When Marketing Becomes Continuing Education

I'm debating which LinkedIn interaction annoys me more.

The new connection who immediately asks how I'm enjoying a company I was laid off from three months ago because they want a sales introduction...or the ad suggesting I could finally "accelerate my career" by going back to school.

Um, I already have a master's degree in Communication with a focus in Business, almost 20 years of professional experience and ten years of experience teaching college students. I'm probably not spending tens of thousands of dollars on another degree because an ad informed me that I could have a better career. However, I absolutely will spend money to learn something new. There's a pretty big difference.

A Pivot Doesn't Mean Starting Over

This week I've been writing about lifelong learning and the value of staying curious even after you've accumulated years of experience. But a lot of continuing education marketing seems to assume that if I'm looking at another credential, I must be dissatisfied with everything that came before it.

Start your new career. Transform your future. Get the skills you need for a better job.

There's nothing inherently wrong with those messages. They might be exactly what someone needs to hear. They're just not what I need to hear. I'm not trying to abandon marketing. I'm trying to figure out where nearly 20 years of experience can take me next. My career has already moved from radio and television into digital marketing and B2B manufacturing SaaS. Now I'm increasingly interested in product, partnership and integrated marketing roles.

That's a pivot - not a reset. There's a big difference between marketing professional development to someone trying to enter a field and someone who already knows the field and wants to expand where they can go within it.

I've Done This Before

When I was preparing to make the jump from broadcast marketing into full-time digital marketing, I knew I wasn't starting from zero. I'd spent years working on promotions, sponsorships, digital campaigns, content and audience engagement. I also knew there were things I didn't know.

That's why I pursued the American Marketing Association's PCM certification in Digital Marketing in 2023. I wasn't trying to become a marketer. I already was one. I wanted to shore up the areas I hadn't used as deeply in broadcast and make sure I had the foundation to go where I wanted to go next. That's much closer to the question I'm asking again now.

Not: How do I get out of what I'm doing?

More like: What don't I know yet that would make me better at where I'm going?

That's what professional certifications and continuing education can be incredibly good at—when they're marketed to the person who's actually considering them.

My LinkedIn Inbox Has Other Ideas

I've received plenty of sponsored messages demonstrating the opposite approach. One MBA program told me I "may be a great fit" and immediately started explaining its scholarship opportunities. Another gave me alumni salary statistics and invited me to "take the first step" toward earning an MBA.

The first step toward what? I already have a master's degree and nearly 20 years of professional experience. If you're going to convince me that another graduate degree is worth the investment, affordability isn't the first question you need to answer.

Why is this degree worth doing at this point in my career? Another sponsored message told me that "organizations like yours" are looking for ways to upskill their employees and improve retention. Which organization would that be?

I'm currently an individual job seeker. A quick look at my profile would have answered that. The pitch for a CMO executive education program came closer. At least that message acknowledged an audience of experienced marketing professionals and focused on adding capabilities in AI, data, innovation and leadership. That's much more relevant than telling an experienced marketer it's time to start a better career, but it's still a cold pitch built primarily around the program rather than why that program makes sense for me.

That's the problem with a lot of continuing education marketing. The personalization ends after inserting your first name. The more experienced the customer becomes, the more obvious that disconnect feels. Aspirational marketing gets a lot less compelling when the aspiration ignores everything your customer has already accomplished.

Recently, I encountered a very different approach.

This Is How You Market Lifelong Learning

During one of my overnight wake-up sessions with my son, I was browsing job boards and spotted an ad for a product marketing conference in Boston. Naturally, instead of going back to sleep, I went down a rabbit hole.

I discovered Product Marketing Alliance and learned that, beyond its conferences, it offers accredited certification programs. That caught my attention because it reminded me of the approach I'd taken before my digital marketing pivot. I've done a lot of product marketing work without ever having Product Marketing Manager as my title. I've worked on positioning, messaging, competitive content, customer stories, GTM strategy and translating complicated products into something customers can understand.

Could formal product marketing education help me fill in some gaps while also giving me another way to demonstrate that experience? That was worth investigating. Most of the certifications I was interested in were included with a Pro membership, but I also found a PMM Hired Toolkit that I could access for free using a coupon code right there in the course description.

For those of us who actually take the time to research what we're looking for, that's a nice little reward. More importantly, it gave me somewhere to start without immediately asking for my credit card. Then I got the follow-up email.

Someone Actually Paid Attention

Ella Bain from their Certification and Membership Enablement team emailed me after I'd spent time exploring the site. And this wasn't the usual: "I noticed you downloaded our resource. Do you have 15 minutes tomorrow?" She referenced what I'd actually been looking at. She knew I'd explored the membership plans and Leadership Certification. She mentioned Story Behind the Strategy and that I'd been strengthening my product marketing and GTM credentials. She framed the whole email around figuring out what would actually support where I'm headed next.

She also sent me a LinkedIn connection request. No pressure. No assumption that I was ready to buy something. No hungry shark smelling a credit card number in the water. Just: You've been looking at a few things. Here's what I noticed. I'm happy to help you figure out which one makes sense.

Now THAT is how you personalize continuing education. I raised my hand by spending time with the content. They gave me something useful to explore. Then a human followed up who had apparently taken a few minutes to understand why I might be there in the first place. And yes, Ella Bain, I will be following up once I finish the first course. 🙂

The Product Marketing Matters, Too

The experience also made me think about the actual product strategy behind continuing education. I don't have to jump immediately into a certification program. I can attend a conference, explore the membership, take a course or start with a free toolkit and figure out whether the material is useful before I spend anything.

That's much closer to how I'm going to evaluate professional development at this point in my career. I don't need another credential simply for the sake of having another credential. I need to know whether I'm actually going to learn something, whether the people hiring for the roles I'm targeting will recognize it, and whether the cost and time commitment make sense relative to what I'm going to get out of it.

A generic ad promising to "accelerate my career" tells me none of that. In fact, when you already have a career, it can feel like the marketer didn't bother figuring out who they're talking to.

Practical Wisdom

If you're responsible for education marketing for a degree, professional certification, webinar, conference or other professional development program, interest doesn't automatically mean dissatisfaction. The person looking at your program might actually like what they do. They might already be good at it. They might already have the degree. They might just know enough to recognize the edges of what they don't know yet.

That's the person I want continuing education marketers to think a little harder about. Don't tell me my career needs fixing. Don't assume I want to throw away everything I've spent years building. And please don't tell me that another expensive degree is the only way to "accelerate" a career that's already moving.

Pay attention to what I'm trying to add. Give me enough information to figure out whether you can help. And if I raise my hand, talk to me like you've actually noticed who I am. The pivot doesn't mean giving up on your current career. The pivot can mean you're curious enough to see where else it could take you. That's when marketing becomes continuing education.