Having engaged learners is not only critical to the success of your course, but to the success of your training business. Engaged learners become both your loyal advocates and your repeat customers. Read on for ways to drive learner engagement.
With a training management system (TMS) at the center of your business, you have a wealth of information about your learners and a handful of great features at your fingertips that you can use to engage them. Here are five TMS features you can use to foster engagement during every phase of your customer lifecycle.
Deliver blended learning courses
Blended learning is a great way to increase learner engagement. Blended learning gives learners access to a range of study options, including face-to-face, live online and eLearning modules. This creates a much richer and more diverse learning experience than the traditional classroom way of learning. With multiple channels of delivery, there’s less chance of boredom. There’s also greater flexibility and accessibility for the learner, and greater knowledge retention.
Blended learning is delivered in smaller chunks than a traditional face-to-face course that is usually completed over 1, 2 or more days in a classroom setting. By breaking up the learning into smaller chunks it is more digestible, and less likely that your learners will get bored or their attention will wane.
And with multiple options of study – from video, to quizzes, to reading material, you’re giving your learners an opportunity to study in a way that suits them best, an opportunity to study at their own pace, and the option to revisit a piece of material if they need to.
With a training management system like Arlo you have the ability to manage, sell and deliver a mixture of face-to-face, live online and eLearning courses from one central hub. To find out more about how blended learning benefits both business and learners, see the Ultimate Guide to Blended Learning.
Check out: 6 ways to engage your audience in a live online webinar.
Nurture your learners with email and SMS
You’re probably familiar with lead nurturing as a marketing tool. But have you considered its full potential in engaging your learners? Lead nurture emails are all about delivering timely, targeted and helpful information to the recipient. There are plenty of opportunities for this in the lifecycle of a course – let’s look at the key stages.
Course promotion. Promotional emails for upcoming courses can be targeted to your learners based on their previous behaviors or interests.
Course lead-up. For learners who’ve registered for a course, there’s the course lead-up phase, where important information needs to be communicated. Information about venues, login details, dietary requirements and agendas. These usually-functional emails don’t necessarily need to be boring! Why not include an interesting blog post, or some pre-reading material to make the email more engaging.
Post-course. A day or two post-course is the best time to send a follow-up email with a thank you. Include a feedback survey and any other interesting or helpful resources that your learners can draw upon. You can also prompt them to enroll in an advanced course, and consider offering a discount.
Nurture. If you don’t already, it’s worth considering a bi-monthly or quarterly newsletter. Send your subscribers a round-up of news and information about your industry, upcoming courses and free resources to support learning. Keeping your brand relevant and providing timely and helpful information is a proven way to drive repeat business.
Course refreshers. If your course has an expiry date, you can create targeted, automatic campaigns to remind learners when it’s time for a refresher course. For courses that are continuation of previous learnings, it’s worth considering when is the best time to promote this to your learners. Consider that expensive corporate courses might be funded by an annual training budget. So, 9-12 months later may be the ideal timeframe.
Integrate Arlo with ClickSend and you can send updates and reminders via SMS too!
Give learners control with the self-service portal
With Arlo’s customer portal, you give your customers the ability to login and access information about their upcoming and past training. Including, course instructions, professional development (CPD/CLE) points, and certificates. If circumstances change, learners have the ability to transfer or cancel their own bookings. They also have the ability to make payments. Giving your customers the power to manage their own learning journey helps to foster loyalty and create engagement.
Deliver a seamless user experience
There’s nothing worse than a clunky registration process, long and complicated forms, a slow-loading, confusing (or even non-existent!) course catalog and website. Create a smooth and seamless user experience from start to finish to limit learner frustrations and ultimately increase sales. With Arlo’s website technology you can create a sophisticated and professional training provider website. Or, you can choose to integrate Arlo into your existing site.
Customizable, on-brand, registration forms ensure you only capture the information you need, enabling a quick and easy checkout process for your learners.
Check out the full gallery of training provider websites to see what’s possible!
Create a valuable feedback loop with surveys
Seeking feedback from your learners not only gives you an opportunity to review and improve your course, but an opportunity for your learners to be part of the process. By showing your learners that their opinions are valued, you create a two-way relationship and a sense of loyalty. With Arlo’s Survey Monkey integration you can easily send surveys to course recipients.
Consider sending them a survey prior to the course to gauge their level of understanding on a certain topic and ask them what they’d like to learn in the course. This allows you to cater to their specific needs and manage expectations.
After the course has finished, collect feedback by automatically sending a course feedback survey to attendees. Increase survey response rates by sending a reminder a few days later by email or SMS. Use this feedback to get a better understanding of the value of your course, and improve courses for future learners.
Explore more of Arlo’s features here, or start a free trial to see it in action!