There are various reasons why trainers join the TrainerBase.
The top two are to:
In the current economic climate the business case for buying
products and services needs to be argued in order to maximise budgets
and return on investment. This is no different for your membership of a
club, association or institute.
So what is the TrainerBase for? It is there to help you become more
successful in your training endeavours. And what are the benefits from a
membership? Well they are many and varied.
- publication of case studies on your successes
- CPD advice
- web based profiles on a site receiving
20,000+ visits per month
- member tips on how to raise your profiles to gain access to
the direct contracts via the Find a Trainer page
- contract opportunity notices with an
estimated award value in
excess of £0.5 million
- lead generation from profile visitors
- free resource sharing facility offering lead generation
- advice and support
- email alerts and updates on happenings
- marketing research data
- social media involvement
- editorials on learning and development
- attendance at exhibitions
And it doesn't stop there. Some of the above are being reviewed for allocation of additional
resources especially the use of forum group contributions and social
media involvement to generate greater activity.
All this for £150+VAT per year for the full membership.
Below is further information about each of the above benefits.
Membership
Membership of the TrainerBase is great value especially, but not
exclusively, as a niche marketing channel. A lot of people looking for
training providers visit the TrainerBase.
Membership with a profile on the TrainerBase
is a only £150+VAT. This means that you can have a fully
enhanced presence on the internet for just £150+VAT for a year.
Membership is accepted on a declaration of qualification or
competence and the providing of legitimate personal and business
details.
The main, but definitely not the only, reason for becoming a member of
the TrainerBase is the opportunity to get more
work. And our own research shows that it is members with an enhanced profile on
the TrainerBase that get the work.
ROI
The TrainerBase has around 200 members and around 100 of those
are winning a share of the contracts sourced via the
site at an average of around £13,000. Some members earn as much as
40% of their income from activities sourced via the TrainerBase web site. This is an
outstanding return on investment even if it takes more than a year to
achieve. Our evidence further suggests that more contract values is won
via direct contract from a purchaser, able to review a profile, than via
the 150+ tenders that are posted on the site each year.
Greater visibility on the net
A profile on the TrainerBase
can be viewed by potential purchasers. Your profile is
included in any search that a visitor makes looking for your
identified areas of expertise. Visitors to a TrainerBase profile include automated search engine
robots resulting in higher rankings in the search engines. It has been
suggested that the search engine optimisation feature of the enhanced
profile in itself is worth £200+.
In excess of 3,000 visitors look at profiles each month. The TrainerBase
also regularly
helps purchasers with searching for trainers. These purchasers of training
and development WANT to see profiles and if your profile is not enhanced
you will not be considered for work on offer.
Be active
If the case is beginning to sound compelling and you are considering subscribing
to gain new contracts but do not intend to actively raise
your profile on the site then you are likely to be disappointed. Of the
members who get work; nearly all are active. Of the
members who don't get work; most are inactive. 'Build it and they will
come' is, as the Kevin Costner film portrays; a fantasy.
Being active is
straightforward. If you regularly do the following you will raise your
profile up the
Find a Trainer search rankings and significantly increase
your chances of gaining work:
-
take part is discussion forums (most of the
contributors on the forums are members who have gained work from the
site) (subject to gaining sponsorship),
-
upload resources for sharing (you will get the
contact details of visitors downloading your resources so that you
can follow them up) and
-
mention TrainerBase on other forums and digests
(make legitimate responses to questions or requests).
When you take out membership you should do the
following to maximise your investment:
-
populate and then activate your profile and include information of
interest to potential purchasers of training. You can upload images
to your profile to make it more appealing,
-
post details of any open courses you run,
-
include any and all of the custom programmes you run
for your clients and
-
list a selection of your clients on the site.
When you include these elements you will help create
re-assurance that you can provide the solution a potential purchaser is
looking for.
The TrainerBase web site alone receives in excess of 15,000
human visitors to the
site each month, a similar number of search engine robots and clocks up over 150,000 page views. Being active on
the site will result in you being seen by more visitors.
Approved membership
In these growing competitive times, you as a training provider need to
be ahead of the competition. Proving competence in any way
can be the difference between winning and not winning your next
contract. The TrainerBase is often asked to recommend members to
purchasers. TrainerBase is able to do so as it has an
approved members scheme, it is called the Certified Learning
Practitioner (CLP). CLPs have undertaken a rigorous accreditation
programme that "evidences the application of knowledge"; it looks for
evidence that you are a competent and practicing trainer. There is no
requirement to have any qualifications to be a CLP. What the TrainerBase
needs to see evidence of is that you meet the
Standard for
Learning Practitioners.
The benefit of CLP is that you can be recommended by the TrainerBase and
others to
purchasers of training as competent. You can use the accreditation in
your own marketing as proof that you are competent. And the TrainerBase will
provide you with a reference should you need it to win that next piece
of work.
