1. Determine your goals. What is the underlying rationale for the initiative? Is it to reduce support costs? Develop a community? Increase retention? Provide just-in-time training? Or start a new revenue stream? Whatever the goal, defining it lays the groundwork for evaluating the success – and ultimately determining the ROI.

2. Test drive the ideas. This may mean formal market research or informal discussions – in other words, more than just using your “gut”. Before spending any further time or money, it is important to see if there is a market for your content, and if there is, the format preference. Test-driving will also give you a better understanding of the appetite for different pricing models.  Google is in perpetual beta mode – take a page from their book.

3. Determine your approach. At the intersection of your goals and your market is your implementation approach: Learning Management System or Membership Site? Do-it-yourself or Pre-packaged Software or Shared Platform?

4. Inventory your content. List all of the content, along with details re: title, medium, readiness to use, etc. Each piece of content might either stand alone as a module, or be grouped with other content into a module.

5. Build a content plan. This identifies gaps in the existing content, old content that may require updating, and future new content that will eventually be developed. The content plan also can function as an editorial calendar.

6. Create a taxonomy. This is the hierarchical organization of all of your content: existing and future.

7. Storyboard individual “courses”. Each course typically will solve a specific problem, and is made up of individual modules.

8. Connect to the web. Most of the time, eLearning is driven from a website. At this point in the process, there are several decisions: Will eLearning be completely integrated with your website, or will it be a “tack-on” that is accessed through a link? Is your current technology adequate, or must there be changes? (Or, in fact, might the deployment of eLearning suggest an opportunity to revamp/update the existing website itself?)

9. Build/populate the system. Whatever your approach, this is the stage where the content is actually populated into the system. (And proofread, and tested.)

10. Train your support team. You didn’t think that your learners wouldn’t have questions, both about the platform, and about your content?  Poor (or no) support means a higher churn rate.

11. Create marketing materials. Part of the materials required would be for online use, and some would be for offline. If you are more sophisticated, you would also create a number of marketing automation sequences to handle new user intro, customer service, etc.  The approach would also address partners and other lead sources.

12. Integrate into existing marketing and operating processes. eLearning doesn’t happen in isolation; it should be integrated into all of your organization’s processes. An example: new clients (or new staff) might access introductory training on your services or products. If you write proposals, then access to the eLearning platform might be given at no charge for a period of time. If you provide support, eLearning might be used to provide self-service.

13. Soft launch: This might mean adding links from your website to the platform, without actively promoting it. A soft launch is the opportunity to work out any previously undiscovered kinks in the system – and flex your support muscles.

14. Launch: At launch there needs to be an outreach and marketing to those groups with the strongest affinity: this is the lowest hanging fruit. Sources would include existing email lists, existing members/clients/partners, volunteers, and employees. As the launch only happens once, it only makes sense to create an event around the launch – or scheduling the launch at a key existing event.

15. Online and offline sales: This would include efforts around Pay-per-click, SEO, real-world advertising, partnership deals, and using existing relationships to sell bulk sales.

16. Upsells / Cross-sells. These are the two perennial ways to increase the average price per sale. Would you like fries with that is an example of a cross-sell. Would you like a large instead for only 50 cents more is an upsell. In the world of eLearning, an upsell might involve letting the user know about your “gold plan”. A cross-sell may be a pre-sale link for related content: “people who liked this course also took this course.”

17. Retention plan: This is a strategy to ensure that the user continuously sees value from their investment; it may encompass marketing automation sequences, gamification within the eLearning platform, or other stimuli. If they don’t see value, they will quit.

18. Rescue plan: It is far easier to keep a user than sell to a completely new one. When a person chooses to end their paid plan, the rescue plan swings into action. It may include sweetening the offer via web-based or email communication, or perhaps providing telephone follow-up. (We would suggest, however, that the more aggressive you are, the more of your goodwill and reputation will be spent. And when there is nothing left, no matter what you do, they will never trust you again.)

19. Quarterly review: Just because the system was perfect when you started, doesn’t mean that it always will be. There will be changes in your target users, changes in your strategy, and of course, more content that you will have developed. Monetizing your content means always keeping it up-to-date.