I’ll be honest. Writing with a bruised bone in your wrist on your writing hand is about as fun as getting pennies in your Halloween bag as a kid. It’s totally not. But today, it isn’t about me – thankfully, rather, it is what I hear so many times, and honestly, for many of you, well, it’s about you and what you are not doing but should.
Seven percent, five percent, less than 10 percent, 25 percent. These numbers are often cited in terms of usage by learners (in this case, employees and, yes, customers in some areas). “I give them access to content, and nobody is using it.” “They get a variety of courses to pick from, and maybe go once and then no more.” “They do not complete the courses, let alone the assignments.” “They really want to be held hand to take the courses.” “It is the system’s fault because nobody is taking the courses that are available.”
100 percent. Over 90 percent. 95% percent. These numbers are cited when it comes to completion rates. The folks that love to quote this, heck, many times vendors themselves, are ignoring the key PIECE here. All of those numbers are tied to one little, tiny thing – IT’S ASSIGNED LEARNING. Think about that. You assign an employee to take a set of courses to learn a new skill or skills. You assign a learner to take some content, i.e., courses for a job role or for, say, proactive compliance or regulation. You assign them assignments. Assign them to complete in a series of cohort courses. You assign them to complete a course using synchronous-based learning. Why wouldn’t you then expect anything less than 100 percent completion or even 90 percent?
Those completion numbers for assigned learning, really mean nothing in terms of learning intelligence. Oh sure, you can spin and quote it to the higher ups as prove this is working. And yes, you can espouse it to prospective clients as validation. Sure, you can leverage it for ROI. “See, this works.” “Learners prefer assigned learning.” “Employees learn only with assigned learning.”
What a load of garbage. If you truly believe that assigned learning is the only way to go, and by doing so, you can validate a high completion rate as proof that employees or customers want it this way, please feel free to resign right now your role as head of L&D or Training. I say this in earnest because nobody – not employees, students, members, or customers wants to be assigned courses. Do you prefer to be assigned learning, when you attending your college or university? Do you prefer being told by a significant other that each week you have to take out the trash, even if it is snowing outside and you have a cold? Do you enjoy the assigned requirements of going to a set of seminars because someone said you have to, even if you have zero interest in doing so?
If you answered yes to any of these, then I bet you give kids pennies at Halloween. The only assigned that should be (albeit there are other ways to do this), compliance and regulation, whereas everyone knows people wait to the last minute to complete it, and nobody is going to go back and refresh themselves by taking the courses.
There is zero proof out there that people will retain over 90 percent of courses in six months by assigning and never returning anymore. As a former director of training, I had assigned learning only for a certification program, and even then, they could pick the courses in any way, not you have to do this first, then that. Even then, it was only assigned and required to be completed months away – and yes, it tied directly into the certification program, which was meant to be challenging. Otherwise, it was pick and choose what you want. Oh, yes, when I provided training to employees online, with compliance, they had to complete it by a certain time frame – would that be assigned? More of we have to protect ourselves in case someone sues because they claimed they never received training on Y, when in fact they did and we have proof.
I’ve written numerous times about assigned learning and faux completion rates. What this post is really about is something a lot of folks in L&D and Training and what other departments oversee online learning often ignore – selling the system to their employees or customers in terms of wanting to get into the system, take the course or courses, over and over again. Regardless of completion – rather because they want to, they like it, and the best way to retain is to align to interest and repetitive experiences again tied to usage, even if they come in 20 times and focus on one chapter. That tells me they have an interest there and want to learn and attain.
How do you achieve that?
When I ran e-learning programs, my usage was always over 90 percent with employees, and that was without required completion. At the customer usage, over 75%. Association members – certification program 100% (of the non-required), association high – (it was a trade association).
The Steps to get there
It’s not going to be easy. Nor should it be. It involves a strategy – think game plan ahead of time – and needs to be ongoing – strategy – pivot. You will always pivot, because even with a strategy – some thing will get the results you want, other times, not so much. That is why those learning intelligence metrics I often cite as crucial, are well, crucial. Tie that into your brain power and watch what happens! After all you were hired because you are an expert in L&D or Training or whatever department e-learning is placed under. An expert. Never forget that. Some folks get into the imposter syndrome when it comes to online learning and their exec role. That is why I always tell people – you are the expert. Not your boss. Not the CEO, nor MD. You. If they were the expert in learning and training, why would they hire you?
Begin
Okay you have bought the system, it is going to take a few weeks or months to get started. There are other items you need to do from adding people (once done), developing or deciding on what content you will add.
