How to Market Your Training with Email
You spend months working hard on a training only to launch it and hear crickets. If you can't mandate people take that training, what do you do?
This is where marketing comes in.
Marketing is a pretty different skill set than what most L&D teams have. And your marketing team may not have the capacity to support you with each new training. That’s why nonprofit L&D teams need email marketing.
That’s what we’re exploring in this episode with marketing expert Julie Nichols.
Listen to the episode or scroll down to read the blog post ↓
Key Points:
00:58 Why L&D teams need email marketing
07:20 The value of email marketing for L&D
10:53 How your L&D team can get started with email marketing
15:21 How to impact your target audience
18:29 Email marketing resources for L&D teams
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How to Market Your Training with Email
You’ve worked hard to create a training.
It's been months of collaborative work, critical thinking, and creativity. And you're proud of what you and your team have accomplished. So you launch that bad boy out into the world and you hear… crickets.
If you're not familiar with the nonprofit sector, you may be thinking, crickets?
Don’t you just roll out the new course and make people sign up for it? If only it were that simple.
A lot of large nonprofits are federated, which means there is no direct reporting line between the individual chapters and the “corporate office.” This means you can't mandate people take that training that you've just spent months working so hard on.
So what do you do?
I'm a big believer in bringing those local chapters into the conversation early, allowing them to weigh in on their needs, and involving them in the process. That helps for sure. But another thing you can do is marketing.
But to be honest, that's a pretty different skill set than what most L&D teams have. And your marketing team may not have the capacity to support you with each new training.
And that, my friend, is why nonprofit L&D teams need email marketing.
In this blog post, we’re covering all things email marketing for learning with marketing expert Julie Nichols:
Julie helps small businesses that are ready to scale with trusted marketing leadership and strategy so they can find more of their perfect clients and grow their business to the next level.
She does this by nailing your brand message to resonate with your buyers, developing the right fit marketing strategy to optimize reach and impact, and leading a team of marketing professionals to execute your custom strategy.
1) The Value of Using Email Marketing to Promote Training
I asked Julie about the value of email marketing and her main point was that email marketing allows you to always reach your customer.
“Email marketing is the number one way to reach your customer because you own the list. And those people on the list have opted in saying that they want to hear from you.” - Julie Nichols
Julie explains that when X goes down or LinkedIn kicks you out of your account for 30 days, you can still email your audience.
However, so many businesses get it wrong and there are some fundamental things to understand before you can connect with your audience.
“That's really what email is about. It's about connecting, not with a big group of people, but one person.” - Julie Nichols
Julie explains that our inboxes are overwhelmed with emails and if your email isn't standing out or it’s long and convoluted, people are going to unsubscribe or delete it.
“If the idea of email overwhelms you, I'm here to tell you that it's not that hard to get it right once you know a few tricks. And then once you start getting it right, you're going to really see the value in using it.” - Julie Nichols
Email marketing is basically our chance for a one-on-one conversation, so to speak, because you're dropping directly into that person's inbox with something meaningful, something of value to them. And so thinking about that, we can start to simplify the messages that we want to send.
2) How Your L&D Team Can Get Started with Email Marketing
Julie shares how your L&D team can get started with email marketing.
She recommends first sitting down with the marketing leader and finding out what kind of email marketing they are already doing and what platform they are using.
Email marketing platforms include MailChimp, HubSpot, and ConvertKit to name a few.
Next, find out if they would be open to an L&D team member using that account.
If that is the case, Julie recommends bringing in someone who can train your team on how to do email marketing, get them set up in the account, and create the templates.
It’s important that your team not only knows how to use the email marketing system but that they understand the importance of the content that they're sending out and know their audience.
“It's such a fine line between making sure that the content that you send is quality, but then also not making it too long and convoluted so that people just skim the first couple things and then they're like, delete. You need to hook them in.” - Julie Nichols
Julie explains that a lot does depend on what the marketing team is already doing and how much they're gatekeeping their email client.
If the marketing department isn't using email, Julie recommends then setting up your own account with whichever provider you choose to use.
“And then hire somebody who really understands email marketing to walk you through it and get you set up for success.” - Julie Nichols
Julie shares that a lot of email marketing platforms have an offering for nonprofits and all you have to do is register with your nonprofit information.
3) How to Target Your Training Audience with the Right Messaging
Julie emphasizes that you have to get the messaging right in order to impact your target audience.
“Your message is really being able to express the value that this thing that you're trying to sell is going to bring to this person.” - Julie Nichols
Julie explains that information like the length of the training, who is teaching it, and if there is going to be a lunch break is important and needs to be in the email but only after you have communicated the value of the training.
“When you're writing these emails, you always have to think of the end in mind. And that was a very common thing at L&D. Start with the end in mind. So it's really all about what's the person going to get.” - Julie Nichols
If you can explain what a person is going to get out of the training at the beginning of the email, that's going to get them to continue reading.
“The rest of the email is really just the details. Here's the time, here's how you log in, here's how much it is. Don't make it over complicated. You don't have to include 10 paragraphs of the bio of the instructor. You just need enough to get them to click to check out the class.” - Julie Nichols
Julie explains that not all email marketing needs to be short. But if it's going to be a long email, there needs to be a really good narrative. You need to be able to really hold your audience with whatever story that you're telling.
“Nine times out of 10, a shorter email that's clear and to the point and shows the value quickly, that's what you need to get people to click.” - Julie Nichols
4) Email Marketing Resources for Learning and Development
Julie shared some email marketing resources with us.
1. Liz Wilcox’s email marketing membership
Julie is always learning more about email marketing from Liz Wilcox’s email marketing membership. She provides training on email marketing and email templates.
Julie explains that Amy is a star in the marketing world.
“She has a podcast called Online Marketing Made Easy and she's got a ton of books. I feel like Amy is very relatable. She's really good at explaining marketing in really simple terms that are very impactful and she's also got a great personality.” - Julie Nichols
This is Julie’s podcast that she hosts with Dan Gershenson.
“We just go back and forth on different marketing topics that are specific to small businesses, to businesses that haven't done marketing before.” - Julie Nichols
The HubSpot Academy is a great online resource with free marketing training.
5. Julie’s Brand Strategy Online Course
Julie has poured all of her L&D experience and her experience in developing online courses into a course on how to develop your brand strategy.
“If you don't know how to talk about your own business, you don't know how to express the value to your clients, and you don't know how to talk about how you're different than your competitors, you need a brand strategy.” - Julie Nichols
6. LinkedIn
Julie shares that there are a ton of really excellent marketers who post regularly on LinkedIn.
“If you're not already active on LinkedIn or even opening LinkedIn once in a while, get on there and start looking for people in marketing that you can follow and learn from. Because you don't have to post on LinkedIn to have a presence, but you do need to find the people that you feel are doing a really good job in marketing. And then really get involved, ask questions in the comments, engage with them.” - Julie Nichols
To hear the full conversation I had with Julie Nichols on the Learning for Good Podcast, scroll all the way up and tune into episode 102.
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