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4 Steps for Acquiring Sophisticated Users through Education

November 17, 2015 — by MediaMath    

One million.

That’s the number of technology jobs that will go unfilled by 2020. Back in 2012, we recognized this skills gap and created the New Marketing Institute to educate the new generation of marketing professionals through a deep understanding of clients’ business needs and customized, timely content that is in alignment with those needs and overall business strategy.

Earlier this month at the NYC Uncubed event, I presented on “Acquiring Sophisticated Users through Education.” I outlined four steps that are crucial for achieving success in learning and development.

  1. Educate

Education cannot be conducted in a vacuum. Each aspiring marketing professional is going to come from a different background, education and base of knowledge. That’s why at NMI we focus on “meeting the learner where there are”—both in a figurative and literal sense. To properly educate, you have to both know your audience and work to localize and globalize training materials to address cultural, language and regional differences. Additionally, you must ensure the content is relevant and timely, both in the context of your learners’ individual needs and the digital marketing landscape.

  1. Engage

While the Educate step largely addresses the design of learning materials for users, Engage gets into the nitty-gritty of how you facilitate learning—whether that is in a classroom, online or on-demand. Here, it’s even more important to know your audience. For instance, different global markets have different approaches. For all audiences, approaching learning in bite-sized chunks can help learners digest highly technical information in a way that lets them continue to build upon their knowledge. Attendees of NMI’s classes in the past have pointed out that we have best-in-class facilitators who are engaged, enthusiastic and experts at their subject matter.

  1. Empower

NMI’s courses are purposely not designed to be conducted in long lecture format. The idea is not to dump a lot of highly technical information on students and talk “at” them. Rather, best practice is to marry the engagement style described above with student encouragement and enrichment. Listen, solicit feedback and provide additional relevant materials in the form of infographics, blogs and white papers. Also, let learners know that they can become the teacher. Individuals who have a natural inclination and eagerness to train on digital marketing and the technology that underpins it might want to consider NMI’s Train the Trainer program, which sets up individuals to be facilitators of our courses.

  1. Connect

We said above education shouldn’t happen in a vacuum. It goes for both the students and the teachers. Learning happens outside of the classroom on an ongoing basis, and a team approach should always be valued over a siloed one. It takes a village—no one can educate the next generation of digital marketers on their own, and we believe strongly that building rapport with both industry and non-industry influencers is the key to success.