To be No. 1 in Customer Delight is our focus in 2023: Dr Will Lin, CMO, Simplilearn

In today’s day and age, online education is on the rise and there is a considerable increase in the emergence of edtech platforms. Now, anyone can start their learning journey through platforms such as Simplilearn and upskill themselves.

Simplilearn, the global e-learning platform founded in the year 2010 by Krishna Kumar in Bengaluru, specialises in offering digital skills training to businesses and individuals worldwide. It provides an extensive range of certification programs and online courses in disciplines including Cloud Computing, Cyber Security, Digital Marketing, Data Science, Project Management and others. The organization is in partnership with renowned universities, top industry bodies and corporations, designing and delivering practical training through live online classes which feature the top practitioners in the industry, global leaders and expert trainers.

In conversation with Adgully, Dr Will Lin, CMO, Simplilearn, shares his views on the current industry scenario and what makes Simplilearn the leading online training bootcamp in digital skills.

What is the way forward for Simplilearn’s marketing strategy?

I think our way forward marketing strategy is fairly simple in alignment with our missionstatement as well, that is to make our learners as successful as they can be and build a strong alumni network that will advocate for Simplilearn. We want to make sure that every learner has a great experience in signing up for our training, get most out of our training, and obtains a good career outcome with the newly learned skills. So, in other words, we want to be number one in Customer Delight. To me, that is the ultimate marketing strategy. There's no marketing strategy out there that is as effective and as efficient as having your loyal customers helping you attract new users as well as sales. To be number one in Customer Delight is what we want to focus on, especially in 2023.

What are the milestones to be achieved and the business goals for Simplilearn for the year 2023?

We want to be number one in Customer Delight and the focus this year is to be a growing and profitable company. So if you look back we have experienced a 50% plus growth in the year 2022. But we are coming a bit shy of not being profitable and given the current economic condition and also to be more attractive to future investors, we had made a conscious decision that we want to be focusing on profitability this year. And so if we achieve that goal, being growing and profitable at the same time, I believe we are going to be the first in the entire industry to achieve this feat. So for me, it's something very aspirational and this is something also being doable for us to go about. For us, primary milestones are three. One is being number one in Customer Delight, number two being a growing and profitable company. Aside from these two,  we also want to continue to fortify our presence in India and US regions while intensifying efforts to achieve substantial growth in the APAC and Middle East market as well. We are  using our alumni network and our learners to advocate for us and promote us to other new learners and users. Our current Brand Advocacy Campaign is based on this..wherewe actually have real learners from Simplilearn, who share their experiences and success stories.

So, there’s going to be a series of detailed videos and advertisements being made based on real users and their real experiences. That’s something that we will be doing this year as well from a brand standpoint.

According to you, what are the challenges that are facing the edtech industry right now?

I would say the three biggest focus areas for everyone in the edtech space these days are:

• Speed to market
• Uncertain economic outlook
• Adoption to a global market

EdTech companies must remain at the forefront of innovation to offer cutting-edge and relevant courses to learners. Thus, staying abreast of rapidly evolving technologies and incorporating them effectively into the learning process is a must. However, it takes a huge commitment (in money, research, and resources) to ensure that happens. First to the market certainly brings advantage over the competitors. But the continuous effort to ensure the credibility and quality of training courses is vital.

Learners need to trust that the education they receive is reliable and recognised by employers. Fair, or not, learners need to see a desirable outcome to validate the quality of the training they received. Most of the time that means getting a new job or promotion. Given the current uncertain market condition, companies and employers are looking at hiring and promoting employees very cautiously and slowly. However, we strongly believe that the training we offer will eventually pay out, but timing becomes a big inhibitor now.

Adapting to changing regulations and policies in different regions is critical for the global EdTech industry. The one-size-fits-all model may not work for the broad global footprint we cater to, therefore customization and improvisation become the way to lead.

In what ways did the pandemic impact the edtech industry?

The pandemic had done a lot of good for the edtech industry. It helped learners and professionals realise the importance of upskilling during uncertain times. People had time and flexibility to explore newer formats of learning. We have seen an all-time high growth during the pandemic.

