Marketing For The Learner’s Journey

Navigating a Sea of Change in Education

Skills sets for jobs have changed by around 25% since 2015. By 2027, this number is expected to double. Think about that. That’s half of the work we’re doing today, completely transformed. Artificial intelligence, virtual reality, autonomous machines – the future has perhaps never looked so unclear. Apart from one constant. Change itself. And in order to ride that wave of change, people are going to have to think differently about the way that they work, and the skills that they need. That’s why when we’re thinking about the future of work, all roads lead back to education.

Within that sea of change, the education industry has been quietly transforming. LinkedIn data shows that the skills of the global workforce have changed dramatically in the past 10 years, driven in no small part by the education industry. There is more interest than ever with the “eLearning” topic on LinkedIn doubling in member engagement since January 2020. In key markets like Australia, LinkedIn member searches for ‘post graduate education’ are up 90%, while searches for ‘upskilling’ are up a staggering 550%. And on the supply side the industry looks a lot different today than it did just a few years ago. Take the India education-technology space. In 5 years, the industry has raised approximately 4 billion dollars on the back of impressive paid user growth, forecast to hit 37 million paid subscribers in 2025. Clear market leaders have emerged with Byju's, Upgrad and Unacademy to name just a few.

It’s pretty clear that people aren’t just hungry for education, they’re willing to pay for new education services and new learning models to help them ride this wave of change into a new professional world.

So, time to rejoice if you’re an education marketer?        

The New Status Quo for Education Marketing

Maybe not. A highly engaged audience, and big increases in demand, have given rise to a status quo in education marketing. If we look across the content targeting the sector in APAC, we begin to see this new normal. Can you spot it in the blinded examples below?

If you’re thinking these brands sound and look alike. You could be right. Within the industry there is a huge focus on ‘bottom of the funnel’, or action orientated content. And the data backs this up. If we look at advertisers across the region, the focus has largely been on lead generation activities. LinkedIn data shows that education advertisers in Australia choose bottom of funnel objectives at campaign set up 90% of the time. And in India, it’s a whopping 96%.

So... what's the issue?        

Well, the approach has worked to date. We see some incredible results for education marketers on the LinkedIn platform. A highly engaged member, coming to the platform to connect to professional opportunities, is very well positioned to engage with this action orientated education content.

The issue lies in the long term.

With an increasingly crowded marketplace, and with more learning options than ever before, it becomes essential to stand out. And to be remembered when someone decides to choose an education provider. This has been the problem with the approach so far. Short term, lead generation activities like what we see above do an incredible job at converting existing demand. But how much of our audience are actually in market? This has always been difficult to find out, but let’s give it a go.

An Out Of Market Majority Audience

If we look at the number of LinkedIn members across APAC, we have 260 million. Now let’s look at those that might be open to education. We can filter the audience to focus on those have the “open to education” member trait. A good start. But what about those that are in market, but aren't included under that targeting? Let’s also include members that have engaged with education content from a school in the last 3 months, as an indicator of someone who might be 'in market'. And the ratio of in market to out of market?

About 7% in market...

And 93% out of market.

Now this isn’t perfect data. But even with a large margin of error applied here a key consideration emerges. That a significant majority of the audience is ‘out of market’. And this thinking isn’t new. The incredible John Dawes at Ehrenberg-Bass Institute , in collaboration with LinkedIn’s think tank the The B2B Institute , have figured this out in the B2B world with the ‘95/5 rule’. Where roughly 95% of the B2B market is 'out of market', and 5% is 'in market' in a given quarter.

So now, the issue with an over focus on action-orientated, short-term campaigns becomes clearer. Are we missing out on a significant portion of our market with our narrow focus? The research would suggest that we are. The underlying implication of a large, out of market audience is the same across sectors: today's out of market buyers are tomorrows in market buyers. And the more we do today to speak to the out of market buyer, the more we can influence future cash flow and growth.

Got it. So if we're thinking long term, we're focusing on “brand awareness”? ?        

This is where I suggest pumping the breaks. Unfortunately, “brand awareness” seems to have become a stand in for any marketing objective that we struggle to track. And it’s next to impossible to get budget and backing for these hard to quantify goals, especially in today’s environment. So, maybe it’s not time to think brand awareness. Maybe it’s time to reframe our approach. ?

