlights all the tools and resources you have in this space, across email and collaboration tools.

You can build campaigns to inform, educate and inspire to take the action you desire

Seeing something only once rarely ever sticks, but seeing it multiple times to recognise the benefits does. That’s our complicated mind for you. We have to see a product at least 20 times before a possibility of purchase.

Think about that when you’re crafting your campaigns.

3/ A/B Testing

A/B testing allows you to compare two marketing campaign versions to see which one performs better.

For example, you could create two versions of an email campaign, send each version to a different group of people, and then compare the results.

A/B testing can be used for any type of campaign.

Think about tinkering with the titles of your courses or the intro text for your performance support resources. Find what connects with your audience, not what you think they should connect with.

No one wants to open a campaign that says “Action: complete your training”.

I mean, would you open that? I know I’m not. Any L&D platform with email automation should have this type of usability feature baked in.

How to use this

If not, here’s a few free tools and ideas to use instead:

• Create a list of titles for your course, email, document etc. Share this with 10 people in your business with a poll to vote for the one that catches their attention. Use the most popular – simple.
  
  
• Use a headline analyser to assess the quality of your headlines. This is my favourite tool.
  
  
• Use an email subject headline analyser. This is my go-to tool. Take those headlines from ignored to adored. Well. As adored as an email on learning can get.

4/ SEO: A flashlight in the digital content chaos

The internet is an endless ocean of content.

Now, imagine you have a huge light, like a lighthouse that guides users to the right content for their context. That’s SEO.

Every website you use is SEO optimised in some way.

It stands for Search Engine Optimisation, or in simple terms, the things you need to do to push your content to page 1 of Google.

SEO principles are built into nearly all of the common learning platforms we use today. It makes sense to know how to leverage these in your content design. It’s not a silver bullet method, but it can make your learning resources more discoverable and impactful.

How to leverage SEO in L&D

Keyword Research: Speak Their Language

Keyword research enables you to understand the terms and questions your target audience uses when seeking information across the business.

Incorporate these keywords naturally into your course titles, descriptions, and content.

This alignment not only improves visibility on search engines but also ensures your content speaks the language of your workforce. There’s no point talking about emotional intelligence all day long and none of your resource mentioning that word.

Quality Content: The Heart of SEO

SEO loves quality content.

For us in L&D, this means creating resources that are not only informative but also relevant, and up-to-date.

No one wants to read something from 2004 in 2024!

High-quality content is more likely to be shared and linked to, both of which are positive signals to search engines. Think about how you can solve a problem, answer a question, or fulfil a need more effectively than existing resources.

This is an especially useful mindset to have considering the sheer amount of content learning platforms have.

Consider where you can create efficiencies. Do you really need to create a new piece of content or can you update something that exists already?

User Experience: Smooth Sailing for all

Search engines (like the big G) prioritise sites that provide a great user experience, including mobile responsiveness, fast loading times, and easy navigation.

You should apply the same design principles with learning platforms.

For L&D, this means designing courses and resources that are accessible and user-friendly across devices. If in doubt, keep it minimal.

Metadata: Signposts in the Digital Landscape

Metadata, including titles, descriptions, and tags, helps search engines understand and categorise your content.

This 9mostly) works the same way with workplace applications.

If you can, work with your technology provider to understand how content is surfaces through search today. If search sucks than it doesn’t matter how good your content is.

Crafting clear, keyword-rich metadata can improve the visibility of your learning content. Think of these elements as the signposts that direct users to your content amid the vast waves of digital chaos.

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