How To Grow Your Training Business By Taking It Online
Great course content, the backbone of most training organizations’ brand integrity, is no longer enough to keep ahead in the training industry. The modern day professional learns on demand – when they want, on any device they want, and, crucially, what they want.
With a plethora of options available online and an expectation for relevant, immediate solutions, employees are driving the pace and shape of their own professional learning – and many are willing to pay for it themselves.
“Today’s liberated learning landscape comes from being able to sate your appetite for knowledge anywhere, anytime, on your mobile device of choice. As technology continues its march up the exponential growth curve to become better, faster, and cheaper with each release, ever-smarter devices will integrate learning seamlessly into our lives.” – Sylvia Vorhauser-Smith
Standard Training Methods Are Hitting Their Use-By Dates
Although employees are crying out for digital and blended approaches that provide a mixture of learning resources, experiences, performance tools, and social collaboration, many professional training solutions are out of sync:
“Although still containing valid content that may be critical for employees to know, the structure of many classroom and print materials is at odds with how learners need to access these materials and complete training milestones.” Conduent
Those still offering long or “one hit” courses are finding they are no longer the right fit for busy, “always on” learners – especially those who need training to fit into smaller pockets of time and be part of a continuous performance improvement process.
Businesses Can See The Risks
Organizations are painfully aware of this rising demand for modern, personalized approaches, as well as the need to train and develop employees quickly and smartly to succeed in the future.
But according to Deloitte’s recent Global Human Capital Trends, in-house training teams are “scrambling to catch up” with the new face of learning and employees’ desires for flexible, mobile solutions. While 93% of L&D professionals want to integrate learning and work, only 15% are delivering on this (Towards Maturity 2016). As a result, businesses are seeing top talent walk out the door at the very time they need them most.
Training providers with an eye on the future recognize what organizations are calling out for, and have already made the switch to digital. Keen to meet the demands of today’s learning audiences, they are stepping into the void left by struggling in-house training teams. They are also leaving clear ground between themselves and their direct competitors.
5 Benefits To Taking Training Products Online
“7 in 10 learn online because they want to do their job better and faster.” (Towards Maturity)
Training providers are doing more than just surviving, because the business benefits of going digital are crystal clear. Here are 5 benefits to taking training products online, in case you haven’t already realized them:
1. Massive Potential Customer Base
Digital training resources and products are available to anyone, anywhere. It’s not just organizations you should target. Online training ventures like Lynda.com prove that individuals are more than willing to invest in their own professional development.
2. Access To New, Global Markets
Make the right tech choices, and—unlike print or face-to-face—a single training product can be translated into multiple languages at the drop of a hat, giving you access to new and emerging global markets.
3. Lower Running Costs
With an online paywall, customers can sign up and use your content directly – without the need for additional overheads.
4. Greater Returns
One product can now reach infinite audiences and operate with low overheads. This means opportunity for greater revenues, faster speed to market and accelerated growth.
5. Data-Led Insights To Give You The Edge
Going digital opens up the door to data streams, which can gain up-to-the-minute stats and facts that give you a strategic edge. Track engagement levels, see what’s most popular, learn what is and what’s not working, and in which locations. Use this to hone your solutions and get the very best results in all your target markets
“The implementation of our online courses has allowed us to reduce our on-site course component duration from 12 days to five. Our printing and shipping costs have been drastically reduced or almost eliminated.” – Sven Probst, Sports Development Department, International Volleyball Federation
Save Your Spot In The Future Of Professional Learning
To have a place in the future of training, digital resources are a must-have component in any training provider’s mix. But simply converting courses might not be enough to compete with Google. After all, there’s no shortage of online content out there, and eLearning isn’t exactly new.
The most successful online training providers have got solution design down to a fine art. They are making smart choices when it comes to the learning products they’re focused on, the strategic framework they use, their production processes and the technology that enables them to deliver great products at scale.
Deliver The Best Learning Experiences On The Market
Your training needs to stand out head and shoulders above your competitors’ offerings, and you need it to drive tangible results for your customers. But how?
First, think about how you’ll know if your digital products are a success. High user engagement levels? Yes. Improved performance on the ground? Absolutely. Users coming back for more? Definitely.
If your audience uses a digital learning resource again, that does not mean it’s failed. Instead, it means you’ve become a go-to resource of choice for your users, in a moment of need. It also means you’re getting users hooked on your products, which can only be a good thing for your business.
The days of participants doing all their learning in one, long hit and magically converting it to improved performance are disappearing. Rather than requiring users to remember everything, smart digital learning providers are creating performance support resources that their audiences use in a moment of need. This, of course, converts to tangible performance improvements on the ground.
By aiming your digital learning products at real user needs, you are more likely to get high engagement levels, obtain great user feedback and, importantly, drive your customers’ all important KPIs – be it more sales, higher productivity, less incidents, no compliance breaches, or higher profits.
So, hold fire on converting that two-day workshop into an eight-hour online course. There’s a better way to handle all your great content. Go for a business model that puts your products in the top spot.
Related articles:
1. 4 Ways To Deliver Big Learning And Achieve Your Goals
2. 3 Powerful Strategies To Create Learner Engagement In The 21st Century
3. 5 Common Authoring Technology Issues That Limit Your Ability To Scale
4. Free eBook: How To Grow Your Training Business Faster, Smarter, And More Profitably
