Think Like a Marketer, Train Like an L&D Pro

Strategies to Ignite Learning

Mike Taylor author Bianca Baumann author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:American Society for Training & Development

Publishing:10th Jul '25

£30.99

This title is due to be published on 10th July, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

Think Like a Marketer, Train Like an L&D Pro cover

Use Marketing Strategies to Captivate and Persuade Your Audience

At first glance, marketing and L&D may seem like an unlikely combination. But upon closer inspection, both fields share two core goals: getting people’s attention and influencing their behavior. Marketing involves captivating, persuading, and creating value—all of which are key to learning design. When done well, learning design grabs participants’ attention like a great marketing campaign and engages them emotionally and intellectually to make learning stick. In this innovative volume, marketing and L&D experts Bianca Baumann and Mike Taylor ask: How can L&D pros make learning programs more effective by thinking like expert marketers?

To answer that question, Baumann and Taylor explore the potential of marketing-inspired L&D, diving into essential marketing principles, strategies, and techniques and applying them to learning experience design to improve learning transfer. With a learner-centric perspective, the authors explain the science of marketing, how to use personas, and how to craft a successful learner journey. They cover effective writing, the use of powerful graphics, how to plan and execute a winning learning campaign, how to harness technology, and the all-important activities of evaluation and learning analytics.

L&D pros will learn new ways to capture their target audience’s attention and influence their behavior. Each chapter includes engaging stories from Baumann and Taylor’s work in the field, case studies, and definitions of essential marketing concepts and how they apply directly in the L&D environment, plus activities and tools instructional designers can apply immediately to transform their learning programs.

“As an EdTech consultant advising chief learning officers, I can confidently say this book is a game-changer for L&D leaders. It brilliantly bridges the gap between traditional L&D and modern marketing, offering invaluable insights for creating compelling digital learning experiences.”
—Lori Niles-Hofmann, EdTech Strategist and Global Adviser, NilesNolen

“So much value on every page! Bianca and Mike have struck the right balance of instilling high-impact strategies and tactical design advice. Think Like a Marketer, Train Like an L&D Pro is essential reading for any learning and talent leader who is looking to elevate their practice and bring fresh perspectives to their teams. Keep this one beside your desk at all times.”
—Josh Cardoz, Chief Creative and Learning Officer, Sponge Learning Group

Think Like a Marketer, Train Like an L&D Pro presents a compelling argument for combining marketing ideas and strategies with current L&D techniques to create a powerful combination with the potential to take the L&D function to the next level. Bianca Baumann and Mike Taylor have created a work that will help you envision and achieve a future in which employees eagerly take charge of their learning journeys, acquire new skills, and apply them in real time through this unique intertwining of disciplines. The writing team provides actionable strategies, ideas, and concepts that empower L&D professionals to create training that captivates, motivates, and delivers lasting impact. This book will change the way you think about developing instruction forever.”
Karl M. Kapp, EdD, Professor of Instructional Design and Technology, Commonwealth University

“‘Get attention, influence behavior’—the book recognizes that these are the central concerns of both learning designers AND marketers, and that learning designers have a lot to learn from marketers on these topics. Packed full of useful tools and frameworks, this book has so much material to help create more engaging and impactful learning.”
—Julie Dirksen, Author, Design for How People Learn

“This is the L&D and marketing crossover you are looking for. Discover how to transform dull learning content into engagement gold with skimmable writing, snappy headlines, and calls to action that demand action.”
—Cara North, Founder and Chief Learning Consultant, The Learning Camel

“Dang! I love this book. Bianca and Mike have written the go-to resource for what-to and how-to for instructional designers and the leaders who guide them. Insightful, readable, actionable, and chock full of activities, this is a must-read for you and your team.”
—Megan Torrance, CEO, TorranceLearning; Author, Agile for Instructional Designers and Data and Analytics for Instructional Designers

“Mike and Bianca have written a masterpiece on how to capture and keep learners’ attention. This how-to guide is filled with research-backed tips for learning professionals who need to create training programs that get business results. Think Like a Marketer, Train Like an L&D Pro is a handbook with practical advice for communicating and capturing attention in a busy world. It belongs on everyone’s bookshelf.”
—Cindy Huggett, CPTD, Author, The Virtual Training Guidebook: How to Design, Deliver, and Implement Live Online Learning, 2nd edition

ISBN: 9781960231192

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

240 pages