Here we are going to multitask. Here is where your strategy begins for those who focus first on the above, rather than thinking about it beforehand. You can choose either route. Sometimes I did the latter, but had the ideas in my brain, and noted on paper; other times, I did it earlier, because I already had the plan of success prior to, and thus, I went about a dual mode – find the system, jot down some early strategy.
What you are going to do is create a marketing plan. Woo you say, a marketing plan? I’m not a marketer. I have no idea on what I am going to do, let alone, how to implement it? Plus, I have everything else I need to do. The marketing plan isn’t tied around creating marketing strategy that someone running marketing at a company – hired to do so, because they are an expert in it. Rather, it is saying, “Okay, what are some things I can do to gain interest and build mass.”
That’s the key – build mass. On average it takes three years to build high usage when it comes to say association members. And it is why you always want a three year contract, and no more. The three means by three years. Some folks might achieve it before then. On the customer side if you are selling courses/content you still need a marketing strategy – this is after all, to generate money. The more you make, the better the budget next year by the company, association, etc. And yes, you will create a strategy for association members.
On the association member side to build early excitement, I created a flyer that went out to every member via snail mail, with the theme of the seven wonders of the world, and the outside looking like something you would see in an adventure movie. Open it up – seven wonders of the world (yes, visually) with each one representing a variety of stuff we were going to have in the LMS. Courses. Video content. Certification and so forth.
Why did I do this?
To get people interested, even excited about seeing this system, to build that early mass. You want people intrigued. Intrigue means interest which means access. Then all you need to do – is have the content (courses, etc.) that is in there, that gets people wanting to take whatever – not just regulation/compliance. And you want them to come back – regardless of their job role, or skill interest or education level. Customer. Employee. Association member.
Your goal is to get that interest going early on. Think of what you have seen or heard of that gains your interest before it is launched? That my dear friends is due to marketing. Build up the excitement, intrigue, and then launch.
Propaganda Techniques
At the same time you are doing the above, you are going to learn about effective propaganda approaches. Here is the kicker – you see and hear them all the time, and just don’t realize it. Why do advertisers do it? Because it works. Why does your grocery store or car dealership or big box online and so forth do it? Because it works.
You remember my little flyer above? I used a propganda technique. With my ongoing marketing strategy I tapped into various propaganda techniques. Yes, once you launch, you need to continue with that strategy. Without over blasting folks emails or fun marketing pieces or whatever. That turns people off – and that isn’t what you want.
Here is a list of propaganda techniques. And below are the ones I found worked the best and how I utilized them – because one of them is by far in my experience a big one – you must do. No exceptions. It works if you do it correctly.
My Picks – Recommend On going basis – One though I use after the system is launched and content (i.e. courses today) is available. Not assigned.
- Bandwagon – Oh this one is wonderful. Everybody is doing it so should you. In sports you might hear the term. People are jumping on the bandwagon. Even if you do not have mass, let alone constant usage – who really knows that? Get it? Focus on a few courses, not the entire catalog. Focus on the system itself. “Did you know we offer Chicken University, the best place to find a variety of courses, including how to use AI in your job.” Never BTW mention the words LMS, LXP or whatever type your learning system is. It confuses people. Stay on target – the name of what you call it. “Widget World, FunLand University, etc.”
Bandwagon gives you a lot of options at various times. But, it should be limited. Over usage is bad, and will turn off eyeballs.
- Plain Folks – Just like you and me. It is not the samething as Bandwagon. I love this one, because if done correctly, wow, it works and works well. Besides testimonial – which you often see on learning system, even non systems web sites; plain folks delivers – and here is how you can do it – well, how I did it.
Plain folks is just like you and me. Let’s say you have some courses for your executive assistants or those folks who have a similar role. Do you want their manager to push out the value of using the system and some of those courses? Heck no. The goal is “just like you and me.” Plant workers – who are going to select? A similar role in the plant. Or the plant workers themselves – not their manager or someone higher up.” Plain folks ties directly into stakeholders – and that is the goal, I repeat the goal here.
Why?
Who are you more likely to trust? The head of a department, a senior role or someone like you? I’m an exectutive assistant – you have some courses around the latest versions of Office365. You want others in that job role to utilize and see the benefit of doing so. Thus, you are going to find someone in that role who is willing to become your cheerleader. Your stakeholder. They love those courses. They go in quite a bit in X or Y. They see the benefits. They recommend others in their job role to go in and or take the courses.
