Do you have a "Marketing eLearning" book that you like?

Hi DeLora,

Not marketing specific, but as someone who comes originally out of the sales/business world, and then into training, there is one that truly impacted me...

It's from a guy named Dr Robert Cialdini and he's become an expert on the subject of persuasion... marketing, selling, negotiation, etc..  Not a terribly inspiring public speaker, but his research and conclusions are true "Aha!" moments.  if you come from that business world and you read/listen to his stuff you will find yourself constantly saying "Oh.... so THAT'S why that works!!!".  

Basically by isolating the 6 principles of persuasion/influence, you learn how to use them for ethical (not smuggler-like) purposes. A great many of his references deal with marketing and advertising campaigns.

How's this for an endorsement....?  So impacted were we by his findings that at a former company I directed training for, my team built an entire customer service and sales philosophy/program on his principles that we taught to every single new employee and we gave out his books and CDs as required coursework.  By the way, We went on to win a JD Powers award for #1customer service in our industry.

Cialdini now has lots of books, but I think this is his original.... Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Or you can Google him of course and see what else newer is out there.

NOTE: No affiliation, just a genuine endorsement from someone who got hooked on his CDs and went on to build entire programs / trainings around his concepts.

Hope this helps and good luck in the course!

Thanks Bob. Honestly, I have not been in a corporate/business for 15 years (I have been working in the public sector and with an university), so I need all the help I can get! This kind of thinking does not come naturally to me, so I could use some pointers.  

P.S. At one point many moons ago, I did work for a recruiting firm with a very charismatic individual who made millions on his particular brand of persuasion, so I can well understand that having that talent can help you achieve a lot. I will check it out when I have a chance!

Glad to help.  And just to be clear, most of Cialdini's principles are directly tied to marketing. 

For example....  Social Proof principle.  He details how marketers and advertisers use this SOOO effectively by changing things like "operators are standing by" (no persuasion) to "if all the lines are busy, please keep trying" (social proof)

1. Agree with Bob completely...(as always).

2. You need to understand that the same principles apply to selling/marketing eLearning, Teddy Bears and Aircraft, (to name but three that came into my head).

3. Some of the best Marketing/Sales books can be found in airport bookshops. The more you read, the better you will get.

4. Do you mean "Marketing", or do you mean "Sales" - they are different principles. To understand them, see 2. and 3.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Bruce!

The class is called "Marketing" and all the books the instructor suggest are marketing books. I think it is "marketing" in the sense that you are "advertising" your trainings, but I guess sales is hand and hand with marketing? Like I said, I have lost touch with that realm so I don't really have a good grasp of that - maybe I will after the class. In my case, most of the trainings are "free" to the students (grants in conjunction with national and state governmental agencies in most cases), but the grants and/or partners may have specific quotas they would like to see reached.

Good point about it being sort of "universal" - maybe that is why there were no just straight "marketing for education" books on the instructor's list. I was just thinking that it has been around long enough that there may be a specific elearning marketing book out there that people on here may cherish.

I think anyone who has produced a book specific to "eLearning" is probably
just trying to cash in on the eLearning boom.
Marketing is pretty much universal, and in this industry, marketing
YOURSELF is often the key.
Also - not sure "marketing" and "advertising" are the same thing :)
Bruce

Like they say "Ignorance is bliss". I am clearly very blissful going into this class :)

I am really looking forward to learning about it though.

Advertising is part of promotions which is part of the marketing mix. At least it was back in the day when I was a Marketing Manager at Reuters.

Marketing is inherently tied to sales, though they are separate for the most part. After all, what's the purpose of marketing if it doesn't generate sales?

Typically marketing is seen as a support function of sales, kind of the cost center that drives sales, as marketing by itself doesn't generate revenue but the actual sale of the product does.

Advertising is a form of marketing, as Nancy said. It's by far the most visible output of any marketing campaign, although other pieces fit into marketing such as market research. Marketing is about communicating the value of your service or product to others with the intention of them purchasing it (sales). That communication, I would even say primarily, falls under the umbrella of advertising.

My main book recommendation is "Badass: Making Users Awesome" - it goes into product creation, marketing, and training (as a form of marketing and user retention). It's a fantastic book for your purpose I think.

There are a few podcasts by Pat Flynn (Smart Passive Income) that go into marketing e-learning (and other products in general) that I found interesting. I haven't been able to utilize what I learned from them, but I keep them in my back pocket for the future.

Thanks Nancy and Rachel for helping me understand a bit better.  One job I had many years ago was working for a newspaper. I started in "inside sales", but quickly ended up also doing stuff for the art department when they found out I was pretty savvy in graphic design.

At one point, I sold a two page spread of little ads and also designed and did the layout on them all. It was very confusing to the "traditional" sales folks in my area and the art department wasn't sure how to interact with me either (kind of territorial on both sides). Maybe that is why I got confused, I have had so many jobs that really are several things at once!

Rachel, I will check these suggestions out at some point. Sounds very interesting.