Don’t Get Caught in the Marketing Scheme Targeting Confused Millennials
A friendly guide to choosing the right online course for you
Before choosing an online course, you need to have an experience with the tutor (to be sure of delivery), how the ROI makes sense with your current financial standing, and how much time commitment it will require.
The way to market to any group is to appeal to their emotions. It is used in tech, finance, politics and definitely in the gig economy.
It is no new fact that millennials get overwhelmed with the reality of the real world after school. It often results in confusion. Life happens. And when it does, we start looking for alternatives. And that’s when we look online.
The Reality of Online Courses
There are amazing online courses. I have participated in some of them. And I noticed a pattern. Many of those courses are good, but whether they will be useful for you is another story entirely.
The courses are marketed to emotions. This can get you so pumped up about it that you forget or choose to ignore to ask the right questions. There are some factors out of your control that determine whether the courses work for you. You have to realize it.
There are illegitimate courses, scams, and marketing manipulation. But no price is too high for just the right course you need. Any price is too high for the wrong one. This is why doing your own research is important.
The best course is a course that will help you with your current job and taught by someone who has practiced it successfully.
A course that you can’t put to practice immediately may not be worth making a huge bet on.
Before you pick a course, here are a few things to watch out for:
1. Experience of Tutor
The years of experience of the teacher doesn’t really matter. But the teacher has to be a doer, not a “talker”. However, some can’t teach. This is why you have to see a video or an excerpt to see what the teaching is like.
If you can’t learn from a 10 minutes video, you probably won’t in a 30-hour training
2. Your Current Situation (Job and Finances)
Another fact to watch out for is the affordability of the course for you. Do not bank on the fact that you will make the money back from the course. You may not initially. And if you have banked on that, it will set a sour taste in your mouth.
This is very important especially in cases where the course is not something that applies to your current job. You need to have a long term strategy. Plan how you will afford it without putting your hopes on an assumed ROI.
3. Time
Another point people often forget also is time. You are going to put in the time needed for the course. If a class is 2 hours (for example), you must understand that you will need to go through that class twice or thrice to get full understanding.
If you cannot create the time to learn, why learn at all? And online courses are not like traditional schools that include tests and exams. The real world is your test and exam. The money you are spending on the course should be enough motivation to get you serious. If it doesn’t, then I guess you like to throw money away.
In conclusion, taking an online course must be something well planned for. Don’t get compelled by the marketing that you forget to watch out for your own interests.
You may be confused and disoriented. But don’t let that be used against you in a marketing ploy. Learn to put yourself in a position of advantage and not at a disadvantage.
