How to create a digital learning hub to drive brand engagement
Digital learning hubs provide a robust one-stop-shop for audiences to learn more about a subject or solve common challenges.
At a top level, learning hubs let you create and organise content so that it’s more accessible. However, they’re also a useful tool for boosting Google rankings, attracting a wider audience and building trust in your brand.
Digital learning hubs have become increasingly popular in the last few years. If you’ve used a major business support website – for example, a bank or accounting firm – then chances are, you’ve used a digital learning hub.
We get asked about learning hubs a lot, so here’s a useful guide on what they are, how they’re created and why they’re valuable.
What is a digital learning hub?
A digital learning hub is a collection of resources about a certain subject. These resources can include any type of content, from written to video and audio – whatever you think will be most engaging and best illustrate the topic in question.
Their primary purpose is to give your audience all the information they’re searching for on a particular topic in one place. Rather than searching for a question and having to piece together information from three or four different websites, learning hubs provide a useful, comprehensive look at a subject.
The benefit? Potential customers spend more time on your website, building up familiarity and trust in your brand. By the time they’re ready to invest in the product or service you offer, they’ll trust that you know what you’re talking about.
What does a digital learning hub look like?
A learning hub homepage typically features an overview of all the topics you’re going to cover. Users can then click into the relevant topic and access related content.
For example, TSB’s learning hub is aimed at people in the first 100 days of starting a business. The sub-topics include:
Getting started
Using technology
Marketing your business
Managing finance and accounting
People and HR
Clicking into “Getting started” then gives users:
The documents they need when starting a business
A business plan template
Case studies of other startup founders
What topics should I include in my learning hub?
A learning hub is a great way to boost search engine rankings, but it’s vital you’re targeting the right people if you want to convert those views into sales.
We always recommend starting with your audience when you’re planning content, so think about your customer personas. What stage of business are they at? What challenges do they need help with?
Santander’s digital learning hub groups content into three themes that are relevant to its audience: saving money, overcoming debt and day-to-day money management.
For Be the Business, there are six key themes in its coronavirus learning hub: business model, employees, finance, leadership, technology and suppliers. You can read more about these themes and how the learning hub was developed in our case study.
How much content do I need for my learning hub?
The amount of content included in your learning hub depends on how extensive you want it to be. However, we usually recommend starting with around 12 posts.
If you’ve been writing content for years, there’s a good chance you’ll already have the foundations of your learning hub in place. Then it will be a case of mapping how existing content fits into your chosen themes and identifying where the gaps are.
Bear in mind that content doesn’t necessarily just mean articles too. Xero does a great job of demonstrating the variety of content formats in its learning hub, dividing content into online courses, webinars and videos.
Other potential content formats include in-depth guides, templates, checklists, audio clips and photo series. Remember the primary purpose is to provide value, so think about which content formats best fit the subject.
Building a user journey through a learning hub
If you want users to work through all the relevant content in your learning hub, you need to be proactive about reminding them that there’s more to view before they click away.
Include internal links throughout your articles to other relevant content. For example, if you’re talking about hiring, link to an article you’ve written on how to make the perfect hire.
Don’t forget to include call to actions at the end of each post too. Some systems will serve suggested content based on date or subject, but you’ll usually have a better click through rate if you can be more targeted.
Think about what a user might be likely to search for next. If it’s a case study on a business that doubled its sales through ecommerce, can you suggest a guide on the best ecommerce platforms?
The more time you invest in making your digital learning hub resources useful and accessible, the better chance you’ll have of building lasting relationships with your audience.
Want to find out more about digital learning hubs and how to make them work for your business? Get in touch with the Inkwell team.
