2025 Trend: Digital-First for Customer Education

By: Sarah Sedgman

An exciting trend I'm hearing about, but very few in the industry have conquered and implemented, is the concept of building a “digital-first” learning strategy and organization. But I think that will change in 2025 with the support of many of the new technologies that are maturing, and that is why digital-first is one of my trends for the upcoming year.

A digital-first strategy is not just about building eLearning. It is more of a strategic approach that prioritizes digital channels, tools, and experiences to deliver services, products, or education. So, while eLearning is part of a digital-first strategy, it is not THE strategy.

What is in a digital-first strategy

Instead, a digital-first strategy includes various digital modalities to deliver seamless and engaging customer experiences. As Raghu Viswanathan , Vice President—Education, Academia and Documentation at MondoDB, said in a recent webinar with me, you want to create modalities that cater to your audience's diverse learning preferences so you can maximize reach and enhance user satisfaction.

Some learners will like in-app tutorials or virtual assistants that help them while using the product, while others will prefer traditional learning modes like live online events and eLearning. Some may like to play with the product or do hands-on exercises and demonstrations, while others like short bursts of training that can be delivered through microlearning. The key is to tailor your learning experiences to what the learner wants.

Getting buy-in for a digital-first strategy

If your organization doesn’t have a customer education strategy or is focused on a traditional instructor-led strategy, then thinking about a digital-first strategy can seem daunting.

But as Niyati Shah , Senior Director of Education Services at GitLab and Raghu mentioned, you can convince the C-suite that a digital-first strategy will ultimately engage more learners, deliver better experiences and drive product adoption. The key is to talk in terms of where the business wants to go. Do they want to increase the number of users? Do they want to enter new industries? Do they want to reduce churn?

As Niyati said, “Follow the money.”

If you understand what your business wants, you can structure your digital-first strategy to meet the needs of both your organization and your learners.

Start small. Build for scale

To prove the benefit, you need to start small. When Niyati joined GitHub, she had four self-paced courses that were core to their product adoption. She and her team quickly lifted and shifted those and built them into full-fledged courses. They were long courses in their first iteration but were the starting point.

From there, she could implement more technological pieces and map the learner's journey and experience. She also leaped to bite-size learning, multi-module content delivery, and going beyond video tutorials. Taking a data-driven approach to changes ensures that you are investing time and effort in the content that customers are using.

Significant growth, when implemented thoughtfully

Both Niyati and Raghu have seen significant growth in the number of learners their organization supports. Raghu says that MongoDB has seen a 40% jump in the number of learners. Adding the capability to allow learners to play with the product has boosted the number of learners for both GitHub and MongoDB since both organizations offer coding platforms.

When thinking about your digital-first strategy, here are some steps to get you started

• Define clear objectives—As mentioned before, understand your organization's goals first and then establish specific goals for your digital education initiatives. Your goals could be such as improving customer onboarding, reducing support inquiries, or increasing product adoption. These will help prioritize your tactics.
• Understand how your audience likes to learn—Conduct thorough research to identify your customers' learning preferences, technological proficiency, and educational needs. Niyati relies on CSAT as a way to get customer feedback but you can conduct customer interviews, collect feedback after training events or read what people are saying in your online forums.
• Develop engaging content—To enhance engagement and retention, create interactive and multimedia-rich materials, including videos, quizzes, and simulations. This is where newer technologies like AI for content creation, video avatars, text-to-speech, AI translation and much more can make this possible without breaking the bank.
• Choose the right technologies and platforms—You must branch out from your traditional way of building education content to move to a digital-first approach. As I mentioned above, new technologies like AI are changing the speed and quality of learning experiences. Take the time to learn about your Learning Management Systems (LMS) capabilities, in-app guidance tools, and other platforms to ensure that they meet your needs today and in future quarters.
• Ensure scalability and accessibility—Scale by reusing content in various modalities. Raghu’s team delivers content in English and nine other languages to reach their global audience. Also, ensure that your content is accessible across various devices and platforms.
• Consider creating an online community—Create online communities or forums where customers can share knowledge, ask questions, and collaborate, enhancing the learning experience.
• Rinse and repeat— Like Niyati said, use data analytics to monitor user engagement, assess the effectiveness of educational materials, and gather feedback for continuous improvement. Invest your efforts in the modalities your learners like and keep content updated.

There is so much more that can be said about a digital-first strategy, but I recommend that you watch the entire webinar that I recently had with Niyati Shah and Raghu Viswanathan on how to implement a Digital-first learning strategy and organization.

Have you implemented a digital-first learning strategy? If so, tell us your tips in the comments.

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