You are in sales. There is a course on how to create battlecards. You want others to take it, or go in, over and over again – always remember the other goal – usage. Why would you care if they go into the course in June and select chaper Y, 15 times more than others who only go to chapter three? Because when you are creating content or buying 3rd party you can zero in on that topic they are zeroing in on. Who is going to be your cheerleader? Not the sales manager – unless that role is the folks you want to go into that course, over and over again. If the target are regional sales people – then find the stakeholder there. If it is new sales people and the course is cold calling – then find someone similar to that role – a new employee that has gone into the course – wherever it is, and is willing to become your cheerleader.
Get it? This is by far my favorite. Cheerleaders = stakeholders.
Testimonial
I remember the COO of a company I worked at, who went into the system to check out some of the courses. They reached out to me one day and told me how surprised they were because they really liked course A, B, etc. They went back over and over again. That is my testimonial. They would push out a quote for me to use internally. Why they loved the system. Why they loved taking a variety of courses. There goal wasnt to say, “you have to go into this.” Nor “I loved this because it is ideal for your job role or to learn a skill.” Nor “they recommend it.” – All of those come of as disingenous. Rather, they just want their employees to know how much they enjoyed it – how they weren’t sure if it would benefit or they would use it. And to their suprise they are using it, and picking the coruses of interest to them.”
Which comes off as more genuine? Recommend or Surprise is they liked it, and continue to use it? I say the latter because how often do you see recommended, then you go in, and are disappointed. Plus, you might say to yourself, “Well of course they like it. They are the COO.”
The rest of the techniques I ignore. I mean if you are a vendor then there are a couple more you can use, but for folks in L&D and Training and others who are providing this to their employees, customers, or both OR associations for example – I wouldn’t.
Be Creative
Get them involved. Creativity can work, unless it is so obtuse or weird. Again, you want them to go into the system, and come back and back. Not because it is assigned. Not because it is a certification program. Rather they want to. With e-mails, you will need to know how many times it was opened – there are systems that have that option – email tracking. If the system doesn’t. No matter, use an e-mail tracking program – plenty online. Heck, create a newsletter it goes out once a month, with interesting stuff in there, not just on Chicken U, not just on the courses. Stick in a stakeholder – espousing what you want pushed out. The newsletter works solid with customers – and yes, you can find stakeholders here – cheerleaders. Associations? Ditto. Who would a member rather hear from? You or another member. Get people involved.
Add 3rd party courses/content – but do not indudate. When you only have the content you created – i.e. a variety of topics tied to job roles, or skills, or company-focused; people will go in, but over and over again?
Place in some 3rd party content/courses, then it changes.
How do I do that, without picking courses nobody will want to take?
- Send out to your target audience an anonymous survey – this means their responses are anonymous. Here you can zero in on a drawing for those who respond. Pick a variety of topics to choose from. The survey should never be more than one page. You can use statements but be very specific. The never do – “What topics are you interested in? – And you list like 20 topics.
You can go Likert scale here – but make sure it is clear on what one means, two and so on. Stay with a five point likert scale. Let’s say you plan to sell courses to your members.
Bad – “If we offered courses in ABC would you take them? OR “We are looking at offering blah blah, would you be willing to pay for them, if the price did not exceed $75 dollars?” OR you state it, and do not mention the price point.
Good – “We will be offering a course on HR best practices with AI, for $45.” Then go with something like a yes or no option, and always include don’t know. This option should be used carefully because it won’t always apply to what you are trying to achieve or do – i.e. the use case. Want to make money, figure out how much you can charge, rather than just assuming.
FWIW – There is a simple way, beyond using the survey, which I use to identify how much you can charge, to generate revenue, and thus profit with selling content (regardless of the type). And achieve it using Blue Ocean (for example, this is how Apple went when they launched music with the iPod). But there is a strategy for doing so, and an approach. Again, once you know – it is really easy to tap into it, over and over again. What I find is that people always overcharge, and then see limited buying – and justify it, by saying less equals more money.
Bottom Line
I didn’t go heavy into various marketing strategies. You can search and find plenty on the web – without relying on copilot or Gemini to do so. If you have the budget to do so, I recommend using MarketingProfs Find the ones you want to try, and go for it. It will either work, or fall flat. That’s the way it works. Just because X didn’t work, doesn’t mean give up.
What propaganda techiques did I use in this blog? I didn’t use them across the board, but I did use one. Think of it as a test. There isn’t a wrong answer, because who knows – maybe I used more than one.
Thus, ask yourself – why can’t you?
E-Learning 24/7
