Podcast Marketing Enterprise Learning

Laura Patterson, President, Vision Edge Marketing

Most learning professionals realize that training program success depends on effective packaging and promotion. But how many of us treat marketing only as an afterthought? Can professional marketers teach us strategies that get better results?

For more than 30 years, Laura’s actionable, no-nonsense performance marketing methods have helped hundreds of companies grow and thrive. She understands why enterprise learning and marketing share common ground. And she knows how learning leaders can make a stronger business impact by applying proven marketing principles.

• Too often, learning and marketing are treated as separate disciplines. But they’re much more similar than you may think. Increasingly, organizations are developing and delivering training programs with a marketing mindset . And the results are impressive.
• To measure learning impact in a meaningful way, take a cue from top marketers. Start by clarifying how the business defines success. Then, develop a top-down action plan — including metrics that align with the business . This helps prove how your programs add value.
• Professionals in both learning and marketing are constantly confronted with an explosion of new tools and techniques. But chasing cool stuff for its own sake distracts teams from what matters. A structured approach helps you avoid “random acts ,” so bandwidth and budget remain focused on business priorities.

Welcome, Laura. Let’s start at the beginning. When you founded Vision Edge Marketing, what was your goal? Has that changed?

Thanks, John. Well, when I started the company in 1999, the idea of measuring the business impact of marketing wasn’t nearly as mainstream as it is today. But, as someone with a long career in marketing, sales, operations, product, and customer success, I saw a big gap.

I knew marketers were doing important work, but we didn’t always have the tools or the mindset to be successful or to prove that marketing moves the needle. But that is the most important thing.

So, I wanted to link marketing to business outcomes and make sure everything we do contributes to measurable growth. That’s why performance measurement and management have become our core competencies.

Don’t miss what’s happening at the leading edge of enterprise learning technology! Get our weekly email brief. SUBSCRIBE →

Ialready hear the parallel between how you tie everything marketing does to business outcomes and how we apply that same mindset to learning. So, what are the key elements of a performance-driven marketing strategy?

Good question. It doesn’t matter what function you’re in. But performance-driven marketing starts with one keyword — alignment.

If your function isn’t aligned with the company’s business outcomes and growth strategy, you will struggle. Because when you’re clear on outcomes, you can create meaningful measures that connect the dots between what you’re doing and the impact it contributes to the business.

This leads to several other key points:

• Be clear about how the company defines success. Because every plan should cascade directly from those business outcomes.
• You need customer centricity at the core. As Peter Drucker said, “The purpose of business is to create a customer.” So, if you’re not delivering value to customers, you won’t be able to create value for the business.
• Focus on meaningful measurement. It’s easy to get sucked into vanity measures. But you need real measures that show you are moving the ball down the field (as we say here in Texas).

And to turn all these things into reality, you’ll want a good roadmap. That’s why we’ve developed frameworks. They help organizations move from ideas to action, from activity to outcomes, and from guesswork to growth.

Find out how companies are achieving more with learning systems that create business value. Get inspiration from dozens of success stories in our free LMS Case Study Directory →

Which metrics do you typically target? Revenue? Or…?

Yes, the company wants to achieve that…