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With a global growth rate of 900%, online learning is the fastest-growing market in the education industry. 98% of American universities and 77% of US companies offer online learning opportunities.

The rapid growth of platforms like Udemy indicates that also individual creators and entrepreneurs decide to turn their expertise into online courses (and a source of passive income).

This isn’t surprising. AI tools make it easy to create educational content, and with course platforms like LearnWorlds, building and delivering online courses has never been easier.

But here’s the thing: Increasing competition in already saturated niches makes it difficult for new educators to sell their courses.

If you’re in this situation, skillfully promoting your course on social media could be a way to break through.

This article will teach you 12 ways to leverage social networks to market your online course.

12 strategies to promote your online courses on social media

Social media is a powerful tool for promoting online courses, offering a variety of strategies to engage potential students and boost sales. Here are 12 tried-and-tested methods to leverage social media for your course marketing.

1. Team up with influencers

Influencer marketing is one of the more effective ways to leverage social media for your course promotion. According to SproutSocial data, nearly half of consumers make at least one purchase a month because of influencer recommendations. And just under 90% at least once a year.

Here’s how it works, in a nutshell:

You identify influential authors and creators with large followings and ask them to promote your course, for example, by reviewing it for their audience.

These don’t need to be TikTok or Insta celebrities with millions of followers.

Here’s an example of a LinkedIn post by Roxana Stingu, the Head of Search & SEO at Alamy, promoting a Blue Array SEO course.

Roxana is a perfect person to promote the course but not because of her follower count. She’s an SEO expert and thought leader and the ‘mere’ 4k followers are a highly relevant audience, closely matching the course’s target customer profile.

Such endorsements drive conversions!

2. Build anticipation with polls

Because of their interactive nature, polls on X or LinkedIn can be an effective way to engage your target audience and promote your course.

Even before it is ready.

Check out this LinkedIn poll by Jan Rutherford in which he asks followers for insights about add-on resources for his courses.

This poll kills two birds with one stone:

First, the poll can build the ante for the upcoming course and lay the foundation for the marketing efforts once the course goes live.

Second, it helps Jan validate his ideas. So that he doesn’t waste time and resources on developing materials that nobody will use.

3. Pre-sell your course and offer early-bird discounts

Another way to build the hype around your course is through pre-sales.

That’s what Rob Eisenberg, the Chief Software Architect at Blue Spire, did when he was launching his Web Component Engineering course.

In his LinkedIn post, he announced the new course, provided details about its contents, and offered a $100 early-bird discount to drive interest.

If it isn’t your first course and people trust you to deliver high-quality content, you may even be able to ask customers for money upfront, just like Rob does.

Their willingness to pay early can perfect evidence that there’s demand for such a course. And you could use the money from pre-sales to fund its development.

4. Create trailer videos for your courses

A trailer video can also create a buzz around your course. And boost its sales.

Here’s an example of such a trailer for a University of Leads course ‘Create a Social Media Marketing Campaign’ on FutureLearn.

The video was used to promote the course which they posted on YouTube, Facebook, and X.

It introduces the course content, highlights its benefits to learners, and explains how it fits other University of Leeds offerings. And as it features one of the instructors, it’s a chance to build initial rapport with the potential students.

If you’re wondering if it’s worth the effort, videos are 12x more likely to be shared than other types of content and 87% of marketers attribute sales to their video content.

5. Create short videos

Creating YouTube shorts, Instagram Reels, or TikToks is another way to harness the power of video to sell online courses.

Hubspot has found that short-form videos have the highest ROI compared to other content types. This may be because video content is easier to digest, and has more potential to go viral. And repurposing videos as shorts is a breeze with AI-powered video tools like Pictory or Submagic.

If you want to give it a bash, here are a few tips:

• Optimize them for mobile devices, as that’s how 75% of users consume content video.
• Add close captions to make them more accessible.
• Deliver value by sharing best practices, mini-tutorials, and solutions to user problems.

If you want to see a good example, check out the YouTube channel of our customer, PT Collective.

To promote their online courses for personal trainers, they post shorts with marketing advice to help PTs grow their business.

6. Post it on Pinterest

With over 518 million active users globally, Pinterest is worth considering when designing your course marketing strategy. Especially as 83% of regular Pinterest users make purchases based on the content they’ve seen on the platform.

Whether it’s the right medium to promote your course, depends on your niche and target audience demographics.

Most Pinterest content revolves around cooking, DIY, fashion, home design, travel, and personal growth. The largest user segments are women aged 20-34 and nearly 90% are based in the USA.

Sounds like a good match?

If yes, post your course poster and link back to your course website, just like 5 Minutes for Mom promoting their interactive cooking classes. 30 to 90-second videos are the best-performing Pinterest content, so it’s also a good place to share your course trailer.

7. Use social proof

Sharing customer reviews, testimonials, and feedback with your social media followers can boost your course sales.

People trust positive online reviews or testimonials, even if they are from strangers, more than a company’s marketing pitches. In fact, 88% of consumers find online reviews and testimonials as trustworthy as personal recommendations.

Video testimonials are particularly impactful, but you don’t need to go to such great lengths. Share screenshots of online reviews of your course or emails from satisfied customers.

Just like Chima Mmeje, the Senior Content Marketing Manager at Moz, did in her update post about her 10x Topic Authority course.

8. Create LinkedIn carousels

Buffer has also found that LinkedIn carousels get almost as much engagement as videos and images (and way more than text posts).

No wonder. They are visually appealing and help your posts stand out.

Course creators know that and use them for marketing their offerings regularly.

Here’s an example of a carousel created by Beatrize Ronchetti to promote her course for property professionals. It’s made of 7 screens introducing course content, sharing a customer testimonial, and highlighting the course benefits.

Here’s another idea:

Create carousels with useful insights, tips, or best practices from your course to give potential students a taste of the value they will receive once they sign up.

If you haven’t posted a LinkedIn carousel yet, you can upload it as a PDF file. You can create them in no time from templates in tools like Canva.

9. Offer free modules

Free course modules are like free software trials: they showcase the value of your course without satisfying all customer needs.

They get to experience how you deliver your courses and may even learn a thing or two, but to fully realize the course benefits, they need to swipe their credit card and buy the whole thing.

As the content to share is ready, this tactic requires very little effort. All you have to do is upload videos from your course to YouTube.

Here’s an example of such a channel. It promotes an online course preparing British citizenship applicants for the Life in the UK test. The author offers quite a few full-length videos but they don’t cover the whole curriculum.

To increase your YouTube content visibility, optimize your channel for SEO. This helps potential customers find the course via search.

Here are a few tips:

• Include the keywords in the account name, the first 100-150 characters of the channel description, and video titles and descriptions to help YouTube algorithms understand your content.
• Add tags reflecting the course topic.
• Use relevant hashtags.

Useful? #yourewelcome.

10. Leverage paid ads

Paid social ads are the least organic way to promote your courses but they offer multiple benefits.

They get your course in front of audiences straightaway and allow you to address specific user groups. For instance, Facebook enables you to target users based on their interests, age, gender, and location.

You can also retarget them to re-engage people who have visited your course landing page before.

All the major platforms offer paid ads and these come in various forms and shapes:

• Facebook ads include image, video, slideshow, Story, and carousel ads.
  
• Instagram offers photo, video, carousel, Story, and Reels ads.
  
• LinkedIn Sponsored Content comes as a single image, video, carousel, event, document, and thought leader ads.
  
• YouTube ads types include in-stream ads, in-feed ads, and bumper ads (just before the video starts).
  
• Tiktok ads come as in-feed/video, search, carousel, and Spark ads. The latter resemble videos from creators your audience follows.
  

11. Engage audience with quizzes and challenges

CPD Solutions is a UK-based company that offers professional development courses for veterinary surgeons and nurses. One of the tactics they often use to advertise their course is by providing their audience with real-life cases to assess.

For example, in the post below they include an ultrasound image and ask viewers to provide diagnoses. This engages the audience and their comments increase the reach of the post which advertises their U/S course.

Sounds interesting?

Great. Give it a go.

You can also use polls to create quizzes to engage your audience and drive interest in your courses.

12. Run competitions

Competitions can generate excitement around your courses, increase their visibility, and drive bookings.

One of our customers, Droneit, uses them to promote their drone pilot license courses. These are already excellent value, especially when combined with the free upgrades, but the opportunity to win a drone can be the final nudge that some customers need to book the course.

You can also run competitions to promote your courses less directly.

For example, use them as a lead magnet and ask participants to provide their contact details. To grow your email list for future marketing campaigns.

Social Media Course Marketing Best practices

To wrap up, let’s have a look at a few best practices for selling online courses on social media.

Choose the right social media channels: To reach your target audience, pick a social platform where they hang out. For example, LinkedIn is the place to advertise professional courses, and TikTok will work best if you’re targeting 18-34-year-olds.

Vet your partners: When looking for influencers, ensure their profiles are legit. Don’t look at follower count only. Check their activity and follower engagement too.

Track performance: Monitoring user engagement with your posts and conversion rates enables you to identify best performing channels and content, and inform your future social media strategy.

Invest in a social media management platform: Social media tools like Hootsuite or SproutSocial will help you automate your social media campaigns and track their performance.

Share your student success stories: Just like testimonials and reviews, they are evidence of your course value and the positive impact it can make. 

Include a CTA button: Your main goal is to drive course bookings, so always add a relevant call-to-action to your social media posts and ads.

Use high-quality content: To stand out from the crowd, your images, infographics, videos, and carousels need to be top-notch.

Is there anything else we should add? We’d love to hear from you!

Final thoughts

As more and more educators, thought leaders, and subject matter experts launch their online courses, the competition can be fierce.

To stand out from the crowd, creating quality educational content may not be enough. You must also get the course in front of the potential audience and convince them you’re offering good value for their hard-earned money.

Social media platforms, the dominant B2C digital marketing channel, offer plenty of opportunities to attract and engage potential customers.

And if you’re still looking for a platform to build, deliver, and sell your course, why not check out how LearnWorlds can help?

The post How to Promote Online Courses on Social Media [12 strategies] appeared first on LearnWorlds.

The effort to meet customer needs never stops. A positive customer experience spans from the moment a customer first hears about your brand to the end of the customer lifecycle. Throughout their journey with you, you’ll have numerous opportunities to make it or break it in terms of customer satisfaction.

So, to get off on the right foot, start with an onboarding process that helps new customers set up and start using your product, such as an on-demand training course, one-to-one or group training sessions with Customer Success Managers, and a knowledge base. However, customer onboarding is just the first part of a customer training program.

Then, you must continue with more training material and live events, like webinars, to deepen product knowledge for new and advanced users to solidify customer loyalty and prevent churn. Of course, all this is extremely hard to carry out in person or even in real-time, which is why most customer education programs are conducted online, especially for SaaS products.

Need some inspiration to create customer learning experiences that will hook your customers and help you boost customer retention rates and achieve your desired business goals? In this article, we have collected the best examples of customer training programs to help you get started!

6 Best Customer Training Examples

Reap the benefits of customer training and make loyal customers following the example of these online academies – secure product adoption, foster customer loyalty, and expand your customer base with a comprehensive and fun customer training academy!

1. HubSpot Academy

HubSpot, being one of the most popular CRM platforms, doesn’t need particular introductions. The HubSpot Academy is an exemplary online academy that offers numerous free and paid online courses, not simply to educate customers but also for lead generation and brand awareness purposes.

The HubSpot Academy offers courses in several languages, eBooks, lessons, and templates. Learners can gain certifications relevant to marketing, SEO, social media, sales, data management, web design, web development, and customer service training. All in all, the academy is a powerhouse for marketing & customer service team members and not only!

2. Trailhead Academy

The Trailhead Academy is Salesforce’s online learning academy with instructor-led courses about the platform, integrations, marketing, and sales. The courses are divided by job role, so they’re more relevant to the users. The Trailhead Academy also features a vibrant community that enables participants to network and join events.

The Trailhead Academy utilizes gamification, rewarding users with certifications, superbadges & supersets, points, quests, challenges, and fun prizes. Learners can choose from guided learning paths (trails), create their own personalized learning playlist (trailmix), or join the Trailhead Academy for instructor-led courses taught by industry experts.

3. Workable Academy

Workable, the popular hiring and employee management software, has launched the Workable Academy with LearnWorlds. The academy currently offers 19 free courses on how to get started with Workable and more advanced courses per use case – recruiting and HR. The courses include interactive links, intuitive content navigation, directive pointers, expert tips, and knowledge checks.

The Workable Academy has been praised by users, who have found the content to be easy to follow and very helpful. At the same time, Workable has managed to reduce incoming tickets in less than a year after launching its asynchronous customer onboarding program!

4. Zendesk Training

Zendesk should know about maintaining good customer relationships. The well-known customer service solution offers Zendesk Training, a series of comprehensive training courses per job role (admin, agents, CX analysts, sales team, and developers). The training courses offer reading material and hands-on activities.

There are also certification programs available with separate courses and bundles that verify you’ve mastered Zendesk, coming at varying costs. The academy offers additional resources to prepare learners for their certification exams.

5. LinkedIn Learning

The world’s leading networking platform for professionals offers a rich educational hub, LinkedIn Learning, with over 23,000 courses available led by industry experts, short video tutorials, and learning paths for professionals that you can either buy individually or for your team. LinkedIn is another example of a company using education as a marketing tool.

The training resources cover a wide range of trending topics, such as Artificial intelligence, Data Analysis, DEI, Human Resources, and many more. With LinkedIn being the top business-focused social media platform, it’s hard to overlook the opportunity and benefits that come with networking with like-minded professionals when you become part of its learning community!

6. LearnWorlds Academy

Last but not least, we couldn’t help but mention our own customer education academy! Apart from a top-notch customer support team, dedicated CSMs, instructor-led daily webinars, and a vast knowledge base with support articles… our LMS platform, LearnWorlds, also offers eLearning courses that showcase product features and walkthroughs to help you master our training platform, additionally offering you hands-on tips to grow your eLearning business.

The LearnWorlds Academy is free to use and all the courses are available on demand. Apart from the Academy, we offer a resource library with eBooks, templates, checklists, and on-demand webinars to cultivate your knowledge on course creation, customer education, and other topics that could interest you and help you expand your business.

Customer Education is The Way to Go

We hope that these customer training examples have inspired you to build your own customer education hub!

As we go through these successful academies, here’s what we’ve learned:

• Customer education is a great marketing tool for brand awareness and lead generation
• Certification programs add value to your program and justify monetization
• Creating different courses per use case and job role makes them more relevant
• Gamification, microlearning, and quizzes are excellent engagement techniques

Remember to use a Learning Management System like LearnWorlds to streamline your training.

LearnWorlds supports:

Integrations with CRMS and other tools to facilitate your workflow
Built-in content authoring that supports Interactive training content
Website Builder with ready-made templates
Quizzes, certificate & survey builder
Microlearning modules for better customer engagement and faster results
Branded mobile app
Multiple schools, user groups, and user roles

Whatever your needs are, LearnWorlds is your go-to learning platform for effective customer training and beyond!

The post 6 Successful Customer Training Examples That Will Inspire You appeared first on LearnWorlds.

Driven by a desire for flexible and accessible education opportunities, people are turning to online learning more than ever before. In fact, research suggests that the online education market will reach a whopping $400 billion by 2026.

Platforms like Wix – a no-coding-necessary website builder – are helping creators and businesses get a slice of this booming market by offering versatile, user-friendly tools for marketing and selling their courses online.

Whether you’re an individual seeking to monetize your expertise or a business looking to expand online, you can join Wix’s over 200 million users and get in on the action. To help you, we’ve created this step-by-step guide for how to sell your course on Wix.

In this guide, you’ll learn two effective ways to sell courses on a professional website created by Wix and explore various marketing methods to help you capitalize on the fast-growing knowledge economy market.

How to Sell Courses on Wix

You’ve chosen your course topic and outlined your lessons, now it’s time to create it and get selling! Thanks to the platform’s simplicity, selling your course on Wix is straightforward and easy.

There are two methods you can choose from when using Wix to sell your course:

• Use Wix’s Online Programs app and payment methods to create and sell your course
• Integrate your course from a dedicated course platform like LearnWorlds and use Wix to sell your course

Wix’s Online Programs gets a 3.7/5 in their own marketplace, while LearnWorlds scores 4.7/5 from independed reviews on G2.

1. Use Wix’s Online Programs App to Create and Sell Your Course

First things first, you’ll need a site through Wix. If you haven’t created one already, you’ll need to do that before selling a course on Wix. If website design isn’t your thing, Wix offers several pre-made website templates to help you build a successful eCommerce website.

Once you have your site set up (or if you already have one), you’ll want to make sure your Wix plan supports online sales. The minimum plan you’ll need for this is Wix’s Core plan, but you can also choose its Business or Business Elite plans.

Next, download the Wix mobile app to help you manage your site on the go.

Now, let’s look at creating and selling an online course using Wix.

Step 1: Add Wix Online Programs App to your Site

To create your course, you need to add the Wix Online Program App to your site.

Go to your dashboard, head to the Wix App Market, search “Wix Online Programs,” then click the blue “Add to Site” button.

This adds a separate page for your program listings and a page for what these listings will look like live on your site.

You can then go to the Wix editor or your dashboard to manage it. For now, go to your dashboard, and you’ll see something like this:

Step 2: Choose Your Course Type and Settings

Then click “Get Started.” You’ll see several options of course types to choose from. Select the best type or click “Start Fresh” if you want more bespoke, creative control. For this example, we’ll walk you through the “Start Fresh” option.

After clicking “Start Fresh,” you can follow the prompts to set up your course further. Some things you’ll need to decide are:

• How students will complete your course (self-paced or scheduled)
• Whether there are time limits for completing the course (unlimited or time limit)
• When your course starts (flexible or specific start date)

Once you’ve set up the framework for your timing, you’ll be taken to a page where you can see an overview of your course. It will look a little something like this:

From here, you can get into the nitty-gritty details of your course.

By clicking the blue “Edit” button, you can fill in your basic course info, such as a short course description, a cover photo, a category, your pricing, the number of participants, rewards and badges, and scheduling details.

Step 3: Create Your Course Content

When your settings are sorted, you can add the bulk of your online course. Go back to your course overview and look at the bottom below the settings.

From here, you can add course sections (modules), steps, quizzes, video or audio content, and more. Keep in mind that what you create here is what your students will see and interact with.

Step 4: Finalize Your Wix Online Program App, Preview, and Publish Your Course

When you’ve finished creating your course, you’ll want to test its functionality before you launch it. Before you can do this, you need to finish setting up the Online Program App on your site.

To do this, click “Go to the Editor” at the top of your screen and select “Add to Site.” Then head to your dashboard, click “Online Programs,” choose your program, and select “Preview.”

You can make any needed edits through the program page. When everything is in order, hit “Publish” to host it live on your site.

A quick note:

To sell your course on Wix, you need to have a) chosen a Wix plan that allows you to make sales (as covered before) and b) set up your payment options.

To set up your payment options, head to your dashboard and click “Getting Paid” to get started.

Congrats! You now have a course created, hosted, and published with Wix.

While hosting your course and selling it through the same platform has its perks (like everything all in one place), you may find you’d rather have your course hosted on a platform dedicated to online education.

So, let’s look at another way to sell courses on Wix.

2. Sell Courses on Wix with LearnWorlds

While Wix is a great eCommerce platform for selling your course, its overall purpose isn’t course creation or selling digital products. For that, you may want to explore a platform like LearnWorlds, which was designed with course creators and their students in mind.

Because LearnWorlds was designed for users to create online schools, you can create and manage your course on the platform and take advantage of features like extensive customization, branded landing pages, interactive videos, and advanced analytics.

Plus, if you ever decide to move away from Wix, you can rest easy knowing your course content isn’t entirely tied to the platform.

There are two ways to sell your LearnWorlds course through your Wix site:

• Use Zapier for seamless integration
• Connect LearnWorlds as a sub-domain

Use Zapier for Seamless Integration

Perhaps the simplest way to sell your LearnWorlds course on Wix is to integrate it using Zapier.

Zapier is an online automation tool that connects different apps and services and automates workflows. In this case, it connects your Wix site with your LearnWorlds course in just a few minutes.

Before you get started, you’ll need to have a Wix site (with payments set up), the LearnWorlds course you want to sell, and an account with Zapier.

Step 1: Head to Your Zapier Dashboard

You’ll do the entire integration through Zapier, so start by logging on to your Zapier account. If it’s your first time using Zapier, you’ll be prompted to watch a short tutorial on how to get started.

In the search bar at the top of the page, type “Wix” and select it from the dropdown list. On the next screen, in the “Search for pairing apps” box, type “LearnWorlds” and select it from the dropdown list.

Step 2: Choose a Template and Follow Zapier’s Prompts

From this page, you can browse premade templates from Zapier with triggers (events that start an automation, or “zaps”) and actions (the event performed after the trigger).

For example, one template sets you up to enroll users in LearnWorlds products when a custom trigger happens in Wix. You can choose a template that works for you, and Zapier will walk you through the rest step-by-step.

When you’re finished, students who purchase your course through Wix will be automatically enrolled in your course on LearnWorlds – Zapier couldn’t have made it easier.

Connect LearnWorlds as a Sub-domain

To connect LearnWorlds as a sub-domain, you’ll need to work out of both your Wix dashboard and your LearnWorlds settings.

It’s important that you have at least the Wix Business plan for this, as lower-tier plans don’t support it.

To start, check out our comprehensive, step-by-step guide for connecting a LearnWorlds custom domain to your website.

How to Market Your Online Course

After setting up your online course on Wix, effective marketing is the best way to get sales. There are several ways you can promote your new digital products:

1. Optimize your course page on Wix

Your course page may be the first thing your potential students see. To increase its impact, make sure it’s easy to navigate, clear, and communicates the value learners will get from taking your course. To optimize your course page:

• Make your online store and course page visually appealing
• Highlight the key benefits of your course
• Include a compelling call to action (CTA)
• Troubleshoot your web design to ensure everything works properly
• Use search engine optimization (SEO) best practices (Wix has some great built-in SEO tools!)

When your course page is well-optimized and informative, you increase your chances of students signing up.

2. Use email marketing

Email marketing is a highly effective tool for informing and engaging your audience. Use it to offer valuable content to your readers and inform them of your offerings. To start email marketing:

• Use Wix forms to collect email addresses
• Integrate an email marketing tool like Mailchimp to create email campaigns

Email marketing can build trust with your audience and showcase your expertise, plus, it allows you to bring sign-up opportunities for your course directly to their inbox.

3. Leverage social media and content creation

Like email marketing, social media is a great way to connect and build trust with potential students. Use social media to:

• Create content for platforms like TikTok or Instagram related to your course content
• Use Wix to post high-quality blog articles that demonstrate your area of expertise
• Partner with influencers to help spread the word

Creating course-related content shows future learners that you know your stuff so that when they see your course, they’ll already recognize its value.

4. Feature testimonials

Testimonials are a form of social proof that demonstrate your course’s effectiveness to other potential students. After reading positive testimonials from course participants, future students gain a better idea of what to expect. To best feature testimonials:

• Collect testimonials from students who have completed your course
• Share these testimonials on your Wix website, social media platforms, and in your email marketing campaigns

For individuals who are hesitant about buying your course, testimonials from previous students can give them the confidence they need to sign up.

These marketing methods help position you as a topic expert and build your audience’s trust. They also provide a clear and easy path for new learners to find and buy your course through your Wix platform.

Elevate Your Offerings With an Online Course

Using Wix to sell an online course is a great way to share your expertise, diversify your offerings, and reach a wider audience.

To give your students a high-quality course experience, don’t forget to leverage the tools and marketing opportunities available. Optimize your course page, leverage social media, and consider hosting your course on a dedicated course platform like LearnWorlds.

Integrating your LearnWorlds course with your Wix website is easy through Zapier or by using a sub-domain. By combining the two, you can make the most of Wix’s user-friendly eCommerce website capabilities and LearnWorlds’ exceptional course management features to increase the success of your course.

All the best with your online course!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the difference between Wix Bookings and Wix Online Programs App?

Another way you can host a course on your site is through Wix Bookings.

While Wix Bookings does have a course feature, it’s designed more with scheduling in mind than course creation, making Wix Online Programs more suitable if creating and selling a course is your main goal.

What are some digital products I can sell through my Wix online store?

In addition to online courses, your Wix eCommerce store is a great place to sell other digital products. Make more money online from home by selling:

• Memberships and subscriptions
• Templates
• Digital planners or productivity journals
• eBooks or how-to guides
• Stock photos or videos

What are the potential drawbacks of using Wix’s built-in course creation features versus integrating LearnWorlds?

Wix’s built-in features are user-friendly for general eCommerce but lack specialized tools that help with course management and student engagement. If you want in-depth management features and better scalability, consider using a dedicated course creation platform like LearnWorlds.

If I sell my LearnWorlds course through Wix, will I lose control of my course content and branding?

In short, no. Integrating your LearnWorlds with Wix using Zapier or connecting it as a sub-domain means you can use Wix’s eCommerce capabilities while still managing your course content and branding through LearnWorlds.

The post How to Sell an Online Course on Wix (Complete Guide) appeared first on LearnWorlds.

Over the years, platforms like Patreon have revolutionized the way creators connect with their audiences. Patreon, a crowdfunding platform launched in 2013, is helping artists, writers, musicians, and creators of all kinds, providing them with a direct avenue to monetize their work and build a dedicated community of supporters.

The appeal of Patreon lies in its simplicity and versatility. Creators can offer exclusive content, perks, and behind-the-scenes access to their patrons in exchange for recurring financial support.

This relationship fosters a sense of belonging and reciprocity between creators and their fans. However, as the digital landscape continues to evolve, creators are exploring alternative platforms that may better align with their unique needs and preferences.

In this article, we will explore the best Patreon alternatives, highlighting platforms that offer distinct features, enhanced flexibility, user-friendliness, and a more tailored fit for creators seeking to monetize their content in innovative ways.

But before we show the list, allow us to present to you LearnWorlds – the best all-in-one Ai-powered platform for content creators, edupreneurs, coaches, and businesses looking to offer memberships and build an engaged online community of learners.

Try LearnWorlds today with a 30-day free trial and find out what it can do for you!

Patreon Pricing & Plans

Getting started on Patreon is free for both creators and fans. The platform has 2 paid plans that take a percentage of the income you earn:

• Pro – 8% commission
• Premium – 12% commission

Patreon also takes a 5% commission on your earnings when using its e-commerce services.

Patreon launched their new creator plans in 2019, removing their Lite plan from their pricing packages, to be able to better serve creators offering greater options, and tools including Merch for Membership. This is a solution that is included in the premium plan and gives you access to high-quality items you can customize and sell to paid members as part of your membership tiers.

* Pricing Information retrieved from Patreon in July 2024.

Patreon Advantages and Disadvantages

Now, let’s review Patreon’s biggest advantages and disadvantages.

Patreon Advantages

Patreon works as a membership platform and offers a fantastic space where you can connect directly with your biggest supporters and receive continuous financial support from them to sponsor your work. It also allows you to interact with your community, share exclusive and members-only content, and transform your hobby into a successful creative venture.

With Patreon monetization is made easy, as it offers the opportunity to build a digital shop or offer paid memberships effortlessly. One of its biggest strengths is that it has no upfront costs – it lets you create a page for free and comes with multiple membership options.

Patreon Disadvantages

Patreon Reviews

Patreon is rated 4.5 out of 5 based on Capterra’s user reviews.

Review from G2:

Review from Capterra:

Best Patreon Alternatives for Your Online Business

Patreon is a very good choice of crowdfunding and membership platform, however, it’s always a great idea to explore all of your options before making a decision.

The table below shows our top 4 platform picks among the ones included in this article, comparing them side-by-side with Patreon on pricing and features.

Feature / Platform	Patreon	LearnWorlds	Indiegogo	Mighty Networks
Monetization Model	Subscription-based	Subscriptiosn & One-Off	Crowdfunding	Subscription and Community
Payment Processing	Patreon Payments	Stripe, PayPal	Stripe, PayPal	Stripe, PayPal
Fees	5-12% (plus payment fees)	Subscription	Platform and payment fees	Monthly subscription
Customization	Limited customization	Highly customizable	Project-specific	Custom branding and design
Project Types	Ongoing creative projects	Subscriptions, Courses & Community	Creative projects	Online communities
Audience Building	Through tiers	Built-in community	Exposure through campaigns	Built-in community features
Community	Limited	Complete community management	Limited	Great community features
Integration	Limited integrations	Third-party integrations	Integrations available	Third-party integrations
Accessibility	Popular among creators	Perfect for communities, courses, and downloadables.	Broad crowdfunding appeal	Focused on community growth

Patreon	LearnWorlds	Indiegogo	Mighty Networks
Monetization Model
Subscription-based	Subscriptiosn & One-Off	Crowdfunding	Subscription and Community
Payment Processing
Patreon Payments	Stripe, PayPal	Stripe, PayPal	Stripe, PayPal
Fees
5-12% (plus payment fees)	Subscription	Platform and payment fees	Monthly subscription
Customization
Limited customization	Highly customizable	Project-specific	Custom branding and design
Project Types
Ongoing creative projects	Subscriptions, Courses & Community	Creative projects	Online communities
Audience Building
Through tiers	Built-in community	Exposure through campaigns	Built-in community features
Community
Limited	Complete community management	Limited	Great community features
Integration
Limited integrations	Third-party integrations	Integrations available	Third-party integrations
Accessibility
Popular among creators	Perfect for communities, courses, and downloadables.	Broad crowdfunding appeal	Focused on community growth

Now, let’s go over the 10 best Patreon alternatives to figure out how they all compare against each other in greater detail.

