As a Learning Management System provider, we assume that our customers are in the business of selling courses. With that assumption, we know that our platform must support the goals of the association and must have features to accommodate these needs. How do you get past simply providing eLearning materials to your members and move into increasing revenues from those materials? Your learning management system and/or eCommerce platform plays a valuable role. Below are some features to look for to get you started.
Suggestive Selling and Recommendations
When you have a member’s attention on your website page, you should be providing them with as much value as possible. If they login to take a course, they should be suggested a related webinar recording or recent journal article. Once they complete a course, they should be recommended a few more advanced course options. These are both opportunities that can increase membership value and grow revenue for your association.
Course Reviews
Reviews are known to strengthen purchase behavior and to increase trust from buyers. Allowing your learners to review your courses not only provides you with great feedback, but also has the potential to provide honest, valuable feedback to members that are considering purchasing. Even if this doesn’t look exactly like Amazon’s review system – allowing comments and showing that feedback to potential buyers is valuable information. Some learning management systems or eCommerce solutions may only have a rating system, turning this feature on can be a great start to receiving and providing product feedback.
Previews of eLearning Content
Offering a preview of your eLearning content allows members to verify that the content will be valuable to them and ensures you get the right information to the right people. It’s a great way for members to segment themselves based on their eLearning needs. A preview can be anything from a few sentences, to a full table of contents. Even a graphical explanation can be sufficient for members to decide if the content will be of value to them.
In the BoxOffice eCommerce solution, you have the ability to provide both a quick and a detailed overview of a course. As you can see in AANA Learn below, learners are provided with an overview of the course, course objectives, as well as how many CE credits they will receive. Another great feature on AANA’s BoxOffice is “Compare Products.” This allows the learners to choose multiple courses to review at the same time, aiding the user when choosing which course to purchase.
Email Notifications/Integration Capability
Email is one of the fastest and most efficient ways to reach professionals. If you want to increase membership value, your members need consistent communication about the courses and eLearning content you have available. If you’re already using an email provider, such as MailChimp, see what it would take to integrate with your learning management system. It will likely be an additional fee for the integration, but the value of communicating when a new course is added, or a members certification is expiring, could far outweigh that integration fee. Some learning management systems provide their own email notification system as well, and it’s worth looking into what you can use their system for. However, it is likely that a 3rd party tool will have more robust capabilities for email creation and data reporting.
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