A New Approach: Marketing for the Learner's Journey

Let’s focus on why a new approach is the right strategic decision. Consider the fact that over the next quarter, the (vast) majority of our audience will not purchase from us. Therefore, if we want to generate long term impact, and focus on future cash flows, we need to address that audience. How? By crafting our story in a specific way, and messaging around the right strategic areas.

1: Craft Your Story for an Out of Market Audience.

If we’re focusing on the out of market buyer, we have to acknowledge that we need a different approach than we use with the in-market buyer. Why? Because there is a fundamental difference in mindset. Out of market buyers are simply not considering your brand, or even your category. To be frank, they don’t care about your product or your service. The goal here isn’t to convince. It is to be remembered. So that when these out of market buyers become in market buyers, they remember you. They make your list of brands or potential vendors and become more likely to choose you down the line. When our objective changes to ‘being remembered’, our approach needs to change as well.

1. Instead of rational, logical messaging use emotional, story-led messages.
2. Instead of inbox ads & direct response content, use short videos and animated messages to capture attention.
3. Instead of measuring click metrics, measure mind metrics: perception, unaided awareness, etc.

Above all when you are crafting a message for the out of market audience – focus on being remembered. The brand that is remembered is the brand that is bought. ?

Someone who’s got that right? Western Sydney University:

It’s not logical. It doesn’t centre around a call to action. But it has generated more than 2 million views for the brand, resulted in more than 1,000 earned media mentions, and critically – it increased the number of school leavers putting WSU first preference by 7%.

Step one of marketing for the learners journey is to focus more on the out of market majority, and tailor our approach for this audience.

2: Messaging Strategically Around Key Buying Situations.

Step two involves messaging in a strategic way. Remember, this isn’t about ‘doing brand’ for the sake of ‘doing brand’. If you’re trying to convince a CFO to allocate budget to ‘building your brand awareness through investing in our social channels’, you’re going to struggle.

If, however, we are acknowledging that our customer is largely out of market for the coming quarter. And that expanding our marketing efforts to reach this audience can positively impact our future cash flows. Then maybe, just maybe, we might be on the right track. The next question then becomes; what do we focus on? And that is when the beautifully simple idea of category entry points comes into play.

Check out Professor Jenni Romaniuk 's paper on CEPs in the B2B world for the in-depth details. But essentially, category entry points are what they say on the tin. They are the points at which people enter your category. What are the reasons that people are turning to education?

• Why? Are they stalling in their career? Worried about the future and scared they don’t have the right skills.
• When? Does it happen at pivotal points like getting a promotion? Or maybe being overlooked for a promotion?
• With whom? Are they returning to education with families, or for their family?

Answering these questions allows us to understand the points at which people enter the market, when they make that leap from out of market to in market. Now imagine if we can craft memorable content around those points. Imagine if every time someone thought of education as a solution for a stalled career (as an example), they thought of us. That is how we link out of market to in market. It’s how we build future demand. And it’s how we begin to stand out in an increasingly crowded market.

What does this look like? Well, there are brands that are starting to get this right. Check out National University's content below:

Here’s a brand that’s starting to understand it’s category entry points. They've uncovered the fact that people return to education with, and for, their families. And they have begun to craft content on that entry point. What's more, they craft content for the out or market learner – short, well branded, and focused on memory over action.

Taking these two steps can be the first of a longer journey to a better, more audience focused strategy. The question I have is who’s going to nail this in the APAC market? Because the brand that does, is the brand that wins. And with education where it is today. That’s a pretty exciting prospect.

What do you think?

#educationmarketing #contentmarketing #education

Sources:

• 2023 Workplace Skills Report’, LinkedIn. Link.
• "The Indian Edtech Market: What Founders Need To Know To Attract Investment", Forbes. Link.
• ‘Marketing for the learner’s journey’, LinkedIn narrative. Contact for more details.
• ‘Category Entry Points in a B2B world’, Professor Jenni Romaniuk. LinkedIn & Ehrenberg Bass Institute. Link.
• '95-5 Rule’, LinkedIn’s B2Bi. Link
• ‘The long and short of it’, Les Binet & Peter Field. Link.