Mistakes to Avoid While Selecting a Learning Management System

Used properly, a Learning Management System (LMS) can be your best friend.

Misuse your LMS and you’ll just be making more work for yourself.

We covered Learning Management Systems in our last blog, where you found out just how much value they can add to your membership. An LMS will increase your member retention, keep members engaged and active on your site, make onboarding new members and employees easier and deliver content efficiently. 

Everything to know about LMS

All of that can be yours! If only you avoid these common LMS mistakes…

1. Not Using Integrations

If you’re worried about not using your LMS to its full potential, make sure you’re using all the integrations that will be useful to your membership.

LinkedIn integrations can be valuable to students if your membership provides professional certificates and proof of progression that they’d like to share. A Salesforce integration would give you deeper account history for each member. 

As a rule of thumb, if you’re already using other tools and software within your membership, integrate them into your LMS to get everything in one place and streamline your processes.  

Not sure if you’re making this mistake? Ask this…

Am I using a lot of tools separately from my LMS? Would my target market appreciate more integrations i.e. social sharing?

2. Overcomplicating The Learning Process

Is your LMS making everyone pull their hair out with frustration trying to understand it?

Keep your processes simple and try not to add too many steps and hurdles for both learners and website managers. 

Remember, an LMS is there to make life easier for everyone, so keep things straightforward and intuitive wherever possible. If members have to click through several pages and complete numerous steps just to access the next piece of content, they probably won’t make it far!

Imagine you’re one of your members. 

They click on a ‘new video’ message in their LMS dashboard to find your latest content. But the link redirects them to your membership home page. They then have to find your video library tab and scroll through to your newest upload. 

Sounds pretty tedious, right?

Ask yourself this…

Is my LMS optimised for all my users? Would my learners and team members be able to navigate the site without help? Are there any pages or steps that can be cut out?

3. Not Following Up

One of the most common mistakes for busy, thriving membership sites is not following up.

You deliver some fresh, engaging training, you see your members interacting… and then you move your focus to the next task. You’ve left your members to it without asking for comments or checking in on their progress. 

If you want to know whether your LMS is working, ask the people using it!

It doesn’t even need to be a time-consuming process. Just send an anonymous survey to all of your learners asking for specific answers to specific questions that will give you the most actionable feedback. 

When in doubt, always debrief. You’ll save yourself some headaches and lost members further down the line. 

When following up, ask yourself…

What do I need to know from my members? Is there anything I might have overlooked that users would have better insight about?

4. Not Offering Free Trials

Don’t have a free trial for potential members to try before they buy?

Let your target audience see exactly how efficient and enjoyable your LMS makes learning with you. 

Whatever your subject matter, the effective way an LMS presents your membership is a huge selling point and you really shouldn’t underestimate its power.

The other benefit of allowing free trials is that new members get the chance to become familiar with how your LMS site works – how they’ll receive content, how they can track their progress and how they’ll get the most out of your membership. 

They’ll be comfortable with navigating your site and are more likely to stick with you and continue to a paid membership. 

And don’t forget – your LMS comes in handy when it comes to upselling too. Create processes and triggers to give members valuable offers, upsells and cross-sells at the moments they’ll be most interested.

Not convinced you should offer a free trial? Ask yourself these questions…

Would my unique target audience be interested in a free trial? Is my streamlined, easy-to-use LMS a big selling point for my membership – if only they could try before they buy?

5. Not Clearly Defining Your Features

The ultimate goal of using a Learning Management System is to track, deliver and optimise learning content online.

But your LMS can only do so much.

If you’re not defining your features clearly, your members are going to have a hard time making the most of your site. 

Whether you’re delivering internal employee eLearning, providing a range of courses or specialist training, your learners need to know what’s available to them. If most of your features are hidden or not intuitively presented, they might never get used. 

As an example, you might be providing a special video training series on health and safety regulations. If your students are only being directed through your LMS to your main course about general workplace health and safety, they might never know that valuable other content even exists. 

To make sure all your features are clear in your LMS, ask yourself…

Have I set up my LMS to deliver targeted content to different categories of users? Am I asking for feedback on all features or just the main ones?

Want To Get Started With Your Own LMS?

If all this talk about actionable user feedback, upselling free trials and convenient integrations has caught your attention, you might be ready for your own LMS. 

Book a call with our friendly and experienced membership website experts, and we’ll get you started with your own, bespoke LMS membership website. Your future members will thank you for not making these LMS mistakes!