Getting noticed in a crowded field like online education can be hard. We explore how three leading EdTech companies communicate their unique advantages through their brand messaging.
This year has radically changed how we go about day-to-day tasks, from going to school to doing our work. No wonder: universities and businesses need reliable solutions for conducting classes and corporate training remotely amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fortunately, there’s no shortage of eLearning software and other EdTech platforms ready to deliver a seamless learning experience to students in the comfort of their own homes.
With such a crowded field, it’s up to the consumer to choose the eLearning solution that best suits their needs. That can be overwhelming under normal circumstances—let alone when in-person classes are all but impossible.
Disruption to the education industry presents an opportunity for EdTech companies to focus on their brand message. What do eLearning platforms’ brands say about the user experience?
During uncertain times, people are looking for solutions that are reliable, easy, and compatible with their needs. Consumers use brand messages to learn exactly what benefits and features they can expect from a product or service.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at how three EdTech companies’ branding strategies communicate their eLearning solutions’ advantages.
Different students, different needs
Everyone learns at their own pace. LoudCloud built learning software that’s customizable to each student’s needs. LoudCloud’s adaptable courseware lets students avoid spending money on courses they don’t need—a nice perk given the turbulent economic climate.
The user experience is also adaptable from the instructor’s side, by offering quality Open Education Resources (OER), and allowing teachers to seamlessly design learning modules. This means that teachers will spend less time futzing with technology and more time helping students succeed.
More broadly, LoudCloud’s competency-based education (CBE) platform can be tailored to each student’s needs, while its data analysis capabilities enable teachers to identify struggling students and help them improve. In short: LoudCloud isn’t just education software that helps you learn, it’s education software that helps you thrive.
By personalizing its service, LoudCloud is billing itself as the e-learning company that cares about you enough to familiarize itself with your individual needs, and arm you with tools for success. You can infer that message from the functionality of the software, but LoudCloud articulates this point right on in its website: “At LoudCloud, we understand that no two students are alike.”
Accessibility is king
Moodle is an open-source learning management system (LMS). For you and me, that means it allows educators who aren’t particularly tech savvy to revamp and design a secure platform that can be adapted to serve the learning needs of learning institutions, non-profits, and other organizations. Oh yeah, and it’s free.
Because it’s easy to use, Moodle touts itself as the accessible eLearning solution: a fair boast with tens of millions of users.
Moodle is also the eLearning brand that fosters community, whether it’s a community of students, or a group of users looking to improve site functionality. Users with coding skills are constantly tweaking the software, making it more secure, easier to use—and overall, just better.
Moodle’s website copy puts this more succinctly: “Community driven, globally supported.” The homepage features a prominently displayed link to Moodle’s community forums, where users can connect with each other and offer advice or technical assistance. Moodle isn’t just the LMS that spans the globe, it’s the LMS that brings the world closer together.
MarketSmiths Case Study
One of the most famous universities on earth, Stanford University was gearing up to start groundbreaking work on campus. But without a robust environmental health and safety website, progress was slow. Unfortunately, its existing copy was clunky, confusing, and hard to navigate. Not for long. After tapping MarketSmiths, we worked closely with both the university and a hired communications agency to put it right, revising hundreds of pages, from “Working Safely with Rabbits” to the Laser Safety Manual. After relaunching the website, Stanford was ready to start its expansion—and had a website to match its prestige.
eLearning with a human touch
According to Education Week magazine, 74% of the nation’s 100 largest public school districts went fully online in fall 2020, “affecting 9 million students.” The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that 30% of the approximately 1260 colleges they’ve tracked have gone fully online for the fall semester. With the pandemic forcing more classes to be taught online, 2U is focused on ways to make remote learning reliable without sacrificing the human connection central to on-site education. Since learning is ultimately about people, specifically their attempts to better themselves, 2U sets out to make their EdTech more human.
How does 2U achieve this? For starters, their web copy’s tone is warm and conversational. While outlining 2U’s guiding principles on their site’s “careers” page, the copy encourages the reader to “be candid, open, and honest,” “give a damn,” “have fun,” and “make service your mission.”
At the same time, 2U features genuine stories on their website—about the actual humans who either work at the company or who’ve enriched their lives via 2U’s products. Plus, 2U uses a pithy nickname to refer to their employees: 2Utes. Cute!
Moving forward
It’s impossible to know when in-person learning will return en masse—if they ever do. With the added convenience of taking classes at home, people may be reluctant to return to a classroom in the post-COVID era. EdTech companies should use this moment to refine their brand messaging and reach consumers they can benefit most.
If your organization needs help crafting an effective brand identity and helps you stand out from the crowd, you should definitely give us a call.
