Part of my consulting philosophy is to equip the client with an arsenal of skills that allow greater control and transparency. This reduces the overall marketing cost whilst helping staff to feel more valued. The best part of it? The expense is not even noticable due to the savings the client incur, followed by additional profitability.
Recently I challenged a client who took their marketing in-house to send one candidate for conventional IDM/CIM training and to follow a different course with another candidate: The same budget was halved for the second candidate but, which allowed the employer to purchase 8 separate courses via Udemy and to sign up for 6 months with Lynda.com. Now before continuing, let me disclose my own position: I personally completed a MSC degree by a CIM accredited University in Oxford, an IDM diploma, 12 qualifications via Lynda.com and another 8 via Udemy. It was the collective experience across all these organizations that made me recommend a more hands-on approach to clients who seek to develop in-house marketing expertise. Today, I teach on both Lynda, Udemy and Globalcademy.com and have an awesome network of colleagues across those channels.
So what was the results of the clients who took me up on the challenge? Well it was interesting, I will try to keep it brief although you can ask me for more details when you’re ready to choose the best training for your needs:
Candidate no. 2 arrived back at work, capable of making a big difference. They had acquired more than theoretical skills, since the practical know-how was covered in their course. Since they were exposed to a wide range of theoretical and practical knowledge, they were capable of delivering real change and take over many of the functions that had to be outsourced to an agency. The result would be an awesome ROI on our training investment and future savings on functions that are now carried out in-house.
Candidate no.1 arrived back at work, feeling rather prestigious because of the award they could hang against the wall – however they were not able to contribute much in the real world. They could talk the talk but not walk the walk. They did have long list of agencies to whom the work could be outsourced or where “consultancy” could be purchased from. The result would not be worth discussing at this point…
The bottom line? Acquiring or updating the digital marketing skills of your organization can be done more effectively through fast moving online platforms. They may not invite you for speeches and ceremony’s recycling old theoretical models, but they will certainly put you in touch with the pulse of the industry. The likelihood of obtaining cross-disciplinary skills for practical implementation through highly rated e-learning programs makes this a far more appealing option. Subscription based e-learning and short courses taught by industry professionals seems to be an obvious choice over UK based “awards” I content that at this point, Udemy and Lynda are winning the race by far.
There are generally 6 areas of competence that we love to develop for clients in-house:
- Analytics: To help you track progress through various metrics and learn more about your customers.
- Adwords / Adsense: To manage your advertising budget closely, drive targeted traffic – and recouperate a proportion of the investment
- Content marketing: To be where the action is online and to create ample awareness whilst demonstrating your expertise
- Social media marketing: More than anything, so ensure that you actually benefit from social media without becoming a n unpaid worker for Facebook/Linkedin
- Publishing ecosystems: When we turn your business into a quasi publisher as part of an expanded content marketing drive that is self-funded and often profitable
- Integrated marketing communications: We empower clients with a the ability to do copywriting and visual communication tactics