Making learning attractive to families

Following the success of the Campaign for Learning's Marketing Learning Seminars earlier this year, the Campaign is developing a programme of conferences geared specifically to marketing family learning. Here the Campaign shares some of the ways you can engage more families with learning and some real examples of effective family learning marketing.

• Awareness - Interest - Desire - Action
  Deciding to learn something new involves a much more complex decision-making process than buying a packet of crisps, especially when the whole family is involved. The awareness stage, seeing your advert, editorial or poster, is just the first step, and interest and desire need to be stimulated before action is taken.
  Example: To raise awareness of a family learning sports day a leisure centre advertised in the local newspaper. To spark interest by families they followed this up with a demonstration in local shopping centre and created a desire by talking to parents' evenings about the importance of family health. Free family swim vouchers were then given out at schools to encourage the final action of signing up.
  
  
• Stand out from the crowd
  Not only are you competing with other family learning providers, you're competing with leisure and pastime activities. Anything unusual or quirky, messy or noisy will help get families attention and help get them learning.
  Example: The Arsenal Study Support Centre combined IT with football and a tour of the Highbury Stadium to attract local families. The event was a sell out and many of the parents signed up to further IT courses at the centre.

To register your interest in the Campaign's forthcoming conferences on marketing family learning please contact Rebecca Goodbourn on 020 7766 0013 email: rgoodbourn@cflearning.org.uk