What happens when you challenge L&D professionals to think like marketers instead of order takers? Magic. Pure, career-changing magic.
We just wrapped up an incredible conversation with Roy de Vries on aNewSpring’s “Roy’s Training Improvement Café” podcast, and honestly? We’re still buzzing from the energy. Not because we love talking about our book Think Like a Marketer, Train Like an L&D Pro (though we absolutely do), but because we witnessed something remarkable: the exact moment when L&D professionals realize they already have superpowers—they just need to activate them.
The Lightbulb Moment That Changes Everything
Here’s what blew our minds during the recording: Roy started asking about the difference between “jazzing up” courses and truly transforming them. But the real breakthrough came when we shared the truth that makes traditional L&D folks do a double-take.
The most powerful marketing techniques cost exactly zero dollars.
We’re talking about simple mindset shifts that transform how people experience your training. No budget required. No approval process. No months of implementation. Just you, your existing content, and a willingness to think differently.
The “Jazz Up” Trap That Kills Learning
The conversation kept circling back to one dangerous assumption: that courses just need to be “jazzed up” to be effective. Roy really grabbed onto this concept during our chat, and for good reason.
If your training needs to be “jazzed up,” you’ve already lost.
Here’s why: When you start with content and then try to make it engaging, you’re working backwards. You’re putting lipstick on a pig. Real marketing-inspired learning starts with understanding your audience so deeply that the content naturally becomes irresistible.
The Fix: Start with Empathy, Not Content
Before you design another course, spend time with your actual learners. Not their managers. Not the stakeholders who requested the training. The people who will actually use it.
What keeps them up at night? What makes their job harder? What would success look like from their perspective?
Answer those questions, and you’ll never need to “jazz up” anything again.
The Campaign Mindset That Changes Everything
One insight from our chat that Roy really grabbed onto: Think in campaigns, not courses.
Marketers don’t launch a product with a single touchpoint and call it done. They create multi-channel campaigns that reinforce messages across different formats, times, and contexts. Your training should work the same way.
Instead of dumping everything into one overwhelming course, spread your content strategically:
- Pre-work that builds anticipation
- Bite-sized learning moments that fit into workflow
- Reinforcement content that appears just when people need it
- Social proof that shows peers succeeding
Digital Body Language: The Silent Killer of Learning
One insight from our chat that Roy was particularly excited about: digital body language matters more than you think.
In marketing, every click, scroll, and pause tells a story. Your learners are communicating with you through their digital behavior—are you listening?
- They’re skipping sections (your content isn’t relevant)
- They’re taking forever to complete modules (it’s too complex)
- They’re not returning after the first session (you lost them at hello)
- They’re finishing fast but failing assessments (they’re clicking through)
Instead of blaming “engagement issues,” start reading the signals. Your LMS data can be a goldmine of behavioral insights waiting to be decoded.
Beyond the LMS: The Electric Vehicle Expo Story
Roy was fascinated by our electric vehicle expo example. Here’s the thing most L&D pros miss: learning doesn’t have to happen in your LMS.
The best marketing campaigns meet people where they are, not where you want them to be. Your learners aren’t living in your learning management system—they’re living in Slack, email, Teams, and the hallway conversations that happen between meetings.
Smart L&D professionals think beyond their platform. They create learning touchpoints wherever their audience naturally gathers.
The “Compliance 101” Problem
One moment that made Roy laugh: our discussion about course titles. If you’re calling your course “Compliance 101,” you’ve already told people it’s going to be boring.
Marketing professionals spend millions of dollars testing headlines because they know that’s what determines whether someone pays attention. Yet L&D professionals often slap generic titles on courses and wonder why no one’s excited.
The Fix: Use headline analyzer tools (many are free) to test your course titles. Ask yourself: “Would I click on this if it showed up in my inbox?”
Better yet, test different titles with small groups. You’ll be amazed at the difference a compelling title makes to completion rates.
The Strategy-First Rule That Changes Everything
Roy asked about marketing technology and automation, but we shared something that seemed to surprise him: Buy the strategy first, then the tools.
The biggest mistake L&D professionals make is buying shiny new platforms without first understanding their audience and mapping their learner journey. That’s like buying a sports car to drive to the corner store—impressive, but completely missing the point.
Your email system can become a powerful learning delivery engine. Your existing communication tools can transform into reinforcement channels. Your LMS can evolve from a course dumping ground into a performance support hub.
But none of that matters if you haven’t first mastered the mindset shift from course creator to behavior change agent.
Why This Matters Right Now
Here’s what we didn’t say on the podcast but should have: L&D is at a crossroads.
Organizations are questioning training ROI more than ever. Budgets are tight. Attention spans are shorter. The old “build it and they will come” approach doesn’t work anymore.
But here’s the opportunity: Marketing solved these exact problems years ago. They figured out how to capture attention in a distracted world. They learned how to prove ROI with data. They mastered the art of making people want what they need.
That knowledge is freely available to anyone willing to learn it.
Your Next Move
If you’re reading this and thinking “this sounds great, but where do I start?” here’s our recommendation: Pick one training program you’re working on right now. Any program.
Ask yourself these three questions:
- What does success look like from the learner’s perspective?
- What’s the smallest possible change that would make the biggest impact?
- How can I make this feel more like a gift and less like homework?
Then make that change. Test it. Measure it. Improve it.
You’ll be amazed at what happens when you start thinking like a marketer instead of an order taker.
Want to dive deeper into marketing-inspired L&D strategies? Our book “Think Like a Marketer, Train Like an L&D Pro” is packed with field-tested techniques that cost nothing to implement but everything to ignore. Get your copy here and join thousands of L&D professionals who are already transforming their programs.
Listen to our full conversation with Roy de Vries on “Roy’s Training Improvement Café” podcast wherever you get your podcasts, or catch it on Spotify. The episode is called “What Learning Designers Can Learn From Marketing” and it’s packed with actionable insights you can implement today.