#1 LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds, unlike Patreon’s simple subscription model integrates course creation, website building, and marketing tools, allowing creators to generate recurring revenue. This makes it ideal for those wanting to offer more than just content, with features like quizzes, assessments, and certifications adding significant value.

Creators can build fully branded online academies, multi-tier subscriptions, and digital downloads. You can even create a full online community for your fans to connect and discuss!

LearnWorlds does not take a percentage cut either, you own all your profit, audience’s data, emails.

Pros & Cons

How much does LearnWorlds cost?

LearnWorlds offers a 30-day free trial and the following pricing plans:

• Starter – $29/mo
• Pro – $99/mo
• Learning Center – $299/mo

*Pricing information retrieved from LearnWorlds in July 2024.

LearnWorlds Reviews

Gumroad is rated 4.7 out of 5 based on G2’s user reviews.

Reviews from G2:

#2 Podia

Podia is a digital platform for creators looking to sell online courses, memberships, and digital downloads such as ebooks, audio lessons, webinars and more. It offers a solution that simplifies the process of creating, marketing, and selling digital products.

With Podia, creators can build their brand with customizable storefronts, build their own website, host online courses with embedded multimedia, and manage memberships seamlessly.

The platform also includes features for email marketing and analytics, providing creators with a centralized hub to monetize their expertise and creative endeavors. Podia aims to be a user-friendly solution for individuals and businesses looking to establish and grow their online presence.

Podia wins over Patreon with its community features, and built-in email marketing capabilities. While both platforms are popular, Patreon has been around longer and comes with a larger user base.

Pros & Cons

How much does Podia cost?

Podia has a 14-day trial, a free plan, and two paid plans:

• Free plan (8% transaction fees)
• Mover – $39/month
• Shaker – $89/month

Podia offers an optional email marketing add-on that is free for the first 100 subscribers. Then it charges $9/month for up to 500 subscribers and the price increases as the number of subscribers goes higher.

*Pricing information retrieved from Podia in July 2024.

Podia vs LearnWorlds: A Side-by-Side Comparison
The Best Podia Alternatives Reviewed

Podia Reviews

Podia is rated 4.5 out of 5 based on Capterra’s user reviews.

Review from G2:

Review from Capterra:

#3 WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a powerful and widely-used e-commerce WordPress plugin. Developed by Automattic, the same company behind WordPress, WooCommerce seamlessly integrates with WordPress websites, transforming them into fully functional online stores offering you the opportunity to sell digital products.

It provides a robust set of features for managing products, inventory, orders, and payments, making it an ideal solution for individuals, small businesses, and even larger enterprises. Installing WooCommerce is free as it is open source, but you will need a hosting service and domain name for your website.

Compared to Patreon, WooCommerce is highly customizable and offers multiple payment gateways. However, it might come with additional fees for extensions and other plugins whereas Patreon’s costs are fixed.

Pros & Cons

How much does WooCommerce cost?

WooCommerce offers a free trial and starts charging its users at $1. This stays the same for the first 3 months, but then after that, the following pricing applies:

• Essential: $39/month
• Performance: $70/month
• Enterprise e-commerce: Custom pricing

*Pricing information retrieved from WooCommerce in July 2024.

Compare WooCommerce to LearnWorlds

WooCommerce Reviews

WooCommerce is rated 4.5 out of 5 based on Capterra’s user reviews.

Review from G2:

Review from Capterra:

#4 Mighty Networks

Mighty Networks is a platform that enables individuals to create their own branded communities, courses, and memberships. It provides a space where creators can connect with their audience in a more meaningful and engaging way.

Whether you’re a content creator, educator, or business owner, Mighty Networks allows you to build a unique online community that goes beyond traditional social media platforms.

As a community platform, Mighty Networks has stronger social engagement features compared to other platforms.

For example, you can organize your group members into categories (e.g., based on their profession) and also into subgroups, with each group having access to the content most relevant to them.

Mighty Networks offers custom branding and design capabilities as well as robust community and that is where Patreon falls short. It also offers more opportunities for monetization than donations and subscriptions.

Pros & Cons

How much does Mighty Networks cost?

Mighty Networks has a free trial and three pricing plans:

• The Courses Plan – $119/mo
• The Business Plan – $219/mo
• The Path-to-Pro Plan – $360/mo

*Pricing information retrieved from Mighty Networks in July 2024.

Compare Mighty Networks with LearnWorlds

The Best Mighty Networks Alternatives Reviewed

Mighty Networks Reviews

Mighty Networks is rated 4.7 out of 5 based on Capterra’s user reviews.

Review from G2:

Review from Capterra:

#5 Sellfy

Sellfy is an e-commerce platform that simplifies selling digital products. It caters to a range of content creators, including writers, musicians, artists, and software developers. The platform enables users to set up their online store quickly, allowing them to showcase and sell e-books, music, videos, software, and other downloadables.

Key features include customizable storefronts, secure file hosting, payment processing through various methods, discount code creation, and the ability to embed the store on external websites. Sellfy also provides tools for marketing, allowing creators to create product pages, set prices, and implement promotional strategies.

While Sellfy is highly customizable compared to Patreon, it offers limited audience-building capabilities. Having said that, it’s a great alternative if you want to sell physical goods on top of digital products.

Pros & Cons

How much does Sellfy cost?

Sellfy comes with a free trial and the following paid plans:

• Starter: $29/month
• Business: $79/month
• Premium: $159/month

*Pricing information retrieved from Sellfy in July 2024.

Sellfy Reviews

Sellfy is rated 4.5 out of 5 based on Capterra’s user reviews.

Review from G2:

Review from Capterra:

#6 SubscribeStar

SubscriberStar is a subscription-based platform designed to help creators generate income by offering exclusive content and perks to their subscribers. It is mostly tailored for musicians, visual artists, and educators who can set up a profile on SubscriberStar, and showcase their work, but it also serves any individual who has an established or emerging audience or produces engaging content regularly.

Unlike other platforms, the platform focuses on providing a space for creators to engage with their fan base through various content formats, including written posts, polls, images, documents, audio, and videos.

It offers subscription tiers, allowing creators to offer different levels of access and rewards based on the subscription level. These rewards can range from exclusive content and early access to personalized messages.

Compared to Patreon it’s cheaper, and it comes with a calculator that shows your potential monthly income based on the number of subscribers you have and the price you charge those subscriptions. At the same time Patreon offers better features and has more frequent payouts.

Pros & Cons

How much does SubscribeStar cost?

SubscribeStar is free for everyone. However, it has processing fees of 2.9% + $0.3 on average for each subscription/transaction made toward your account. It also comes with payout fees ($3<) and a flat service fee of 5% on every pledge.

*Pricing information retrieved from SubscribeStar in July 2024.

SubscribeStar Reviews

SubscribeStar is rated 2.6 out of 5 based on TrustPilot’s user reviews.

Reviews from TrustPilot:

#7 Indiegogo

Indiegogo is a crowdfunding platform that enables individuals, entrepreneurs, inventors, startups, and organizations to raise funds for their creative projects, innovative ideas, or business ventures. It has become a popular platform, especially for those seeking financial support from a global community of backers. The platform caters to a wide range of projects including tech innovations, art endeavors, charitable causes, and more.

It offers flexible funding models and allows creators to keep the funds raised even if the campaign doesn’t meet its initial funding goal. Indiegogo also encourages creators to engage with their backers fostering a sense of community and transparency throughout the fundraising process. Backers receive rewards or perks based on their level of contribution that include early access to the product being funded or merchandise.

Unlike Patreon, Indiegogo does not follow a subscription model, instead, it focuses on one-time project funding and offers two types of funding – fixed and flexible. It also lacks the community feel of Patreon.

Pros & Cons

How much does Indiegogo cost?

Indiegogo charges a 5% platform fee on all crowdfunding campaigns, up to 15% for funds driven by its own platform channels. It also has transaction and payment processor fees that vary depending on the location of your bank account and the currency in which you raise funds.

*Pricing information retrieved from Indiegogo in July 2024.

Indiegogo Reviews

Indiegogo is rated 5 out of 5 based on Capterra’s user reviews.

Review from G2:

Review from Capterra:

#8 Kickstarter

Kickstarter is another popular crowdfunding platform that allows creators to bring their creative projects to life by securing financial support from a community of backers. The platform is facilitating funding for a wide range of projects, including art, comics, music, films, games, technology, design, and more.

Creators use Kickstarter to showcase their projects and set a funding goal, along with a deadline for reaching that goal. It operates on an “all-or-nothing” funding model, meaning that if the project doesn’t reach its funding goal by the deadline, backers are not charged, and the project does not receive any funding.

For this reason, it is more suitable for one-off projects that offer tangible rewards to its supporters.

Kickstarter and Patreon cater to different models of creative funding. The first focuses on one-time projects whereas the second on ongoing ones and offers greater community support.

While Kickstarter provides customizable project pages, it is limiting in terms of funding opportunities – when creators don’t reach their goals, and campaign duration (up to 60 days).

Pros & Cons

How much does Kickstarter cost?

Kickstarter is free, but collects a 5% transaction fee from your funds. Stripe – its payment processor also collects a payment fee of 3-5%.

*Pricing information retrieved from Kickstarter in July 2024.

Kickstarter Reviews

Kickstarter is rated 3.7 out of 5 based on G2’s user reviews.

Reviews from G2:

#9 Ko-fi

Ko-fi is a platform designed to help creators receive support and appreciation from their fans, friends, and followers offering a space for them to showcase their work outside of a paywall. It is a simple and user-friendly platform that enables them to receive one-time payments or one-time donations known as virtual “coffees”.

Instead of using a subscription model, it operates on a one-time support system, and coffees are used by creators to fund their projects, cover expenses, or simply as a token of appreciation.

Creators can set up a Ko-fi page, share their creative endeavors, and offer exclusive content, digital downloads, memberships, or other perks as a way to thank their supporters.

Ko-fi serves as an excellent Patreon alternative if you prioritize flexibility without structured membership tiers and want to keep 100% of received donations.

Pros & Cons

How much does Ko-fi cost?

Ko-fi doesn’t take any cuts from your donations. However, for memberships, and access to Ko-fi Shop and Commissions, you need to get its premium plan – Ko-fi Gold or pay a 5% transaction fee.

*Pricing information retrieved from Ko-fi in July 2024.

Ko-fi Reviews

Ko-fi is rated 4.6 out of 5 based on TrustPilot’s user reviews.

Reviews from TrustPilot:

# 10 Buy Me A Coffee

Buy Me A Coffee is a platform designed to help creators – artists, video creators, programmers, musicians, writers, and podcasters, receive support and appreciation from their audience in the form of “virtual coffees” as monetary gifts or small payments.

With it, creators have the flexibility to establish various membership levels with distinct pricing structures offering subscribers additional perks, or even sell products e.g. exclusive videos, Zoom event tickets, and art commissions called Extras. But while it offers memberships, the platform gives more attention to one-off donations. So it follows a more casual tip jar approach allowing fans to express their support in a unique way.

Buy Me A Coffee is more suitable for creators who are looking for a side income as opposed to a full time. The platform may not be as well-known as Patreon, but it is a great alternative if you don’t want to manage a large subscription-based community.

Pros & Cons

How much does Buy Me A Coffee cost?

Buy Me A Coffee is free to use, though it charges a 5% fee on all transactions plus payment processor fees.

*Pricing information retrieved from Buy Me A Coffee in July 2024.

Buy Me A Coffee Reviews

Buy Me A Coffee is rated 4 out of 5 based on TrustPilot’s user reviews.

Reviews from TrustPilot:

#11 Gumroad

Gumroad is a powerful e-commerce platform that empowers creators to sell their digital products directly to their audience. Whether it’s memberships, courses, e-books, digital art, software, audio, or any other digital content like cookbooks (or emojis even), can simplify the selling process.

The platform has a user-friendly interface and provides a straightforward solution for monetizing any digital creation. With it, you can set your own prices, create customizable product pages to promote your products, and track their performance. It allows you to create discount offer coders, set up subscriptions, and protect your work while handling VAT for you.

Compared to Patreon, Gumroad offers greater customization features and third-party integrations. On the other hand, Patreon offers more audience-building capabilities through tiers.

Pros & Cons

Choosing the Best Membership Platform for Your Needs

From emerging platforms to established alternatives, the landscape is rich with options for creators looking to take their ventures to new heights. Each one presents its own set of advantages and unique offerings, providing flexibility, scalability, enhanced features, tailored experiences, and improved revenue streams.

Whether you are a podcaster, artist, musician, or any other type of content creator, the right platform can significantly impact your efforts. To make sure you stay true to your goals and aspirations, choose a platform that supports your needs and wants.

Would you select an all-in-one platform that has everything you need, go for a traditional crowdfunding platform, or opt for a more specialized membership site platform to get specific features, capabilities, and functionality? The choice is yours.

If you are interested in monetizing your content and want to sell online courses, you can get a head start with LearnWorlds! Sign up for your 30-day free trial today and explore all the amazing options it comes with.

The post The 11 Best Patreon Alternatives for 2024 appeared first on LearnWorlds.

Offering customer education helps customers discover and master your product’s features. Not only that – a customer education program gives your sales team one more argument to close a sale and improves the post-purchase customer experience big time!

But how do you roll out a successful program that will effectively support your business goals and contribute to achieving the much-desired customer loyalty and customer retention? Well, for this, you’ll need a reliable customer training LMS.

The market is filled with worthwhile options. To make your search a bit easier, have picked and reviewed the most notable platforms for you based on user feedback and the following criteria:

Ease of use
Customer support
Branding & customization capabilities
Integrations & APIs
Multi-tenancy & user segmentation/access controls
AI tools
Website builder
Content authoring capabilities

Who Made the Cut? The 12 Best Customer Training Software

Before deep-diving and seeing in detail every customer training software on the list, here’s a quick feature overview:

Platform	Best for	Unique Features	Starting Price
LearnWorlds	Small Business/Mid-Market	Advanced AI assistant, Copyrights protection, Branded mobile app, eCommerce tools	$99/month
Gainsight Customer Education	Mid-Market	Downloadable video, Liquid templates, Media library	Not disclosed
TalentLMS	Small Business/Mid-Market	Advanced gamification, AI Assistant, Files repository	Free plan
WorkRamp	Mid-Market	WorkRamp Communities, AI tool, Collaborative administration	Not disclosed
Docebo	Mid Market/Enterprise	Docebo Community, eCommerce, AI assistant, White-label mobile app	$25,000/year
Absorb LMS	Mid Market/Enterprise	Absorb Create, eCommerce, Gamification, Advanced AI	Not disclosed
Thought Industries	Mid-Market/Small Business	Panorama (branded portals), Native content authoring, Adaptive learning paths, Central asset manager	Not disclosed
LearnUpon	Mid-Market	AI-powered learning, Branded learning portals, Centralized resource center	Not disclosed
Skilljar	Mid-Market	Advanced certificates, eCommerce, deep Salesforce integration	Not disclosed
Trainn	Mid-Market/Small Business	Advanced built-in video tool kit, Screen recording, No-code academy builder	$49/mo
Cloudshare	Mid-Market, Enterprise	Virtual labs, Communication tools, Cloudshare folder	Not disclosed
Intellum	Enterpise, Mid-Market	Built-in content authoring, Assets library, Advanced gamification, Content recommendation engine	Not disclosed

Best for	Unique Features	Starting Price
LearnWorlds
Small Business/Mid-Market	Advanced AI assistant, Copyrights protection, Branded mobile app, eCommerce tools	$99/mo
Gainsight Customer Education
Mid-Market	Downloadable video, Liquid templates, Media library	Not disclosed
TalentLMS
Small Business/Mid-Market	Advanced gamification, AI Assistant, Files repository	Free plan
WorkRamp
Mid-Market	WorkRamp Communities, AI tool, Collaborative administration	Not disclosed
Docebo
Mid Market/Enterprise	Docebo Community, eCommerce, AI assistant, White-label mobile app	$25,000/year
Absorb LMS
Mid Market/Enterprise	Absorb Create, eCommerce, Gamification, Advanced AI	Not disclosed
Thought Industries
Mid-Market/Small Business	Panorama (branded portals), Native content authoring, Adaptive learning paths, Central asset manager	Not disclosed
LearnUpon
Mid-Market	AI-powered learning, Branded learning portals, Centralized resource center	Not disclosed
Skilljar
Mid-Market	Advanced certificates, eCommerce, deep Salesforce integration	Not disclosed
Trainn
Mid-Market/Small Business	Advanced built-in video tool kit, Screen recording, No-code academy builder	$49/mo
Cloudshare
Mid-Market, Enterprise	Virtual labs, Communication tools, Cloudshare folder	Not disclosed
Intellum
Enterpise, Mid-Market	Built-in content authoring, Assets library, Advanced gamification, Content recommendation engine	Not disclosed

1. LearnWorlds – Our Choice

CUSTOMER REVIEWS:
4.7 out of 5

LearnWorlds stands out as the leading customer education platform for SMEs, packed with all the essential features to support on-demand and live training. The platform is SCORM-compliant and supports multimedia and interactive training content, ensuring an engaging learning experience.

Our advanced AI assistant with pre-built prompts supports content creation and optimization, assessments and feedback, course outlines, and marketing material. With our drag-and-drop website builder, you can easily create a custom-branded site for your eLearning program (not just an after-login page as is the case with most LMSs!) and use our rich eCommerce toolkit to monetize your courses.

If you need to train multiple audiences, whether employees, customers, or partners, our Multiple Schools functionality that allows for customizable branding will come in super handy. Plus, with the Clone & Sync capabilities you will build your schools in no time!

LearnWorlds additionally supports API, multiple languages, in-depth reporting & metrics, B2B licensing, automation and bulk actions, custom user roles, and various popular integrations, including CRM tools, allowing you to tailor and scale your training program as needed and offer the best training experience.

Advantages

• Content authoring tools
• Website Builder
• Full eCommerce capabilities
• Custom User Roles and User groups for easier administration and access control
• Clone & Sync for fast school creation and content repurposing
• Multiple schools to manage multiple academies from one location
• AI tools for course outline, learning objective, assessment, and feedback generation
• Copyrights protection
• CRM & customer service integrations (Hubspot & Zendesk)
• Community for better customer engagement
• API, Webhooks & SSO
• Native, white-label mobile app
• Stellar customer support and customer success teams

Disadvantages

• Learning curve
• Limited gamification

Pricing plans

• Starter – $29 per month ($24 billed yearly)
• Pro – $99 per month ($79 billed yearly)
• Learning Center – $299 per month ($249 billed yearly)
• High-Volume & Corporate – Get a customized quote

2. Gainsight Customer Education

CUSTOMER REVIEWS:
4.6 out of 5

Gainsight Customer Education (formerly Northpass) is a dedicated customer education platform. The initial setup requires some help from the Gainsight team but, overall, the platform is known for its intuitive navigation and pleasant UI that offers a seamless user experience and its advanced customization and branding capabilities.

Gainsight seamlessly integrates learning analytics with data from your CRM, HRIS, and product to provide in-depth insights. Other standout features include a centralized media library to store your assets for quick access, the ability to add videos directly into slide presentations, and downloadable videos.

Advantages

• Intuitive UI
• Embed in App capability
• Media library
• Built-in course authoring tool
• Downloadable videos

Disadvantages

• Lacks in-depth reporting
• No course templates available
• Lacks customization options for learning paths
• No AI content creation
• Needs more detailed content versioning

Pricing plans

Gainsight has a fixed price for unlimited learners, admins, and content. The pricing is not disclosed on the website.

3. TalentLMS

CUSTOMER REVIEWS:
4.6 out of 5

TalentLMS is an intuitive, feature-rich Learning Management System that supports customer learning programs and is reasonably priced. The platform has recently been enriched with AI tools and is also known for its rich gamification. It offers branding capabilities, custom user types, and branches (different learning environments), although design customization is limited.

Talent LMS supports several integrations and APIs and offers basic eCommerce capabilities. It also offers in-depth reporting, assessment, and certificate builders. It’s available in 40 languages and adheres to WCAG-2 accessibility requirements for inclusive customer training programs, helping you create brand advocates and expand your customer base.

Advantages

• Intuitive
• Advanced gamification
• Excellent customer support
• Reasonably priced
• TalentCraft (AI tool)

Disadvantages

• Lacks advanced assessment builder
• Lacks advanced course editing tools
• Occasional issues during integration setup
• Lacks advanced course and website customization
• Complex admin tasks

Pricing plans

• Free
• Starter – Starting at $69.00/mo
• Basic – Starting at $149.00/mo
• Plus – Starting at $279.00/mo
• Premium – Starting at $459.00/mo

4. WorkRamp

CUSTOMER REVIEWS:
4.4 out of 5

WorkRamp is another SaaS platform that empowers you to create a frictionless new customer onboarding experience and beyond. Its user-friendly interface allows you to craft engaging learning content and courses with various media formats – no coding required! You can build structured learning paths and manage all content in one location. The platform also offers a quiz builder and analytics on learner progress and course completion rates.

WorkRamp integrates with your existing tech stack for a unified learning experience. WorkRamp Communities enable you to connect customers through forums and discussions to receive feedback and product feature requests and share product announcements.

Advantages

• Quick setup
• Responsive customer support
• Reasonable price
• AI tool
• WorkRamp communities

Disadvantages

• Confusing navigation
• Lacks robust reporting
• Limited design/branding customization
• Limited assessments
• Limited user roles & controls

Pricing plans

Not disclosed.

5. Docebo

CUSTOMER REVIEWS:
4.3 out of 5

Docebo is a longstanding LMS platform that can effectively address your customer education and product training needs through a variety of features, like AI-powered content recommendations and adaptive learning paths, eCommerce, automated communication campaigns, certifications, multiple integrations with CRMs and other business and customer success systems.

Docebo enables you to build and brand different schools, facilitating administration & scalability with automations and AI content creation and localization. The platform also has social learning capabilities that enable product experts and customers to interact directly via the platform.

Advantages

• Highly customizable & scalable
• AI-powered
• Beautiful User Interface
• Helpful Customer Success team
• Rich social learning & gamification

Disadvantages

• Learning curve
• Pricey new addons
• Lacks robust reporting
• Lacks streamlined workflows
• Limited interactive features

Pricing plans

• Engage – STARTING AT $25,000/year (3-year contract)
• Elevate – 40,000
• Enterprise – Custom

6. Absorb LMS

CUSTOMER REVIEWS:
4.6 out of 5

Absorb LMS is a platform for crafting impactful customer education experiences. Its user-friendly interface allows you to develop engaging courses with various media formats – videos, quizzes, and documents. It’s SCORM compliant for seamless integration of existing eLearning modules. Absorb also offers a robust mobile app for offline learning and on-the-go accessibility.

Absorb has advanced AI functionalities, including adaptive learning and personalized course recommendations based on individual performance. Absorb’s Intelligent Assist can also process natural language and assist with admin tasks. Finally, Absorb’s comprehensive analytics provide valuable insights into learner progress, knowledge retention, and overall program effectiveness in real time, although there are some complaints regarding its ease of use.

Advantages

• Very intuitive
• Advanced AI
• Built-in content authoring
• Feature-rich
• LinkedIn Learning integration

Disadvantages

• Limited built-in integrations
• Few bulk actions
• Features are hard to locate
• Limited shopping cart functionality
• Reporting is not intuitive and lacks filters

Pricing plans

Not disclosed.

7. Thought Industries

CUSTOMER REVIEWS:
4.1 out of 5

Thought Industries is a flexible learning platform with a beautiful UI and a drag-and-drop website builder that allows you to create branded portals. The platform supports a variety of interactive training content, such as videos and flashcards, and offers rich assessment options. It also enables the creation of flexible learning paths. The Central Asset Manager feature helps streamline content management.

For monetization, Thought Industries offers storefront and landing pages, a built-in shopping cart, the ability to create coupons, and the option to sell subscriptions. It also offers several automations and a tagging system to facilitate admin tasks.

Advantages

• Full-featured
• Central asset library
• Beautiful UI
• Branded portals
• Great customer service

Disadvantages

• Confusing and inaccurate reporting
• Pricey addons
• Limited built-in content authoring (only video and quizzes)
• Limited assessment builder
• No mobile app

Pricing plans

Not disclosed.

8. LearnUpon LMS

CUSTOMER REVIEWS:
4.6 out of 5

LearnUpon is an intuitive cloud-based LMS with versatile applications, including customer onboarding. It integrates with webinar tools to support ILT training, complete with scheduling, attendance tracking, and reminder notifications. Its advanced AI assists with content creation and offers interactive bots as coaches. LearnUpon also allows you to create branded learning portals and storefronts to sell your courses.

The platform offers various question types, assignments, and a survey feature to gauge learner feedback. It includes a Resource Center for storing training materials in a centralized knowledge base and supports user segmentation for better access control and task automation. It integrates with your CRM, so users are added to the LMS automatically. Its advanced certificate feature alerts learners when it’s time to re-certify, which is ideal for expiring certificates.

Advantages

• AI-powered learning
• Excellent customer support & CSMs
• Budget-friendly (based on reviews)
• Multiple portals with access control
• Centralized resource portal

Disadvantages

• Limited UI customization
• Learning paths are not flexible
• Limited bulk actions
• Lacks robust reporting
• Limited built-in course authoring

Pricing plans

LearnUpon offers 3 plans (Essential, Premium, and Enterprise), but the pricing is not disclosed.

9. Skilljar

CUSTOMER REVIEWS:
4.6 out of 5

Skilljar is a scalable platform that focuses on boosting product adoption and comes equipped with valuable features like multi-tenancy, white labeling, advanced user roles, eCommerce, and advanced analytics features to keep your customer education efforts on track. You can sell subscriptions, integrate payment gateways, and utilize flexible pricing and packaging options.

The platform boasts a solid assessment engine with robust quizzing options and supports live sessions. Unique verification URLs and LinkedIn certification sharing are standout features that add significant value to your program. It also offers the ability to add training seats to Salesforce contracts, granting access and tracking progress for clear revenue recognition.

Advantages

• Intuitive for learners
• Multi-tenancy
• eCommerce ready
• Advanced certificate builder
• Excellent support

Disadvantages

• Complex course setup
• The reporting tool lacks customization options
• Limited design customization
• Not enough options for lesson types and quiz questions
• Limited social interactivity

Pricing plans

Not disclosed.

10. Trainn

CUSTOMER REVIEWS:
4.7 out of 5

Trainn is a customer training platform that specializes in video-based training. It offers a complete video tool kit that allows you to create and edit videos (some of the capabilities: voice-overs and subtitles, automatic voice overs, branding), share videos with one click, and access video analytics.

You can also record any workflow, and Trainn will automatically generate screenshots, write descriptions, and deliver a shareable link for your brand-new guide. Its zero code academy builder allows you to design your own academy complete with a knowledge base, quizzes, and certifications.

Advantages

• Intuitive
• Excellent customer support
• Video toolkit
• Academy builder
• Automatic voice overs in multiple languages

Disadvantages

• Lacks in-depth reporting
• Video editor has some limitations
• Occasional bugs
• Lacks built-in integrations
• Learning curve

Pricing plans

Trainn offers a 14-day free trial and the following plans:

• Starter – $49/mo
• Plus – $149/mo
• Business – request quote
• Enterprise – request quote

11. CloudShare

CUSTOMER REVIEWS:
4.6 out of 5

CloudShare is a cloud-based customer education software that enables you to create virtual learning environments (labs) and engaging experiences with built-in chat functionality and file-sharing capabilities. It is easy to set up – you can even clone environments with just a click. CloudShare is ideal for onboarding as it allows you to build training environments that replicate your product, so customers can play around with it and reset everything with just one click.

CloudShare offers multiple integrations. It also offers real-time updates on user activity and allows you to set up an automation to automatically suspend or delete your customer environments when they’re not in use.

Advantages

• Easy set up
• Lab environment
• Rich communication tools
• Good customer support
• Cloudshare folder

Disadvantages

• Frequent slowdowns/laggy
• Clunky UI
• Limited UI design customization
• Occasional bugs
• Limited features

Pricing plans

Not disclosed.

12. Intellum

CUSTOMER REVIEWS:
4.4 out of 5

Intellum is a powerful customer education platform with a beautiful, user-friendly UI. The platform lets you segment your customers, create branded learning environments, and design personalized learning experiences based on user activity and profiles. It offers a centralized asset library from where you can mix and match content to create learning paths and collections.

The recommendation engine automatically suggests content, topics, and events based on the individual user’s activity, history, and preferences. The platform also offers advanced gamification like reputation, credentials, leaderboards, and challenges, and a built-in community. Intellum supports permissions and versioning to help streamline content creation.

Advantages

• Beautiful User interface
• Highly customizable design
• Content recommendation engine
• Assets library
• Built-in content authoring

Disadvantages

• Not very intuitive for admins
• Limited design customization
• Needs more integrations
• Needs more customizable reporting
• No AI

Pricing plans

Not disclosed.

