Joel Byron Barker

I have been having a lot of conversations about elearning as a marketing opportunity. Thinking more about it, the semantics are backwards. Marketing is more parallel with eTeaching than eLearning.  We are talking about a concept in need of a name.  It is the act of creating real, valuable content and providing it to customers/students/partners.

I don’t pretend that this is an entirely new idea, however the audience and technology are now ready for a model of marketing through eTeaching.

• The provider can reach a very targeted interested audience.
  With  mailing lists, search engine marketing and search engine optimization, we can get right to our desired audience. The investment in creating content which we want to turn in to seat time is spent on people who are actual potential customers.  It sure beats walking around town with a sandwich board around your neck.

• Customers are accustomed to getting value in exchange for seat time.
  I just spent a Saturday morning sucking down coffee and playing a video game provided by Johnson Controls.  The game is spot-on brilliant and I have enjoyed passing it along to all of my basement-engineer friends and family (congrats on the 91% run, Dad!).  I am not entirely sure how it helps the Johnson Controls brand.  I certainly would not have spent 4 straight hours on their Web site had they not had the game.  It delivered some sort of value —  although my incomplete weekend to-do list certainly speaks to the contrary.

Because it is a way to deliver targeted value I am certain that more training-as-marketing and marketing-as-training applications are going to be appearing in the near future.  I wonder what they look like and what will evolve out of it.