3 Responses

1. Hi Sue,
   Your budget and the product type will dictate the best way forward.

   I would need to know more about your product and market requirement to fully answer your question, but here are a few simple ideas that may assist you;

   The most cost effective method, I believe, is to link your company and training products to a search engine. If you have an IT department, they will achieve this in a matter of minutes!

   You could try mail shots, but in my experience unless they are targeted correctly, they may well end up in the bin.

   A CDROM outlining training is more professional and promotes more interest. Does your company already have a corporate CDROM? If so, include training on it.

   Does your company have a Website? If so, add a training page – or two.

   If you would like some detailed ideas, please drop me a mail outlining your products and industry.

   Good luck.

   Clive

   cliveodonnell@hotmail.com

2. External Marketing
   Hi Sue,

   having been MD of 3 large commercial training organisations in the past, this is something I am very used to.

   My advice to you is go straight to the influencers and decision makers in your target market. You will know who these are based on the topic area of your course and they are most likely to be in the same industry as yourself. This may involve cold-calling but such is life – there are telemarketing agencies out there who could do this for you at a price & I can recommend good telemarketing firms.

   I would advise against wasting time with web search engines as it can be expensive and very time consuming to get yourself on the right ones and with the right level of prominance for the searchees. If you don’t appear in the first 2-3 pages in any search list then you can forget it! Getting high on the lists depends on many factors including how your site is built and how much you are prepared to pay per click-through to your site (anything from a few cents to well over a dollar a click!). You have no guarantee over the quality of any click-throughs either.

   If you consider mailshots, you will have to buy a list in the region of £200 per thousand names and you would have to make sure you targeted your selection carefully. Don’t expect a response rate better than 2-4% from a mailshot. I can recommend good sources of lists.

   Alternatively, if your target market would read a particular industry publication then consider advertising – expect to pay IRO £2,500 for an A4 colour ad in a trade publication.

   Whatever you do, play off the back of your company’s brand name as that will open more doors than anything else.

   Finally, you could talk to a marketing agency – one with a reputation for success in marketing training. I have used Bristow Associates for many years and with 2 different companies I have run. I know they are used by other training firms also. You can get their Managing Partner – Trevor Bristow – on 01425 483388

   I’d be grateful if you let me know how you get on.

   Regards,

   Gary

3. External Training – Marketing
   As is common with any marketing task you must establish who is likely to be a customer for this service. Then you would have to consider if your resources merit entering into the realities of offering this service and of course will you make any money out of it?
   I would suggest that your market may well be ‘like type’ businesses and therefore you can consider the priority your training would have i.e. is it a mandatory requirement, or optional. Of course you would have to consider the benefits your customers would gain from your services. With regard to the actual mechanics of marketing I would suggest a straightforward mail shot, which could probably be produced in house, do not offer to sell your training, but instead offer to give a free appraisal of their requirements in relation to the training you have on offer. This will afford you the opportunity to get an insight into options you may not have considered, thus altering your approach to suit the market and of course it will achieve a greater understanding of the cost involved and as such may well reduce the financial risk of operating only on a paper plan.
   I would apprieciate your thinking on this and you can email me at lazlittle@hotmail.com with your feedback.