Moving Forward With Customer Training

Customer education is critical for improving customer satisfaction and preventing churn. But in order to build a successful customer training academy that will satisfy your customers and meet your evolving needs, you’ll need a feature-rich and flexible platform.

LearnWorlds is the customer training software you’ve been looking for – easy to use, customizable, and scalable. Join thousands of happy customers and try LearnWorlds now with a 30-day free trial!

Further reading you might find interesting:

• The 19 Best Learning Management Systems
• SCORM 101: The Definitive Guide to Choose a SCORM Compliant LMS
• 10 Best WordPress LMS Plugins Comparison
• 7 Top Budget-Friendly Learning Management Systems
• 10 Best Customer Education Platforms
• 10 Best Mobile Learning Management Systems

The post Top 12 Customer Training Software in 2024 appeared first on LearnWorlds.

Udemy has over 70 million learners, making it a first choice for anyone looking to launch their initial courses.

This said, one of the biggest benefits of using Udemy is that it allows you to test different course formats and topics before you venture into investing more in your courses.

That’s also why I started using Udemy at some point. Despite being a marketer myself, I didn’t have the time to market my own courses. On top of this, I wasn’t sure some of the more unique topics I was tackling would attract students.

Udemy seemed like the perfect option to get rid of these challenges. And it did. Except I got to a point where I simply needed to scale to see the profit. And Udemy was taking a huge chunk of my earnings while putting the popular course creators in the forefront.

Small, up-and-coming instructors had no chance of scoring a top spot within their course page results for popular topics. I did, however, manage to get one of my topics for beginners to be popular. For a short while, though. So, I was stuck creating lots of smaller courses for lesser-known topics. A huge waste of time since the earnings were minimal.

What I wish I knew at the time is that I should have invested straightaway in an Udemy alternative like LearnWorlds that would let me create and sell online courses from my website and keep 100% of the profits from course sales.

So, in this guide, I’m showing you how to sell your courses on Udemy, given the competitive market. Plus, I’ll be covering some of the better options you have to make sure you’re not losing out on the profits.

Step-by-Step Guide to Sell Your Course on Udemy

To make this list easy to use, I’ve broken down the process of selling your course on Udemy into actionable steps:

1. Setting up an Udemy Instructor account

To become an Udemy instructor you first need to create a regular student account. You’ll then have to go through a series of quick steps that are meant to give Udemy more insights into your teaching background.

And that’s it. You’re in! Udemy is built for experienced and beginner instructors alike, so there’s no gated process or pre-approvals needed so you can create your first course.

Remember your new profile will come with a public bio page:

You can add the basics now and edit it later once you’ve picked out a niche and have a rough idea of what makes you stand out as an Udemy instructor.

2. Choosing a niche

Choosing a niche is important for two core reasons:

1. It helps you build trust, positioning you as a go-to expert in your field.
2. You simply won’t have the time to focus on multiple niches at the same time. Or rather, you can’t do it all well.

For me, picking a niche was easy. I took what I was best at and stuck with it. In my case, that was organic digital marketing, but there are hundreds of niches to pick from:

• Programming languages
• Web development
• Data science and machine learning
• Mobile app development
• Cybersecurity
• Entrepreneurship
• Project management
• Productivity
• Leadership
• Career development
• Graphic design
• Photography
• Music
• Art and drawing
• Fitness training
• Nutrition
• Mental health
• Language
• Finance
• Sales

Tip: You can even create a new niche yourself or leverage upcoming trends to be the first to tackle the topics with a Udemy course. This will give you a headstart in that space and also prompt students to follow your courses if they want to stay on top of trends.

3. Preparing your equipment

You should invest in basic equipment even at the beginning. A decent camera, mic, and video editing program will do.

It all depends on your course’s format, though. My first courses were screen-shared. I took a presentation and just talked on top of it. While years ago, when I started, this was enough, simply having good information to share isn’t enough. You need the professional camera and audio setup to convince students to choose you over other instructors — in other words, to look like a pro.

Besides this, there are also Udemy’s own quality requirements you need to follow.

I learned this the hard way and ended up with an entire set of videos that weren’t recorded at the right size. And yes, I had to film it all again.

Here’s what Udemy’s minimum course requirements checklist looks like:

• At least 30 minutes of video content
• At least 5 separate lectures
• Valuable educational content (learn more)
• HD video quality (720p or 1080p): videos exceeding an aspect ratio of 16:9 are automatically re-modified to 16:9. If the quality is poor, Udemy’s Quality Review Team may reject the video.
• Audio that comes out of both channels and is synced to video
• Audio quality that is not distracting to students
• A unique course landing page
  • A course image in line with Udemy image standards
  • A course title and subtitle that includes relevant keywords
  • A course description with more than 200 words
  • A completed intended learners section
  • A complete instructor bio and profile picture

4. Relying on the Udemy Marketplace Insights to choose topics

On Udemy, you can’t just create a course for the topics you’re best at. You need to go beyond this and analyze what Udemy’s student base actually wants to learn.

Unfortunately, I didn’t use Udemy Marketplace Insights because the tool wasn’t ready at the time. Still, this is a very useful tool for understanding if investing your time into a course is worth it.

Let’s take a widely covered course topic like Digital Marketing as an example:

You’ll immediately get Udemy’s best recommendations for this topic, and trust me, they’re accurate.

For Digital Marketing, despite the high demand, there are already too many courses out there. So, while Udemy recommends getting high ratings to succeed in the topic (and this is super true!), it’s practically impossible to do this as a beginner.

You’d either need pre-existing credibility on Udemy or an external audience you can bring into Udemy. Note you wouldn’t really do the latter since having an audience means you could sell your own courses on your platform without having to share profits with Udemy.

That’s why only 8.2% of enrollments for courses on Digital Marketing come from outside sources:

You could use the same tool to get some better ideas for topics of interest, though:

The problem is that Udemy has over 75000 instructors. So most of the big topics with a higher demand have already been covered. There’s no solution to this problem besides the extreme ones:

• Only creating a course when a new topic appears OR
• Finding an alternative to Udemy that won’t burry you behind thousands of other courses

Tip: Just before you hit search, Udemy’s Marketplace Insights will give you a list of promising topics you can focus on:

5. Take a look at your competition and find what makes you unique

The same Udemy Marketplace Insights will showcase the top-earning courses for a given topic:

I analyzed competitors a lot whenever I felt like I wasn’t getting the traction I wanted. Your courses can always be tweaked after you’ve published them to make sure they stand out. Your competitors are already doing this, and it would be great for your online business.

Plus, looking at other course offerings means you can identify what makes you stand out. I recommend doing this even before you create your new course strategy. This will allow you to incorporate some of these unique elements into the courses’ curriculum and subsequent promotion strategies (such as offering a free course).

I kept it simple and focused on delivering a step-by-step, detailed approach to everything. This meant my students could immediately apply the courses’ learnings. Plus, I was getting this feedback from their reviews. A lot of reviews will TELL you why you’re unique, so you don’t even have to worry about determining the value of your online course.

Still, here are some other ways in which you can stand out on the Udemy platform:

• Bring on a co-instructor
• Invest in good audio and video equipment
• Focus on the way you engage with your students
• Keep your course content updated
• Use case studies, practical examples, and real-world scenarios
• Provide additional resources (e.g. PDFs, templates, links)
• Focus on niche topics within your area of expertise

6. Creating your course

Drop an eye over our guide to a successful online course creation first.

When it comes to an Udemy course in particular, remember to stick to their minimum requirements checklist and try to deliver more than competing courses do.

Start by creating your course outline, and gradually build your course content, adding your learning activities to each section based on topic relevance.

7. Choosing how you’ll market your course

You have endless marketing opportunities to sell your course on Udemy. This means you can use any traditional and digital marketing opportunity like social media, email marketing, content marketing, ads, coupon sharing, PR, and more.

Udemy does offer its own tools for promoting your courses within its platform.

The most important part? Building a community.

On the left side of your Udemy instructor dashboard, you’ll find an entire Communication section:

This is where you can keep in touch with your students, answer their questions, review assignments, and, above all, send instructor announcements.

Always read their communication rules and guidelines before sending anything, though.

External links you add should always lead to educational content. You can’t use Udemy’s announcements to promote other products you sell or lead students to gated content.

You do have some level of freedom to experiment with these announcements though. For instance, you can link to Google Hangouts on Air, Spreecast, or GoToMeeting and host your own webinars. These are a fun idea if you want to build a one-on-one relationship with students and give them an extra opportunity to learn. Plus, live events can be a unique selling point too if you have the time to host them regularly.

Here are 30 popular ideas on how to promote your online courses.

8. Updating your courses regularly

This is where I stopped.

Hosting my courses on Udemy was becoming more of an active job as opposed to earning me the passive income I was hoping for.

However, having up-to-date content is what’s going to keep you at the top of the course results for years. How often you update an Udemy course depends on how fast-paced your industry is. This paid course in marketing, for example, gets updated every single month:

Core points you should update regularly in your Udemy course include:

• Content accuracy in every tutorial
• Videos, quizzes, assignments, and extra resources
• Case studies and examples
• References to software, tools, and technologies
• Legal and compliance Information

The Best Alternative to Sell Your Courses

While Udemy is a great place to test your first courses and even create an initial audience, it’s not the best option once you scale.

If Udemy isn’t the right fit for you, then an online course platform or a course-only marketplace might be the right option.

LearnWorlds, the Best Cloud-Based Course Platform

LearnWorlds stands out as the best eLearning solution; you can create, market, and sell online courses. With its suite of cutting-edge features, LearnWorlds provides everything you need to effectively monetize your expertise and engage with your students.

At its core, LearnWorlds boasts a powerful AI assistant that streamlines course creation. It also features a robust no-code Website Builder and a Mobile App Builder, enabling you to craft fully branded mobile learning experiences.

While Udemy keeps a significant percentage of sales, LearnWorlds takes a different approach:

• You keep all the profit from course sales.
• Complete control over pricing.
• Allows you to collect and keep all your students’ data.
• Allows you to host your course on your own website.
• You keep control of your brand & content.

Take a look at LearnWorlds with a 30-day free trial and start building your first course.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is it worth selling courses on Udemy?

Think of Udemy as better suited for testing out your instructor’s capabilities and market demands. There are no upfront costs, but Udemy takes a significant cut of your course sales, which can be as high as 50% or more, depending on how students find your course (e.g., through Udemy’s own promotions or your marketing efforts).

How much can you make selling on Udemy?

The Udemy Marketplace Insights will give you an estimate of how much you can expect to earn. A Web Design course, for instance, has a median monthly revenue of $20/month and a top monthly revenue of $3,672/month. This said, with the massive chunk of money Udemy takes from your earnings, you’ll need to become one of the top instructors to earn significant sums.

What courses make the most money on Udemy?

As long as you have one of the most popular courses for your topic of choice, you’re all set. However, some courses in high-demand categories, such as Web Development, Marketing, or Finance, will help you earn more. For Web Development, the top monthly revenue is $42,106/month, but there’s a lot of competition. With so many instructors, the median monthly revenue is a mere $18/month.

The post How to Sell Your Course on Udemy and What Alternatives to Consider appeared first on LearnWorlds.

Udemy has over 70 million learners, making it a first choice for anyone looking to launch their initial courses.

This said, one of the biggest benefits of using Udemy is that it allows you to test different course formats and topics before you venture into investing more in your courses.

That’s also why I started using Udemy at some point. Despite being a marketer myself, I didn’t have the time to market my own courses. On top of this, I wasn’t sure some of the more unique topics I was tackling would attract students.

Udemy seemed like the perfect option to get rid of these challenges. And it did. Except I got to a point where I simply needed to scale to see the profit. And Udemy was taking a huge chunk of my earnings while putting the popular course creators in the forefront.

Small, up-and-coming instructors had no chance of scoring a top spot within their course page results for popular topics. I did, however, manage to get one of my topics for beginners to be popular. For a short while, though. So, I was stuck creating lots of smaller courses for lesser-known topics. A huge waste of time since the earnings were minimal.

What I wish I knew at the time is that I should have invested straightaway in an Udemy alternative like LearnWorlds that would let me create and sell online courses from my website and keep 100% of the profits from course sales.

So, in this guide, I’m showing you how to sell your courses on Udemy, given the competitive market. Plus, I’ll be covering some of the better options you have to make sure you’re not losing out on the profits.

Step-by-Step Guide to Sell Your Course on Udemy

To make this list easy to use, I’ve broken down the process of selling your course on Udemy into actionable steps:

1. Setting up an Udemy Instructor account

To become an Udemy instructor you first need to create a regular student account. You’ll then have to go through a series of quick steps that are meant to give Udemy more insights into your teaching background.

And that’s it. You’re in! Udemy is built for experienced and beginner instructors alike, so there’s no gated process or pre-approvals needed so you can create your first course.

Remember your new profile will come with a public bio page:

You can add the basics now and edit it later once you’ve picked out a niche and have a rough idea of what makes you stand out as an Udemy instructor.

2. Choosing a niche

Choosing a niche is important for two core reasons:

1. It helps you build trust, positioning you as a go-to expert in your field.
2. You simply won’t have the time to focus on multiple niches at the same time. Or rather, you can’t do it all well.

For me, picking a niche was easy. I took what I was best at and stuck with it. In my case, that was organic digital marketing, but there are hundreds of niches to pick from:

• Programming languages
• Web development
• Data science and machine learning
• Mobile app development
• Cybersecurity
• Entrepreneurship
• Project management
• Productivity
• Leadership
• Career development
• Graphic design
• Photography
• Music
• Art and drawing
• Fitness training
• Nutrition
• Mental health
• Language
• Finance
• Sales

Tip: You can even create a new niche yourself or leverage upcoming trends to be the first to tackle the topics with a Udemy course. This will give you a headstart in that space and also prompt students to follow your courses if they want to stay on top of trends.

3. Preparing your equipment

You should invest in basic equipment even at the beginning. A decent camera, mic, and video editing program will do.

It all depends on your course’s format, though. My first courses were screen-shared. I took a presentation and just talked on top of it. While years ago, when I started, this was enough, simply having good information to share isn’t enough. You need the professional camera and audio setup to convince students to choose you over other instructors — in other words, to look like a pro.

Besides this, there are also Udemy’s own quality requirements you need to follow.

I learned this the hard way and ended up with an entire set of videos that weren’t recorded at the right size. And yes, I had to film it all again.

Here’s what Udemy’s minimum course requirements checklist looks like:

• At least 30 minutes of video content
• At least 5 separate lectures
• Valuable educational content (learn more)
• HD video quality (720p or 1080p): videos exceeding an aspect ratio of 16:9 are automatically re-modified to 16:9. If the quality is poor, Udemy’s Quality Review Team may reject the video.
• Audio that comes out of both channels and is synced to video
• Audio quality that is not distracting to students
• A unique course landing page
  • A course image in line with Udemy image standards
  • A course title and subtitle that includes relevant keywords
  • A course description with more than 200 words
  • A completed intended learners section
  • A complete instructor bio and profile picture

4. Relying on the Udemy Marketplace Insights to choose topics

On Udemy, you can’t just create a course for the topics you’re best at. You need to go beyond this and analyze what Udemy’s student base actually wants to learn.

Unfortunately, I didn’t use Udemy Marketplace Insights because the tool wasn’t ready at the time. Still, this is a very useful tool for understanding if investing your time into a course is worth it.

Let’s take a widely covered course topic like Digital Marketing as an example:

You’ll immediately get Udemy’s best recommendations for this topic, and trust me, they’re accurate.

For Digital Marketing, despite the high demand, there are already too many courses out there. So, while Udemy recommends getting high ratings to succeed in the topic (and this is super true!), it’s practically impossible to do this as a beginner.

You’d either need pre-existing credibility on Udemy or an external audience you can bring into Udemy. Note you wouldn’t really do the latter since having an audience means you could sell your own courses on your platform without having to share profits with Udemy.

That’s why only 8.2% of enrollments for courses on Digital Marketing come from outside sources:

You could use the same tool to get some better ideas for topics of interest, though:

The problem is that Udemy has over 75000 instructors. So most of the big topics with a higher demand have already been covered. There’s no solution to this problem besides the extreme ones:

• Only creating a course when a new topic appears OR
• Finding an alternative to Udemy that won’t burry you behind thousands of other courses

Tip: Just before you hit search, Udemy’s Marketplace Insights will give you a list of promising topics you can focus on:

5. Take a look at your competition and find what makes you unique

The same Udemy Marketplace Insights will showcase the top-earning courses for a given topic:

I analyzed competitors a lot whenever I felt like I wasn’t getting the traction I wanted. Your courses can always be tweaked after you’ve published them to make sure they stand out. Your competitors are already doing this, and it would be great for your online business.

Plus, looking at other course offerings means you can identify what makes you stand out. I recommend doing this even before you create your new course strategy. This will allow you to incorporate some of these unique elements into the courses’ curriculum and subsequent promotion strategies (such as offering a free course).

I kept it simple and focused on delivering a step-by-step, detailed approach to everything. This meant my students could immediately apply the courses’ learnings. Plus, I was getting this feedback from their reviews. A lot of reviews will TELL you why you’re unique, so you don’t even have to worry about determining the value of your online course.

Still, here are some other ways in which you can stand out on the Udemy platform:

• Bring on a co-instructor
• Invest in good audio and video equipment
• Focus on the way you engage with your students
• Keep your course content updated
• Use case studies, practical examples, and real-world scenarios
• Provide additional resources (e.g. PDFs, templates, links)
• Focus on niche topics within your area of expertise

6. Creating your course

Drop an eye over our guide to a successful online course creation first.

When it comes to an Udemy course in particular, remember to stick to their minimum requirements checklist and try to deliver more than competing courses do.

Start by creating your course outline, and gradually build your course content, adding your learning activities to each section based on topic relevance.

7. Choosing how you’ll market your course

You have endless marketing opportunities to sell your course on Udemy. This means you can use any traditional and digital marketing opportunity like social media, email marketing, content marketing, ads, coupon sharing, PR, and more.

Udemy does offer its own tools for promoting your courses within its platform.

The most important part? Building a community.

On the left side of your Udemy instructor dashboard, you’ll find an entire Communication section:

This is where you can keep in touch with your students, answer their questions, review assignments, and, above all, send instructor announcements.

Always read their communication rules and guidelines before sending anything, though.

External links you add should always lead to educational content. You can’t use Udemy’s announcements to promote other products you sell or lead students to gated content.

You do have some level of freedom to experiment with these announcements though. For instance, you can link to Google Hangouts on Air, Spreecast, or GoToMeeting and host your own webinars. These are a fun idea if you want to build a one-on-one relationship with students and give them an extra opportunity to learn. Plus, live events can be a unique selling point too if you have the time to host them regularly.

Here are 30 popular ideas on how to promote your online courses.

8. Updating your courses regularly

This is where I stopped.

Hosting my courses on Udemy was becoming more of an active job as opposed to earning me the passive income I was hoping for.

However, having up-to-date content is what’s going to keep you at the top of the course results for years. How often you update an Udemy course depends on how fast-paced your industry is. This paid course in marketing, for example, gets updated every single month:

Core points you should update regularly in your Udemy course include:

• Content accuracy in every tutorial
• Videos, quizzes, assignments, and extra resources
• Case studies and examples
• References to software, tools, and technologies
• Legal and compliance Information

The Best Alternative to Sell Your Courses

While Udemy is a great place to test your first courses and even create an initial audience, it’s not the best option once you scale.

If Udemy isn’t the right fit for you, then an online course platform or a course-only marketplace might be the right option.

LearnWorlds, the Best Cloud-Based Course Platform

LearnWorlds stands out as the best eLearning solution; you can create, market, and sell online courses. With its suite of cutting-edge features, LearnWorlds provides everything you need to effectively monetize your expertise and engage with your students.

At its core, LearnWorlds boasts a powerful AI assistant that streamlines course creation. It also features a robust no-code Website Builder and a Mobile App Builder, enabling you to craft fully branded mobile learning experiences.

While Udemy keeps a significant percentage of sales, LearnWorlds takes a different approach:

• You keep all the profit from course sales.
• Complete control over pricing.
• Allows you to collect and keep all your students’ data.
• Allows you to host your course on your own website.
• You keep control of your brand & content.

Take a look at LearnWorlds with a 30-day free trial and start building your first course.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is it worth selling courses on Udemy?

Think of Udemy as better suited for testing out your instructor’s capabilities and market demands. There are no upfront costs, but Udemy takes a significant cut of your course sales, which can be as high as 50% or more, depending on how students find your course (e.g., through Udemy’s own promotions or your marketing efforts).

How much can you make selling on Udemy?

The Udemy Marketplace Insights will give you an estimate of how much you can expect to earn. A Web Design course, for instance, has a median monthly revenue of $20/month and a top monthly revenue of $3,672/month. This said, with the massive chunk of money Udemy takes from your earnings, you’ll need to become one of the top instructors to earn significant sums.

What courses make the most money on Udemy?

As long as you have one of the most popular courses for your topic of choice, you’re all set. However, some courses in high-demand categories, such as Web Development, Marketing, or Finance, will help you earn more. For Web Development, the top monthly revenue is $42,106/month, but there’s a lot of competition. With so many instructors, the median monthly revenue is a mere $18/month.

The post How to Sell Your Course on Udemy appeared first on LearnWorlds.

75% of companies don’t have DEI training in their leadership development programs, according to The Real Story of Diversity and Inclusion report.

But if you’re reading this, you’re part of the 25% that cares about diversity, equity, and inclusion. You want your company to lead differently when it comes to creating a more inclusive and equitable workplace, which is reasonable, considering DEI training fosters healthy and inclusive work environments.

DEI training or ‘inclusion training’ is more important than just fulfilling a mandatory requirement. It’s an opportunity to truly drive positive change. For it to be successful, it needs to come from the business strategy, be owned by the entire organization, and then be backed up by HR initiatives – it cannot exist within a vacuum.

With that, let’s look at why your organization needs to prioritize DEI strategy and training and how to ensure its success.

What is DEI Training?

DEI training is a type of professional training that teaches a company’s workforce how to create a work environment that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive for all. If done right, this training becomes an integral part of your company’s business strategy. It addresses the more covert and disguised forms of biases, underlying prejudice, and structural inequity, which are often based on race, sexual orientation, socioeconomic or ethnic background.

DEI is an abbreviation that stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion:

• Diversity: Diversity is the presence/ representation of differences including, but not limited to, race, gender, identity, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, language, physical or mental ability, and age. Unlike equity and inclusion, diversity is more obvious and often quantifiable.
• Equity: Equity promotes impartiality, fairness, and equal access to opportunities, advancement, and participation. Equity addresses structural inequalities and barriers; it means providing people with an equal amount of resources based on their unique circumstances.
• Inclusion: Inclusion is creating and fostering an environment where everyone, including members of traditionally underrepresented or marginalized groups, feels respected, welcome, and psychologically safe.

The training addresses people’s overlooked pain points and encourages open dialogues around uncomfortable and less discussed topics.

The Importance of DEI Training

As we’ve established, DEI training can be a powerful tool when executed properly, not only for the employees but also for the company’s bottom line. In the 2021 Happiness Index report by CNBC|SurveyMonkey Workforce, it was found that 78% of workers say it is important to them to work at an organization that prioritizes workplace diversity and inclusion.

Imagine being able to attract and retain top talent to your organization. That’s what having a dedicated and effective diversity, equity, and inclusion training program will do for you. Showing employees you care about their safety and well-being indirectly increases their job satisfaction; better job satisfaction means higher productivity and greater profits!

3 Benefits of DEI Training

In addition to attracting and retaining top talent and increasing your organization’s profits, there are a host of other benefits, too – let’s explore them:

⁃ Employee happiness

A survey revealed that workers are happier when they are pleased with their company’s DEI efforts. A diverse workforce and inclusive culture help employees feel a greater sense of belonging and connection. They don’t feel isolated but valued and welcomed regardless of their background or who they are. A happy employee is engaged, productive, and more invested in their work.

⁃ Improved company reputation

Millennials, Gen Z workers, and consumers are more socially conscious than ever. These groups require companies today to show their dedication to issues that concern workers and society, like diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Google, for example, has been leading the industry in DEI training and initiatives, and according to employees, people feel more comfortable discussing race and ethnicity openly.

On the other hand, makeup brand Youthforia is an example of a company with a ruined reputation because of poor DEI training. They were recently caught up in a scandal and accused of not being diverse or inclusive after releasing a foundation shade intended to match the darkest of skin tones. After launching the product, multiple dark-skin creators tried the brand and verified that the shade was in fact, jet black. No undertones. Just black.

This scandal revealed Youthforia to be lacking in the diversity department. They rushed to release a product that wasn’t vetted or tested on people with dark skin tones. The launch and rollout of this product was lazy and showed a lack of empathy and unfortunately, has tainted their reputation.

⁃ Innovation

With greater DEI efforts, you attract talent from various backgrounds with different skills, perspectives, and experiences. These people bring different characters and innovative ideas that elevate the organization. DEI training also makes existing staff feel more respected and embraced in the company, encouraging them to contribute more.

Types of DEI Training Programs

DEI training comes in different types and is carried out for a multitude of reasons. For instance, if your organization has a geographically distributed workforce, then you could carry out diversity, cultural sensitivity, and possibly microaggression training.

It’s important to know the different types so you choose the best one based on your company goals and strategies. Here are some common types:

• Basic Diversity Training: this training is useful to educate employees on issues surrounding race, ethnicity, gender identity, religion and sexual orientation. It’s a great foundation for organizations that want to build a more inclusive workplace.
• Cultural Sensitivity Training: cultural sensitivity training helps employees be mindful of cultural nuances when interacting with co-workers, clients, and partners. This type of training empowers employees to build authentic and respectful relationships with their co-workers.
• Microaggressions Training: this training helps employees identify instances of micro-aggressive behavior, like comments about weight, outward appearance, or racial stereotypes. It helps minimize these occurrences and creates less hostile work environments.
• Unconscious Bias Training: the goal of this specific program is to remove any biases formed by social conditioning and stereotyping. It helps people recognize their hidden biases and stops words or actions that may cause unintentional harm.
• Allyship Training: this training educates employees on how to support and advocate for people with fewer privileges by understanding their challenges, recognizing personal privileges, and learning practical support strategies.
• Inclusive Leadership Training: this training aims to equip leaders with the skills to create and sustain inclusive work environments. It teaches strategies for managing diverse teams and fostering a culture of belonging. The goal is to enable leaders to champion DEI initiatives effectively.
• Anti-racism Training: this type of training helps participants understand and combat systemic racism by providing historical context and explanations on how racism manifests. It teaches participants to identify and challenge racist behaviors and structures, promoting racial justice and equity in their environments.
• Disability Awareness Training: this training educates employees about various disabilities and the challenges faced by individuals with disabilities. It covers accessibility, inclusive language, and reasonable accommodations, aiming to create a more inclusive and accessible environment for everyone, regardless of their abilities.

Different types of DEI training can be leveraged to different ends depending on your organization’s needs and culture. So, when choosing what to focus your training on, remember that every company is unique, and no two companies will require precisely the same kinds of training. Let’s explore a few topics you should include in every DEI training program.

Topics to Cover in DEI Training Programs

The topics covered in DEI training will depend on the type of training being taught and your organization’s goals. However, you should include certain topics in every type of training. Let’s take a look at some of them:

• Difference between diversity, inclusion, and equity: Define what DEI is so people understand what the program and training entail.
• Self-reflection: This exercise should be the starting point of every training as it encourages people to look within themselves and identify their own biases.
• Workplace scenarios: Role plays and case studies that mimic everyday office scenarios will uncover how small behaviors can have large impacts on people in the workplace.
• Deliberate Inclusion: Yes, training employees to be inclusive is beneficial, but what’s even more effective is giving them actionable tools for how they should treat their peers and approach conflict in the workplace.

Every topic covered in DEI training should provide flexible tools that can help foster inclusive attitudes and improve workplace culture. It should also create opportunities for feedback and dialogue and improve everyday relations between team members.

With your knowledge of the different types of training programs and the topics they cover, let’s examine the steps you need to take to build an effective one.

How to Build an Effective DEI Training Program

Here are 4 steps to building an effective DEI training program for your organization:

• Assess your organization’s training needs

  To build a successful DEI training program, you need first to identify the areas where your team/ company may need extra education and training. Also, as part of your assessment, define the goals and objectives of the training program before building a curriculum. This will help guide you throughout the process and efficiently evaluate its success.

• Pick the topics to be covered

  Once you’ve defined the training goals, tailor the topics taught to achieve the objectives. For instance, if your assessment reveals division within the teams, consider conducting inclusivity training to build more connection and community. If on the other hand, your organization interacts with clients all over the world, carry out a cultural diversity training program.

  In addition to this, speak to your employees, find out what training they would like to have, and develop programs that cater to their specific requests.

• Choose the right format

  The next step is choosing the right training format. Today, many training formats exist, including webinars, e-learning modules, interactive games, and seminars.

  Picking the right format is vital to the success of your DEI training because it helps motivate and engage whoever is taking it. But you don’t need to be rigid with the format. You can go with one method at first, get feedback from staff, and then make adjustments.

  Check out our comprehensive guide to teaching online to ensure success in your training programs!

