Singapore has one of the most thriving market for e-learning, and has gained worldwide recognition as an e-learning hub. The e-learning companies provide content and technology to sectors including educational and corporate institutes, privately owned enterprises, and government agencies. Considering the robust growth in this sector over the years, the e-learning market in Singapore is estimated to grow to $1500 million (USD) by 2020 — see report.
Nonetheless, getting people to spend some money and book your training workshop is not an easy task. Besides persuading them that it’s a great idea that can be a good investment for their money and time, you need make sure that they will be available on the day you choose for your workshop. How can you make sure your training workshops are all booked up?
In this post, we’ll share 7 tips on how to market training workshops in Singapore:
1. Have a Multi-Channel Marketing Plan
This should spell out exactly what you need to do in every day of the week leading up to the day of your workshop. Developing a plan ensures that you create a solid message that carries on throughout the promo, contact your prospects frequently enough about the workshop, and to avoid making up things along the way, which leads to mediocre results. A written plan also means you can have someone else implement parts of the plan on your behalf.
The plan needs to have as much options for marketing as possible, and integrate these into your approach to ensure that information flows smoothly, and works to increase the anticipation for your workshop until the close of ticket sales. Be sure to also capture those last-minute signups!
2. Search Engine Optimisation Strategies
The digital marketing space in Singapore is quite competitive, and most people looking for training workshops usually search for them via search engines like Google. This means that the websites that appear higher on the results receive much of this traffic, since most users will rarely go beyond the first page of search engine results.
As such, if you want to get this highly-targeted organic traffic from search engines, it’s best to invest in quality Search Engine Optimization for your website. Although it’s more of a long-term approach, you will see a significant number of enrolment with time, especially when combined with other forms of digital marketing such as social media, email, and SEM.
3. Content Marketing
Developing great content around the topic related to your training workshop is a very effective way to market your event. Whenever someone visits your landing page, two things should capture their attention, the quality of text describing your workshop, and the visuals that accompany the text. Putting up compelling text complemented with great photos and videos puts you at a good position to get the most reservations.
4. Develop Copy-written Marketing Content
This includes a salesletter, a brochure, or a copy of a direct-response site. The best way to do this is to create a piece that contains each and every detail needed to promote and sell your training workshop. This is like having a salesperson on your side whom you can refer your prospects to. And once the prospects learn everything they need to know when making a buying decision, they don’t have to postpone their buying decision until they get more information from you.
Publish promotional material on your LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+ pages regularly, depending on your plan. Based on the kind of workshop you are organizing, other social media platforms like Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, etc. can be very effective. Tweet about the training workshop regularly, and come up with a special hashtag(s) for your event. On LinkedIn, send invites to all the relevant users on your network, and post your workshop in the relevant LinkedIn groups.
Organizing a Facebook contest is another way to do this. For example, you can offer people a discount on the total price or a free ticket to the winner. On the Workshop’s page, be sure to include the ‘share buttons’ so that people can easily share the event details with others.
6. Build a Database for Qualified Prospects
As you market a workshop, the people that are already in your database are very important, since they already know you. Building this database is as important as building the workshop itself, so you should have a separate plan for this.
Ensure that the plan has at least one marketing piece with an opt-in that invites your website visitors to join your mailing list. You need to actively market the opportunity if you want to maximize the size of your database.
7. Set up Follow-Up Marketing Tools
For best results, you need to notify your prospects about your event a few times. One of the easiest way to follow-up your prospects is simply re-mailing them your first promotional piece to continue promoting your seminar. However, modifying this initial piece for your follow-up can significantly improve the response rates. For instance, once you send a salesletter, you can follow it up with a postcard warning them of a registration deadline.
Organising a training workshop in Singapore is an exciting way to build relationships with new clients, strengthen your relationship with existing ones, and to cement your business an authority in your industry. The tips we have discussed above should help you make the process of organizing one a bit more rewarding, and less a strenuous activity.
