Only educating one audience with your training program? You’re missing out!

Expanding the reach of your training resources doesn’t mean that you have to reinvent the wheel. In our 2020 Customer Education Benchmarks and Trends Report, we found that 81% of respondents use their training programs to educate multiple audiences, most commonly (33%) customers, partners, and internal employees. If you’re currently only using your training program for one target audience, you are missing out on a significant opportunity to support and enable other key groups with the same resources. If the idea of expanding your training program feels daunting, don’t worry, we’ll show you a few ways you can modify existing content for new audiences.

Ease of modification guide:

• 1 skillet = easy to modify
• 2 skillet = somewhat easy to modify
• 3 skillets = more challenging (but doable!) to modify

How-To Articles

How-to articles are a great resource for customers to easily reference as they onboard and learn to use your product or if they have a question or challenge at a later date. Because these articles are usually text-based, updating them requires minimal lift. In some cases, the same how-to article you use with customers can also work for internal audiences or partners getting to know your product.

Ease of modification: 1 skillet

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Video Tutorials/Walk-Throughs

For visual learners or for products that may not be intuitive to new users, video tutorials are a helpful way for customers to learn how to navigate your product and where to find the features they need to be successful. Outside of the customer audience, these videos can also provide value for prospects, giving them a glimpse of what your product looks like and what they can expect if they sign on with you.

Ease of modification: 2 skillets

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Live, Instructor-Led Presentations

Many organizations have an existing onboarding program that is based on in-person, instructor-led training. While this format of training can certainly be effective, it can also be expensive, difficult to scale, and in the midst of a global pandemic, impossible to execute. Instead, consider recording a video version of the presentation and hosting it online. The slides and handouts can be added as downloadable resources and those in need of training can watch when they have time and are in the best frame of mind to absorb the content. The primary audience may be similar (new customers, for example), but in shifting to a digital, on-demand format, this content can also serve as easily accessible references for existing customers who need a refresher.

Ease of modification: 3 skillets

While it’s always important to have a target audience in mind when creating content or developing your training program, as we’ve just seen, there are also a number of ways you can repurpose that same content for secondary audiences.