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Custom eLearning Development

E-Learning and Beer, A Match Made in Heaven

By on March 20th, 2013 in Business, Industry Verticals, Marketing, Online training tags: , , , , , | Leave a Comment

I read a press release today from the Cicerone Certification Program announcing the BeerSavvy E-learning Platform.  If you have spent any time reading posts on this blog you know that I advocate finding your niche as a business, and your niche focus should bleed into training a marketing efforts of our company.  You also know that this blog is written from the perspective of an e-learning company.  Let me start by saying, I wish I would have landed this project!  More importantly though is that this is a perfect example of a business finding a niche focusing their business on it exclusively and using e-learning as a business tool in order to expand their audience, increase revenue and create a virtual business model with less moving parts.

Cicerone Certification Program has not just focused their business on beer, but specifically craft beer.  Their objective as a business is to help bars, restaurants, retailers and beer distributors capitalize on the growing interest in craft beer.  They found a unique niche in a growing market and have built a platform to help educate the staff of these businesses in order to help them capitalize on the growing market.  Genius!  As is the case for many education based start-up they started with live, classroom based training.  What most businesses in this space quickly find is that classroom training can be a grind.  The logistics and expenses that go along with classroom delivery can be quite costly and can account for less than stellar profit margins.  This is where a well executed e-learning platform can step in and provide a tool to virtualize and automate an education based business model.

We all dream of making money while we sleep.  This is tough to do when your product is delivering classroom based training.  I have nothing against classroom training, it has its place, but as a scalable business model it falls short for a number of reasons.  Delivering your training or educational product online offers the ability to build a product ONCE and sell it over and over again.  Growth is not dependent on more employees or the ability to secure locations.  It is now squarely on your ability to sell!  I will take that option anytime.

Does your business provide valuable education that could be turned into a online product?  It is an interesting thought.

What can Twitter Teach us about E-learning?

By on March 18th, 2013 in Business, Marketing, Online training, Social Media tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

Twitter is a global force in social media.  Its signature, all posts must be 140 characters or less.  Twitter tapped into the human psyche and found something that resonated with human nature in a big way.  We want information fast, relevant to our interests and delivered, small easy to consume bites.  From this very simple concept Twitter has become something bigger than anyone could have imagined.  From being a news source to a conversation forum, twitter has a place for everyone.  Celebrities and businesses alike are able to tap into this social force and target specific niche audiences with their bite sized messages.

What can the e-learning world learn from Twitter?  Twitter taps into human nature and the message is clear.    Find your niche, understand your audience and deliver information in small easy to digest chunks.  E-learning should be no different.

Every piece of e-learning content developed should be looked at like your business.  What is your niche?  Anyone who is successful on Twitter, by successful I mean has a significant number of followers, has a niche.   The people who choose to follow them do so because that person provides the with a specific type of information.  For example, I follow Adam Schefter of ESPN because I know he is going to post information about player and team deals in the National Football League.  He has carved a niche for himself on Twitter as a news source for NFL information.  How can you apply this to e-learning?  It comes back to an article I wrote, called Go Niche or Go Home, where I discussed that in order to be successful in business you need to find your niche.  In order for your e-learning initiatives to have some teeth with your intended audience you must first understand your niche as a business and apply that philosophy to your e-learning.  If you want your e-learning to be successful it must be in line with the tenets of the niche you are serving.  By fully understanding your niche and applying those principles to your e-learning initiatives whether they are internal or consumer facing you will have set the foundation for success.

Once you have a clear understanding of your niche, you must fully understand that audience and what they expect from you.  I follow Adam Schefter for NFL news, I do not expect or want his views on politics.  I will go elsewhere for that information.  The audience in your niche is unique, which is why you have selected that niche.  You understand who they are, how they think and most importantly what is valuable to them.  Apply these principles to your e-learning and it will become a part of your business culture.  It will be the go to resource for information about your company.  Speak to the desires of that audience, use their language and imagery.  Make it feel like it was built only to serve them.

Finally, keep it short.  Twitter is recognized as the social network that delivers information in 140 characters or less.  I am not saying your e-learning has to be 140 characters, but I am saying that it is human nature to want things quickly and easily consumable.  Keep information in your e-learning practical and tactical, focusing on your business objective.  Don’t stray from the tenets of your niche.  Be clear and concise providing valuable information that helps the user improve in the area they are learning about.

E-learning is a globally recognized tool for delivering training, information and education to a user base.  Twitter is a social network globally recognized by providing information in 140 characters or less.  Both are broad, general and have the ability to be used by anyone, but their success in on the inside.  The ability to create a niche, relate to that audience and deliver information in a quick tactical manner.  Keep the fundamentals of Twitter in mind next time you tackle and e-learning project and see if there is a difference.

Go niche or go home

By on March 5th, 2013 in Business tags: , , , , , | 5 Comments

Every business has to find their niche, it is difficult to find success trying to be all things to all people.  Last year I read the 4 Hour Workweek, by Timothy Ferris, he had a quote in the book, “Go niche or go home.”  The basic premise being that you will find much more success marketing and selling your product to a specific niche group rather than trying to market and sell to the masses.  This is a theory that we have put into practice quite extensively at Resolutions, that quote was validation, and has pushed us even further in that direction.

The E-learning industry is a highly competitive and saturated marketplace.  As with anything there have been industries that were early adapters to e-learning technology and there are those that are still new to the game.  Our charge, as with any business, is to find our place in the mix.  We decided early on that “Go niche or go home” is a good strategy for us, but how would we find our niche?  As often happens in business you go where you find an opportunity, our first opportunity was in the aviation industry.  The market had few competitors, plenty of available market share and most importantly we were able to partner with someone who is an industry expert in that market.  7 years later Safety and Security Instruction (SSi), a partnership between Resolutions ownership and AviaEd (aviation training company out of Tucson), is now an undisputed leader in the development of e-learning software and course ware solutions for general aviation airports both nationally and internationally.

Most importantly, that niche helped us find our way as an e-learning company.  We realized quickly our software solutions and instructional design methodologies are not the right fit for everyone, but in our niche we are best in class and an industry leader.  As a result our product has evolved and grown based on specific feedback and business use cases in that industry.  It has also allowed us to build an internal formula which we can use to identify other vertical industry segments that fit our company.  Now, as much as we look for new clients, we look for industry verticals that meet our criteria.  Niche markets where we know we can have success utilizing the tools we have developed at our company.

What’s your niche?  I look forward to some discussion on this topic.