• Evaluate the success of the training program

  This step is a great way to measure the success of your training program. Tracking results is not easy, so get a list of your desired metrics to monitor. One thing you can do is create a course evaluation framework to get honest and constructive feedback from employees.

  Ask open-ended questions like, “What would you improve about this course and how?”. It not only gives you valuable and robust information from different perspectives but also gives your employees a voice and makes them feel heard.

Examples of DEI Training Courses

In this section, we’ve featured 3 existing and successful DEI training programs to give you inspiration on what to look out for when building your program or choosing the right one for your employees.

Know More is a DEI training agency that helps organizations build greater diversity, create inclusive workplaces, and uncover unconscious biases that impede inclusivity.

Course Overview + Outcome: This program helps leaders build their competence and confidence and recognize behaviors needed to grow the organization from an equitable perspective. Successful completion of this program prepares leaders to head diverse teams effectively. The training also equips you to address social issues affecting vulnerable populations and promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging within the organization.

Price: $3,950

Who should attend: Leaders at all levels, HR professionals, or others who are responsible for or wish to take responsibility for diversity and inclusion in their organization.

Location/format: In-person workshops + online learning

Length: 3 months + Capstone Project

Course Overview: This program is for organizations that care about building and leading diverse and inclusive teams. Throughout this course, attendees will be taught by expert DEI trainers, who will help them gain personal awareness of how they show up in diverse settings. The program will also equip them with evidence-based tools for becoming better allies and change advocates. At the end of the course, your team will have learned better conflict management skills and how best to regulate emotions.

Price: $2,000

Who should attend: Team leaders, managers, and employees with desires to create and develop an accepting, diverse, and inclusive workplace.

Location/format: Asynchronous & Synchronous sessions

Length: 5 weeks

Course Overview: This is a 3-day certificate program for leaders at all levels to develop skills to become diversity champions and go beyond the standard DEI training. This course teaches attendees how to recognize and celebrate the uniqueness and individuality of each person in the organization and how to identify and understand hidden biases on a deeper level.

Price: $3,295 non-members/$2,995 AMA members

Who should attend: Leaders at all levels, HR professionals, or anyone who wants to take responsibility for diversity and inclusion in their organization.

Location/format: In-person/ Live Online/ On-site

Length: 3 days

DEI training FAQs

Are there ways to measure diversity and inclusion within an organization? If so, how?

Some areas that you can look at include the diversity of your staff; assess how varied your workers are in race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender, and also how that diversity is spread across leadership teams. For inclusivity, measure employee engagement, retention rate, and happiness.

Does having a diverse organization help with employee retention?

Not on its own. People need to feel valued, connected and welcomed in an organization, and if they don’t, no level of diversity will make them stay.

How can a company promote diversity and inclusion within the organization?

Firstly, emphasize the importance of diversity and inclusion in the company during the hiring process and training sessions. Also, make sure there is a culture of accountability when it comes to DEI, so if employees behave in ways that don’t foster an inclusive workplace, they should be given instructions on how to correct their behavior.

What are the benefits of getting a DEI certification?

As an individual, DEI training helps you become more well-rounded. You gain a deeper understanding of the world around you and how you can help create a more just and equitable society. It also helps you build trust and credibility with your colleagues.

How can bias be eliminated from the hiring process?

Regardless of how good your intentions may be, when it comes to diversity and inclusion, some unconscious biases may creep in during the hiring process. To avoid this, your company can use a blind hiring process, which can include a blind resume practice, where you black out all the personal information on resumes—such as addresses, dates of birth, and gender —so that you’re not using these factors to evaluate candidates.

Create an Equitable, Diverse, and Inclusive Environment For Your Employees

DEI training will only be successful if you are intentional about it. To make sure it’s not one-and-done and truly engrained into the company culture, you need first to define what success looks like at the start of the training.

Also, make sure it is owned by C-suite executives and leaders on all levels to drive implementation. Include it in the company’s culture, encouraging inclusive behaviors, creating ongoing strategic initiatives, and having each training facilitated by trained professionals.

Diversity, equity, and inclusivity training begin at the onboarding stage; it is continuous, and you can always refine it along the way. Get started by leveraging a robust learning platform like LearnWorlds to host your organization’s training, or choose from one of our many courses and expand your knowledge on DEI initiatives.

Further reading you might find interesting:

• How to Start a Profitable Online Course Business From Scratch
• Knowledge Economy: How to Sell Knowledge Online
• How to Teach Online: Your Handbook to Success

The post What is DEI Training: Benefits, Types, and Examples appeared first on LearnWorlds.

Most businesses offer some level of employee training, whether it’s formal and well-structured or on-the-job training that happens spontaneously.

But did you know that, in many cases, you need to train your customers as well? Just like employees, customers also need help mastering a product that has multiple features and use cases.

This “help” comes in the form of a customer training program – a set of initiatives like live or on-demand webinars, online learning courses, setup guides, and knowledge bases that support your customers’ journey.

The benefits of customer education for your business are undeniable. Customer education helps during the critical phase of onboarding and throughout the customer lifecycle, boosting loyalty and helping you build a business that withstands competition.

Similarly, not offering a customer education program can negatively impact core business metrics and your bottom line. But which metrics are tied to customer training? And what other parameters should you take into account?

If you’re unsure whether your business needs a customer education program or not (and let us tell you right now – chances are that it does), you’re in the right place. Here are 10 tell-tale signs you need to offer customer education now!

Is it Time for a Customer Education Program? Here’s How to Tell

The truth is that all businesses can benefit from a customer education program. But, in some cases, the need is even more urgent. If most of the following statements stand true for your business, then it’s time to roll up your sleeves and start working on one!

Low feature adoption is one of the most obvious signs that you need to offer customer enablement right now. When customers underutilize features, they are either unaware of them and their benefits or have trouble using them.

Low feature usage concerns both old and new features that go undiscovered by existing customers – which is a reminder of how customers need support throughout their customer journey and not just during the early stages.

To accurately measure product usage, don’t forget to use analytics tools to check website and in-app user behavior. You can also use product analytics tools to measure the frequency of usage, number of clicks, and time spent with specific features. For more detailed feedback, you can roll out surveys and set up user interviews or focus groups.

If your customer support team struggles with a large amount of incoming tickets, that’s a clear indication that your customers need help navigating your product. Develop a customer education strategy with a comprehensive knowledge base with support articles and some step-by-step tutorials will take a load off your agents’ plates and reduce customer support costs.

Speed and quality of responses is an issue that needs to be addressed urgently by any business. The level of customer support has a huge impact on customer satisfaction – something which is evident from the fact that most customer reviews, especially for tech products, comment very strongly on the level of customer service provided.

Perhaps your customer support team is not overwhelmed with tickets, but they still receive recurring questions on specific functionalities or use cases (“How can I…”). This is another case where you must develop training content to address the issue.

Your customer success team can also give you valuable insights into what customers repeatedly need help with. Make sure you have a proper documentation process in place to keep track of customer requests.

Does your list of free-trial users who never convert to customers grow longer and longer? That’s a surefire sign that they need more support during onboarding. Maybe they have trouble navigating the product or using specific features that are useful to them but hard to figure out.

An updated knowledge base with setup manuals and guides, support articles, and live or recorded interactive demos, are very helpful for successful customer onboarding.

To find out what’s wrong (and reverse the situation), include an exit survey where the user will give their reason for not signing up. Use product analytics tools to see which features prospective customers have used and which went unnoticed or were abandoned, as this will indicate areas they need support with.

Similar to low conversion rates, early customer churn indicates that new customers did not have the customer experience they were expecting and possibly need more support and educational content during their onboarding. While you should cater to every customer’s need, remember that customers on higher plans expect a personalized onboarding process in addition to self-service resources.

Customers who have signed up for your most advanced features might still not have the time or tech know-how to navigate them independently. Schedule one-to-one meetings with their CSM (Customer Success Manager) to shorten the time to value, ensure product adoption, and maximize customer retention.

Businesses that do not offer a customer education program are more likely to struggle with customer loyalty and notice a shorter customer lifecycle. Churn can be attributed to several reasons, so find out with an exit survey or interview: if customers report issues related to product complexity or usability, you need to start working on offering more support right away.

Customer training fosters customer engagement and can not only prevent churn but also facilitate upsells and cross-sells. This ensures not only customer retention but also increased satisfaction and trust, leading to future purchases.

Not having clear instructions on how to use a product can quickly lead to a customer calling your product “hard to navigate” or “not intuitive,” usually backed up by the opinions of all users who are unhappy with your product and have collectively decided it was a bad choice.

Don’t wait until you see a negative review posted publicly online! Conduct NPS and CSAT surveys soon after a customer signs up. Check in with the customers via their CSM or at least via email. Monitor user behavior closely and reach out to customers indicating low engagement. If customers mention they have trouble using your product, contact them for assistance.

Does your team report having trouble getting customers to sign up or securing renewals because customers don’t understand the product or haven’t found it as useful as expected? Product complexity, especially in SaaS products with rich functionalities, can intimidate prospective customers or, if it’s not dealt with, be a reason for not renewing a subscription.

If you have a complex product, make sure you proactively address first onboarding needs by offering a comprehensive knowledge base with guides and step-by-step video tutorials. Also, provide ongoing support with a well-trained customer support team and regular interactive webinars.

If you release new features often, you need to update existing training material or create new ones as you go while also communicating the news via email, social media, and the product. This will help existing customers discover new features and get the most value out of your product!

If your competitors offer a customer training program and you don’t, you’re definitely at a disadvantage. Essentially, you’re oblivious to your customers’ needs and pain points while competitors are attentive, which doesn’t make you look good.

Having not only scattered training materials but a fully-fledged learning program in place not only puts your brand in a positive light, it also increases brand awareness and perceived authority and can be used as additional leverage by your sales team.

5 Tips for a Successful Customer Education Program

In this section, we share 5 quick tips for a successful customer education program.

Mix on-Demand With Synchronous

Offer a mix of self-service resources in various formats (walkthrough product tutorials, on-demand webinars, eBooks, online courses/certification programs) and personalized customer support, even in person if that’s feasible.

For your asynchronous online courses, use microlearning modules to help customers understand the content better and faster. Include quizzes as “knowledge checkpoints” and case studies to demonstrate examples of your product’s best uses!

Segment Your Audience

Don’t create training courses following a “one-size-fits-all” approach. Segment your audience based on criteria like their plan, use case, skill level, or even location to personalize their experience and develop targeted material for each group. The more functionalities and the larger/diverse your customer base, the more courses and training material you will need to create.

Align With Business Goals

Your customer education team must be aware of your business goals and that they tie those to the training resources. Set specific metrics to measure the success of your program, like “reducing incoming tickets by 2% in twelve months” or “boosting CSAT score by 5% in twelve months.”

Use the SMART methodology to ensure your goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound!

Use a Learning Management System (LMS)

Use a flexible, customizable learning platform like LearnWorlds to create a scalable customer education program for different audiences. Our LMS offers rich integrations with tools like Zendesk and Hubspot and enables you to build customizable learning paths in a branded learning environment.

Here are our top features for customer education:

• Content authoring tools
• Website Builder with templates
• Custom User Roles and User groups for easier administration and access control
• Clone & Sync for fast school creation and content repurposing
• Multiple schools to manage multiple academies from one centralized location
• AI tools for course outline, learning objective, assessment, and feedback generation
• Copyrights protection
• CRM & customer service integrations
• Community for better customer engagement
• API, Webhooks & SSO
• Assessment, Survey & Certificate Builders
• Native, white-label mobile app for better user experience

Measure & Reiterate

You know that when it comes to business, you can’t move ahead relying on your intuition but on concrete data. And here’s where you can get this data from:

• LMS reports to evaluate the learning experience, like course completion rates etc.
• Business metrics like Customer Satisfaction Scores, NPS, and CES (Customer Effort Score) – anything you’ve set a “business goal” – to measure the business impact.
• Customer surveys and focus groups to evaluate both the training provided and how it relates to their perception of your business.

Customer Education Can Transform Your Business

Offering a customer education program is one of the best initiatives you could organize for your business, as it has a positive impact on your brand and your bottom line. With a feature-rich and intuitive LMS like LearnWorlds, you are a few steps away from building valuable training content for your customers.

Sign up for your 30-day free trial now!

The post 10 Warning Signs You Need a Customer Education Program ASAP appeared first on LearnWorlds.

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Did you know that consistent brand presentation can actually increase revenue by up to 20%?

Statistics don’t lie. In today’s fast-paced, ultra-challenging business landscape, you need to do anything in your power to stand out from the competition. In this light, establishing and promoting your online school’s brand should be your number one priority.

Here at LearnWorlds, we firmly believe in facts. We use our expertise in edtech to provide course creators with a prominent white-label eLearning platform that allows them to build successful white-label online courses for their learners.

Why Do You Need a White-Label Online School?

Branding is a powerful concept in marketing and e-commerce businesses. “A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers” (American Marketing Association)

Having a strong brand means that many people, visitors, or customers recognize your company’s unique characteristics and strongly associate them with certain values, ideas, or a product/service.

A powerful brand can help you sell more courses or price higher while at the same time differentiating from the competition.

So, why should you prefer a white-label course platform for your virtual classrooms, webinars, corporate training, and any other learning experience you want to provide?

Exclusivity – It feels like you have created something from scratch, offering a higher-valued proposition.

Trust – Your customers already trust you, and anything that comes under your brand name, design, and the company will be more reliable. This increases someone’s willingness to make repeat purchases from someone they trust. Just think about the difference this would make when deploying customer education programs!

Consistency – Your students have a seamless experience, staying at your own website instead of visiting an unfamiliar environment – the secure environment you have created for their learning. This goes along with design elements, using your company’s colors, logo, and fonts.

Experience – LearnWorlds offers a unique, social, and interactive experience, but the best part is that you can customize your customers’ learning journey. This means customizing the landing pages using our powerful no-code Website Builder and pre-built templates, the assessments and quizzes, the course player, developing your own branded mobile app, and many other parts of the process.

Value & Price – A strong brand is valuable to a company, brings new customers, and attracts investors (or buyers). But it can also allow you to price higher (high-ticket selling). Think of Apple vs Samsung. They might offer a similarly good phone, but Apple always charges more for their products, and their customers happily pay for them.

Employee Satisfaction – Many employees choose to work for companies based on their brand values, exclusivity, and unique perks. A branded corporate academy can instill a sense of pride and satisfaction as it will be perceived as a higher quality internal training for them.

Advertising – Brand consistency will also help you while advertising. Using your social media or paid ads, you are using your company name, logos, color, font, etc. Continuing your sales funnel with a consistent tone will increase the likelihood of enrollments and of learners purchasing your courses.

What Does White Label Mean?

As an entrepreneur, your first instinct might be to solve business challenges by yourself. Basically, that’s the point of entrepreneurship, isn’t it? Well, not always.

In many cases, building a custom solution from scratch in an attempt to meet the exact specifications of your business can be a recipe for failure. You could be reinventing the wheel and making mistakes others before you have already mastered.

Alternatively, you could dramatically slow your time to market when you are trying to troubleshoot and learn outside of your core expertise. Not to mention that it is also costly to develop tools and solutions that already exist in other formats.

Here is where a white-label solution comes to the rescue and helps you easily avoid such problems while helping you build your personal branding!

White Labeling Explained

White-labeling refers to the practice of producing a product or service and allowing other companies to rebrand it as their own.

The term “white label” describes a product or service that a company manufactures and sells to another business enabling it to customize it with its own brand. The reseller can personalize the product or service and distribute it with its own brand, logo, and identity, so customers are able to associate that product with that reseller.

Likewise, a white-label online course is created with an e-learning platform that is branded on behalf of another company, i.e., yours.

Therefore, you can drastically alter the look and feel of a standard platform and have it fully portray your own corporate identity, giving your trainees, customers, or employees a seamless learning experience with your course content.

Who Uses White Label Products?

White labeling is common across various industries and can apply to both physical products and digital services. So, we are not strictly speaking about SaaS solutions (Software as a service).

Startups and small businesses, retailers, e-commerce businesses, financial institutions, tech companies, hospitality businesses, healthcare providers, or other service providers (e.g., web designers, consultants, and freelancers) are examples of businesses utilizing white-label services.

Perhaps the most common use is by agencies, such as digital marketing agencies. These agencies often leverage white-label services to expand their service offerings without the need for extensive in-house resources.

Here are some white-labeling use case examples:

• White-Label Content for Social Media Management: Agencies can use pre-created content or social media management tools under their own branding to manage clients’ presence and social media marketing campaigns without creating everything from scratch.
  Examples: Hootsuite or SocialPilot.
• White-Label SEO Services: By partnering with a white-label SEO (Search Engine Optimization) provider, agencies can offer their clients SEO tools and services, including audits, keyword research, content creation, link building, and reporting.
  Examples: That!Company or Semify.
• White-Label Services for Project Management: White-label project management software offers reporting tools that allow agencies to provide their clients with customized dashboards that present campaign performance metrics, SEO insights, social media analytics, and more.
  Examples: project management tools like Asana or Monday.com.
• White-Label Software for Marketing Automation: This includes tools for white-label email marketing, CRM systems, and other automated marketing workflows that can be rebranded and presented as the agency’s own product or solution.
  Examples: Email marketing software like ActiveCampaign or marketing automation tools like SharpSpring.

Explore the best email marketing platforms for online courses here.

This list of examples is not exhaustive, but it should give you an idea of white-labeling and how it works. The same principles apply to most white-label SaaS platforms you find in the e-learning industry.

What are the Benefits of White Labeling?

Simply put, not only can you quickly and easily brand a white-label SaaS product, such as an online learning school, but you also benefit from a diverse set of built-in features and integrations.

You don’t have to worry about spending time and money on research or development. All you need to do is take the software and add your own branding.

Here is what you can expect to get from a white-label solution:

1. Lower development and maintenance costs: Avoid the high costs of creating and maintaining a platform from scratch.
2. Quick deployment and launch: Set up and launch your branded e-learning business quickly.
3. Fully branded experience: Reinforce your brand identity, customizing the platform with your logo, colors, and branding for a seamless user experience.
4. Access to premium features: Utilize advanced features such as real-time analytics and reporting, gamification, website-building functionality, and mobile compatibility.
5. High scalability: The platform can help your online school grow to accommodate increasing numbers of learners.
6. Ongoing customer support: Receive continuous technical support and updates from the provider.
7. Integration with other tools: Connect with CRM (like HubSpot), LMS, payment gateways, marketing tools like Google Analytics, and other applications.
8. User-friendly design: Benefit from an intuitive interface and engaging features for learners.
9. Robust data security: Enjoy strong data protection and compliance with regulations.

A white-label solution keeps your learners happier, as you directly provide them with a prepackaged solution they can instantly use to reach their learning goals.

Using a white-label elearning platform customized with your brand clearly saves you time and money. You would practically need to invest a huge amount of money, time, and human resources to build your own learning solution from scratch. Not to mention the time you would need to test and market the solution. An existing white-label learning management system is much more cost-effective.

Besides, what would you rather do? Focus on building a custom solution or focus on developing your core business?

Teachable vs Thinkific vs Kajabi vs LearnWorlds White Label

As you may know, not all e-learning platforms are created equally. Each platform serves a specific niche of course creators, entrepreneurs, or businesses.

All course platforms offer the capability to connect a custom domain name; it is almost an industry standard. White-label features begin by removing the mentions of the brand, for example, “Powered by…” or “Created with…” labels on the bottom of each page.

The main things you would be looking at in a white-label course platform sorted by importance would be:

• A custom domain
• Mentions of the brand
• Login branding
• Branded email notifications
• Design & customization capabilities (this varies from platform to platform)
• A native mobile app option

Teachable, Thinkific, Kajabi, and Learnworlds under the lens of white labeling completeness (comparable packages).

	Teachable	Thinkific	Kajabi	LearnWorlds
Custom Domain
Login Page (The platform’s name is not visible on the login page)
Social Media Login (The platform’s name is not visible in the social media logins)				Customer Brand
Footer Branding (The platform’s name can be removed from the footer of landing or course pages)
Email Notifications (from your domain e.g. support@youracademy.com instead of the platform)			Partially
API Availability	(Limited number of calls)		Limited (for certain integrations)
Option for Branded mobile apps		iOS & Android	iOS & Android	iOS & Android
Remove branding from UI (in case you want to resell the platform)

Teachable	Thinkific	Kajabi	LearnWorlds
Custom Domain
Login Page (The platform’s name is not visible on the login page)
Social Media Login (The platform’s name is not visible in the social media logins)
			Customer Brand
Footer Branding (The platform’s name can be removed from the footer of landing or course pages)
Highly customizable, modern player
Email Notifications (from your domain e.g. support@youracademy.com instead of the platform)
		Partially
API Availability
(Limited number of calls)		Limited (for certain integrations)
Option for Branded mobile apps
	iOS & Android	iOS & Android	iOS & Android
Remove branding from UI (in case you want to resell the platform)

While most platforms offer the basic white-labeling, when you get into the details, it is easy to identify a true white-label course platform.

When you don’t consider branding or white-labeling, all platforms offer unique features for an online course business, which makes each platform better for different audiences.

However, Teachable offers the least in terms of a white-label product. While it offers a school login, it prominently displays a Teachable login option.

And, during the login process, it redirects students to an unbranded login page bearing the platform’s name. This is a breach of the consistency principle we mentioned earlier.

This way, any sense of white labeling is lost. You might have paid top dollar to get a branded school – and still, during the first user interaction, the provider brand is exposed.

Another thing we go above and beyond here at LearnWorlds is that we have built a set of unique Social Logins and Single Sign-On to make it easier for your users to log in.

Those logins need to pass from a Social Account, which, by default, is branded. Those are branded under the platform you are using, but we go a step beyond to white-label them.

For example, Thinkific offers white labeling in the sign-in forms until someone clicks on a social login through Facebook or LinkedIn.

This is not only a white-label concern but also a privacy concern for your customers’ data. While they know your branding, they have suddenly jumped on a page mentioning a different company.

Similarly, emails sent by Teachable, Thinkific and Kajabi come from their own domain with a change in the sender’s name, making them not true white-labeled. If you can open an email and check the sender’s email to see @t.kajabimail.net, @m.teachable.com, and @notify.thinkific.com, this is not white-labeling.

Your students may be confused as to who the sender is, or worse, the emails you worked so hard to craft word by word may not reach their intended recipients. You can’t afford to risk that.

That’s not how we do things here at LearnWorlds. We want to provide you with the best white-label solution your brand can use.

For us, white-label schools mean no logos or links to anyone other than the company or organization itself. A true white-label LMS enables you to remove all vendor references, regardless of where they are located.

Learnworlds is one of the top course platforms and the only one providing an entirely white-label experience, for both desktop and mobile. As SaaS software, it has all the key features you need and even more!

LearnWorlds No-Code Website Builder

The powerful drag-and-drop LearnWorlds No-Code Website Builder enables you to design and customize your online school’s website just as easily and quickly without any technical skills.

Simply drag elements like headers, footers, images, text blocks, and widgets into place to create a professional-looking site that aligns with your own branding.

Use our Theme Explorer to choose from pre-designed color schemes and fonts. Customize your school’s typography and page layouts, and get the combination that works best for you!

LearnWorlds Mobile App Builder

The LearnWorlds Mobile App Builder is a premium white-label mobile learning app solution that puts your brand in the spotlight!

With our Mobile App Builder, you can fully customize and release your online school’s mobile app and provide it to your learners directly on Apple iOS or Google Android under your brand. Yes, it’s fully customizable, and it’s entirely yours!

You can choose your app’s name and icon and customize the colors, text, backgrounds, splash screens, and onboarding screens. This will allow you to provide your learners with a seamless mobile experience and boost their engagement on the go.

At LearnWorlds, we put you, the course creator, at the center of our focus. To offer the highest quality of service, we did a thorough analysis of our competition, examining several dozen courses delivered on the most prominent platforms to determine if they actually provide white-label courses.

It wasn’t hard to figure out that the courses weren’t really white-labeled after all.

Final Thoughts

Your brand is one of your company’s most valuable assets. Whether you have an established online business or are building one, you should protect and nurture it. If you’re looking for the best white-label software solution, then you should look for a platform that really gets the job done, and meets your specific needs.

Ready to build your own online course business with your rules and your branding?

Try LearnWorlds now with a 30-day free trial. No credit card is needed, and no strings attached. Plus, most of our features are available, so you can get the full LearnWorlds experience!

*The information for this article was updated in June 2024. We encourage you to test our claims yourself and decide which is the right option for you*

The post The Best White-Label Online Course Platform for Elearning Businesses appeared first on LearnWorlds.

This comprehensive guide will explore everything there is to know about SCORM files and packaging. You’ll learn what a SCORM file is, the benefits of creating SCORM content, compatibility with different elearning software/learning management systems (LMS), and how to transform a powerpoint presentation into a SCORM course.

What is a SCORM Package?

SCORM stands for Shareable Content Object Reference Model and is a collection of industry standards for elearning courses and LMS systems that support it.

Those technical specifications help build a file similar to a zip file with multiple files inside, written in a specific language that a scorm-compliant LMS understands.

In this way, if an elearning administration purchases a compliance course by a freelance instructional designer, the resulting course will probably come in the SCORM format. The elearning admin will then be able to upload the file to the LMS, which will work smoothly.

Having a set of standards allows for communication between systems, and the same SCORM file should work across most LMS without a problem. This way, a company can change LMS but keep their course material and easily migrate to another.

SCORM standards facilitate the communication between elearning authoring tools and learning management systems.

SCORM Compliance

When an LMS is SCORM Compliant, it can “read” and deliver the course content inside a SCORM package. There are different levels of SCORM compliance, as some LMS can only read and deliver the course but do not track attendance, scores or save the learner’s progress.

SCORM Certified

Not to be confused with compliance. A SCORM-certified course has passed and was certified by ADL, the organization behind the SCORM standard.

What are the Benefits of SCORM?

The SCORM format has many advantages, which is why it is one of the most adopted standards in elearning and has stood the test of time. But why use SCORM over other formats?

Here are the most important benefits of SCORM:

LMS Compatibility (Interoperability)

Most LMS are partially or fully SCORM compliant. It makes it easier to create a course that can be used across various systems.

Progress Tracking

It allows for tracking the learner’s progress in a standardized way and feeds it back to the LMS for reporting.

Modular & Customizable

SCORM is highly customizable and can be designed to offer modular courses as well. You can build a complete interactive course or microlearning activities using only SCORM lessons.

Portable Courses

As a widely recognized and used standard, it allows for the courses to be portable in case of changing LMS.

Persistency (Progress Saving)

The way SCORM is built allows the learner to continue their learning journey from where they are left. Not all LMS support persistency, but if they do, it is a powerful advantage for the learning experience.

What is tracked in a SCORM?

Here are a few examples of what is tracked using SCORM persistency:

• The final score of the course
• Total time spent
• Learners progress so they can resume at the point they left off
• Overall status, such as pass, fail, complete or incomplete

LearnWorlds is a scorm-compliant learning management system able to track all of the above. You can get a 30-day trial and try it yourself:

How Does SCORM Work?

All SCORM formats work based on two principles: Content Packaging and Data Exchange.

Content packaging is how content should be delivered. Inside the SCORM package is a file called “imsmanifest,” which dictates how to import and launch the content to the LMS. This is an XML file that describes the hierarchical structure of the contents.

Run-Time communication, also called data exchange, dictates the communication between the content and LMS. This two-way communication channel passes information between the SCORM course and the LMS.

For example, the SCORM course might be personalized and request the learner’s name from the LMS, or the LMS requires the final score or a pass/fail status to report on the learner’s progress.

SCORM Versions

There are three versions of SCORM right now:

• SCORM 1.1,
• SCORM 1.2, and
• SCORM 2004 (formerly known as 1.3)

SCORM 2004 is the latest version of the standard used today. It has new and improved capabilities, better reporting variables, and sequencing.

The downside of the 2004 version is that fewer LMS vendors support it due to its complexity.

SCORM 1.2 is the most commonly supported format by LMS providers because it is easier and simpler to work with.

Review your LMS compatibility guide and your course’s requirements before deciding which SCORM version suits you.

There are other elearning standards like xAPI (Tin Can), cmi5, and AICC for more advanced capabilities. Unfortunately, both are more demanding, and few LMS support these formats and usually come at an additional cost.

How to Create a SCORM

Creating elearning content in SCORM format is now easier than ever. In the past, you would have needed a programmer to write the code for a SCORM file.

Now, elearning authoring tools make it incredibly easy to offer SCORM templates to quickly create a course and include the functionality to export learning material into a zip file as a scorm-compliant course.

There are three popular types of authoring tools to create SCORM courses:

• Standalone software
• Cloud software
• PowerPoint add-ons

Take a look and choose the best scorm software for your needs!

Standalone Software

You can download these authoring tools to your computer to build an online course. Here are some of the most popular authoring tools in this category:

• Adobe Captivate
• Articulate Storyline
• Lectora Desktop

Cloud Software

With the prominence of cloud computing, you no longer need to download demanding software. You can create a scorm online with cloud software.

