If your eLearning company has a learning management system (LMS), it will need a white paper.
Like it or lump it.
(You could write an eBook, but that would mean you would have to do a lot of unnecessary work.)
If you want people to take your eLearning courses and use your LMS, you will need to promote them.
In this post, I am going to show you why you need to sell your learning management system (LMS) using white papers.
Once you’re done reading this, you will know exactly why they are vital to your company’s marketing strategy and how to implement them.
Your LMS – If You Build It, They Probably Won’t Come
Ok, so you’ve built the latest and greatest learning management system (LMS) on the planet.
Wow. Way to go.
Now it’s time to sit back in your recliner and have a Corona or two.
Wrong!
Now the real work begins because you now need to promote the crap out of it. Because as we all know, it’s not enough to build a great LMS – you’ve got to show it off to businesses and users who need it.
You see, no matter how easy it is to use your LMS or how advanced it is to other systems if nobody knows about it, nobody will buy it.
However, there is another problem associated with this.
Even if your marketing is spot on, and you are getting a lot of traffic to your site, it still won’t be enough to help sell your LMS or eLearning courses.
Why?
Let’s take a look at it from another perspective.
Why Subscribing to an LMS is Like Buying a House
When you consider the costs behind using a decent learning management system, it is a lot like buying a house.
Let’s look at this from the buyer’s perspective.
A company needs to purchase a learning management system that they will have to pay for every month. Depending on how much they are going to have to use an LMS to create and implement their eLearning courses, their prices will vary.
On average, a good LMS will start at around $1500 and go up from there. It all depends on how much you have to use it and how many learners will need to access your account.
So you can see, it is kind of like getting a mortgage payment.
But wait, there are more things to consider when buying a house.
- How close are the schools?
- What will the upkeep cost me?
- How many rooms it has, and so on.
Just like a house, you’ll want to know all of the features and benefits an LMS service can provide you and your company.
- How much will add-ons cost you?
- Is it going to be user friendly?
- How hard will it be to integrate into your website?
- Does the LMS have good customer support?
So, this is where a good white paper can come in to save the day.
Ok, I Need a White Paper – What Is It?
A white paper is a piece of information on a particular subject that provides your readers with a solution. It helps your target market solve a business problem while building your company’s brand.
They are usually similar in style to academic papers because the writing is in a clear, concise manner.
White papers have a lot of detail in them and can run between 8 to 12 pages in length. They are used mostly by business-to-business companies because they demonstrate expertise to the companies which they target.
This reason is why an eLearning company that provides learning management systems as a service needs to use a white paper to promote their business.
So if your LMS helps corporations train their employees while tracking their progress, a white paper can show your prospects how you can save them a lot of time and money with your service.
There Are Rules to This Game
Rule #1 – Don’t Sell
Anyone familiar with white paper will tell you that there are things you should and should not do with them. First, don’t sell with them. Your white paper should look like a dissertation on how to solve your customer’s problems.
Yep, you heard me right. You don’t want to turn your white paper into a direct response advertisement. All you want to do is present solutions your LMS provides for your prospects in a clear and concise document.
The idea is to give your readers high-quality information that will help your company build its reputation as a thought-leader.
If your white paper is applicable and has your company’s logo on the header, prospective clients will know who wrote it and who to contact.
And do you want to know the best part?
If your white paper is good enough, it will get shared at board meetings, with executives and other companies in the network of your prospect.
Rule #2 – Write a Catchy Headline
You are going to have a lot of competition on the Internet. So, your LMS white paper needs to stand out with a catchy title.
Just like a print advertisement or a blog post, a vital part of your white paper is your title. It has to be enticing without trying to sell your product. Take care in writing your title so that it will hint at the idea that your document is going to solve your prospect’s problem.
Since your document is going to be an investment of time and money, you should consider your title carefully. (This is why you will probably need to hire a copywriter to get your white paper written.)
A good copywriter will sometimes write out 30 to 50 titles for a white paper before settling on one.
Rule #3 – Write High-Quality, Researched Content
Good content is an essential part of your white paper. If your information isn’t valuable to the prospect, chances are they won’t read it or share it.
One way of making sure your content is well-written is that it is accurate and contains facts and data that are backed up by reliable resources.
One way to do that is to have your writer interview topic experts.
Because experts have to read a lot of data to stay at the top of their game, they usually know what sources you can go to for great information.
Once you have compiled your data, you can use it for your written content, charts, or graphs. Just make sure that the information you have is accurate and verifiable.
Rule #4 – Your White Paper Needs a Professional Layout
You want your white paper to reflect your company’s expertise while not being boring. Also, you want your sections and paragraphs to be easy on your reader’s eyes.
Proper formatting of your title, subheads, and paragraphs will make your document more engaging. Also, using different text conventions like italics, bold print, and especially bullet points will make a big difference to your readers.
You will want to sprinkle your white paper with relevant graphics based on data to make it more interesting.
LMS White Paper Marketing – Where the Rubber Hits the Road
As you already know, hardly anyone is going to come to your eLearning site and buy into your learning management system on the first visit.
As of this writing, the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has opened the door to all kinds of small-time eLearning businesses. These are small, sole proprietor enterprises that are eating bigger companies lunches.
Many of these eLearning entrepreneurs are promoting smaller LMS companies built on the fly.
One of the ways to get the odds in your favor is to out-market them by being seen as the best solution to your prospect’s problems.
Well-written white papers will help your company become a thought leader in the LMS industry.
However, you’ve got to promote the crap out of it.
You Must Have a Marketing Strategy
Just like an eBook or a blog post, merely writing the content is only half of the battle. Your business needs a strategy to get a white paper into the hands of your target market.
Here is a simple list of ways you can promote your eLearning LMS white paper:
- Distribute to an online press release agency
- Use a content syndication service
- Host a webinar on your whitepaper topic
- Create a video based on your paper
- Invite your target audience to a discussion on Zoom
- Repurpose your content into posts or guest posts
- Create a review page and use SEO
- Build a landing page (A/B test it.
- Promote it on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter
- Team up with eLearning associations and organizations
- Send emails out about your whitepaper to your mailing lists
At the very least, you should have a way for people to arrive at your site and sign up for your paper.
With most businesses who give out eBooks just for giving you their email address, you can ask for more. Most LMS and eLearning businesses ask for names, addresses, phone numbers, etc. for their whitepapers.
However, I want to caution you here. If you ask for too much information, your readers might say, “Ehhh…Forget it.”
So, it would be a good idea to split test your pages to see how many people bounce out of your site when asked for information.
The Conclusion to LMS White Paper
Using a white paper to promote your eLearning and LMS business can place you well ahead of your competitors.
Before you dive in, make sure you have a competent writer on your staff, or you are working with a copywriter who understands white papers.
It would be a good idea to make sure that he or she can help you promote it too. They may charge more for this extra service, but it will be well worth it.
Does your learning management or eLearning company use white papers? If so, please feel free to comment on how they have helped promote your company and its services.