There are many techniques and strategies for promoting online training courses.

Organizations globally invest heavily in training their employees and enhancing their skills across various domains. Key areas of focus include:

  • Coordination.
  • Analytical Studies and Measurement.
  • Automation and Robotics.
  • Compliance.
  • Content Preparation.
  • Employee Safety.
  • Engineering.
  • Information Technology and Technical Training.
  • Leadership.
  • Performance Management.
  • Sales.
  • Strategic Planning.

The widespread availability of the internet has allowed training companies to turn  their activities into the digital realm. This shift has made training courses accessible to learners on demand, enabling them to study and review materials at their convenience.

Effective strategies for marketing training courses

1. Self-assessment Templates

Self-assessment templates help companies recognize their need for the training solutions you provide. They effectively achieve the following goals:

  • Helping companies identify problems that hinder their workflow.
  • Introducing companies to methodologies and solutions available to address these problems.
  • Providing an opportunity for connection between the business development team and potential clients.

Note: Be prepared to offer these templates for free to promote your training courses, but request users to complete a registration form before accessing them. This will help you collect contact information, enhance your marketing strategies, and generate interest.

2. Best Practices Guides

This strategy focuses on content marketing by creating and sharing best practices guides and tutorials, positioning you as a thought leader in your industry.

Potential clients often face ongoing learning requirements and evolving workforce standards. Management and human resources teams may also need support in adapting to these new demands.

By providing comprehensive information on new requirements and standards, you can help these groups meet their training needs and equip employees with the skills necessary for the company to thrive against competitors and adapt to market changes.

Note: Include numerous sharing options for this type of content, allowing users to save, email, download, print, and share it through corporate communication platforms like Slack.

Marketing Training Courses

3. Blogging

Companies looking to increase brand visibility through search engines must publish at least one weekly article. This applies to businesses across all industries.

Regular blogging is particularly crucial in the training sector, as sharing information highlights the company's expertise and leadership. 

Note: Commit to posting an article of at least 300 words on the training company’s blog every five working days.

4. Case Studies

This strategy involves documenting previous client experiences to highlight your role, methodology, and success in enhancing employee qualifications.

Clients involved in personal training and corporate programs want assurance that you can tailor your assistance to their unique circumstances. Case studies should target the specific demographics and organizations that the training company seeks to attract. 

Note: Boost traffic to case studies by incorporating relevant keywords in the title tag, the last part of the webpage URL (URL slug), and the case study title, enhancing its visibility in potential clients' search results.

5. Checklists and Worksheets

Checklists and worksheets are effective marketing tools that can attract prospective clients and boost sales, provided they meet SEO standards and are included in digital advertising campaigns.

It’s essential to update these resources regularly, especially in fields where standards and regulations always evolve, such as education, healthcare, information technology, and the legal sector.

Note: Create interactive documents that users can save in their browser archive for easy access later. Alternatively, consider using Google Sheets, allowing users to copy the checklist or worksheet to their Google Drive.

6. Creating Content About Competitors

You should work on creating content about competitors if you intend to establish your brand in the market or aspire to compete with industry leaders. This strategy helps improve your website's visibility, enhance brand awareness, and draw attention to it. 

Here are some content ideas: 

  • Compare your training courses with those of market leaders and specialized brands.
  • Highlight the shortcomings of services provided by leading companies and specialized brands.
  • Collaborate with an influencer to compare your offerings with those of competitors.

Then, highlight the features and factors that distinguish your training courses from those of your competitors. 

Note: This strategy helps improve your website's ranking in search results containing appropriate keywords. Additionally, consider running digital advertising campaigns featuring keywords that potential clients may use during their purchasing process, such as "Dale Carnegie alternatives" or "Skillsoft vs Mindgym."

Marketing Training Courses

7. Digital Market Development Funds

Brian Fourman, founder of Cooperate Marketing—a marketing agency that specializes in addressing complex challenges for service providers—notes, “The rise of technology in everyday life is unprecedented as activities and businesses transition to the digital realm.”

Research from ComScore and Nielsen confirms that the average American spends nearly 11 hours a day on media, with about 4 of those hours on digital platforms. 

The digital marketing strategy works extremely well when "Digital Market Development Funds" are used to fund part of the campaign and help target the desired segment. This strategy helps in directing promotional content under optimal conditions and through the appropriate platform using methods specifically designed for the target audience. Furthermore, digital marketing targeting particular audiences is substantially less expensive compared to traditional advertising. 

The digital marketing strategy allows for a range of targeted promotional campaigns to achieve key objectives at any stage of the purchasing process. Notable goals include increasing brand awareness, fostering audience familiarity, attracting potential customers, and qualifying them to make informed purchase decisions. Furthermore, digital marketing allows for A/B testing, which helps evaluate audience responses to advertising campaigns and make necessary adjustments. 

Available data optimize customized marketing campaigns and provide measurable quantitative results that can be tracked, assessed, and utilized to improve current and future campaigns, ensuring optimal return on investment in marketing endeavors.

8. Sponsoring Email Newsletters

Sponsoring email newsletters is an effective approach to reaching a well-defined segment of your target audience without complying with the strict standards of the CAN-SPAM Act, which governs commercial emails. 

To successfully implement this strategy, consider the following steps: 

  • Target institutions and public groups operating within sectors that could benefit from your training courses.
  • Request data to demonstrate reader engagement with the content to ensure purchasing a mailing list that includes subscribers interested in your services.
  • Offer exclusive offers to boost audience engagement and enhance the conversion rate from readers to customers.

Note: It’s recommended that you create a dedicated landing page for exclusive offers and the email newsletter sponsorship strategy. You can also increase the reach of your offers by applying SEO strategies to optimize best practice content and adding retargeting codes to the page to reach potential customers on social media platforms and other search engines.

9. Gathering Expert Opinions

Clients seek expert insights. Therefore, most companies focus their strategies on preparing long articles that include techniques, tips, and useful tools recommended by experts. 

Publishing expert opinions on any website helps build the training team members’ personal brands. Here are three additional benefits of expert opinions: 

  • Increased thought leadership opportunities for the brand.
  • Enhanced content visibility on social media platforms.
  • Higher visitor traffic and backlinks, which help improve SEO strategies.

Note: You can find experts by signing up for HARO, a platform that connects journalists with specialists. This grants you access to a diverse array of experts.

10. Giveaways and Free Offers

You can successfully attract potential clients by offering free sessions, programs, and lessons. 

Giveaways require providing free packages that attract potential clients and encourage them to share their contact information.

However, a drawback of this approach is the potential influx of information from individuals who may not be genuinely interested in your services, which can result in minimal actual sales. 

Note: Promoting giveaways and offers by issuing press releases or launching exclusive offers for bloggers and publishers is advisable. You can benefit from bloggers' followers to attract potential clients and gain backlinks to your website.

In Conclusion

Companies must adopt effective promotional strategies and techniques to market their courses and programs successfully and reach clients interested in purchasing them. The first part of this article presented 10 effective strategies for marketing training courses, and Part II will cover the remaining 10.