You’ll already know the importance of effectively marketing your courses, and how this can impact awareness, engagement, reputation, leads and, ultimately, growth. But have you considered how investing in the right training management and booking system can enhance your course marketing strategies?
If not, then now’s as good a time as any, isn’t it?
In this article we’ll explore how modern online booking software like the thinkBooker platform helps you get the maximum return for your marketing efforts by:
– Improving social media and direct mail campaigns through unique URLs, landing pages and direct links [Jump To Section]
– Using filters to boost targeted campaigns against course types, locations or date ranges. [Jump To Section]
– Incentivise new customers and reward loyalty through promotions and discount codes. [Jump To Section]
– Providing the data and business intelligence to enhance personalised engagement to optimise conversions and client retention. [Jump To Section]
– Using real-time registration data and limited space alerts to create urgency in your course marketing messages. [Jump To Section]
Improving social media and direct mail campaigns through unique URLs, landing pages and direct links
Whatever campaign you’re creating for your training courses, the ultimate objective is to get clients to book a place. Directing the right people to the right course and, from there, to the book now button, needs to be a fast and friction-free as possible.
For instance, with thinkBooker you can create unique URLs and landing pages for each instance of every course that you have running, providing a direct route from campaign to checkout, whether it’s social media posts, email marketing or pay-per-click.
Landing pages also allow you to showcase your courses in their best light possible, with quality content, imagery and important information, providing further benefits in terms of brand enhancement and aesthetic appeal.
Of course, course booking pages can also be directly linked from pages of your website to further broaden their reach.
For example, you could write a blog post about how successful a recent course has been, then link it to the landing page of a similar course in the future. The landing page contains clear information about the course including the address and contact details so that your customers know exactly what’s going on and when.
This feature generates exposure to your courses by combining several channels that are all aligned to your brand, creating a cohesive marketing strategy.
Using filters to boost targeted campaigns against course types, locations or date ranges
While the search filters on the booking system are a feature to help your clients easily navigate to the courses they’re interested in (itself a useful tool for increasing sales and awareness), the filter can also be used to boost your marketing efforts.
It’s another way of generating awareness for upcoming courses.
As an admin, you can use the front end of the system to create a list of specific courses by location, type, date range, or a combination, which you can then directly link from a social media post or an email.
For example, if you wanted to let people know what courses are available for children during the summer holidays, you can drill down using the filters to create a customised list that appeals to a certain demographic at a specific time. You could also create a custom list of courses or courses filtered by location, enabling you to target your audience geographically.
Which can be used to great effect when combined with the next feature.
Incentivise new customers and reward loyalty through promotions and discount codes.
Customers love discounts, so promo deals are a great way of driving more traffic to your site and more places secured on your training courses.
Promotions are a tried and tested way of incentivising ‘window shoppers’ to become buyers, increasing traffic and improving the likelihood of new sales. From early-bird discounts, to last minute deals, there’s a plethora of ways to apply a code to drive sales and customer engagement.
And, while this can be a powerful tool in attracting new customers to your training courses, they also serve as another tool in your client retention arsenal. Offer returning customers discounts for re-booking, perhaps?
Maybe that cohort on your introductory training course can be encouraged to sign-up for the next course or a renewal of their qualifications by adding a discount code in your direct mailing campaign?
Providing the data and business intelligence to enhance personalised engagement to optimise conversions and client retention.
One of the key benefits of using an online booking system is that it brings you closer to your customer. And, when it comes to enhancing the online experience for the customer, then personalisation can make a power of difference to your success.
Put simply, customers are more likely to spend money with organisations that they believe understand them and their likes.
The thinkBooker booking and training management system provides powerful source of data to help you create personalised marketing strategy with your customer-base.
Analysing the booking history of your customers and reviewing the performance of your different training courses can be vital in refining the messaging you send your clients. It provides the information that allows you to send relevant course recommendations to your customers. Whether this is upcoming courses related to past attendances or reminders to renew an accreditation.
By sending a personalised email that’s addressed to an individual by their first name, with a subject header that suggests you know their interests, it does two things:
- It speaks to the customer on a personal level and makes them feel valued to your organisation
- It increases the chance of them making another booking with you.
Using real-time registration data and limited space alerts to create urgency in your course marketing messages
The work associated with managing bookings for courses can be an admin minefield, creating a drain on staff’s time and resources. Time that could be much better spent on other tasks which add value to your business.
This is where a booking system such as thinkBooker can add value on a number of levels. For one, it’s a visual tool that displays a real-time overview of how many people are registered on each of your courses, updating the instant a client books or makes a cancellation.
Not only does this save a huge amount of time previously spent compiling spreadsheet registers, time that can now be repurposed into your sales and marketing initiatives, but it can also be a highly useful marketing tool in itself.
By knowing exactly how many spaces remain for any given courses, you can be proactive in promoting them. For example, from viewing the register you see there’s a course scheduled for a couple of days’ time, and there are a few spaces left. You could create a discount code and insert it into a social media post.
Or use the booking history tool to find out who’s been on previous similar courses but might not know about this current one, and send them a personalised email containing the code.
Having complete visibility over your bookings allows you to focus the marketing efforts on where they need to be. It will drive awareness of what you can offer customers which will lead to more bookings, a higher attendance rate, and increased revenue.
Essential for your marketing toolbox
For businesses that provide training courses, a booking system isn’t just a way to make it easier for your customers to book their place.
In fact, when used creatively it can be the foundation for all future marketing campaigns. By making the most of the data it gathers in combination with its various marketing functions can be a powerful way of bringing you closer to your audience.
At thinkBooker, we understand the importance of improving the digital customer experience. We specialise in online booking systems for training courses, classes, activities and events – optimised for efficiency, growth and ongoing client satisfaction.
Browse the site to learn more about course booking systems, sports booking systems, event booking systems and more, or get in touch directly to find out how we can help you.
