Today, we say farewell good riddance to the traditional information product at Digital Marketer.
Don’t let the door hit you in the butt on the way out.
Why?
It just doesn’t work that well — for you.
It doesn’t work for businesses. It doesn’t work for agencies. It doesn’t work for marketing professionals.
I know because…
I’ve been listening…
In early 2014 we opened a number of private Facebook groups associated with our training products.
The results have been absolutely jaw dropping. These Facebook groups have given me an astounding amount of information about our customers.
Information about you… and what you want.
These are the questions our sharpest customers are asking…
- How do I distinguish myself from my competitors and win more clients? (From marketing agencies and freelancers)
- How do I know if my employees truly know how to execute this new media marketing stuff? (From business owners)
- How do I know if I’m TRULY ready to execute a marketing strategy or tactic? (From marketing agencies and freelancers)
- How do I hire employees and outside contractors with the skills needed to move us forward? (From business owners)
Each and every issue raised above is actually CAUSED by the information we (and a number of competitors) sell every day.
The handwriting is on the wall…
The traditional eLearning model is on life support — and I’m happy to be the one that pulls the plug.
Effective Immediately: Digital Marketer is Shifting Away From Selling “Information Products”
… at least the way everyone else is doing it.
Moving forward we will only create and distribute three types of premium “information.”
The first type are the Execution Plans available to our Digital Marketer Lab members.
But these Execution Plans (EP’s for short) are not intended to be full trainings. An Execution Plan is simply step-by-step instructions that walk you, or a member of your team, through achieving a specific, desired end result.
Things like:
- How to build and write a high-converting landing page…
- How to set up a Facebook ad retargeting campaign…
- How to SEO a WordPress website…
… and over 30 more.
The second type are template packs such as “The Machine” and “Funnel Blueprint.” Yes, these have a training element, but they aren’t merely training. Instead, they are templates that can be used immediately even if you don’t consume the training.
They get used, and they get results…no “training manual” required.
But there is still a need for more robust trainings that cover an entire topic both tactically and strategically.
Introducing Digital Marketer “Mastery Courses”
These trainings come complete with testing and certification from DigitalMarketer!
Key word: CERTIFICATION.
More on this in a sec…
Digital Marketer’s “Mastery Courses” will not only share our proven strategies and give step-by-step details on how to execute them, they’ll also go in-depth into the theory and methodologies behind them.
How are “Mastery Courses” different from traditional information products?
I’m glad you asked. 🙂
FIRST, our Mastery Courses offer something that ordinary trainings don’t offer: testing & certification.
For example, upon successful completion of the “Content Marketing Mastery Course” and accompanying testing — you will receive your certificate and badge as a “Certified Content Marketing Specialist. (To understand how Digital Marketer’s TOFU, MOFU, BOFU Content Marketing system transforms ice cold prospects into multi-buyers, check out this post.)
And you can be confident that you (or the team member taking the training) actually understand the material — because you have been tested by a professional.
And unlike so many other courses that sit on the “shelf” and gather “digital dust,” these Mastery Courses will get consumed and used.
There are three big reasons we’ve made this bold decision…
1 – Because the information product is broken
Traditional information products simply are not consumed… or aren’t consumed correctly.
Sometimes it’s because the information is outdated or (… even worse) just flat wrong.
But even solid information is rarely consumed correctly…
… unless the “student’s” understanding is checked by a professional that has mastered the skills being taught.
But even worse…
Information that IS consumed correctly doesn’t get implemented.
And more times than not, this comes down to confidence.
Think about it…
How do you know if you TRULY understand something if there is no objective standard to measure your understanding?
You don’t, which is likely the reason you’ve stalled (or your team has stalled) in implementing a new skill or strategy they’ve learned.
So what do you need?
Well, it may not be the answer you’re hoping for, but it’s definitely the answer that’s right.
What you need are TESTS! You need exams created by professionals that, upon passing, demonstrates your understanding of the material.
Novel concept, right?
Universities test along the way… and then reward you with a diploma once you’ve demonstrated mastery of the subject matter.
And that diploma bears the insignia of the issuing university. That university’s reputation is tied to each and every diploma awarded to a student.
That’s what is missing from the traditional info product…
You’re just like everyone else that bought it.
There’s no objective value in having completed the training!
I’m ready to put the reputation of Digital Marketer at stake by certifying individuals that complete these certifications. That’s how confident I am in the quality of our training.
I wonder if our competitors will be willing to do the same.
But this is perhaps a more important reason Digital Marketer is discontinuing the sale of traditional information products…
2 – Because marketing professionals need certifications and testing…their careers depend on it!
If you’re an agency or marketing professional, you need a way to distinguish yourself from the pack.
Just look around…
EVERYONE is calling themselves a “marketing guru” … “social media rockstar” … “SEO ninja” … you get the idea.
So how do you stand out from the competition?
How do you show that you ACTUALLY know what you’re talking about? How do you show that you are a true professional?
More importantly…
How do those who would hire you know that you know what you’re talking about? How can they judge that you are a true professional?
In the traditional job market, it was all about the right diploma.
But you can’t simply go to traditional colleges or universities to get this kind of training. They are either…
- Not teaching it at all, or worse…
- Teaching it, but not actually DOING it
To teach it and teach it well — you have to be DOING it. This industry just moves too dang quickly for a traditional educational institutions to keep up. Even if they tried, they would fail!
That’s why Digital Marketer is uniquely positioned to provide this training.
We actually do this stuff for a living. We own businesses in dozens of niches and mainstream verticals, and we work every day to systemize our systems and strategies so we can pass down this knowledge to our own team.
And given our mission of doubling the size of 10,000 businesses in 5 years or less, it’s only appropriate that we should pass this knowledge on to other businesses as well.
Which brings me to the next reason we are shifting to certifications…
3 – Because businesses need certifications and testing
I’m a business owner — and I USED TO buy information products for my employees. I also used to task employees with going through our own traditional information products.
But no longer.
I just didn’t know if they were consuming them. And, if they were, I didn’t know if they had mastered the subject matter.
Frustrating.
I’m shelling out money for training and salary without being able to objectively measure their understanding. And worse… I’m putting this employee to work on one of MY BUSINESSES without being able to know beyond the shadow of a doubt if they can do the job or not.
And I do this marketing thing for a living!
I can only imagine how terrifying it must be for a business owner who isn’t also a marketer.
Because again, you can’t hire for this kind of stuff, and where there are no objective measures, there’s no confidence.
But these certifications solve that little problem.
This Is Our Mission!
I said it once in this article but it’s so important that I’m going to say it again…
The stated mission of Digital Marketer is to DOUBLE the size of 10,000 businesses over the next 5 years.
We know we won’t hit that goal unless we equip businesses with the tools they need to grow. And as you’ve already seen, training alone isn’t enough.
It’s time for eLearning to grow up.
The industry needs this. Marketing professionals need this. Business owners need this.
You need this.
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