If you are looking for a cloud solution, then here are some of the best authoring tools for you:

• Articulate Rise
• DominKnow
• EasyGenerator

PowerPoint Add-Ons

One of the easiest ways to make a course is by converting a PowerPoint file into a SCORM. You can achieve this with an add-on that can take your slides and add quizzes, interactive elements, and more. These tools can help you convert a ppt file into a SCORM file with ease:

• iSpring Suite
• Articulate 360 Studio
• Adobe Captivate (by importing the slides)

Here is a video on how to import a PowerPoint presentation and edit it in Adobe Captivate:

Exporting a Course into a SCORM

An authoring tool can export its result as a SCORM file or one of the alternative standards like HTML5 or Tin Can.

When exporting a course, you need to know which version of SCORM is supported by your LMS and what version supports the learning activities you are creating.

For example, the first version of SCORM (1.1) would not support interoperability, the transfer of a course from one learning platform to another. But, SCORM 1.2 makes that possible, and SCORM 2004 has had many improvements over the years but may not be supported by all LMSs.

SCORM may not support simulations. In this case, you need to use an export with Tin Can API that supports more advanced modules.

Add SCORM to LearnWorlds LMS

LearnWorlds is a SCORM-compliant LMS with many course creators using it to host their SCORM courses.

To import a SCORM file to LearnWorlds, you need to create a SCORM learning activity and upload the file. Here is the step-by-step process of uploading a SCORM file to LearnWorlds:

1. Create a course.
2. In the Courses menu, visit the course’s Contents tab.
3. Click on Add an activity under a course section.
4. Choose the SCORM/HTML5 Package activity unit in the Multimedia menu.
5. Give a title to your SCORM file and click “Save” or “Save and Edit” to make changes.
6. Upload the file and click “Save.”

The SCORM course is ready to be viewed in the course player by your learners.

Example of SCORM on LearnWorlds

Here is an example of how a SCORM file will play inside the LearnWorlds course player. On the left is the standard player navigation. On the right, a SCORM course is loaded.

Below is an example from Sendinblue Academy’s Certification for Marketing Automation, using multiple SCORM modules to deliver their online training.

The Future of Online Learning

Most elearning professionals use SCORM, as it is a widely used standard for online training and is supported by most LMSs. Since SCORM’s last update, there have been a lot of newer standards that support more advanced learning activities.

At the same time, the LMS vendors have evolved, and many offer their own authoring tools or support newer standards such as AICC or TinCan API.

There are many advantages to building a course inside your own LMS. If most of your course learning material is based on video (as many newer courses are), you might not need a SCORM and can easily upload the course and supporting material to the LMS.

The downside of using the LMS authoring capabilities would be the trouble migrating to another LMS in the future.

It is essential to review your course requirements, your clients’ requirements (internal or external), and the capabilities of the LMS before choosing how to create the course.

Are you looking for a modern, SCORM-compliant LMS? LearnWorlds can help you take the learning experience and learner management to the next level. Try LearnWorlds with the 30-day trial.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

– Is SCORM still relevant?

Yes, SCORM is still a widely used standard for many professionals, authoring tools, and LMS in the elearning industry. Due to its widespread appeal, SCORM enables instructional designers to create courses that can operate in multiple learning systems and makes the work of elearning professionals much easier.

– What is a SCORM activity?

In SCORM 2004 (1.3), an activity is the collection of online training material packaged to an agreed standard for learning objects.

– What is SCO?

The Sharable Content Objects (SCOs) are the reusable building blocks of a SCORM file. Defining the training material as a set of SCOs enables them to be reused within and across courses.

– How to test the SCORM package?

To test if your SCORM package runs correctly, you need to upload it to the LMS and use it as a student to see how well it performs and if it offers the intended learning experience.

If you need to track time spent, quiz scores, and completion of the SCORM, you can use the reporting function of the LMS to check whether those items are captured.

To test various versions of SCORM on an LMS, you can use these sample SCORM packages.

To test a SCORM file and how it will perform in various LMSs, you can use the SCORM cloud service by Rustici Software.

– Which one is better? SCORM 1.2 vs. 2004

SCORM 2004 is the newer version and supports the most advanced features, but it is not as widely adopted as 1.2. If your LMS supports SCORM 2004, you are better off using that for your SCORM courses.

– How do I check the SCORM version?

The imsmanifest.xml file holds the version information in-between the metadata tags of . For example, a SCORM version 1.2 will show up on the imsmanifest file as: 1.2

The post What is SCORM? A Complete Guide on SCORM Files and Packaging appeared first on LearnWorlds.

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Customer training benefits not only your customers but also your business..Empowering customers to fully utilize your product significantly boosts their loyalty to your brand, positively impacting your business.

If you want to know the secrets to a successful customer education program, read on. In this post, we’ll explore the importance of customer training and share 7 best practices for achieving optimal results!

Why is Customer Training Important?

It’s no coincidence that customer education is gaining more and more attention. Deploying a customer training program helps your business grow in multiple ways:

Prevent early customer churn

Customers who do not find value in your product soon after purchasing it or signing up for a trial are likely to give up on it. Offering customer onboarding that focuses on helping customers get started and realize the value of your product will help you prevent early customer churn.

How:

• Accelerating time to value: Offering customer onboarding will help customers learn and use your product quickly.
• Improving feature/product adoption: Customers who have access to training material and setup guides will discover more product features and capabilities.

Boost customer loyalty

Every business owner understands that converting new customers into repeat clients is the best news for their business. Loyal customers spend more, buy more often, and spread the word about your company.

Customer education can help you not only prevent churn but also boost loyalty and long-term customer retention rates.

How:

• Enhancing the customer experience: The customer experience expands from the first time a prospective client hears about your business through their time as a customer. Providing support for them enhances this experience throughout.
• Increasing customer satisfaction and customer loyalty: Customers are happy when they feel their money is spent wisely and when they receive the level of service they expect (or better!).
• Maintaining communication with customers: A customer training program offers you several opportunities to communicate with your customers via email, customer support reps, customer success managers, social media, and more. Therefore, you achieve higher customer engagement and build a strong relationship with them.

Strengthen your brand

A customer education program boosts your brand’s presence in the market and keeps it top of mind with your customers. It also reinforces your brand identity by consistently presenting your brand elements throughout the learning experience.

How:

• Showcasing your brand: Using your branding in the learning environment and every point of communication, your brand imprints in your customers’ minds. Also, your brand is mentioned more often on social media and through advertising.
• Increasing the perceived value of your product: Deploying customer training is a big deal, especially if you decide to offer multiple training resources – and customers can realize that. The more you offer in terms of customer education, the more valuable your product becomes.
• Building brand advocates: Brand loyalty is contagious! As we said, happy customers will spread the word about you. By offering them an incentive, they can leave reviews on review sites and social media, helping more people discover your brand and expanding your customer base.

Build a financially robust company

Effective customer training can positively impact your bottom line and help you build a financially robust business. By ensuring customers can fully utilize your product and are happy with your service, you increase satisfaction and foster loyalty.

How:

• Increasing customer lifecycle: Customer training keeps customers happy with your product and prevents churn at any point during the customer lifecycle.
• Increasing customer lifetime value (CLV): Repeat customers spend more because they trust your brand. They’ll prefer to buy more of your products than experiment with another brand.
• Reducing customer support costs: Offering a proper customer onboarding process and training material for new and older customers will eventually reduce customer support costs since customers will have the resources they need to navigate your product and troubleshoot simple issues.

7 Practical Tips to Follow When Building a Customer Training Program

Now that we’ve seen the benefits of customer training, let’s see how you can implement it right to get the most out of it:

1. Plan before you act

The road to success starts with careful planning. Here are a few items to check off your list as you prepare for your custom training program.

Segment your training audience: Start with identifying the different kinds of customers you want to train. This differentiation will come from the type of product and business model. Maybe you have a set of clients per use case, or maybe you have the same product spread across geographies, or different levels of accessibility.
Align with business goals: Customer training should be tied to specific business goals you want to achieve. Focus on measurable, achievable goals using the SMART methodology. These goals can help you set the learning objectives of the course and can also be used later on to measure the effectiveness of the program.
Build customer personas: If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to build customer profiles – their pain points and goals, their knowledge level, how much time they have available and how they will access training, etc.
Decide what type of training you want to offer and who will create it: Very often, the Customer Enablement Manager will oversee the process. There are also different customer onboarding strategies to follow, some including more involvement from human resources and others less. Choose the one that best matches your needs and your available resources.

2. Select a flexible customer training platform

A flexible customer training platform can not only meet customer needs but also yours, facilitating admin tasks as your program grows. What does a flexible training solution look like?

It’s as comprehensive as possible, offering an all-in-one solution that covers your training, admin, branding, and communication needs, so that you use the least amount of tools.
It integrates with tools you already have, like your CRM or customer service software.
It’s customizable so that you can shape it into a product that works for you. Branding capabilities are an additional important consideration.
It’s scalable so that you can deploy training at a large scale in different languages, for different audiences if needed.
It offers rich features, like multiple delivery methods, support for different training content, a report system, and more.

All in all, you should opt for a platform that grows with you. There’s no need to invest in a huge, expensive LMS that takes ages to set up. You should be able to rely on an LMS that allows you to start fast and grows along with your needs

One such solution is a Learning Management System like LearnWorlds, offering the above and additional features like:

• Content authoring tools
• Website Builder
• Custom User Roles and User groups for easier administration and access control
• Clone & Sync for fast school creation and content repurposing
• Multiple schools so you can have a centralized environment where you can manage multiple academies at once
• AI tools for course outline, learning objective, assessment, and feedback generation
• Copyrights protection
• CRM and customer service integrations
• Community for better customer engagement
• API, Webhooks & SSO to connect with the existing tech stack and ensure quick set up and efficiency
• Native, white-label mobile app

3. Offer accessible training resources

It’s important that customers can easily access your training resources and that you’re not limiting them to in-person or real-time support only. This, in fact, is neither feasible nor financially viable. Some ways you can ensure customers receive round-the-clock support are:

• Use an LMS for easy distribution and higher scalability: An LMS provides one centralized location where you can maintain an easy-to-update knowledge base with any type of content you need, offer live or on-demand webinars and training sessions, or launch a training course.
• Launch a mobile app: Learners take it as a given that the course and other material will display well on their mobile devices. Taking it a step further, you can launch your own mobile app to enhance the experience with learning reminders and in-app notifications.
• Offer different resources: Don’t stick to one type of resource or even one location. While an LMS can host most of your material, you can also offer support via chatbots, your customer support/success team, social media chat, and a knowledge base on your website.

Remember that your training should be easily accessible by your customers but at the same time protected from non-authorized sharing. Therefore, choose an LMS with advanced security features.

4. Focus on engagement & effectiveness

Engagement and effectiveness often go hand in hand when it comes to learning. A learner who is distracted or bored is unlikely to retain knowledge. Likewise, a learner who is immersed in the learning experience is more likely to learn better and faster.

• Create microlearning content: Small modules that last only a few minutes are not only more engaging but also more effective in imparting knowledge. Quizzes, infographics, and micro-videos are excellent resources for microlearning courses.
• Offer different content formats: Do so to accommodate different learning styles and learning needs. Interactive video tutorials are very popular for demonstrating simple tasks step by step, while text-heavy manuals and user guides are more suitable if you need to go deep into technical details.
• Create simulations: Simulations help with product knowledge for more complex products or those that require careful handling. Although they’re more common in employee training initiatives, you can create simple simulation assessments as part of an online course.
• Offer a certificate: Adding a certificate at the end of the course is an excellent way to add value to your course and also to motivate learners to go through all the essential material that will help them take full advantage of your product. Tie the certificate to an exam to add credibility.
• Host live sessions and webinars: The ultimate interactive experience, live online sessions will allow customers to interact directly with you and get a better sense of your brand while addressing any questions they have.
• Add quizzes: Quizzes are a great way to reinforce learning through repetition. Combine quizzes with gamification elements, like badges, to make them even more fun and rewarding.

5. Promote your training program properly

Do customers know about all the available resources you’ve built for them? Here are some ways to make sure they do:

• Use email communications, or let your customer support team and customer success managers tell customers that there are on-demand resources available for them.
• Your sales team can also communicate and use your customer training program as an additional selling point.
• Add a section on a prominent spot on your website.
• Link to the resources in the product itself.

6. Brand everything

We discussed how effective customer training can help boost your brand. So, to achieve this, make sure your brand is (discreetly) in the spotlight by using a white-label platform that you can brand and by adding anything that signifies your brand on every touch point.

7. Monitor & improve

Monitoring the impact of your customer training strategy is crucial to determine if it has achieved the desired business results and to gauge customer satisfaction.

This will help you make necessary adjustments and continually improve the training experience.

How:

• Create feedback surveys to gain valuable insights into how learners perceived the training experience firsthand.
• Check business metrics and KPIs to see if your specific needs and goals have been met (but be patient!).
• Monitor LMS reports to know in real-time how learners behave and interact with the training modules.

A Successful Business Starts With Customer Training

Closing a sale is not the end of the customer journey or the hallmark of success for your business. On the contrary, the challenge to retain the customer just begins!

A well-designed customer training program is instrumental in helping customers realize the full value of your product, fostering loyalty, and encouraging repeat business. By investing in customer training, you can enhance user experience and drive long-term success for your business.

Invest in a customer education platform like LearnWorlds to make sure you can streamline this ambitious endeavor and have access to all the tools you need for a successful training program! Try LearnWorlds now with a 30-day free trial.

The post Customer Training Best Practices: 7 Practical Tips for Optimal Results appeared first on LearnWorlds.

Learning Management Systems (LMS) have become increasingly important for companies of all sizes as software systems for creating, managing, and tracking training for employees, partners, and customers.

However, modern LMSs are also used for compliance training or customer education. Choosing the right LMS for the job is hard work, as they come with their own unique advantages and disadvantages, with many established solutions and modern systems with specialized functions.

This guide will help you decide which LMS is best for you!

In fact, here’s a handy table quickly comparing the platforms we’re exploring in this resource.

Platform	Key Features	Target Audience	Pricing Model
LearnWorlds	AI-powered, Customizable, interactive video, e-commerce tools, fully white-label	Entrepreneurs, businesses, creators	Starts at $29/month
Docebo	AI-powered, social learning, gamification, multi-language support	Enterprises, large organizations	Starts at $25,000/year.
TalentLMS	Easy-to-use, customizable, mobile-friendly, gamification, SCORM-compliant	SMEs, educational institutions	Starts at $89/month.
Learn (MindFlash)	SCORM-compliant, easy onboarding, analytics, compliance training	Enterprises, corporate training	Custom pricing.
CoAssemble	Drag-and-drop course builder, integrations, collaborative tools	SMEs, educational institutions	Starts at $9/creator per month.
eFront	Customizable, robust security, offline learning, enterprise integrations	Enterprises, compliance training	Starts at $1,200/month.
GoSkills	Microlearning, user-friendly, professional development, certificate issuance	Individuals, businesses	Starts at $29/month.
LearnUpon	User-friendly, multi-language support, integrations, scalable	Businesses, educational providers	Custom pricing.
Moodle	Open-source, highly customizable, large community, plugins	Educational institutions, NGOs	Free (self-hosted), Paid (€110/year).
Moodle	Open-source, highly customizable, large community, plugins	Educational institutions, NGOs	Free (self-hosted), Paid (€110/year).
Litmos	SCORM-compliant, mobile-friendly, analytics, compliance management	Enterprises, corporate training	Custom pricing.
SkyPrep	Customizable, mobile-friendly, compliance tracking, reporting	Businesses, compliance training	Custom pricing.
iSpring Learn	SCORM-compliant, easy integration, robust reporting, webinar support	Businesses, educational institutions	Starts at $2.99/user/year.
Adobe Learning Manager	Comprehensive LMS, mobile-friendly, integration with Adobe suite, AI analytics	Enterprises, creators	Custom pricing.
Blackboard	Comprehensive tools, robust LMS, widely used, real-time collaboration	Educational institutions, large organizations	Custom pricing.
TalentCards	Mobile-first, microlearning, gamification, offline access	Businesses, frontline employees	Free plan. Paid plans start at $50/month.
TopHat	Interactive, student engagement, assessment tools, classroom response	Higher education, instructors	Free.
CoreAchieve	User-friendly, cost-effective, customizable, content library	SMEs, nonprofits	Free plan. Paid plans start at $175/month.
Looop by 360Learning	Social learning, user-friendly, continuous learning, analytics	Businesses, training providers	Custom pricing.
EduMe	Mobile-first, microlearning, user-friendly, real-time updates	Businesses, frontline workers	Custom pricing.
Canvas LMS	Highly customizable, robust LMS, cloud-based, open-source	Educational institutions, higher education	Free (open-source), Custom pricing for enterprises.

Key Features	Target Audience	Pricing Model
LearnWorlds
AI-powered, Customizable, interactive video, e-commerce tools, fully white-label	Entrepreneurs, businesses, creators	Starts at $29/month
Docebo
AI-powered, social learning, gamification, multi-language support	Enterprises, large organizations	Starts at $25,000/year
TalentLMS
Easy-to-use, customizable, mobile-friendly, gamification, SCORM-compliant	SMEs, educational institutions	Starts at $89/month
Learn (MindFlash)
SCORM-compliant, easy onboarding, analytics, compliance training	Enterprises, corporate training	Custom pricing
CoAssemble
Drag-and-drop course builder, integrations, collaborative tools	SMEs, educational institutions	Starts at $9/creator per month
eFront
Customizable, robust security, offline learning, enterprise integrations	Enterprises, compliance training	Starts at $1,200/month
GoSkills
Microlearning, user-friendly, professional development, certificate issuance	Individuals, businesses	Starts at $29/month
LearnUpon
User-friendly, multi-language support, integrations, scalable	Businesses, educational providers	Custom pricing
Moodle
Open-source, highly customizable, large community, plugins	Educational institutions, NGOs	Free (self-hosted), Paid (€110/year)
Litmos
SCORM-compliant, mobile-friendly, analytics, compliance management	Enterprises, corporate training	Custom pricing
SkyPrep
Customizable, mobile-friendly, compliance tracking, reporting	Businesses, compliance training	Custom pricing
iSpring Learn
SCORM-compliant, easy integration, robust reporting, webinar support	Businesses, educational institutions	Starts at $2.99/user/year
Adobe Learning Manager
Comprehensive LMS, mobile-friendly, integration with Adobe suite, AI analytics	Enterprises, creators	Custom pricing
Blackboard
Comprehensive tools, robust LMS, widely used, real-time collaboration	Educational institutions, large organizations	Custom pricing
TalentCards
Mobile-first, microlearning, gamification, offline access	Businesses, frontline employees	Free plan. Paid plans start at $50/month
TopHat
Interactive, student engagement, assessment tools, classroom response	Higher education, instructors	Free
CoreAchieve
User-friendly, cost-effective, customizable, content library	SMEs, nonprofits	Free plan. Paid plans start at $175/month
Looop by 360Learning
Social learning, user-friendly, continuous learning, analytics	Businesses, training providers	Custom pricing
EduMe
Mobile-first, microlearning, user-friendly, real-time updates	Businesses, frontline workers	Custom pricing
Canvas LMS
Highly customizable, robust LMS, cloud-based, open-source	Educational institutions, higher education	Free (open-source), Custom pricing for enterprises

Have you tried LearnWorlds LMS?

What is a Learning Management System (LMS)?

A Learning Management System (LMS) is a software application that plans, creates, manages, and delivers online training content. An LMS -whether cloud-based or on-premise- is used widely in the eLearning industry and acts as a distribution and management vehicle for online courses, training programs, or learning and development programs.

LMSs usually include built-in authoring tools (course creation) and user management capabilities for reporting on outcomes. One of the most important functionalities of an LMS is the ability to deliver and track the completion of educational material, usually in SCORM, TinCAN, or another format.

You can access our LMS RFP template to help you shortlist the right LMS for your case:

Why use an LMS?

An LMS can be used by an individual, a team, or a business to create unique digital learning experiences. The role, modules, and functions of an LMS may vary depending on the learning goals of the person or company that is using it and, ultimately, the industry they are in.

Through an LMS system, you get accessibility to create and deliver online training for the following purposes:

• Corporate training: An LMS can be used as a learning ecosystem for an organization’s human resources administration initiatives. It can be part of the talent management or onboarding process, employee training, partner training, member training, compliance training, and sometimes sales enablement.
• Higher education: An LMS can be used by educational institutions, including schools, colleges, and universities, from primary to higher education. It offers an open, friendly, and flexible learning environment that can create personalized learning paths for students and provide certifications remotely.
• Customer training: Apart from educating their staff, companies are interested in educating their customers through learning programs on how to use their products. Face-to-face learning is ideal in some cases; however, remote learning is such a great convenience for most customers and businesses. An excellent option to enhance customer retention as well.
• Create and sell online courses: An LMS is a great e-learning course management solution for online instructors, entrepreneurs, and course creators. It can help create course material and learning programs in any subject that can be taught or is related to your business.

The first step in looking for an LMS system is deciding what you need it for. Determining this factor is crucial because you want to avoid using an LMS that doesn’t fit the training style you intend to create.

Your answer should help you decide whether you need an academic-oriented LMS or a corporate/enterprise LMS whose features and learning tools are more suitable for carrying out marketing initiatives, e.g., building an email list, creating a sales page, or even working with affiliates.

Choosing Your LMS Software

There are over 800 options of different LMS platforms (ranging from open-source to proprietary) with numerous LMS features. Choosing the best LMS to build your course contents and accommodate your learning objectives and training requirements requires in-depth research into the type of LMS you need.

Carrying out research on LMSs and examining aspects such as pricing models, features, integrations, and scalability can help you avoid losing valuable time and money and instead choose a reliable and cost-effective LMS platform.

Best Learning Management Software

This article lists the 20 most popular LMS providers to help you choose a learning platform to build your course content. This list can make your decision easier while you consider the pros and cons of each.

1LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds is our very own Learning Management System that offers the ability to build your online academy while creating unique, interactive, and social learning experiences (e.g., training courses, coaching programs, online courses for upskilling your workforce, and more).

The intuitive authoring environment allows for building engaging eLearning content easily and within minutes. Out of the best features it offers are its powerful Site Builder, its Assessment Builder – which  allows you to create advanced assessments, exams, and quizzes, and its rich community-building tool that streamlines the communication between users and instructors.

Deployment: Mobile Application, Cloud-based/SaaS

Type: Corporate/Enterprise LMS

Who is it for? It’s ideal for entrepreneurs, individual instructors, educators, small/medium businesses, professional trainers, internal training, product training, and customer training for companies that want to train their employees, external stakeholders, and customers.

Pricing: It offers a 30-day free trial and then subscription pricing plans at:

• Starter plan: $29/month (plus $5 per course sale, save up to 20% if billed annually upfront)
• Pro Trainer plan: $99/month (No transaction fees, 5 admins/instructors, save up to 20% if billed annually upfront)
• Learning Center: $299/month (No transaction fees, 20 custom user roles, save up to 20% if billed annually upfront)
• High volume & Corporate: Contact LearnWorlds to book a demo and discover more

* Pricing information retrieved from LearnWorlds in June 2024.

For a more detailed analysis of the LearnWorlds plans, you can check our pricing plan comparison chart or contact us directly to get a customized pricing plan for your business needs.

2Docebo

Docebo comes with a top cloud-based LMS solution that ticks off the majority of every organization’s training needs and requirements. The platform is learner-centric and comes with L&D capabilities using learning-specific Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms that help to personalize the learning experience. Docebo is trusted by notable companies, including Bloomberg and Sharp.

Deployment: Cloud-based/SaaS

Type: Corporate LMS/Enterprise LMS

Who is it for?

It’s aimed for use by human resource professionals, HR departments, or enterprises.

Pricing:

Docebo has the following yearly subscription plans:

• Engage: Starting at $25,000/year (based on a 3-year contract)
• Elevate: Starting at $40,000/year (based on a 3-year contract)
• Enterprise: Custom pricing.

Although there is no free trial available, you can request a demo for any plan.

*Pricing information retrieved from Docebo & FinancesOnline in June, 2024.

Best Docebo Competitors

3TalentLMS

TalentLMS is a popular eLearning solution that allows businesses and individuals to create training courses within just a few clicks. Its easy-to-use platform allows people with no technical experience to get up and running and set up learning activities using the tools the system offers. It is enterprise-friendly and offers very specific training options to organizations regardless of the industry they are in.

Deployment: Cloud-based/SaaS

Type: Corporate LMS/Enterprise LMS

Who is it for? It is ideal for online course designers, trainers, and businesses of all types and sizes.

Pricing:

The platform offers a forever-free plan that allows up to 5 users, 10 courses, and unlimited email support. Subscription plans include standard plans and active plans.

Standard plans (on the yearly plan) include:

• Starter: $89/month
• Basic: $189/month
• Plus: $369/month
• Premium: $569/month
• Enterprise: Custom pricing (for companies with more than 1000 users)

Active plans (on the yearly plan) include:

• Starter Active: $179/month
• Basic Active: $339/month
• Plus Active: $489/month
• Premium Active: $649/month
• Enterprise: Custom pricing (for companies with more than 500 active users)

*Pricing information retrieved from TalentLMS in June 2024.

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4Trakstar Learn (formerly Mindflash)

As an industry-leading learning management system, Trakstar Learn (formerly Mindflash) aims to make the training process easier and more effective by offering an innovative solution in content creation, business analytics, program management, and enterprise integrations. For this reason, Trakstar Learn is ideal for corporate and customer training.

Deployment: Cloud-based/SaaS

Type: Enterprise LMS

Who is it for? It is suitable for companies in the extended enterprise, helping large and fast-growing companies deliver eLearning courses and training to contractors and business partners.

Pricing: Trakstar Learn applies a pay-per-user pricing model based on the number of trainees in your account. Training features and unlimited courses are all-inclusive.

For more pricing details, you need to get in touch with the company or book a live demo with their product expert, depending on the plan you are interested in.

*Pricing information retrieved from Trakstar Learn in June 2024.

5Coassemble

Coassemble, formerly eCoach, is an all-in-one online training platform that makes eLearning content management an easy and creative process. From creating and managing training content to analyzing detailed progress reports, this LMS offers a great L&D training solution for the purposes of employee training – onboarding and compliance, and customer training.

Deployment: Cloud-based/SaaS

Type: Enterprise LMS

Who is it for? It can be used by freelancers, SMEs, or large enterprises of more than 10,000 employees.

Pricing: The platform offers a 7-day free trial.

Subscription plans include:

• Starter: $0 (for individuals)
• Business: $9/creator/month (for teams)

*Pricing information retrieved from Coassemble in June 2024.

6eFront

eFront is another great option that offers multiple ways of distributing knowledge and measuring learning activities. Its platform can provide full control and management over a business’s virtual environment, training content, enrollment, and user data.

Deployment: Desktop application, Mobile application, Self-hosted cloud-based, Self-hosted system, and SaaS.

Type: Enterprise LMS

Who is it for? It is great for large enterprises and businesses that have a remote or non-remote team of employees working for them because of its various deployment options.

Pricing: Plans are priced based on the training needs of individuals and businesses and types of users.

Subscription plans include:

• Registered: starting from $1200/month (for up to 1000 registered users)
• Active: $2000/month (for up to 150 concurrent users)
• On-premises: custom plan (for registered or concurrent users)

*Pricing information retrieved from EfrontLearning in June 2024.

7Go Skills

Go Skills is a learning platform that allows people to learn and develop skills that can help them reach their professional goals. In its content library, there are more than 120 courses ranging from Project Management, Microsoft Office, Soft Skills, Design, and Office Productivity, amongst many others that are vital to the workplace. The platform is trusted by Fortune 500 companies and many small startups.

Deployment: Cloud-based/SaaS

Type: Corporate LMS/Enterprise LMS, Academic LMS

Who is it for? It’s intended for use by businesses, training teams of any size, and freelance instructors.

Pricing: It offers a free trial for individuals and comes with many individual and team subscription plans:

• For individuals: free 7-day trial, and then €29/month.
• For teams: you can calculate the price for your package by the number of your learners.
• For enterprises: of 50+ people, you have to contact GoSkills to request a demo.

*Pricing information retrieved from Go Skills in June 2024.

8LearnUpon

LearnUpon is another great option for educational, corporate, customer, and partner training. This platform is well-known for its functionalities, user-friendly interface, and multilingual support it offers. One of its advantages is its ability to segment different teams and create unique learning paths. LearnUpon is trusted by TripAdvisor and Booking.com.

Deployment: Cloud-based/SaaS

Type: Corporate LMS/Enterprise LMS

Who is it for? It’s ideal for educational institutions and businesses of all types and sizes.

Pricing: It offers a free trial. Pricing is custom and based on the number of active users and portals. You need to contact LearnUpon for a price quote.
Subscription plans include:

• Essential for up to 150 users
• Premium for 150 to 500 users
• Enterprise for 500+ users

*Pricing information retrieved from LearnUpon in June 2024.

9Moodle

Unlike the majority of LMSs here, Moodle is a free, open-source learning management platform. Moodle was designed by a group of developers and includes a range of drag-and-drop tools and useful resources that can help the everyday user. The platform is translated into over 95 languages and powers learning environments worldwide.

Deployment: Mobile Application, Self-Hosted Cloud-based, Self-Hosted System

Type: Academic LMS, Corporate LMS

Who is it for? It’s suitable for educators, freelancers, businesses, and public administrations.

