Creating a Winning Campaign
An effective eLearning campaign starts with a blitz of promotional messages and activities, and then tapers to a regular flow of updates and reminder messages. Consistent and frequent messages are required to sufficiently market, promote, and sustain your eLearning program.
When
you’re confident that your eLearning program is ready to go, review the list
of promotional best practices below and incorporate them into your
implementation plan.
Promotion
Activity – Best Practices
It
makes sense to take
advantage of your organization’s resources that are already in place
(i.e. newsletters, intranet sites, etc). This is both time- and
cost-efficient. Select promotional
activities that can plug into these existing resources.
Consider
your organization’s history, culture, and structure.
How are office populations and cultures different in various departments,
around the country or the world? How does management prefer to learn? Some
brainstorming on basic questions will be helpful in your planning process and
help you tap into resources that are readily available.
Your
organization has its own identity and so does your favorite restaurant and
sports team. Your eLearning program isn’t any different!
3.
Craft a consistent message
All communications and promotions should include the following information:
How users can find and access training
What kinds of subjects and skills users can learn
Benefits and special features of your eLearning program (easy access, training-on-demand, quick reference opportunities, etc.)
Incentives for completing courses
Hot
Tip:
Many organizations have marketing departments that can be a tremendous resource.
If you don’t have an in-house marketing group, recruit creative people
in your department and representatives from others to help develop an eLearning
marketing plan. Involving representatives from other departments is a useful
strategy; this also aids in ensuring buy-in from various areas within your
organization.
Action Items
Below you’ll find a variety of action
items that you can fold into your implementation plan.
Identifying and planning both immediate and on-going action items is
highly recommended.
IMMEDIATE ACTION ITEMS: SELECT FIVE
These
promotional activities should take place over 2-4 months, depending on the size
of your organization and how geographically dispersed your offices are.
ON-GOING ACTION
ITEMS: SELECT TWO OR THREE
Future
activity will help you keep users informed about new course releases and other
events happening in your training program on an ongoing basis.
Hold
an open house in your office lobby, cafeteria, and/or learning centers to
demonstrate eLearning. Give
away brownies to draw a crowd.
Send
an internal promotional e-mail message. Better yet, get the HR/Training
officer, Commissioner, CEO or CIO to send it!
Post
flyers in the lobby, hallway and cafeteria bulletin boards, and send as an
e-mail attachment.
Create
an ad or banner and post it on your organization's Intranet.
Create
an advertisement that appears to be a news story. Highlight employees who
took courses and applied what they learned - use testimonials.
Routine
announcements: develop short messages designed to inform and remind students
about eLearning availability, updated courses, printing out certificates of
completion, etc.
Make
course completion part of the employee evaluation process.
Hang
posters in high traffic areas (these are available from Enterprise Training
Solutions).
Offer
incentives for completing courses or achieving certification as a result of
learning online. eLearning saves your organization money so incentives,
comp-time and formal recognitions may be justified.
Advertise
on pay stubs or insert messages in paycheck envelopes.
Use
your instructor-led classes (including those given by contractors) to
introduce eLearning and procedures for accessing it.
Conduct
an internal seminar on eLearning or How To Improve Productivity Overnight.
Solicit department heads and managers to attend.
Schedule
meetings with individual department heads and managers to learn more about
their day-to-day issues and guide them on which eLearning courses and
resources will best meet their needs.
Create
targeted messages or brochures for particular audiences indicating curricula
and courses that are meaningful to them.
Create
a quick 5-10 minute presentation that you can always have available to
deliver at business meetings or conferences.
Be
proactive at organizational conferences, functions and parties. Many HR
offices already sponsor these events. You can use these opportunities to
promote eLearning.
Ask
your CEO, Commissioner, COI or Chief Learning Officer to send out a message
or letter to your organization supporting the eLearning initiative.
Department
of the month: recognize a department or workgroup that embraces new training
opportunities and has improved work processes as a result.
Utilize
your corporate or organization newsletter -- post ads & articles in it.
Sponsor
and publish your own training newsletter.
Send
out eLearning usage reports to upper management and department heads to
demonstrate the success of the program.
Post
eLearning information wherever users go for info on instructor-led classes.
Include
eLearning as an alternate support source on help-desk voice-mail
recordings.
Promote
eLearning to individual groups -- network shops, Internet groups, secretary
pools, executives, etc.
Get
copies of articles related to eLearning from business publications and use
them to educate management and users on the benefits and effectiveness of
eLearning.
Award
framed certificates for course completions.
Introduce
eLearning to new hires during new employee orientation. Include eLearning
literature and flyers in orientation information folders.
Offer
prizes - as simple as a coffee mug that says "I Taught Myself MS
Office," or a monthly raffle for those who complete courses.
Create a hall of fame and post the names of people who complete training.