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Congratulations – you have now finalised your bespoke Carbon Literacy course and received confirmation from us that your course has been officially accredited!

The next step will be to schedule your first session, but also to successfully promote it. To ensure that as many learners as possible get to experience your newly accredited course, we have collated some tips for getting your course out there and (hopefully) fully booked.

Addressing your audience

When writing your course title and description, remember to keep your intended audience at the forefront of your mind.

It should be clear from your course booking page:

• Who your CL course is for;
• What your attendees can hope to gain from it (bearing in mind the kind of benefits your specific audience may be looking for);
• What audience-specific elements or activities they can expect.

Once you have scheduled your first training session, you will need to provide us with the following details:

• Date
• Time
• Brief description
• Booking link

Send this information to clt@carbonliteracy.com as far in advance of the course start date as possible so we can share it on our events page.

Once you have scheduled your first training session, it’s time to promote it!

Utilising social media

Social media is a great platform for organic promotion. Again, it is essential that you focus on your audience when strategising your social media promotion. Think about…

Social media platforms they are most likely to use:

• Targeting businesses? LinkedIn or Twitter are probably most appropriate.
• Targeting a local community or group? Facebook and Instagram might be better options.
• Whichever you choose, be sure to tag us under our profiles (linked above) so that we can amplify your posts.

Marketing tactics that are likely to be well received by your particular audience:

• Testimonials: If you have ever delivered any similar training before, you should consider sharing authentic feedback from these sessions on your page.
• Photos: If you have photos of similar training, share them and the story behind them.
• Infographics: No photos? No problem! Instead, you could create a visual asset showing a snippet of content from your course (or information that is relevant to it) that will catch your audience’s attention. Canva is a great free and easy-to-use tool for this.
• Discussions: engage with conversations relevant to your course happening on social media e.g. if you come across a post about transport emissions and are promoting a course for the transport sector, you could share this post and promote your course within your added text.

We will also work, alongside our partner Patagonia Action Works, to promote your course via social media advertising. Ads run best when we have at least one month’s notice in advance of a course start date so there is adequate time for an ad campaign to run. For the ad, you can provide us with a high-quality photo (preferably landscape orientated) suitable to promote your course (preferably of people, with no text). If you don’t have any suitable photos, we can use one from our bank of training photos. From here, we will submit an ad campaign that when live, will run for approximately 3 weeks.

Utilizing your network

You should be thinking about promoting your course within your professional circles (or social circles, if appropriate).

You could do this through various channels:

• Directly: Ask people and/or organisations you already have contact with (via email, or face-to-face at meetings or conferences) to share your course via their channels.
• Social media: Tag primary or secondary contacts in your relevant post on social media to make it easy for them to spot and reshare.
• Email marketing: If you have delivered training before, email marketing could be an effective way to promote your new course to attendees of your past events. If not, but you have access to a relevant newsletter or have contact with someone who does, you could request that your course be included there.

You might want to consider approaching others beyond your usual circle. For example:

• Green groups or charities: Those operating within your target sector or location may be willing to share your course with their members if it’s relevant.
• Businesses: Consider approaching businesses (both big and small) and offering to train their staff. You could even offer a discounted price if they agree to train a certain number of staff members.

Still struggling to get initial sign-ups?

If you feel you have exhausted your promotion avenues or are waiting for these to come to fruition in the form of sign-ups, we have a few extra suggestions to help you fill any available places:

• Postpone the date: If the number of current sign-ups is inadequate (e.g. because your planned group work activities are likely to be impacted, or your fees will not be covered by the current number of tickets purchased), you may want to consider pushing back the date of your first delivery. It is important to consider how postponing your event will affect your current sign-ups, you should give as much notice as possible.
• Change the timing: if you’re able, consider rescheduling your course to run outside of normal working hours, for example, over two or three evening sessions, so that people restricted by their job can attend after work. Again, remember to give as much notice as possible to any existing sign-ups.
• Offer a discount: You could consider adding an introductory price to increase attendance to your first session. Remember, a busier first session will increase the potential for word-of-mouth promotion after the session and give you more opportunities to collect feedback and testimonials that you can use to promote your next sessions.
• Ask for further advice: For more case-specific issues or queries, please get in touch at clt@carbonliteracy.com.

After your first delivery

It is important that your promotion efforts do not stop after your first delivery, but they should become easier. Your first delivery presents an opportunity to gather marketing materials for the continued promotion of your course, namely photographs!

• In-person course? Ask for your participant’s permission to take and share photographs, and perhaps even video clips, of your sessions. Use these on social media to promote your next session. If you and your participants are happy for us to use them to promote your course and CL more generally, please also share them with us at clt@carbonliteracy.com.
• Online course? You can still gather photographs! A zoom screenshot isn’t the most inspiring. Instead, ask your participants to take and share photos of themselves implementing their pledges after the session. For example, a learner who has pledged to commute via public or active transport might wish to share a photo of themselves on the bus or on their bike. Ask learners to share these directly on social media, tagging you and CLP, with the hashtag #ShowUsYourPledge.

Utilise your learners’ feedback to keep the momentum going for your course:

• Ask for testimonials: Make sure that, during your training sessions, you provide an email address and direct learners to your social media accounts (plus how to tag you – and us!) if they would like to provide feedback. You can mention during the session that you would like to gather testimonials as some learners may offer them there and then. Most trainers will need to send a follow-up email after a training session (regarding evidence submitting etc) and this is another great opportunity to ask learners to give their feedback.
• Gather testimonials: After your session, keep an eye out for mentions on social media from learners providing feedback.
• Share testimonials: Once you have collected testimonials, or spotted a mention, you need to be sure to share these in the right places – on your social media (remember to tag us!), on your website or booking page, or perhaps in a blog post.

Get accredited as a Facilitator/Trainer/Consultant

Once you’re into the swing of delivering your Carbon Literacy course, you might want to consider gaining accreditation to demonstrate and help to promote your training expertise.

Becoming a certified Carbon Literacy Trainer is a great way to earn a badge of credibility and gain a stronger reputation as a trainer. There are three tiers; Carbon Literacy Facilitator, Carbon Literacy Trainer and Carbon Literacy Consultant, each of which successively identifies and distinguishes the most experienced and accomplished trainers.

Before applying for accreditation, you must first facilitate or deliver some successful CL training. You can find out more here, or email clt@carbonliteracy.com directly.

 Keep in mind…

We have found that trainers who put in the leg work to promote their courses at the start, usually have the highest uptake in the future. We hope these tips will help increase take-up and wish you all full sign-up sheets!