Pricing:

Moodle comes in two variations. The first one is the original open-source Moodle, which is free to use and runs most self-hosted eLearning websites. The other one is MoodleCloud, which offers a cloud-based solution, and its pricing is based on the number of users and file storage.

Subscription plans include:

• Starter: €110/year (50 users, 250MB)
• Mini: €190/year (100 users, 500MB)
• Small: €360/year (200 users, 1GB)
• Medium: €830/year (500 users, 2.5GB) – with custom domain add-on.
• Standard: €1570/year (1000 users, 5GB) – with custom domain add-on.

For a larger plan, you need to contact Moodle directly.

*Pricing information retrieved from MoodleCloud in June 2024.

10Litmos

Litmos (formerly known as SAP Litmos) is a well-known learning platform that offers a variety of eLearning solutions for businesses, including corporate, customer, partner, services, and support training, and compliance training. Amongst its bigger strengths is the ability to create customized learning paths for the needs and the style of every company and its employees.

Deployment: Mobile Application, Cloud-based/SaaS

Type: Corporate LMS/Enterprise LMS

Who is it for? It’s great for businesses of all types and sizes.

Pricing: It offers a 14-day free trial.

Pricing is not publicly available on the site but is based on the number of active users after contacting their sales team. Access to the LMS, specific courses, and add-on features comes with a quote-based plan after making a pricing request to Litmos directly.

The three available pricing plans are Foundation Suite, Premier Suite, and Platinum Suite.

For more pricing details, you need to contact the company and request a demo.

*Pricing information retrieved from Litmos in June 2024.

11SkyPrep

SkyPrep offers a range of flexible training solutions to organizations. The purpose of this platform is to help businesses build their own training programs and keep their employees productive. What’s unique about it is that it offers advanced security options that are suitable for the most demanding companies that want to make sure their data is always safe and protected.

Deployment: Mobile Application, Cloud-based/SaaS

Type: Corporate LMS/Enterprise LMS

Who is it for? It’s for public administrations and large organizations. It might not be ideal for small businesses with a restricted budget.

Pricing: It offers a 14-day free trial.

Pricing is based on the number of active users, administrators, and managers. You need to contact SkyPrep to get a custom price for your requirements. Subscription plans include:

• Lite: 100+ active users
• Premium 100+ active users
• Enterprise: for 1000+ users

*Pricing information retrieved from SkyPrep in June 2024.

12iSpring Learn

Another great LMS option, iSpring Learn can be integrated into any business’s corporate training program. Because of the wide variety of pricing plans and standalone tools it offers, organizations can choose what best fits their learning needs and budget.

Deployment: Mobile Application, Self-Hosted Cloud-based, Self-Hosted System, Cloud-based/SaaS

Type: Corporate LMS/Enterprise LMS

Who is it for? It’s suitable for organizations of all types and sizes.

Pricing:

It offers a 30-day free trial. Pricing is based on the number of active users and starts at $2,99 per user, billed annually for organizations with 50 users or fewer.

It has three subscription plans – Basic, Advanced, and Pro for each set number of users (50, 100, 300, 500 and 1000). For more details on pricing information, check the platform’s pricing here.

*Pricing information retrieved from iSpringLearn in June 2024.

1Adobe Learning Manager
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Adobe Learning Manager (formerly Adobe Captivate Prime) is a comprehensive, cloud-based learning management system (LMS) designed to meet the training needs of medium to large enterprises. It offers a user-friendly interface, seamless integration with other Adobe products, and robust analytics to learner progress tracking and performance.

Deployment: Cloud-based SaaS, Mobile Application

Type: Corporate LMS, Enterprise LMS

Who is it for? It is mostly tailored to meet the needs of medium to large businesses and organizations, providing extensive features suitable for corporate training and professional development.

Pricing:

There is no free trial available, but you can request a demo. The platform’s pricing differs based on the number of registered users and monthly active users. You can request custom pricing here.

*Pricing information retrieved from Adobe in June 2024.

14Blackboard

Blackboard is an LMS solution that offers an adaptable learning environment suitable for both academic and business development purposes. As a learning platform, it provides a range of social and blended learning features that can make any type of training engaging throughout its course.

Deployment: Desktop Application, Mobile Application, Self-Hosted System, Cloud-based/SaaS

Type: Academic LMS, Corporate LMS/Enterprise LMS

Who is it for? It fits well with the requirements of educational institutes, public administrations, educators, trainers, instructional designers, as well as SMEs and enterprises.

Pricing: It offers a 30-day trial on selected products.
To learn about pricing options and get your custom plan, you need to contact Blackboard directly and arrange for a demo with an expert.

*Pricing information retrieved from Anthology in June 2024.

15TalentCards

TalentCards makes training easy and affordable through the revolutionary use of micro-learning (short-term learning) activities such as learning cards. The platform offers the unique ability to create micro-learning content in an attempt to improve the productivity and engagement of the users.

Deployment: Desktop Application, Mobile Application, Cloud-based/SaaS

Type: Academic LMS, Corporate LMS/Enterprise

Who is it for? It’s ideal for freelancers, educators, trainers, academic staff, SMEs, large organizations, and public administrations.

Pricing: It offers a free trial. Pricing is based on the number of users.
Subscription plans include:

• Free: $0 (up to 5 users)
• Standard: $50/month (50 users +$1,00 per additional user)
• Premium: $75/month (50 users +$1,50 per additional user)

Standard and Premium plans support up to 2000 users. For plans with more users, contact TalentCards for a custom quote.

*Pricing information retrieved from TalentCards in June 2024.

16Top Hat

Top Hat is a learning platform that aims to make teaching fun and effective. Its modern technology allows university and college professors to create online courses and deliver them in an engaging way that encourages students’ participation as a whole.

Deployment: Mobile Application, Cloud-based/SaaS

Type: Academic LMS

Who is it for? It is intended for use by higher education instructors, professors, and educational institutions.

Pricing: Top Hat is always free for professors. Students pay for an affordable active learning solution when they adopt one of the following:

• Top Hat Basic: Free
• Top Hat Pro: $30/student/four months

*Pricing information retrieved from TopHat in June 2024.

17CoreAchieve

CoreAchieve is a learning management system that aims to improve the current learning and training process of your business. Developed by CorePartners, the platform uses the latest technology and tools that were applied by a team of professionals with more than 20 years of experience in managing technical and business projects.

Deployment: Cloud-based/SaaS, Mobile Application, Self-Hosted Cloud-based, Self-Hosted System

Type: Academic LMS, Corporate LMS/Enterprise LMS

Who is it for? It’s suitable for educational institutions, public administrations, and organizations of all types and sizes.

Pricing: It offers a free trial. Pricing is based on the number of active users.
Subscription plans include:

• Free: up to 5 active users, unlimited courses
• Starter: $175/month (up to 50 active users)
• Basic: $299/month (up to 100 active users)
• Standard: $798/month (up to 300 active users)

All the above-mentioned prices are for the US only. For international prices, you need to contact CoreAchieve at the following number: (301) 695-2673.

*Pricing information retrieved from CoreAchieve in June 2024.

18Looop by 360Learning

Looop by 360Learning offers a viable LMS solution for organizations that want to invest in their L&D training. Abandoning traditional training methods, Looop uses software that promises guaranteed performance and real results. The platform is trusted by many leading brands, including ASOS, Harrods, and Revolut, amongst others.

Deployment: Desktop Application, Mobile Application, Cloud-based/SaaS

Type: Corporate LMS/Enterprise LMS

Who is it for? It can be used by organizations of all types and sizes.

Pricing: It offers a live demo and a free trial. Pricing is based on the number of active users; however, it is not available publicly, and you need to contact Looop for a demo and a custom quote.

Subscription plans include:

• Small Business: up to 50 users.
• Mid Size Business: up to 250 users.
• Enterprise: up to 500 users.
• Enterprise Plus: for more than 500 users.

*Pricing information retrieved from Looop by 360Learning in June, 2024.

19EduMe

As a Workforce Success platform, EduMe offers an eLearning tool that can be used by any organization to train, engage, and communicate with their employees. As a result of using EduMe to educate their workforce, Uber, Airbnb, Vodafone, and Deloitte have noticed an increase in employee productivity and their sales.

Deployment: Desktop Application, Mobile Application, Cloud-based/SaaS

Type: Academic LMS, Corporate LMS/Enterprise LMS

Who is it for? It is ideal for educational institutions and organizations of types and sizes.

Pricing: It offers a demo and a free trial.

Pricing is customer per number of users required. You have to submit a pricing request for a tailored quote for your workforce.

*Pricing information retrieved from EduMe in June 2024.

20Canvas LMS

Canvas LMS is a versatile, cloud-based LMS designed primarily for educational institutions, including K-12 schools, colleges, and universities. It has a user-friendly interface and offers a seamless teaching and learning experience through robust course management, communication, and collaboration tools. The platform supports extensive customization and third-party integrations and has dedicated mobile applications.

Deployment: Web-based, Cloud-based/SaaS, Mobile Application

Type: Academic LMS

Who is it for?

Primarily designed for educational institutions including K-12 schools, colleges, and universities, but also suitable for corporate training environments.

Pricing:

Canvas LMS offers an open-source solution, and its code is freely accessible. There is a Canvas Free-for-Teacher account that allows you to try the platform and offers access to basic-level features and functionality of Canvas LMS.

Pricing is not available publicly, but you can request a demo to get more details on the costs. There may be additional costs associated with setup, customization and maintenance.

*Pricing information retrieved from Canvas LMS in June 2024.

Which LMS is the best option for you?

Your choice of an LMS solution is crucial, and it’s one that you can’t afford to take lightly. Miscalculated time and money investments can be costly, whether you are an individual interested in an LMS or representing a company.

P.S.: Also, check out the list of the top mobile-friendly LMS.

Still don’t know which LMS is the best option for you? You can try the following:

• Read product reviews: reviews can tell you all about what an LMS can or cannot do for you, and this is probably the first place you need to look.
• Look for user feedback: reach out to people from your community who have tried the LMS platform of your choice and ask them what they think about it, or get more information from trusted sources.
• Ask for a consultation/demo: discuss your individual/business learning needs with the LMS vendors that interest you the most and find out what they can do for you specifically.
• Get a trial from an LMS vendor: a test drive of your top-of-the-list LMSs can help you decide if its features and functions are worth investing your time and money in.

Out of these options, the most effective is testing out the online learning platforms yourself.

So before you go, make sure to claim your free 30-day trial with LearnWorlds and let us know how it goes!

The post The 20 Best Learning Management Systems for 2024 appeared first on LearnWorlds.

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Customer training is a hot topic among businesses, especially those offering SaaS or complex products. Also referred to as customer education, this type of training focuses on customers only, empowering them to leverage your product to its full potential.

As we’ll explain further in this post, this comes with several benefits both for the customers and the business.

Whether you’re considering offering customer training for the first time or looking for tips to perfect your strategy, you’ve come to the right place.

In this blog post, we’ll explore what customer training is (and what it isn’t!), its benefits, and a quick guide for successful implementation.

What is Customer Training?

Customer training is a combination of initiatives designed to help customers learn how to use a product. For example, a customer training strategy can include training courses, a knowledge base with learning material, on-demand or live webinars, and personalized or group calls with customer success agents. It’s usually part of a customer enablement strategy.

What does learning how to use a product entail?

learn all product use cases
discover all available features
navigate and use the product with confidence
troubleshoot minor issues

Of course, learning about all available features and use cases does not mean the customer will leverage all of them. But it’s important that they know they exist so they can choose whether to use these functionalities. In fact, low feature discovery and adoption rates are problems you can overcome with a customer training program.

As for troubleshooting, customer training does not aim to create product specialists but confident users who feel comfortable “playing around” with the product and who also have access to material that helps them overcome roadblocks when using the product.

Offering a certificate at the end of a full-fledged customer training course is a common practice among SaaS companies, and all the more so by popular tools with wide application in the workplace. The certificate is usually awarded following the successful completion of an exam.

What customer training is not:

product training
customer onboarding

Let us be more specific:

While customer training offers, by definition, some type of product training, the latter is usually a type of employee training – especially for employees who are heavily involved either in product development or customer support.
Product training goes into deep technical details about the product that the average customer doesn’t need to learn.

Customer onboarding has a more narrow application and mostly concerns helping new customers set up your product rather than exploring it in full, eg, configuring basic settings, migrating data from another tool, etc.
So, you could say that onboarding is the first phase of customer training, where the customer receives support to get started with your product.

Benefits of Customer Training

Customer training is essential to a customer success strategy as it massively improves the customer experience in the after-purchase stages.

An effective customer training program is beneficial for the customer and the business alike in the following ways:

• Improve feature / product adoption: customers discover and learn how to use product features.
• Enhance user experience: customers navigate the product with ease and confidence.
• Accelerate time to value: reduce the time it takes for customers to discover and fully leverage your product’s capabilities.
• Increase customer satisfaction: being able to enjoy and utilize a product to its fullest increases CSAT scores.
• Boost customer retention rates: customers are more likely to stay loyal to a useful product and a company that proactively addresses their needs.
• Prevent early customer churn: it’s not uncommon for customers who don’t get immediate value out of a product to change to a competitive one.
• Build trust and customer loyalty: deploying a customer training program is active proof that you invest in customer experience and respect your customers – and they appreciate that!
• Increased perceived value and authority: offering training material elevates the value of your product in your customers’ eyes.
• Boost brand image & messaging: a customer training program enables you to reinforce and establish your brand.
• Facilitate sales, upselling & cross-selling: as customers discover more use cases and build trust in your company, they’re more likely to buy more from you.
• Boost renewal rates: customers who have found true value and incorporated your SaaS product into their lives are more likely to renew their subscription.
• Reduce customer support tickets: customers who have access to learning resources are less likely to reach out to customer support.
• Extend customer lifecycle: customers will stay with your company longer since customer training enables them not only to use your product best but also helps you stay top of mind through communications and events.
• Increase customer lifetime value (CLV): customers will buy more products and subscribe to higher plans if they feel confident about the usability of your product.
• Communicate new features, products, and more: a customer education program enables you to maintain an open line of communication.
• Drive business growth: as a result of all the above, your company should be able to stay financially healthy and keep growing.

Actually, offering a customer education program works to your benefit before a prospective customer even signs up.

Having a program in place can be used as an additional selling point for your salespeople, increasing the perceived value of the product and demonstrating a commitment to proactively meeting customers’ needs – two things which can only help close a sale faster.

A How-To Guide for a Successful Customer Training Strategy: 12 Tips for Success

Customer training is key to happy, loyal customers. Here’s how to implement an effective customer training strategy, step by step:

Identify Training Needs

Before you start building customer education content, you need to be clear about your customers’ training needs. Although content like setup guides is always useful, you want to make sure you don’t leave out other resources your customers need.

Some ways to uncover training needs:

• Use heat maps to monitor user activity when navigating the product
• Analyze customer support tickets to identity recurring questions & issues
• Send out feedback surveys to customers

Align With Business Goals

Set business goals and metrics that will help you focus your efforts on what you hope to achieve and later measure the effectiveness of your program. A tried-and-tested method for goal setting is the SMART methodology (all parameters should apply):

• Specific. A goal should be as specific as possible. Eg, instead of thinking about “boosting revenue,” which is a rather vague and broad goal that involves several KPIs, you could plan for “decreasing incoming support tickets.”
• Measurable. Set a number to measure the goal against, eg “decreasing incoming support tickets by 5%”
• Attainable. The goal must be realistic. For example, don’t set a goal of “decreasing incoming support tickets by 10% in two months” because then you’re just setting yourself up for failure.
• Relevant. The goal should be relevant to your initiative. For example, don’t set a goal relevant to employee performance.
• Time-bound. Set a (realistic) timeframe within to achieve the goal.

Create Structured Learning Paths

As you build your program, make sure it progresses in a way that learners can follow through, eg., by moving from basic settings to more advanced features and use cases. Depending on the complexity of your product, you can also organize your courses per feature or use case.

Invest in a Learning Management System (LMS)

A Learning Management System can help you deploy customer training at a scale, organize live webinars, and offer your training resources all from one platform. An LMS will also enable you to optimize your workflow with user management and automations and bulk actions. It’s an excellent solution to facilitate a tech-touch customer onboarding strategy.

LearnWorlds is a lightweight LMS that stands out in the eLearning market as a top customer education platform. LearnWorlds is easy to use both for admins and learners with a clean User Interface that has been recently updated for even greater efficiency and intuitiveness.

It’s also SCORM compliant, supports different content formats (audio, video, and text content), and the ability to add interactions. It additionally offers integrations with third party tools, including video conferencing tools, Hubspot, and marketing/eCommerce tools.

With LearnWorlds, you can build multiple schools and not only customize but also brand them as you wish to further reinforce your brand.

A key differentiator of our platform? LearnWorlds features an intuitive website builder with pre-made, customizable templates, so you can build public-facing training academies in a heartbeat and with amazing design options!

Utilize Microlearning

Definitely favorite microlearning over long-form courses. Customers need access to easily digestible resources that give them the information they need when they need it – and smaller modules fit the bill perfectly without causing unnecessary mental strain.

Make it Mobile-Friendly

Training content should be easy to navigate through, just like scrolling on social media. That’s why it’s essential to choose a mobile-friendly platform or, better yet, one that enables you to launch your own mobile app.

Offer Diverse Material

Avoid sticking to one type of content, as this does not help to impart knowledge successfully. It’s not only because learning preferences among your customers will vary – you should also take into account factors like what you want customers to learn, when and how you expect them to access the training material, and more.

For example, for more comprehensive learning, you can offer video tutorials, self-paced courses, and webinars. You can even include case studies for inspiration.

Setup guides & user manuals are also very useful for customer onboarding. Quizzes are another must-have addition to measure learner progress, allow for self-evaluation, and reinforce learning.

You should also add interactive elements, such as:

• Live training sessions to address questions in real-time
• A community of learners
• Simulations as fun games that enhance learning

Use gamification techniques, even simple ones like badges, to increase motivation.

Offer a Certificate

Offering a certificate can do wonders in terms of learner engagement and motivation, plus it adds credibility to your product. Successful learners can showcase their certificate as an additional asset to their resume, which can justify putting a price tag on your training course.

Use Your Branding

Customer training can also be viewed as a marketing activity. By offering training material and organizing online events to demonstrate your product and connect with your customers, you’re building your brand.

Therefore, it’s important to let your brand shine by using white-labeled hosting platforms and using your brand colors and consistent messaging across all your customer training activities.

Include Feedback Surveys

Feedback surveys are an essential and easy addition to measure customer engagement and collect feedback. Send them out via email or your training platform to learn how customers view your customer education efforts and make suggestions for improvements.

Integrate Training With Customer Support

Customer training shouldn’t be limited to a learning experience in the strict sense of the word. You should view customer training as part of your larger customer support offerings, so opportunities for customer education should be plenty and available all around, eg., via your customer support team and customer success managers, or a knowledge base.

Monitor the Results & Optimize

Whether through feedback surveys, LMS reports, or business KPIs, make sure you have planned for a couple of ways and data sources to measure whether customer training has the desired impact and how customers feel about it.

LearnWorlds as the Optimal Solution for Customer Training

Build stronger customer relationships and keep your customers close by offering the support and educational resources they need. Maintaining a financially robust business and a strong brand requires continuous effort – and customer training contributes to both.

LearnWorlds is an award-winning LMS that covers all your customer training needs. Try LearnWorlds now with a 30-day free trial!

The post What Is Customer Training? Definition, Benefits, And A Quick How-To Guide appeared first on LearnWorlds.

Welcome to the new era of eLearning management! Following the success of our last year’s event, “A New Day,” we are thrilled to announce our much-anticipated annual product event.

This year, we are bringing you a transformative experience designed to elevate course creation, enhance learning experiences, and streamline educator workflows.

Join us on June 25th to discover our latest innovations and take a step towards hassle-free administration.

Why You Should Attend

Our event is tailored for administrators and school owners who strive for operational excellence and seek innovative solutions to simplify their daily tasks while boosting current performance & expanding their knowledge business.

Whether you’re looking to expand your audience reach, enhance the learning experience for your students, or streamline your workflow, this event is for you.

Here’s a Sneak Peek at What we’ll be Unveiling

Expand | Go global, reach diverse audiences, and ensure compliance

• Multiple Schools: Serve multiple audiences through different schools under one account.
• Stripe Tax Integration: Sell internationally with automatic and compliant tax management.
• Weglot Integration: Enter new geographic markets by translating your site and interface into 107+ languages effortlessly.
• AccessiBe Integration: Meet the needs of diverse audiences, enabling accessibility, inclusivity, and compliance.
• OpenID Connect: Comply with your organization’s security requirements by authenticating school users with your identity provider.

Improve | Drive better results through enhanced conversion and engagement

• Marketing Automations: Seamlessly trigger events from your site and school to Facebook, Mixpanel, and Google Tag Manager to inform lead and learner flow improvements.
• Course Catalog Enhancement: Increase course page performance by highlighting specific offerings and improving their discoverability.
• Inline Sign-In Forms: Introduce sign-in forms on the pages where your visitors are, streamlining registration and login flows.
• PowerPoint Learning Activity: Deliver your content in a familiar format, leveraging existing materials without reinventing the wheel.
• Connected & Personalized Mobile Experience: Amplify the mobile experience with visibility and access features available on the web.
• Community Enhancement: Engage learners in various community spaces, on the web & mobile, with greater interaction functionality.

Optimize | Streamline administrative tasks to focus on what matters most

• New UI: Boost your productivity with our streamlined, easy-to-navigate interface.
• Content Syncing: Reduce effort by simultaneously updating content across all schools and courses.
• Training Matrix: Make informed decisions and improve content for user groups & segments with faster user progress analytics.
• Course Categories Enhancement: Manage a large number of courses more effectively.
• Mobile App Administration: Strengthen your mobile app with enhanced security and enjoy a streamlined push notifications setup.

Join the New Era of eLearning Management

LearnWorlds is dedicated to making your school better every day. Our commitment to innovation and user-centric design ensures you have the tools you need to grow confidently and efficiently.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to transform your eLearning platform with the latest advancements from LearnWorlds. Register today to secure your spot and join us live on June 25th.

Witness firsthand how our new features can empower you to simplify, streamline, and succeed in your educational endeavors.

This event is not just about showcasing new features but about empowering you to lead the education evolution.

Mark your calendars, and get ready to dive into innovation with LearnWorlds!

The post Dive into Innovation: Join Us at LearnWorlds’ Big Annual Product Bash! appeared first on LearnWorlds.

Let us once again emphasize the undeniable truth: the potential for earning in this digital wonderland is nothing short of extraordinary.

By sharing your knowledge and enlightening eager minds through selling online courses, you not only experience the joy of educating others, but you also unlock the incredible power to generate a steady flow of passive income at an astonishingly low cost.

In fact, according to market research, the global e-learning market is poised to reach a $1 trillion market cap by the year 2032. Yes, you read that right!

This mind-blowing figure only reinforces the notion that the opportunities within this lucrative industry are as vast as the cosmic expanse itself. It’s a playground where success knows no bounds and success can be achieved with a stroke of digital brilliance.

You might be wondering, “But can I sell courses on Shopify?” Yes, a lot of successful Shopify sellers are course creators. Many eCommerce businesses and entrepreneurs decide to monetize their audience with online courses and a Shopify LMS (Learning Management System).

What’s great about this is that it’s easy to repurpose existing content. Let’s say you offer product education via video tutorials and PDF guides. You can keep that content and add some gated course material that will provide additional value, like blog posts, recorded webinars, etc., and sell them as a course. You can also include quizzes and offer learners a certificate of completion.

This post covers everything you need to know about how to sell a course on Shopify, including the best Shopify course apps, marketing techniques, and digital products to sell on this popular platform.

How to Sell Courses on Shopify

Selling online courses on Shopify is easy, and anyone can do it – no matter the type of industry your online business is in. That’s why Shopify for online courses is very popular.

There are two ways you can sell online courses with Shopify:

1. Sell a course as a digital product on your Shopify store
2. Sell a course directly from LearnWorlds with Shopify payments

Let’s see how these two ways work.

1Sell a course as a digital product from Shopify

Set up a new product on Shopify, add the pricing information, and create a landing page specific to online courses. Then, you will need to connect to an online course platform like LearnWorlds to enroll each buyer as a student in that course.

In LearnWorlds, account creation and enrollment happen in the background after a purchase. LearnWorlds uses the user’s email as an identifier to link their purchase in Shopify to their LearnWorlds account.

You will need to check the second option of the Customer contact setting, Customers can only check out using email.

2Sell a course directly from LearnWorlds with Shopify payments

The easier way to leverage LearnWorlds’s Shopify functionality for your elearning website is to connect Shopify as a payment gateway. LearnWorlds offers the option to sell your courses via Shopify by fulfilling any online course purchases from your Shopify online store.

When someone buys a LearnWorlds course, they are redirected to your Shopify checkout page, with the course already added to their shopping cart. When they finalize their purchase, they are sent back to LearnWorlds to start their course.

To integrate your LearnWorlds school with Shopify, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Create a Shopify Account

If you don’t have a Shopify Account, create one. The process is straightforward and super easy. You simply need to provide an email address and a few details about what you’re planning to sell.

Then you can choose your shop’s name or leave it for later if you’re still working on it. Once you are in, you will be given your Shopify store URL, e.g., cvworlds.myshopify.com, and you will be directed to your main dashboard, where you can customize your store.

*Should you need help setting up your Shopify store and selling courses, contact Shopify support directly to help you out with your inquiry.

Step 2: Go to LearnWorlds Dashboard
Then log in to your LearnWorlds account → Settings. Click on ‘Financial’ → ‘Payment Gateway.’

Step 3: Choose Shopify as Your Payment Gateway

Once there, select Shopify as your main payment gateway. Fill out your Shopify URL (The Shopify URL ends with myshopify.com).

Paste the Admin’s Access token that you have set up in Shopify, add it in the respective field, and hit Save.

Step 4: Sync Your Courses

Now, a new button will appear to allow you to ‘sync’ your accounts and add your products. Click on ‘sync’.

When the synchronization process is complete, you will get a message that says your products – courses have been added to your Shopify store.

Then click ‘Save’ at the top of your screen, and you are ready!

Every time you make changes to any of your courses at LearnWorlds, you will need to make sure that you sync your accounts again so that courses are effectively updated in your Shopify store.

Also, ensure that ‘Accounts are required’ is enabled in your Shopify store. To do this, go to your Shopify admin > ‘Settings’ (at the bottom left) and then ‘Checkout’. In the Customer Accounts section, click the third choice.

7 Best Shopify Apps to Sell Online Courses

If you want to sell online courses on Spotify, there are some apps you need to become familiar with to make the process easier for you and your clients.

While building your online store, check the following apps on the Shopify App Store or use them as integrations to market and sell your online courses effectively.

1LearnWorlds

Learnworlds is the top online course platform in the market and has integration for Shopify payments. It offers everything you need to create, market, and sell online courses and can easily be connected to your Shopify store or your website. LearnWorlds is better than any Shopify course app with a direct LMS-Shopify integration, offering a great learning experience for your customers.

2Active Campaign

When connected to your Shopify store, the Active Campaign software can help you send targeted messages to your learners at the right time using personalized marketing automation, email marketing, and advanced segmentation, improving your customer experience automation.

3HubSpot

HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing platform that helps you to carry out, track and measure your online marketing activities. When connected to Shopify, this software can integrate your online store data with the leading mid-market CRM, marketing automation, and customer service software.

HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing platform that helps you carry out, track, and measure your online marketing activities. When connected to Shopify, this software can integrate your online store data with the leading mid-market CRM, marketing automation, and customer service software.

4Tawk To

Tawk.to is a live chat application that enables you to chat with prospective customers and website visitors. It can be used to make the customer experience smoother – therefore increasing customer satisfaction – by providing real support and service to your customers through a ticketing system that integrates with your Shopify store.

5Google Analytics

With Google Analytics, you can check how your marketing campaign performs and gain insight into consumer trends. It provides you with reporting and real-time store statistics to find out where your visitors are coming from and what they are doing on your website.

Keep in mind that Google Analytics is also a great tool to track and optimize your SEO efforts and can give you a better understanding of your audience, e.g., telling you which terms they’re searching for on the search engine, thus helping you adjust your messaging to get more course sales.

6Referral Candy

With ReferralCandy, you can build a referral program to leverage your customers’ network and promote your product or business to their families and friends. ReferralCandy automates this process and helps you boost sales, build social proof, and increase customer retention.

7Fomo

Fomo helps you increase conversions and create instant social proof. It does so by displaying recent orders, product reviews, and other customer behaviors on your Shopify storefront so that store visitors can see that people trust your business, thus reassuring them that they should do the same.

There are thousands of apps you connect to your online store on Shopify. Choose wisely the ones that are more likely to improve the functionality of your store, enable you to sell the types of courses you want, and make the eCommerce process easier.

5 Types of Shopify Digital Products to Sell on Your Shopify Store

Shopify is undoubtedly one of the best eCommerce platforms out there due to its ease of use and value for money. With it, even if you are a beginner, you can easily set up your eCommerce store or website, grow your business, and start selling a wide range of products worldwide. With the added advantage of SEO optimization for your ecommerce platform, you can ensure higher visibility in search engine results, attract more organic traffic, and ultimately increase your chances of reaching a wider customer base.