Post-pandemic things have certainly slowed down owing to the global economic condition. While the demand is fairly stable, it appears that the additional financial commitment has become more of a deciding factor in the minds of learners during uncertain times. So, they file the application, they start looking at the financial commitment and potential to have to kind of take on a loan and things like that. That actually makes them hesitate quite a bit. But we strongly believe that the learner will eventually come to the right conclusion that upskilling and reskilling will be necessary for them to overcome this uncertainty and progress in their professional career.

Prior to Simplilearn, I worked for a company called Rent.com and we are a company that actually does apartment and single family rentals in the US and same thing was there. Our business thrives when the economy is bad because when the economy is bad, people cannot afford to buy houses or rent houses or they actually need to look at the other more efficient options such as renting an apartment and all that.

I believe that our industry behaves in a very similar way as the rental industry in that when the economy gets tough people need to start thinking about reskilling or upskilling. I think there's a phase that people go through. but eventually, they will come to the realization that sometimes upskilling or reskilling is a must for them to do. So we believe that edtech is here to stay for the benefit of all the professionals striving to succeed in today’s digital economy.

And so while waiting for that to happen from Simplilearn’s standpoint, I would want to focus our energies on being number one in customer delight, being a profitable and growing company. So, all this means that in 2023 we will really focus on building amazing customer experiences, strong and online network and advocacy, and also get our pay acquisition efficiency to be in a better place and free growth. Free growth is also one area where we're going to be putting a lot of focus as well. And when I say free growth, this is more SEO growth, organic growth, and some of the growth through direct channel as well. This would have to be coming through the Brand Advocacy Campaign,  which will be running and getting more people to know about Simplilearn through credible learners who actually have been there, done that, and have success after that.

Could you tell us about your journey so far in the field of marketing?

Before coming on board with Simplilearn, I served as the Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Digital Officer at RentPath (which has since rebranded to Rent.com and acquired by Redfin). It is one of the top US residential real estate brokerage sites focusing on apartment and single family rentals. During my tenure there, I played a key role in developing and overseeing consumer marketing and digital initiatives aimed at attracting new renters and fostering renter growth in a data driven way.

Through my earlier marketing career, I have also had the privilege of being associated with renowned brands like Expedia (VRBO – Global VP, Performance Marketing spanning across 52 sites globally in 22 languages), and Microsoft (I led a group of rocket star data scientists on Bing Monetization).

Now, at Simplilearn, I have the global responsibility of performance marketing (paid and organic), branding, and learner loyalty strategy. My focus lies in driving revenue growth in a ROI positive way by meticulously analyzing the company’s existing marketing strategies, executing highly effective marketing campaigns, and leveraging data.

What are the marketing activities undertaken by Simplilearn in the first half of 2023 and what is the future vision of Simplilearn?

I think kind of already we have touched a little bit there. So, definitely we want to build very good customer experiences. We want to be number one in customer delight while at the same time we want to continue to grow. But we want to grow in a way that we are profitable as well.

So, by achieving those definitely from a Pay Acquisition perspective, we want to continue to be better in terms of pay acquisition efficiency. At the same time we also want to grow organically quite a bit. That's how we get to not just grow but be profitable. To me those are definitely the key items that we want to work on. And also earlier I had talked about building a very strong alumni network and having this network speak on behalf of Simplilearn. So that's also something we are working on very intensively right now.

Our latest Brand Advocacy Campaign centers on showcasing the real-time learning journeys of our students. It offers an impartial perspective on Simplilearn programs and how they have empowered individuals to excel in their careers. As a brand, we are committed to three key priorities. Firstly, we remain dedicated to delivering top-notch upskilling opportunities to learners worldwide. In our industry, it's crucial to have a clear understanding of our identity and the value we bring to our learners, which we actively communicate. Consequently, we are intensifying our efforts to enhance our postgraduate and boot camp programs, and we're actively building deeper collaborations with universities. Our specific emphasis for 2023 will be on India and the US.

Number two for me is, as I mentioned earlier, we want to drive profitability and strengthen our position in the market as the world’s leading online boot camp for digital scale.

The industry has been going through consolidation, and within the next couple of years, there’s only going to be a few really major playersrising to the top, and we want to be one of them. The number three for us is more of a strategic goal to maximise our footprint across the market, to be pioneered when it comes to professional upskilling.