How to get the most out of your digital marketing training

There is much talk within the industry about a skills gap in digital, on both fronts – technical and marketing. If there is a skills gap it can only be down to the fact that organisations can’t find the training they need or they’re not going about it in the right way.

While it’s hard to keep pace with the speed of change, there is a lot of good training out there if you look for it. There are always new skills to teach and better ways to learn and here at ADMA we’re constantly trying to improve. There are a lot of organisations who spend very little on training, and the reason most often cited is they can’t see the ROI.

Many organisations are not going about it in the right way. Benefitting from training depends on far more than just staying awake in class; it’s a combination of what goes on before, during and after the training. Here are some guidelines on how to make the most of your training budget.

Before you train

1. Commit to training:

The most frequent excuse for not training apart from cost is time out of the office. This is a very short term view, and it is mostly because not enough thought is put into what the organisation needs in terms of outcomes, and not enough research is put into the training available and what it will deliver. Also as ADMA is now introducing online learning there is no need to interrupt the working day in many instances. Many organisations unfortunately pay lip service to training and allocate budget out of a sense of obligation rather than a commitment to developing staff.

2. Analyse needs and research:

The catalyst for employing the services of a training provider ranges from a full scale training needs analysis to the need to use up some budget! For most businesses it’s somewhere in between, but whether you analyse your requirements in a formal way or not you need to start from the business needs – what is the business reason for the training? And what do we need to do differently after the training that we’re not doing now? It’s hard to define, especially when you don’t know what you don’t know, so researching courses and providers helps to crystallise your thinking. ADMA can provide a training needs assessment form to help with this. When it comes to selecting a product you need to consider whether you want breadth or depth – an overview of the topic or drilling down into the detail.

3. Prepare for the training:

Don’t just turn up on the day. Start thinking about what you want out of it beforehand and make notes on your expectations and desired outcomes. If you want to – speak to the tutor or training provider with questions, they are more than happy to talk to students in advance. If you are a Manager putting your staff through a course, brief them beforehand. Tell them what you want to get out of it and the reasons why it’s important. Let them know they will be de-briefed afterwards – it helps to focus their minds!

The training

1. Manage your own expectations:

Remember that you will be familiar with some of the material already. Feedback suggests that students are typically familiar with up to 50% of the material imparted during the course, but this is not a bad thing. Familiarity makes it easier to add new knowledge and skills to your existing platform of knowledge. In a public course you’ll also be amongst people who know more or less than you do and have different roles and desired outcomes, so not everyone will be on the same page. This is also not a bad thing. The scope for learning from each other is massive – new perspectives, experiences and applications, as well as finding people who have exactly the same issues as you and learning from them how they handled it.

2. Keep it practical and interactive:

This is more for the training provider than the learner, but good training courses have to be practical otherwise the learners have no chance of using their newly acquired skills back in the work-place. ADMA’s courses are typically around 40% practical in the form of structured exercises and discussions, some even higher.

3. Focus on the goal:

Note for training provider and learner – if you the learner have clearly set-out what you want from the course you stand a much greater chance of getting it. The training provider needs to structure the course in such a way that students are guided towards their desired learning outcomes. Most of our courses now have a simple action list built-in to the course with regular check-points throughout the course for students to consider what they want to take out from each section and use later.

Back in the work-place

1. De-brief and share:

Managers should de-brief their staff after training based on the outcomes set beforehand. Find out what they have learned – are there any interesting and relevant new insights? Are there any tips we can adopt immediately to get some quick wins? Are there any things we are doing wrong which we need to stop? Are there some case studies and examples we can copy? What changes do we need to make over the long term? Who else should do this training, or share in its learnings?

2. Evaluate and feedback:

If the training didn’t match expectations tell the provider – it’s the only way they’ll ever improve so you and others like you get better training in future. If the training was good tell the provider so they can keep doing the good things. Did the training highlight other training requirements? Is there some way the provider could modify or customise the course to improve it? Would it be beneficial to have a customised version for the whole team delivered in-house?

3. Reward new behaviour:

Managers should check-in with their staff’s performance sometime after the training has been delivered to see whether they have adopted the learnings and are using their new skills in the work-place. Positive changes should be rewarded either as they happen or at review-time.

ADMA’s Digital Marketing Certificate and Multi-Channel Direct Marketing Certificate courses start in mid-March Australia wide. Secure your place by Friday 24 February and save up to $300. So if you are intending to study either of these benchmark certificate courses, now is the time to enrol.