The best thing about Shopify is that it works for any business and industry you’re in, allowing you to sell many types of products – from physical products to digital goods and other services, including the following:

Type #1: Online courses

It is possible to sell online courses on Shopify as products by connecting Shopify to an online course platform – you create the course on the course creation platform and sell it on your Shopify store. LearnWorlds & Shopify can be directly integrated. In fact, you can sell online courses directly from LearnWorlds with Shopify using payment processing.

Check out the example of Supakit on selling courses on Shopify and find out how they deliver them through LearnWorlds.

Type #2: Digital downloads

Shopify allows you to sell digital downloads, including ebooks, email templates, videos, songs, and graphic art. To do this, you first need to download the ‘Digital Downloads’ app inside Shopify and then add your products. Shopify offers a step-by-step guide on how you can go through this here.

For example, a good example of digital products would be marketing ebooks.

Type #3: Memberships

One of the things Shopify is proud of is the ability it offers to its customers to sell memberships and subscriptions. So let’s say you’re an online coach, and you want to share gated content with your clients – you can choose to offer access only to your subscribers, offering different services and resources depending on their membership level.

LearnWorlds offers a robust community where you can enroll users by adding a membership fee via your shopping cart to your LearnWorlds community.

Type #4: Services and consultations

Shopify enables you to offer your services or consultation. If you are a financial advisor or a career consultant, you can sell your services online and encourage people to book an online or offline one-to-one appointment with you.

Type #5: Experiences

If your business or online store is offering an experience, e.g., a trip or adventure, spa therapy, wine tasting, or networking events, you can sell tickets to that event through Shopify.

Remember that experiences are very popular on social media channels, so make sure to inform your social media followers about your offerings.

How to add digital products to Shopify

Here’s a mini step-by-step guide on how to add a digital product to your online store:

1. Add the Digital Downloads app from the Shopify Store
2. Create a product
3. Go to the Digital Downloads App
4. Attach the file

If you offer multiple files, you will need to create an archive file, e.g., a .zip.

For more complex products like online courses, it’s better to use a learning management system like LearnWorlds to offer a valuable learning experience to your learners.

How to Market Your Courses (Resources)

While investing in the power of your Shopify store is wise, it’s important to also keep true to your core digital marketing strategy.

To help you out at LearnWorlds, we offer a range of free resources that are available to you, including the following eBooks:

1. The Ultimate Guide To Selling & Marketing Online Courses
2. How to Thrive in Affiliate Marketing
3. Selling Courses Through Email Marketing
4. The Essential Guide to Selling Online Courses Using Facebook Ads
5. The Definitive Guide to Social Media Platform Content Types

Take Your eCommerce Business To The Next Level

Selling online courses on your Shopify store is a great way to upsell your current services. Every eCommerce entrepreneur selling digital products on Shopify or even physical ones through dropshipping can accompany them with an online course on how to use them. If you are stuck optimizing your supply chain, a digital product is a great way to add more value or upsell with unlimited stock.

While you’re at it, make sure you use every tool or app to help you get the most out of the Shopify platform to offer your customers the best.

Of course, there are many Shopify alternatives and WordPress Plugins out there to host your online business, yet we do suggest Shopify as the top eCommerce platform in that category, with tons of plugins to help you!

LearnWorlds offers direct integration with Shopify and is always here to help you out, offering the best resources and the right source of inspiration to help you get started on your every journey. In addition to optimizing your e-course sales on Shopify, consider implementing a QR generator to provide seamless access to your course content and enhance user engagement. Cheers to your success!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Can you sell courses on Shopify?

Yes, there is the option to use Shopify for online courses and sell them as digital products. However, you will need an LMS as a plugin or integration to deliver the courses.

Shopify is great but will not work so well for education or online learning alone. We suggest you use Shopify eLearning in combination with an LMS provider, like LearnWorlds, Teachable, or Thinkific, to deliver the learning experience your learners need.

What to Sell on Shopify?

You can sell any kind of physical or digital product, and there is also the possibility of selling software on Shopify. Here are some examples of trending products you could sell:

• Online Courses
• Toys
• Shoes
• Pens and pencils
• Decorative bottles
• Drills
• Cutters
• GPS navigation systems
• Bras
• Motor vehicle parts
• Office chairs
• Projectors
• Kitchen towels
• Digital artwork
• Eyebrow enhancers
• Neon signs
• Tablet computers
• Water bottles
• Lockout tagout kits
• identity theft protection service
• Adjustable bed

Can you sell video courses on Shopify?

Shopify allows you to add media to your digital products, including videos, into your online courses in the same way you would add an image or 3D model. Follow these guidelines from Shopify to learn how to do it step-by-step.

Can you sell a service on Shopify?

Yes, you can sell a service as a digital product and connect it to your scheduling tool or email software, or personally reach out to your client for the next steps of the service.

Do you need a business license to sell on Shopify?

In most cases, you don’t need to have a business license to sell on Shopify. However, there are however specific exceptions where the country, city, state you live in, or the type of business you operate will require you to have one, so it’s best to check that prior to launching your online store or creating your online course.

Does Shopify work for education?

Shopify is a great tool, but it will not work so well for education or online learning alone. We suggest you use Shopify eLearning in combination with an LMS provider to deliver the learning experience your learners need.

What is the best Shopify theme for selling online courses?

There is no “perfect” Shopify online course theme. Any theme that fits your industry will work great for selling online courses. Next-generation LMSs like LearnWorlds offer landing page templates and themes that are specialized in selling courses. It’s better to use a LearnWorlds landing page template for courses and use Shopify as the payment gateway.

How is Shopify for eLearning?

Using Shopify for eLearning is relatively easy. There are two ways to offer online courses with the platform:

• Selling access to a site with gated course content: create courses as gated content and sell membership access to your customers. You can sell videos on Shopify, pages, blog posts, webinars, audio files, etc. On Shopify, online classes will have limited functionality, but you can use external tools, e.g., Zoom or Skype, to carry out live 1:1 or group sessions.
• Selling online courses via an LMS or course platform: use an LMS to host your online courses, add more interactivity, get access to advanced reporting tools, and secure the smooth delivery of learning experiences on various devices. Simply create the course on your chosen LMS, connect it with Shopify, and sell it as a product.

What are some popular Shopify online course plugins?

There are no Shopify online course plugins per se, but you can connect your online course platform with Shopify and sell your course via it. Some of the most popular platforms for creators are LearnWorlds, Kajabi, Thinkific, and Podia.

The post How to Sell Online Courses On Your Shopify Store (Guide) appeared first on LearnWorlds.

Whether you’re teaching, coaching, training customers, or onboarding employees, courses remain the primary method for delivering your valuable learning content.

In the e-Learning field, your course catalog works the same way as a shopping window for offline consumers. It showcases your offerings and entices potential learners to explore and engage with your content.

At LearnWorlds, we’re proud of our commitment to delivering impactful product updates that empower creators to run their knowledge business efficiently and with the utmost simplicity.

As the newest advancement to our platform, we’re bringing several updates to our course catalog to optimize admin management and enhance course discovery for students.

Let’s dive into the latest improvements to see how they will make course management easier for you, and course exploration – for your learners.

Manage course categories from a single place

We understand the importance of efficient organization. You can now access and manage all your course categories from a centralized point – course category manager – simplifying the categorization process and ensuring a cohesive structure across all courses.

No more jumping between separate courses to adjust the category – everything can be done from a unified dashboard.

From a convenient dashboard, admins can delete or add new categories, rename them, and add or remove courses to the category, all in a couple of clicks.

Customize the visibility of relevant elements

Show/hide the course progress bar

Not all interface elements are relevant to your courses. For example, in some cases, you might not want students to see the course progress bar.

Now, you have the power to control the visibility of the course progress bar to fine-tune the user interface.

Display subscription course prices

With just one toggle, hide the individual course price from the course subscription block.

This update allows for a more personalized and streamlined experience, ensuring that key interface elements are present only when relevant.

Display more comprehensive and relevant search results

Customly arrange courses in the catalog

Customize the way you display courses to the students. Do you want your students to see all courses in your offering or discover only specific ones?

You can flexibly tailor the courses you showcase to your students by creating a custom list showcase or enabling initial view by the newest, popular, free, and other available categories.

Improve courses discoverability

We have improved our search engine to help your students discover relevant courses more easily.

Our search engine now finds a keyword in section names, activities, and all other entities of a training program. So, when your students are searching for a course, they will be presented with expanded and more relevant results.

Offer a free section of a paid course to increase course sales

Do you want to boost course purchases? Nothing works better than a free sample.

Make the first section of your paid course free and offer it to potential customers. In this way, users will get a taste of your valuable training program and will be enticed to continue learning.

After completing the free section, an engaged user will more likely enroll in a paid course. What a simple way to generate more sales!

Personalized learning paths based on enrollment status

Your course catalog is not only a shopping window for potential customers. It’s also a learning portal for your existing students.

As a school owner, you don’t want to create a situation where a learner visits your catalog with the intention of accessing the course they’re already enrolled in, only to be redirected to the checkout page. This creates confusion and unnecessary friction, ruining the user experience.

Now, you can flexibly customize the flow of an enrolled and not-enrolled user. With a couple of clicks, personalize the learning experience by redirecting leads to purchase the course and existing students to view the course player or course overview.

Boost course visibility in search results

With the newest update, courses in your catalog work as hyperlinks. This means a user can open them in a new tab or window with a right mouse button click.

This will also make your courses more easily discoverable in search engine results. Such a small change both enhances user experience and increases your courses’ visibility.

These new features represent a significant leap forward in enhancing the overall user experience for both administrators and students. We are committed to providing a platform that is not only feature-rich but also intuitive and user-friendly.

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to innovate and elevate the learning experience on our platform!

The post Course Catalog Updates: Streamlined Management for Admins and Improved Course Discovery for Students appeared first on LearnWorlds.

In today’s digital age, the way we learn and train has been transformed by technology, and at the heart of this transformation is Learning Management Systems (LMSs). An LMS is a versatile tool that helps educators, trainers, and organizations manage and deliver educational content efficiently.

From schools and universities to corporate training programs and government agencies, the use of LMS platforms has revolutionized the approach to teaching and learning. The demand for online and blended learning is growing rapidly, as is the size of the LMS market, which is expected to reach 69.6 billion by 2030.

Because of this, understanding the role and benefits of an LMS becomes essential, especially for educators and online instructors. This article explains what an LMS is, its benefits and different types, and how you can choose the right one for your business!
P.S. If you are looking for an LMS, check out our list of the best Learning Management Systems in the market.

What is a Learning Management System (LMS)?

An LMS is a tool that facilitates the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, and delivery of educational courses or training programs. It is used widely in the eLearning industry and is a great management and distribution vehicle for learning programs across various sectors.

LMSs support synchronous (live) and asynchronous (self-paced) learning, providing tools for creating interactive content, conducting assessments, and monitoring learner progress. This technology has become essential in modern education and training, enabling efficient and effective learning experiences tailored to the needs of diverse users.

Use cases of learning management systems

The role and functions of LMS software vary depending on the learning goals of the instructor or company that is using it, and ultimately the industry they are in.

These are the most common categories of individuals and organizations that utilize an LMS:

Schools / Academic Institutions

A school or any other academic or learning institution uses an LMS to help teaching professionals assign online learning, share educational resources and materials (assessments, ebooks, quizzes), and manage student grades.
In many cases, it aids the education management of a K-12 school, as it can monitor student enrollments, keep records up-to-date, store students’ information, including their contact details, and track learner progress.

Virtual and Elearning-based Learning Associations

Online institutions such as LinkedIn Learning, Udemy, and Khan Academy allow people to grow their skills through online courses and professional development programs. These are not considered free LMSs but learning marketplaces.

Corporate Training Departments

Small businesses, medium-sized companies, and large enterprises that want to offer employees an easily accessible and standardized learning environment as a training solution where they learn and grow at their own pace purchase LMSs.
A Corporate Learning Management System (LMS) can streamline the training management process, helping you build an online corporate training program that covers your training needs. It can also make the onboarding process for new employees a lot easier.

Nonprofit Organizations

Nonprofit organizations often don’t have the appropriate resources to train volunteers effectively. Using an LMS as a training platform can help standardize the training process and make it available and accessible to all internal stakeholders.
Nonprofits also leverage LMS systems to sell online courses as an additional revenue source to support their mission.

Content Providers

Content providers create training content, promote it, and sell it. With the right LMS that offers multiple monetization options, any course instructor can create, manage, and sell educational content to those interested in boosting their knowledge or skills in any field.

Wholesale Companies

An LMS can keep distributors, resellers, and internal sales teams up-to-date with the latest products and promotions. It also enables collaborative learning among internal (existing employees or new hires) and external stakeholders (learners) through tutorials, webinars, and other collaboration tools and interactive learning activities.

Why use a learning management system?

With an LMS, you can plan, manage, and deliver training content for different purposes depending on who you are or who you represent. You can also use it to track online training initiatives.

These purposes may serve different functions in any of these settings:

Educational institutions: An LMS offers an open, user-friendly, and flexible learning environment that creates personalized learning paths for students, delivers online course modules, and even supplements real-time in-class instruction. This works as part of a blended learning setting where face-to-face instruction is still offered at schools, colleges, and universities.

Corporate training: HR resources administration initiatives in an organization use an LMS as a training tool. It can be part of talent management or the onboarding process, employee training, partner training, member training, compliance training, and sometimes sales enablement. The most prominent industries include healthcare/medicine, sales/marketing, software, and tech.

Customer training: Some companies want to educate customers on how to use their products in addition to educating their staff. These companies use an LMS to allow their customers to learn about their product or service—what they sell and how it works. This reduces support calls and increases engagement and product satisfaction.

Extended enterprise training: Similar to what they do for their customers, companies offer online training resources to external sales channels, partners, and franchisees.

Freelancing: LMSs are also used by people who want to monetize knowledge. They create and sell online courses by teaching what they know, establishing a viable or additional source of income as freelance online instructors. These guys or gals are also known as edupreneurs.

As you can see, an LMS can carry out all of these activities and be used in different ways to achieve a unique outcome. It sounds like the ultimate multi-tool!

The benefits of using an LMS

Using an LMS has its advantages, but this depends much on the features it offers. Every LMS is different because of what it can do for you.

According to the Encyclopedia of Distributed Learning, the six elements that make up the LMS concept are interoperability, accessibility, reusability, durability, maintenance ability, and adaptability.

So, generally, every LMS can:

• Provide access to learning material on the go.
• Offer flexibility in individual learning pathways.
• Offer easy and fair evaluation based on attendance and assessment.
• Use many learning materials (text – PDF, image, audio, video, templates, etc).
• Support elearning materials from one or various sources (SCORM, xAPI, AICC, LTI, Cmi5).
• Track progress and provide an analysis of user learning.
• Measure learning impact and performance success.
• Automate the learning process.

Diving into more specifics, though, it can do all of the following for learners, businesses, and schools:

LMS benefits for learners

• Ensure they’ve been delivered and are up-to-date with required training.
• Make formal and informal learning easily accessible.
• Attain the skills and knowledge required to develop professionally.
• Boost workplace productivity through the boost of performance.

LMS benefits for businesses

• Reduce learning and development costs.
• Decrease training time and improve productivity and overall performance (workers, consumers, and external partners).
• Engage and expand to diverse learning audiences.
• Organize training resources from one central location.
• Assess learner progress and corporate performance.
• Measure knowledge retention.

LMS benefits for schools/educational institutions

• Track the time it takes students to complete assessments.
• Manage multiple classes or groups with assignments, scorings, and data tracking using only one tool.
• Incorporate more interactive elements into your learning programs.
• Introduce ways to communicate with each other and the instructor, saving valuable time.

What are the different types of LMSs?

Even though an LMS can do many great things, not every LMS can do everything. There are many categories of LMSs because each specializes in certain aspect(s) or seems to serve a specific purpose better than others.

LMSs differ in terms of:

• Deployment type
• Pricing
• Licensing
• Specifications
• Customer types

The following table gives you a quick overview of the different types of LMSs available.

Certainly! Here’s the table with the provided data, formatted according to your template:

LMS Type	Deployment Type	Pricing Model	Licensing	Specifications	Customer Type
Open Source LMS	Open Source: Free version with open and adaptable source code. (e.g. Moodle)	Free, with possible costs for additional services and plugins.	Free License	Often supports SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI, AICC, LTI, and CMI-5.	All types – depends on customization.
Commercial Cloud-based	Cloud-based (SaaS): The vendor hosts all data; no installation is required, and there are automatic updates and vendor support (e.g., LearnWorlds).	Subscription (monthly/yearly) or pay per user.	Paid License	Often supports SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI, AICC, LTI, and CMI-5.	Enterprise, Corporate, Academic.
Self-hosted LMS	Self-hosted: The customer purchases a license and maintains the LMS on their server without vendor support.	Pay per learner/user, license fee.	Paid License	Supports SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI, AICC, LTI, and CMI-5.	Enterprise, Corporate.
Desktop Application	Desktop Application: Works as a desktop app, some may support smart devices for team collaboration.	Pay per user license fee.	Paid License	Varies, may support common eLearning standards like SCORM.	Enterprise, Corporate.
Mobile Application	Mobile Application: Accessible on smartphones, allows for uploading learning content on the go.	Subscription (monthly/yearly) or pay per user.	Paid License	Often supports mobile-friendly formats, may include SCORM or xAPI.	Enterprise, Corporate.
Custom-built LMS	Custom-built: Tailor-made system built and maintained by in-house or contracted developers.	Pay-as-you-go, development and maintenance costs.	Varies (often proprietary).	Can be designed to support any required eLearning standards.	Specific to the organization’s needs.
Industry-specific LMS	Industry-specific: Developed for a specific industry, includes relevant training assets like certifications and training activities.	Varies (subscription, pay per user).	Paid License	Typically supports industry-relevant formats and standards (may include SCORM).	Specific industries (e.g., healthcare, aviation).
Partner LMS	Varies: May be cloud-based, self-hosted, or custom-built, targeting partner training.	Varies (subscription, pay per user).	Varies (often paid).	Supports standards like SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI to facilitate partner training.	Enterprise.
Enterprise LMS	Varies: May be cloud-based, self-hosted, or custom-built, targeting enterprise training.	Varies (subscription, pay per user).	Varies (often paid).	Supports standards like SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI to facilitate comprehensive training.	Enterprise.
Corporate LMS	Varies: May be cloud-based, self-hosted, or custom-built, targeting corporate training.	Varies (subscription, pay per user).	Varies (often paid).	Supports standards like SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI to facilitate corporate training.	Corporate.
Academic LMS	Varies: May be cloud-based, self-hosted, or custom-built, targeting academic institutions.	Varies (subscription, pay per user).	Varies (often paid).	Often supports standards like LTI, SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI to facilitate academic learning.	Academic institutions.

Deployment Type	Pricing Model	Licensing	Specifications	Customer Type
Open Source LMS
Open Source	Free, with possible costs for additional services and plugins.	Free License	Often supports SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI, AICC, LTI, and CMI-5.	All types – depends on customization.
Commercial Cloud-based
Cloud-based (SaaS)	Subscription (monthly/yearly) or pay per user.	Paid License	Often supports SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI, AICC, LTI, and CMI-5.	Enterprise, Corporate, Academic.
Self-hosted LMS
Self-hosted	Pay per learner/user, license fee.	Paid License	Supports SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI, AICC, LTI, and CMI-5.	Enterprise, Corporate.
Desktop Application
Desktop Application	Pay per user license fee.	Paid License	Varies, may support common eLearning standards like SCORM.	Enterprise, Corporate.
Mobile Application
Mobile Application	Subscription (monthly/yearly) or pay per user.	Paid License	Often supports mobile-friendly formats, may include SCORM or xAPI.	Enterprise, Corporate.
Custom-built LMS
Custom-built	Pay-as-you-go, development and maintenance costs.	Varies (often proprietary)	Can be designed to support any required eLearning standards.	Specific to the organization’s needs.
Industry-specific LMS
Industry-specific	Varies (subscription, pay per user)	Varies (often paid)	Supports standards like SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI to facilitate specific industry needs.	Industry-specific.
Enterprise LMS
Enterprise LMS	Varies: May be cloud-based, self-hosted, or custom-built, targeting enterprise training.	Varies (subscription, pay per user).	Varies (often paid). Supports standards like SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI to facilitate comprehensive training.	Enterprise.
Corporate LMS
Corporate LMS	Varies: May be cloud-based, self-hosted, or custom-built, targeting corporate training.	Varies (subscription, pay per user).	Varies (often paid). Supports standards like SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI to facilitate corporate training.	Corporate.
Academic LMS
Academic LMS	Varies: May be cloud-based, self-hosted, or custom-built, targeting academic institutions.	Varies (subscription, pay per user).	Varies (often paid). Often supports standards like LTI, SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI to facilitate academic learning.	Academic institutions.

But let’s explore these in more detail.

Deployment type

Open Source: An open-source learning management system (aka open source LMS) is the free version of an LMS in which the source code is open and free for anyone to use and adapt to their specifications.

Commercial:

• Cloud-based (SaaS) or hosted: A cloud-based platform like LearnWorlds is an LMS where the vendor hosts all data, programs, and applications on its server. No installation is required, updates are automatic, and the vendor offers support services. LearnWorlds also enables mobile learning (aka learning on the go) through its powerful Mobile App Builder.
• Self-hosted: Self-hosted LMS is an installed LMS. In this case, the customer purchases a license and installs and maintains the LMS on their server. The vendor here doesn’t offer support services, and it’s up to the IT team/department to maintain the platform and make upgrades.

Desktop Application: This is an LMS that works as a desktop application. Some desktop apps also work on smart devices, which can facilitate team collaboration, but not every LMS offers this option.
Mobile Application: An LMS that is accessible on smartphone devices and you can upload learning content while on the go.

Custom-built: A custom-built LMS is a tailor-made system built and maintained by a team of developers employed or contracted by your company.

Industry-specific: An LMS developed for a specific industry hosts training assets such as certifications, training activities, or games related to industry-specific skills and knowledge.

Pricing model

Pay per active user: you pay for each active user during each payment circle.

Pay per learner: you pay for the number of learners regardless of their online/offline status.

Pay as you go: you pay for what you use – the number of users and what courses they take.

License fee/subscription: you pay a monthly or yearly license fee to use the system.

Licensing

Free License: Free license LMS is usually an open-source system. Although this is a free LMS, it has an added expense, which goes directly to the programmer or the IT team you hire to work the code and any additional plugins for you.

Paid License: Paid LMSs require a monthly or yearly fee to use. While most systems work on subscription (recurring payments), some may offer the option to buy it upfront with a one-time payment.

Specification

Not every LMS supports the same elearning formats. To keep up with portability and the eLearning standards, some LMSs support one (or more) of the following formats:

• SCORM (1.2/2004): The SCORM standard helps authoring tools communicate with your LMS. It allows content creation and formatting to be supported by the entire platform.
• Tin Can API/xAPI: Tin Can API or xAPI is an elearning software specification allowing learning systems and content to communicate. The learning experiences it records from this communication are saved to the Learning Record Store (LRS).
• AICC: The AICC is the first elearning standard developed by the aviation industry. Its job is to allow the LMS and elearning content to communicate via HAC protocols and HTML.
• LTI: Learning Tools operability is a standard developed by the IMS Global Learning Consortium for remote apps. It is most suitable for higher education and academia.
• CMI-5: CMI-5 is the newest standard for LMSs and AICC’s successor. It has all the capabilities of SCORM and xAPI.

These formats allow you to import the same content into a different standards-compliant LMS. For an LMS to stay current in the market, it needs to be able to support any of these eLearning standards. Looking out for these when investing in an LMS vendor is important.

Customer type

An LMS may differ in terms of its target audience too. So it may specifically be for Enterprise training – targeting enterprises and other organizations (Partner LMS/Enterprise LMS), Corporate training – targeting businesses and corporations (Corporate LMS), or Academic education– targeting educational institutions or schools (Academic LMS).

Key Differences Between LMS vs. LCMS, LXP, and LRS

Educational technology, as we know it today, also features a variety of platforms designed to support different aspects of learning and content management.

So, apart from the LMS, you might have also read or heard about:

• LCMS (Learning Content Management System)
• LXP (Learning Experience Platform)
• LRS (Learning Record Store)

The table below lists the key differences between these systems and explains each’s purpose, primary focus, users, and key features.

LCMS (Learning Content Management System)

An LCMS focuses on creating, storing, managing, and delivering learning content. It is a web-based portal that enables instructional designers and content creators to develop, reuse, and manage learning materials more efficiently in a collaborative environment.

LXP (Learning Experience Platform)

An LXP is a learner-centric platform that focuses on delivering personalized learning experiences. It aggregates content from multiple sources and uses AI to recommend learning paths and resources tailored to individual learners.

LRS (Learning Record Store)

An LRS is a specialized database designed to store and retrieve learning records. It works with the Experience API (xAPI) to track and record learning activities across multiple platforms and contexts.

Understanding these distinctions can help you choose the right learning management tool for your business or organization.

How do learning management systems work?

Every LMS is different and packed with unique capabilities.
Some LMS platforms offer built-in course authoring tools that help you produce training content. In contrast, others don’t and can only assist you in other aspects, like managing and distributing training materials.

Using an LMS, you can upload these training materials – also known as ‘training assets’ to the learning base of the system. In this online learning environment that you create, remote learners can access your course content from their desktop or mobile devices.

The Essential LMS Features

LMSs have advanced and expanded their toolkit in ways that were impossible a decade ago. Today, an LMS comes with a different set of features and capabilities.

For an LMS to get the title of LMS, it needs to have the following three basic features:

• User management : managing the role of academy staff e.g. the instructor, teacher, tutor, or manager (see user custom roles).
• Storage and distribution : keeping important information such as training resources safe and distributing content to those eligible to access it.
• Monitoring and assessment : tracking and measuring each learner’s progress and performance.

On top of these, there are also advanced LMS features that are considered to be game-changers. These are the following:

• Content & Course Management : Any LMS can also be equipped to create and manage course materials and learning content.
• Gamification : Gamification features include progress bar points, flashcards, badges/achievements, and actual games that are important for boosting learner engagement. LMSs that offer gamification have an added advantage over others.
• Reporting and Analytics : With this feature, you can generate insightful data on who and how is using the system, looking into key training metrics like learner progress and course completion rates.
• Social Learning : The ability to communicate in a social environment and exchange ideas and opinions is essential in learning. LMSs that offer social learning features like a dedicated learning community, discussion forums, and instant messaging are more advanced than others.
• Support Services : Support has a huge role to play in an LMS. If it is inadequate or not there when you need it, you won’t be able to carry out your tasks effectively or use the software to its fullest potential.
• Instructor-Led Training Classroom : A key feature for virtual classroom-based classes especially for schools or academic institutions.
• Mobile Learning : The ability to offer learning on the go via a mobile app where learners can access training courses 24/7.
• Intuitive User Interface : A friendly and easy-to-use user interface creates a positive user experience and is important for non-tech-savvy learners and users new to using eLearning technology.
• Certification : Offering certificates is a must-have feature for learners who want to get certified in their career field and companies that want to provide such an opportunity to their employees.
• E-commerce : Not every LMS offers an e-commerce option allowing users to transact and sell digital products.
• Integrations : An LMS should be able to integrate with third-party tools that allow data to roam freely and synchronized, offering more automation in terms of productivity, monetization, administration, and e-commerce.
• Localization : The ability to offer multi-language support that suits the needs of people based outside the LMS vendor’s origin country.
• White Labelling : The white labeling option allows you to remove the LMS vendor’s logo and add your own on your website host address URL and your homepage. A truly white-label option though gives you much more than the majority of LMSs can.
• Security : An LMS must be able to provide you with intellectual property protection that helps to secure your content, user information, and other sensitive data, but not every LMS can offer it.

While in the old days, it would have been impossible for an LMS to author, create, and sell learning content and activities and keep your content secure, some online learning platforms, including LearnWorlds allow you to do so.

So, an LMS’s capabilities largely depend on whether or not it comes with such important features. Some LMSs can manage and deliver training content, while others can help you create and sell training.

What to Pay Attention to When Choosing an LMS?

If you are searching for an LMS solution, ensure you know what you are looking for regarding features, capabilities, and support and have a rough estimate of how much you are willing to invest in it. This should help you align the LMS vendor’s strengths with your training objectives and budget.

How much does a learning management system cost?

While there are many different pricing models, the price of an LMS may range depending on the type of LMS you choose and how many seats you need. The pricing is important because it determines an expense you set for yourself – your course business or on behalf of the organization you work for or represent.

How to choose a learning management system?

The first step is deciding what type of LMS you need. Should it be cloud-based or desktop-based? Currently, the cloud-based LMS is the most popular choice.
That’s because of the following:

• Higher adoption rates
• Lower upfront costs
• Zero maintenance/upgrades of software
• Easier integrations

These elements show that a cloud LMS is more cost-effective than a desktop one.
Also, make sure you further distinguish your options. For example, are you looking for a corporate LMS or academic LMS? What are your prerequisites and what are your needs?

Look carefully into the features it offers and its capabilities and match them to your own needs, in the same way you’d when buying a smartphone or laptop.

Finally, make sure you try out free demos and trials.

What are some examples of learning management systems?

