The top marketing area to improve for 2026. The most likely hot marketing tip to be implemented in the coming year. And the marketing tip that would have the biggest impact for programs.
These were the 3 big marketing topics practitioners responded to and set the direction for LERN practical, how-to tips for members.
Top Marketing Area to Improve
Social media dominates the field as the top marketing area to improve. A whopping 39% of programs said it was their top choice. Email promotion and website improvement were tied for second place at 17%-18% each, essentially no statistical difference.
Email is the second most important marketing lifelong learning programs do to generate registrations. And the website is so important it ranks with the print brochure as being the most important aspect of marketing for most programs.
Only 13% of programs said their top marketing area to improve is the print brochure. And while LERN has many recommendations to enhance your print brochure, overall programs are doing a very good job with their print brochure.
Promotion with videos was the other low-priority for marketing. Only 13% of programs had video as their top priority. That interest with video may change, as social media increasingly using videos to get the message across.
Most-Liked New Marketing Technique
Creating a Google Business Profile and then analyzing the data was named the most liked new marketing technique of the year. Some 32% of programs said it is the most likely new technique to be implemented in 2026.
Google Business Profile is free to create, and is the first step in improving your no-cost search engine optimization (SEO) for classes and events.
Track Your Email Subject Lines
The marketing tip that would have the biggest positive impact for your program is tracking email subject lines. Some 24% of programs named this no-cost way of making promotional emails more effective.
If you are a member, find out how to do a no-cost tracking of the best subject lines. Just email info@lern.org and ask for the “Tracking Email Subject Lines” report.
