Using social media to grow your training business
Matt George, Managing Director at MTG Digital, shared his expert insight into growing your training business through social media at this year's Everest Training Industry Conference. Here's a summary of what he taught us about using social media to fuel your business growth:
About MTG Digital
MTG Digital are a strategic digital agency, offering the full end-to-end solution to get your training business ready to promote, sell and manage your products and services.
"Our aim is to ultimately offer our customers the best possible digital solution using our skills and expertise when it comes to advertising and promoting courses, as well as how they are best managed".
"We're very customer-focused and results-driven", Matt says. "We do have a big passion to deliver the best possible service".
"As an agency we decided to use our expertise in the training and education sector to work directly with colleges, universities, and training providers to deliver digital solutions such as social media promotion, ad design and management, as well as website development and integrations with training management software such as accessplanit".
The impact of social media on course promotion
Potential reach
Matt notes that social media has a huge audience potential and will help tremendously in boosting your online presence and sales. So why not best utilise them for your own promotion for your business?
In the UK, on average we spend around 110 minutes on social media per day, there are 53 million active social media users, with 98% of those using mobile devices. Social media penetration in the UK is 66% while internet penetration is 94.9%.
Targeting the right audience
Making sure you're targeting the right audience is key. Have you highlighted your audience and really drilled down on their interests when it comes to promoting your offering?
"For example, if you're looking to promote apprenticeships for school leavers, platforms that are popular with a younger demographic such as TikTok or Instagram would be best for this", Matt recommends. "If it's more of a commercial or B2B post, Linkedin would be better for this".
Keep posts relevant and consistent
"It's important that even if you are using paid ads on socials, you still post relevant and regular organic content that keeps your audience engaged in your channels" Matt says. "So that when people see your ads and click on your social handles, everything is relevant and up to date with your current paid campaigns".
"If you're doing paid ads and your last organic post was a year ago - it doesn't look great. There would be little use paying for paid social ads if a consumer clicks on your social handle they're greeted with nothing to back it up".
The power of digital ads
Your social media presence and ads are your online "digital billboard". Comparing social media promotion vs. traditional billboards, Matt remarks "in terms how long will it take for leads to come through and ROI - how many times have you driven past a billboard before actually getting out your phone and Googling it, calling to get the offer, it might be 3 or 4 times before taking action. Social media promotion is far easier as its right there at your consumer's fingertips".
What social platform will give you the best ROI?
As most of us will know, social media is now the #1 channel used by marketers and agencies like MTG Digital, so it is important to understand exactly what platform is going to give you the most bang for your buck.
Do your research
Matt notes that the best way to increase ROI through your ads is to improve your consumer intelligence. Get to know your customers through surveys, feedback forms, and what platforms they use.
"Ultimately you can post your campaigns on those pages - so when you do post you'll be super relevant. It won't be a jarring ad that interrupts their life. It'll be well timed, well targeted, and lead to higher engagement".
Creating eye catching ads and posts
"There are 100s of free apps out there that can help with creating eye-catching ads. Some are easier than others but we would highly recommend Canva", Matt says. "We use it for new starters as it's so simple to use. We also use Adobe Suite for the functionality, but for small marketing teams, Canva is amazing".
If you'd like to learn more about MTG Digital you can visit their website here!
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