Because of their prevailing features and capabilities, some LMSs are better suited for academic, corporate, or enterprise LMSs.
Check out some examples for each.
Examples of academic LMS:

• Google Classroom
• D2L Brightspace
• Blackboard Learn
• Schoology

Examples of corporate LMS:

• Paylocity
• Seismic Learning
• Docebo
• 360Learning

*As seen on the G2 list of Corporate LMS.

Examples of enterprise LMS:

• Adobe Captivate Prime
• TalentLMS
• Stream LXP from the Learning Pool
• LearnUpon LMS

*As seen on the eLearning Industry list of top Extended Enterprise LMS.

Top Online Learning Platforms:

• LearnWorlds
• Udemy
• TalentLMS
• Thinkific

*As seen on the G2 ratings on user satisfaction.

Take these LMS examples as an indication of the wealth of options available, but make sure you choose the one best suited to your needs.

Looking for the Best LMS for Your Business?

An LMS is an important component of online learning. As you can see, it is much more than just an e-learning platform for creating and delivering online education.

As education moves from traditional learning, online learning becomes part of a larger knowledge-based society. This rising trend encourages new businesses, coaches, and trainers to search for cost-effective solutions that improve productivity, provide effective training, and ensure performance.
So, why not use an LMS that can do all of that?
Start your journey with a top-notch LMS platform like LearnWorlds. Try it for free with a 30-day trial!

The post What is an LMS (Learning Management System)? appeared first on LearnWorlds.

In today’s digital age, the way we learn and train has been transformed by technology, and at the heart of this transformation is Learning Management Systems (LMSs). An LMS is a versatile tool that helps educators, trainers, and organizations manage and deliver educational content efficiently.

From schools and universities to corporate training programs and government agencies, the use of LMS platforms has revolutionized the approach to teaching and learning. The demand for online and blended learning is growing rapidly, as is the size of the LMS market, which is expected to reach 69.6 billion by 2030.

Because of this, understanding the role and benefits of an LMS becomes essential, especially for educators and online instructors. This article explains what an LMS is, its benefits and different types, and how you can choose the right one for your business!
P.S. If you are looking for an LMS, check out our list of the best Learning Management Systems in the market.

What is a Learning Management System (LMS)?

An LMS is a tool that facilitates the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, and delivery of educational courses or training programs. It is used widely in the eLearning industry and is a great management and distribution vehicle for learning programs across various sectors.

LMSs support synchronous (live) and asynchronous (self-paced) learning, providing tools for creating interactive content, conducting assessments, and monitoring learner progress. This technology has become essential in modern education and training, enabling efficient and effective learning experiences tailored to the needs of diverse users.

Use cases of learning management systems

The role and functions of LMS software vary depending on the learning goals of the instructor or company that is using it, and ultimately the industry they are in.

These are the most common categories of individuals and organizations that utilize an LMS:

Schools / Academic Institutions

A school or any other academic or learning institution uses an LMS to help teaching professionals assign online learning, share educational resources and materials (assessments, ebooks, quizzes), and manage student grades.
In many cases, it aids the education management of a K-12 school, as it can monitor student enrollments, keep records up-to-date, store students’ information, including their contact details, and track learner progress.

Virtual and Elearning-based Learning Associations

Online institutions such as LinkedIn Learning, Udemy, and Khan Academy allow people to grow their skills through online courses and professional development programs. These are not considered free LMSs but learning marketplaces.

Corporate Training Departments

Small businesses, medium-sized companies, and large enterprises that want to offer employees an easily accessible and standardized learning environment as a training solution where they learn and grow at their own pace purchase LMSs.
A Corporate Learning Management System (LMS) can streamline the training management process, helping you build an online corporate training program that covers your training needs. It can also make the onboarding process for new employees a lot easier.

Nonprofit Organizations

Nonprofit organizations often don’t have the appropriate resources to train volunteers effectively. Using an LMS as a training platform can help standardize the training process and make it available and accessible to all internal stakeholders.
Nonprofits also leverage LMS systems to sell online courses as an additional revenue source to support their mission.

Content Providers

Content providers create training content, promote it, and sell it. With the right LMS that offers multiple monetization options, any course instructor can create, manage, and sell educational content to those interested in boosting their knowledge or skills in any field.

Wholesale Companies

An LMS can keep distributors, resellers, and internal sales teams up-to-date with the latest products and promotions. It also enables collaborative learning among internal (existing employees or new hires) and external stakeholders (learners) through tutorials, webinars, and other collaboration tools and interactive learning activities.

Why use a learning management system?

With an LMS, you can plan, manage, and deliver training content for different purposes depending on who you are or who you represent. You can also use it to track online training initiatives.

These purposes may serve different functions in any of these settings:

Educational institutions: An LMS offers an open, user-friendly, and flexible learning environment that creates personalized learning paths for students, delivers online course modules, and even supplements real-time in-class instruction. This works as part of a blended learning setting where face-to-face instruction is still offered at schools, colleges, and universities.

Corporate training: HR resources administration initiatives in an organization use an LMS as a training tool. It can be part of talent management or the onboarding process, employee training, partner training, member training, compliance training, and sometimes sales enablement. The most prominent industries include healthcare/medicine, sales/marketing, software, and tech.

Customer training: Some companies want to educate customers on how to use their products in addition to educating their staff. These companies use an LMS to allow their customers to learn about their product or service—what they sell and how it works. This reduces support calls and increases engagement and product satisfaction.

Extended enterprise training: Similar to what they do for their customers, companies offer online training resources to external sales channels, partners, and franchisees.

Freelancing: LMSs are also used by people who want to monetize knowledge. They create and sell online courses by teaching what they know, establishing a viable or additional source of income as freelance online instructors. These guys or gals are also known as edupreneurs.

As you can see, an LMS can carry out all of these activities and be used in different ways to achieve a unique outcome. It sounds like the ultimate multi-tool!

The benefits of using an LMS

Using an LMS has its advantages, but this depends much on the features it offers. Every LMS is different because of what it can do for you.

According to the Encyclopedia of Distributed Learning, the six elements that make up the LMS concept are interoperability, accessibility, reusability, durability, maintenance ability, and adaptability.

So, generally, every LMS can:

• Provide access to learning material on the go.
• Offer flexibility in individual learning pathways.
• Offer easy and fair evaluation based on attendance and assessment.
• Use many learning materials (text – PDF, image, audio, video, templates, etc).
• Support elearning materials from one or various sources (SCORM, xAPI, AICC, LTI, Cmi5).
• Track progress and provide an analysis of user learning.
• Measure learning impact and performance success.
• Automate the learning process.

Diving into more specifics, though, it can do all of the following for learners, businesses, and schools:

LMS benefits for learners

• Ensure they’ve been delivered and are up-to-date with required training.
• Make formal and informal learning easily accessible.
• Attain the skills and knowledge required to develop professionally.
• Boost workplace productivity through the boost of performance.

LMS benefits for businesses

• Reduce learning and development costs.
• Decrease training time and improve productivity and overall performance (workers, consumers, and external partners).
• Engage and expand to diverse learning audiences.
• Organize training resources from one central location.
• Assess learner progress and corporate performance.
• Measure knowledge retention.

LMS benefits for schools/educational institutions

• Track the time it takes students to complete assessments.
• Manage multiple classes or groups with assignments, scorings, and data tracking using only one tool.
• Incorporate more interactive elements into your learning programs.
• Introduce ways to communicate with each other and the instructor, saving valuable time.

What are the different types of LMSs?

Even though an LMS can do many great things, not every LMS can do everything. There are many categories of LMSs because each specializes in certain aspect(s) or seems to serve a specific purpose better than others.

LMSs differ in terms of:

• Deployment type
• Pricing
• Licensing
• Specifications
• Customer types

The following table gives you a quick overview of the different types of LMSs available.

Certainly! Here’s the table with the provided data, formatted according to your template:

LMS Type	Deployment Type	Pricing Model	Licensing	Specifications	Customer Type
Open Source LMS	Open Source: Free version with open and adaptable source code. (e.g. Moodle)	Free, with possible costs for additional services and plugins.	Free License	Often supports SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI, AICC, LTI, and CMI-5.	All types – depends on customization.
Commercial Cloud-based	Cloud-based (SaaS): The vendor hosts all data; no installation is required, and there are automatic updates and vendor support (e.g., LearnWorlds).	Subscription (monthly/yearly) or pay per user.	Paid License	Often supports SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI, AICC, LTI, and CMI-5.	Enterprise, Corporate, Academic.
Self-hosted LMS	Self-hosted: The customer purchases a license and maintains the LMS on their server without vendor support.	Pay per learner/user, license fee.	Paid License	Supports SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI, AICC, LTI, and CMI-5.	Enterprise, Corporate.
Desktop Application	Desktop Application: Works as a desktop app, some may support smart devices for team collaboration.	Pay per user license fee.	Paid License	Varies, may support common eLearning standards like SCORM.	Enterprise, Corporate.
Mobile Application	Mobile Application: Accessible on smartphones, allows for uploading learning content on the go.	Subscription (monthly/yearly) or pay per user.	Paid License	Often supports mobile-friendly formats, may include SCORM or xAPI.	Enterprise, Corporate.
Custom-built LMS	Custom-built: Tailor-made system built and maintained by in-house or contracted developers.	Pay-as-you-go, development and maintenance costs.	Varies (often proprietary).	Can be designed to support any required eLearning standards.	Specific to the organization’s needs.
Industry-specific LMS	Industry-specific: Developed for a specific industry, includes relevant training assets like certifications and training activities.	Varies (subscription, pay per user).	Paid License	Typically supports industry-relevant formats and standards (may include SCORM).	Specific industries (e.g., healthcare, aviation).
Partner LMS	Varies: May be cloud-based, self-hosted, or custom-built, targeting partner training.	Varies (subscription, pay per user).	Varies (often paid).	Supports standards like SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI to facilitate partner training.	Enterprise.
Enterprise LMS	Varies: May be cloud-based, self-hosted, or custom-built, targeting enterprise training.	Varies (subscription, pay per user).	Varies (often paid).	Supports standards like SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI to facilitate comprehensive training.	Enterprise.
Corporate LMS	Varies: May be cloud-based, self-hosted, or custom-built, targeting corporate training.	Varies (subscription, pay per user).	Varies (often paid).	Supports standards like SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI to facilitate corporate training.	Corporate.
Academic LMS	Varies: May be cloud-based, self-hosted, or custom-built, targeting academic institutions.	Varies (subscription, pay per user).	Varies (often paid).	Often supports standards like LTI, SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI to facilitate academic learning.	Academic institutions.

Deployment Type	Pricing Model	Licensing	Specifications	Customer Type
Open Source LMS
Open Source	Free, with possible costs for additional services and plugins.	Free License	Often supports SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI, AICC, LTI, and CMI-5.	All types – depends on customization.
Commercial Cloud-based
Cloud-based (SaaS)	Subscription (monthly/yearly) or pay per user.	Paid License	Often supports SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI, AICC, LTI, and CMI-5.	Enterprise, Corporate, Academic.
Self-hosted LMS
Self-hosted	Pay per learner/user, license fee.	Paid License	Supports SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI, AICC, LTI, and CMI-5.	Enterprise, Corporate.
Desktop Application
Desktop Application	Pay per user license fee.	Paid License	Varies, may support common eLearning standards like SCORM.	Enterprise, Corporate.
Mobile Application
Mobile Application	Subscription (monthly/yearly) or pay per user.	Paid License	Often supports mobile-friendly formats, may include SCORM or xAPI.	Enterprise, Corporate.
Custom-built LMS
Custom-built	Pay-as-you-go, development and maintenance costs.	Varies (often proprietary)	Can be designed to support any required eLearning standards.	Specific to the organization’s needs.
Industry-specific LMS
Industry-specific	Varies (subscription, pay per user)	Varies (often paid)	Supports standards like SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI to facilitate specific industry needs.	Industry-specific.
Enterprise LMS
Enterprise LMS	Varies: May be cloud-based, self-hosted, or custom-built, targeting enterprise training.	Varies (subscription, pay per user).	Varies (often paid). Supports standards like SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI to facilitate comprehensive training.	Enterprise.
Corporate LMS
Corporate LMS	Varies: May be cloud-based, self-hosted, or custom-built, targeting corporate training.	Varies (subscription, pay per user).	Varies (often paid). Supports standards like SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI to facilitate corporate training.	Corporate.
Academic LMS
Academic LMS	Varies: May be cloud-based, self-hosted, or custom-built, targeting academic institutions.	Varies (subscription, pay per user).	Varies (often paid). Often supports standards like LTI, SCORM, Tin Can API/xAPI to facilitate academic learning.	Academic institutions.

But let’s explore these in more detail.

Deployment type

Open Source: An open-source learning management system (aka open source LMS) is the free version of an LMS in which the source code is open and free for anyone to use and adapt to their specifications.

Commercial:

• Cloud-based (SaaS) or hosted: A cloud-based platform like LearnWorlds is an LMS where the vendor hosts all data, programs, and applications on its server. No installation is required, updates are automatic, and the vendor offers support services. LearnWorlds also enables mobile learning (aka learning on the go) through its powerful Mobile App Builder.
• Self-hosted: Self-hosted LMS is an installed LMS. In this case, the customer purchases a license and installs and maintains the LMS on their server. The vendor here doesn’t offer support services, and it’s up to the IT team/department to maintain the platform and make upgrades.

Desktop Application: This is an LMS that works as a desktop application. Some desktop apps also work on smart devices, which can facilitate team collaboration, but not every LMS offers this option.
Mobile Application: An LMS that is accessible on smartphone devices and you can upload learning content while on the go.

Custom-built: A custom-built LMS is a tailor-made system built and maintained by a team of developers employed or contracted by your company.

Industry-specific: An LMS developed for a specific industry hosts training assets such as certifications, training activities, or games related to industry-specific skills and knowledge.

Pricing model

Pay per active user: you pay for each active user during each payment circle.

Pay per learner: you pay for the number of learners regardless of their online/offline status.

Pay as you go: you pay for what you use – the number of users and what courses they take.

License fee/subscription: you pay a monthly or yearly license fee to use the system.

Licensing

Free License: Free license LMS is usually an open-source system. Although this is a free LMS, it has an added expense, which goes directly to the programmer or the IT team you hire to work the code and any additional plugins for you.

Paid License: Paid LMSs require a monthly or yearly fee to use. While most systems work on subscription (recurring payments), some may offer the option to buy it upfront with a one-time payment.

Specification

Not every LMS supports the same elearning formats. To keep up with portability and the eLearning standards, some LMSs support one (or more) of the following formats:

• SCORM (1.2/2004): The SCORM standard helps authoring tools communicate with your LMS. It allows content creation and formatting to be supported by the entire platform.
• Tin Can API/xAPI: Tin Can API or xAPI is an elearning software specification allowing learning systems and content to communicate. The learning experiences it records from this communication are saved to the Learning Record Store (LRS).
• AICC: The AICC is the first elearning standard developed by the aviation industry. Its job is to allow the LMS and elearning content to communicate via HAC protocols and HTML.
• LTI: Learning Tools operability is a standard developed by the IMS Global Learning Consortium for remote apps. It is most suitable for higher education and academia.
• CMI-5: CMI-5 is the newest standard for LMSs and AICC’s successor. It has all the capabilities of SCORM and xAPI.

These formats allow you to import the same content into a different standards-compliant LMS. For an LMS to stay current in the market, it needs to be able to support any of these eLearning standards. Looking out for these when investing in an LMS vendor is important.

Customer type

An LMS may differ in terms of its target audience too. So it may specifically be for Enterprise training – targeting enterprises and other organizations (Partner LMS/Enterprise LMS), Corporate training – targeting businesses and corporations (Corporate LMS), or Academic education– targeting educational institutions or schools (Academic LMS).

Key Differences Between LMS vs. LCMS, LXP, and LRS

Educational technology, as we know it today, also features a variety of platforms designed to support different aspects of learning and content management.

So, apart from the LMS, you might have also read or heard about:

• LCMS (Learning Content Management System)
• LXP (Learning Experience Platform)
• LRS (Learning Record Store)

The table below lists the key differences between these systems and explains each’s purpose, primary focus, users, and key features.

LCMS (Learning Content Management System)

An LCMS focuses on creating, storing, managing, and delivering learning content. It is a web-based portal that enables instructional designers and content creators to develop, reuse, and manage learning materials more efficiently in a collaborative environment.

LXP (Learning Experience Platform)

An LXP is a learner-centric platform that focuses on delivering personalized learning experiences. It aggregates content from multiple sources and uses AI to recommend learning paths and resources tailored to individual learners.

LRS (Learning Record Store)

An LRS is a specialized database designed to store and retrieve learning records. It works with the Experience API (xAPI) to track and record learning activities across multiple platforms and contexts.

Understanding these distinctions can help you choose the right learning management tool for your business or organization.

How do learning management systems work?

Every LMS is different and packed with unique capabilities.
Some LMS platforms offer built-in course authoring tools that help you produce training content. In contrast, others don’t and can only assist you in other aspects, like managing and distributing training materials.

Using an LMS, you can upload these training materials – also known as ‘training assets’ to the learning base of the system. In this online learning environment that you create, remote learners can access your course content from their desktop or mobile devices.

The Essential LMS Features

LMSs have advanced and expanded their toolkit in ways that were impossible a decade ago. Today, an LMS comes with a different set of features and capabilities.

For an LMS to get the title of LMS, it needs to have the following three basic features:

• User management : managing the role of academy staff e.g. the instructor, teacher, tutor, or manager (see user custom roles).
• Storage and distribution : keeping important information such as training resources safe and distributing content to those eligible to access it.
• Monitoring and assessment : tracking and measuring each learner’s progress and performance.

On top of these, there are also advanced LMS features that are considered to be game-changers. These are the following:

• Content & Course Management : Any LMS can also be equipped to create and manage course materials and learning content.
• Gamification : Gamification features include progress bar points, flashcards, badges/achievements, and actual games that are important for boosting learner engagement. LMSs that offer gamification have an added advantage over others.
• Reporting and Analytics : With this feature, you can generate insightful data on who and how is using the system, looking into key training metrics like learner progress and course completion rates.
• Social Learning : The ability to communicate in a social environment and exchange ideas and opinions is essential in learning. LMSs that offer social learning features like a dedicated learning community, discussion forums, and instant messaging are more advanced than others.
• Support Services : Support has a huge role to play in an LMS. If it is inadequate or not there when you need it, you won’t be able to carry out your tasks effectively or use the software to its fullest potential.
• Instructor-Led Training Classroom : A key feature for virtual classroom-based classes especially for schools or academic institutions.
• Mobile Learning : The ability to offer learning on the go via a mobile app where learners can access training courses 24/7.
• Intuitive User Interface : A friendly and easy-to-use user interface creates a positive user experience and is important for non-tech-savvy learners and users new to using eLearning technology.
• Certification : Offering certificates is a must-have feature for learners who want to get certified in their career field and companies that want to provide such an opportunity to their employees.
• E-commerce : Not every LMS offers an e-commerce option allowing users to transact and sell digital products.
• Integrations : An LMS should be able to integrate with third-party tools that allow data to roam freely and synchronized, offering more automation in terms of productivity, monetization, administration, and e-commerce.
• Localization : The ability to offer multi-language support that suits the needs of people based outside the LMS vendor’s origin country.
• White Labelling : The white labeling option allows you to remove the LMS vendor’s logo and add your own on your website host address URL and your homepage. A truly white-label option though gives you much more than the majority of LMSs can.
• Security : An LMS must be able to provide you with intellectual property protection that helps to secure your content, user information, and other sensitive data, but not every LMS can offer it.

While in the old days, it would have been impossible for an LMS to author, create, and sell learning content and activities and keep your content secure, some online learning platforms, including LearnWorlds allow you to do so.

So, an LMS’s capabilities largely depend on whether or not it comes with such important features. Some LMSs can manage and deliver training content, while others can help you create and sell training.

What to Pay Attention to When Choosing an LMS?

If you are searching for an LMS solution, ensure you know what you are looking for regarding features, capabilities, and support and have a rough estimate of how much you are willing to invest in it. This should help you align the LMS vendor’s strengths with your training objectives and budget.

How much does a learning management system cost?

While there are many different pricing models, the price of an LMS may range depending on the type of LMS you choose and how many seats you need. The pricing is important because it determines an expense you set for yourself – your course business or on behalf of the organization you work for or represent.

How to choose a learning management system?

The first step is deciding what type of LMS you need. Should it be cloud-based or desktop-based? Currently, the cloud-based LMS is the most popular choice.
That’s because of the following:

• Higher adoption rates
• Lower upfront costs
• Zero maintenance/upgrades of software
• Easier integrations

These elements show that a cloud LMS is more cost-effective than a desktop one.
Also, make sure you further distinguish your options. For example, are you looking for a corporate LMS or academic LMS? What are your prerequisites and what are your needs?

Look carefully into the features it offers and its capabilities and match them to your own needs, in the same way you’d when buying a smartphone or laptop.

Finally, make sure you try out free demos and trials.

What are some examples of learning management systems?

Because of their prevailing features and capabilities, some LMSs are better suited for academic, corporate, or enterprise LMSs.
Check out some examples for each.
Examples of academic LMS:

• Google Classroom
• D2L Brightspace
• Blackboard Learn
• Schoology

Examples of corporate LMS:

• Paylocity
• Seismic Learning
• Docebo
• 360Learning

*As seen on the G2 list of Corporate LMS.

Examples of enterprise LMS:

• Adobe Captivate Prime
• TalentLMS
• Stream LXP from the Learning Pool
• LearnUpon LMS

*As seen on the eLearning Industry list of top Extended Enterprise LMS.

Top Online Learning Platforms:

• LearnWorlds
• Udemy
• TalentLMS
• Thinkific

*As seen on the G2 ratings on user satisfaction.

Take these LMS examples as an indication of the wealth of options available, but make sure you choose the one best suited to your needs.

Looking for the Best LMS for Your Business?

An LMS is an important component of online learning. As you can see, it is much more than just an e-learning platform for creating and delivering online education.

As education moves from traditional learning, online learning becomes part of a larger knowledge-based society. This rising trend encourages new businesses, coaches, and trainers to search for cost-effective solutions that improve productivity, provide effective training, and ensure performance.
So, why not use an LMS that can do all of that?
Start your journey with a top-notch LMS platform like LearnWorlds. Try it for free with a 30-day trial!

The post What is an LMS (Learning Management System)? appeared first on LearnWorlds.

The customer journey doesn’t stop when a sale is closed. On the contrary, the after-purchase stage is decisive in engaging customers and turning them into brand advocates.

Once you close a sale, the first action item on your list is to enable customers to leverage the full capabilities of your product or service. One way to achieve this is through customer enablement or onboarding.

Customer onboarding is not just a matter of first impressions – it’s part of meeting customer expectations and delivering a smooth customer experience.

With a customer onboarding process in place, new customers will enter the post-purchase phase of the customer journey feeling supported. They will have all the resources they need to master the product’s features and discover use cases they hadn’t realized existed.

A successful customer onboarding experience can help:

reduce time to value
promote feature/product adoption
increase customer satisfaction, and
lower customer churn rates.

This sounds good, in theory. In practice, onboarding new clients is not always smooth sailing and the results are not as anticipated.

In this post, we’ll explore the 7 most common client onboarding challenges and how incorporating a Learning Management System (LMS) into your strategy can help you overcome them.

7 Customer Onboarding Challenges & How an LMS Can Help

Customer onboarding is your chance to successfully meet customer needs and pave the way to much-desired customer retention. A customer education LMS will help you streamline, scale, and monitor customer onboarding.

With rich functionalities and automations, an LMS is the ultimate solution to overcome these 7 most common customer onboarding challenges:

This is a problem all too common among SaaS businesses – your product has (too) many features and capabilities. And that comes at the cost of a learning curve that hinders feature adoption.

Did you know that 86% of customers say that they would be more likely to stay loyal to a business if they knew that they would have access to educational and welcoming onboarding content post-sale?

Therefore, you must find a way to help your customers discover your product and realize its value before they give up on it.

How an LMS can help: Using an LMS, you can offer a wide range of useful training content for new users and even build structured modules, thus providing a comprehensive customer onboarding experience with all the resources they need.

From step-by-step walkthrough tutorials and written guides to live training sessions and webinars, an LMS can help you deliver real-time and asynchronous onboarding support, combining them as needed.

Our advice: choose an LMS with a built-in AI tool to create, refine, or repurpose content. This will save time, money, and human resources, and give you the flexibility to create diverse content fast, whenever needed.

Help customers discover top features and use cases for them by adding qualification questions upon sign-up. Segment customers and launch targeted email campaigns with product tutorials, tips, and resources.

As your customer base expands, your customer support team or customer success managers might become overwhelmed and not reply in a timely manner. This impedes effective onboarding and frustrates customers.

The solution is a tech-touch customer onboarding strategy that will relieve the workload of your customer support teams while empowering customers.

How an LMS can help: An LMS can take self-service onboarding to a new level by becoming a comprehensive knowledge base with documentation, FAQs, community forums, and guides your customers can access 24/7. Eventually, the number of incoming tickets will decrease, eliminating the need to hire new staff and lowering customer support costs even as your company grows.

Chatbots are another essential addition to enabling self-service, as they can reply to and solve simple queries in real-time.

Customer churn during onboarding is not uncommon. A welcome email with a couple of links to your training resources is not always enough to turn new users into customers.

Consistent and direct communication, as well as a well-structured onboarding strategy, are key to establishing customer relationships and preventing early-stage customer churn.

How an LMS can help: An LMS allows you to deploy training courses with personalized learning paths and keep customers engaged throughout the process, offering a positive user experience.

For example, you can offer your course on a mobile app and send in-app notifications and learning reminders. Plus, with game mechanics like badges and milestones, you can keep customers hooked during the process. Consider offering a certificate to further motivate them to finish their training.

Before building user onboarding material, it’s important to understand customer expectations. Build detailed ICPs, examine your product’s position in the market and how it differentiates from your competitors, and analyze customer support tickets for common queries. Some will still abandon the product, so make sure to add a customer exit survey to understand what went wrong.

Having a broad customer base makes it difficult to segment customers and personalize the onboarding experience. Customers may come from different industries or company sizes, or they may plan to use your product in different ways. Some might need basic features, while others more advanced ones.

How an LMS can help: An LMS allows you to create customer segments and groups based on the customers’ common characteristics and automate workflows for easier user management and administration. You can personalize their experience by creating different learning environments and personalizing welcome screens and your messaging.

Integrate your LMS with your CRM to create personas and segment customers based on these personas. Identifying common characteristics and pain points will help you create more targeted training material.

Operating on a global level imposes similar and even harder challenges than having a diverse client base since, in this case, you have to address scalability challenges (catering to a large customer base), language barriers, and cultural differences.

How an LMS can help: A Learning Management System helps you deploy training on a large scale with content that is available online and asynchronously, reducing the need for one-to-one support. Most LMSs support several languages to cater to the needs of larger organizations, while built-in AI tools facilitate content translation.

Use a translation solution, like Weglot, that you can seamlessly connect with your LearnWorlds school to transform your training programs into dynamic, multilingual learning experiences.

Most companies offer some type of onboarding material – usually a knowledge base with support articles or video tutorials on their YouTube channel, etc.
The problem is that, in most cases, it’s hard to understand how customers respond to these resources and whether they effectively meet customer education needs.

How an LMS can help: An LMS helps you put together your onboarding material in one place and monitor how customers interact with it. It offers built-in solutions, like survey builders, to collect customer feedback and ask follow-up questions.

An LMS will also provide accurate metrics with autogenerated, customizable reports. You can monitor anything from course completion rates and certificates issued to engagement with specific modules.

Monitor learner progress throughout the process and set up an automation to re-engage users who show signs of abandoning the onboarding course.

Your product team is on a roll, developing and releasing new features every few months. While this is great news, it can make it harder for your client-facing teams to keep up and also for you to update your knowledge bases.

How an LMS can help: With an LMS, you can ensure your customer-facing teams, from sales to customer support and success teams, are up to speed with all product updates. You can easily create and share new training material to their existing courses.

Similarly, you can update your knowledge hub, so customers always have fresh information.

Send automated notifications to users about new updates and the availability of related training to ensure they are always informed.

Customer Onboarding Complete – What’s Next?

Congratulations on deploying a customer onboarding program! Next, don’t forget to collect and act on customer feedback, whether it concerns your product, onboarding process, or resource availability. Offering rewards can also boost customer loyalty and help you create repeat customers.

A Learning Management System like LearnWorlds allows you to offer smooth customer onboarding experiences that engage customers and boost loyalty. Explore features like our AI assistant, built-in content authoring, rich integrations, branding, reporting, automations, assessment, survey and certificate builders, user tagging and segmentation, and many more!

Start your 30-day free trial now to see how LearnWorlds can transform your customer training once and for all.

Further reading you might find interesting:

• What is an LMS (Learning Management System)?
• The 19 Best Learning Management Systems
• 10 Best Customer Education Platforms
• Customer Enablement: Why It Matters & Best Practices for Successful Implementation
• Product Knowledge Training 101: How to Deploy an Effective Program
• Customer Onboarding Strategies: Why Tech-Touch is the Best Option

The post 7 Customer Onboarding Challenges and How an LMS Can Beat Them appeared first on LearnWorlds.