Commercialize

Design learning products that will drive revenue.

5C Framework for successful digital learning

Commercialize:
The fifth C of the 5C framework

Learning products are big business. Whether you’re creating digital learning to sell, looking to increase your
organization’s ROI on elearning, or even getting started with extended enterprise learning, thinking
commercially about your learning brings focus to what you’re doing. Who are we targeting? Is it the right
product? What’s the investment? And, crucially, how will it deliver a return?

The fifth C of the Elucidat 5C Framework is Commercialize; it’s all about how you can use Elucidat to achieving
the best outcomes for your business as well as your learners.
Many Elucidat customers, including SAI Global, are
successfully commercializing their digital learning
products. This Commercialize Guide looks at the
SCALABILITY
three factors we see at the heart of these successes.

1. Scalability
2. Quality
3. Speed

Need some support? Find out more about our QUALITY SPEED
Learning Consultancy team and our coaching and
design services at each stage of the 5Cs Framework.
 1 Scalability: Increase the reach of your products
through distribution and marketing
Whether you’re a training provider organization or leading an Jot down your thoughts
in-house L&D team, engaging as many learners as possible with your Can you promote your products on multiple
digital content is often the name of the game, and the modern sign channels? Is an LMS right for (all) of your audience?
of success.

Could you reach new markets and audiences if you…

● Efficiently release courses in multiple languages, significantly

increasing your potential customer base?
● Provide truly multi-device and accessible learning, making you
an attractive options for customers with large groups of end
users?
● Find new ways to distribute your content, so you can be
flexible to your customers’ needs?
● Market your products with top end strategies that give you the
edge over your competitors?
● Think virtually - how will you get others talking about and
voluntarily sharing your product with peers and colleagues?
Your chosen distribution model will determine who has direct access to your learning products, and therefore who
you’re marketing to. Here are a few popular distribution models and factors to consider.

Model B2B Self-serve Direct to learner Text

Sell to L&D or HR Let customers come to Learning from Allow organizations to

Professionals in you and select the organizations like pay a monthly of annual
businesses who are products they need LinkedIn learning, target fee for access to a
looking to train their from an online store. learners looking to library of products.
staff. self-develop outside of
work.

Considerations Are your products Are you set up to host Can you give learners a Will you have different
SCORM compliant? multiple live courses? certificate or alternative subscription packs to
recognition of their suit different budgets?
If your products rely on Would you want to achievements to share?
LMS features like group some learning Can you keep adding to
discussion forums, is products together into Are the benefits of your the library so customers
there a back-up for programs? products clear to the see continuous value
customers without this end user themselves? year after year?
software? Can you make the user
experience as easy as
online shopping
experiences?
 2 Quality: Designing compelling products that people
want to buy
If you’re creating digital learning, you’re in one of the most competitive markets. How do you stand out from the
crowd and create “sticky products that people want to use, time and time again? Avoid some common pitfalls:

Part of avoiding those pitfalls is carrying out market research to uncover what will work for your potential
customers.
What about your audience? Look into the following.

Target Buyers End learners Competitors

● Find out what our buyers’ success ● Consider the profile of today’s ● Learn from successful digital
criteria is, and consider how you learners. training providers.
can deliver in it.
● Build audience profiles using our ● Determine your USP.
● Understanding the skills gaps your Capture Needs Template.
target buyers are focussing on.

Are you supporting the whole journey?

Consider the whole journey a learner goes on. They

often start from “I don’t know (or care!) about this
topic”, and yet need to end up at “I want to share my
new skill/knowledge with others”.
Different digital products are better suited to different stages in this journey, and each stage is an opportunity to
provide a product and drive revenue.

Pull Prepare Expand Activate

● Teaser/trailers ● Diagnostics ● Microlearning hub ● Curated content

● Email comms ● Profile builders ● Simulations ● Discussion forums
● Digital poster ● Intro animations ● Immersive ● On-the-job resources
● Infographics environments
● Quizzes

Jot down your thoughts

Which parts of the learner journey could you give more attention to?
How can you (re)package up your learning content to support more than one stage?
3 Speed: Create product efficiently to increase
speed to market
Once you know which learning products you’re
planning to build, smart workflows will make the
difference between getting them done on time with
minimum cost, and getting caught up in a long and
costly productions process.

Experience shows us that, even when time is of the

essence, starting at the beginning and taking time
to build a clear plan and detailed vision will keep
you on the straight and narrow as you build. If you
haven’t seen them already, we have free guides and
toolkits like this one for each step in our
recommended 5C Framework for creating
successful digital learning.
There are several extra considerations to take into account when you’re planning to work at scale and across
different markets. Planning for these early on will help you launch your learning products faster.

● Reducing agency costs: If you already have a team of subject matter experts, you can reduce your
outgoings significantly by purchasing an intuitive digital learning authoring tool that enables them to author
their own content rather than always having to pay agencies to do it for you.

● Translating content efficiently: If you think there’s a possibility of translation, go for a tool that enables
the simple swapping out of languages without requiring authoring time. Design with this in mind - choose
layouts, images and diagrams that will translate easily.

● Managing variations seamlessly: Consider from the off if you might need to rebrand your products,
white-label, or create slight variations in content. Design with this in mind from day one. Choose an
authoring tool that facilitates multiple variations of one product, without heavy production headaches.

● Streamlining collaboration and review: Many hands make light work. Collaborative technologies enable
experts, reviewers, and creatives to work together to create products, fast. Avoid blockers by choosing a
cloud-based authoring tool that allows multiple people to work on a project at once.
Investing a lot of time creating products before you Jot down your thoughts
know whether they’ll work can feel risky. Work
smarter by user-testing short prototypes, reading the What would help your organisation speed up the production of
data that comes back, and building areas for digital learning? Have you got any existing content that could be
smartly reformatted or simply linked to? And how can you engage
improvement into your workflow. subject matter experts with creating new content directly? Consider
templates or encouraging them to get stuck in with an authoring
tool.

Armed with your notes on the commercialization

techniques that are best suited to your organisation,
you’re ready to plan successful digital learning
Get further tips on how to read your data in our free products that will drive revenue or ROI. For more
Cultivate Guide. support generating revenue through learning, get in
touch.
 Commercialize
We hope you’ve found this guide useful!

It’s just one part of our 5Cs Framework for effective digital
learning design, which can support you as you create
people-centered elearning.

If you’d like one-to-one support with getting actionable

insights from your data, our Learning Consultancy team can
help, please get in touch.