Relationship building features improve CLTV for eLearning MLM business

Losing learners to low engagement

Global eLearning industry has grown exponentially in the past decade and has served as a reliable option for part-time learners and working professionals looking for flexible and skill-focused education. MLM companies in the industry had the responsibility of providing flexible learning opportunities that attracted learners, motivated them to complete courses faster, and engaged them to stay with the brand for the long term.

An eLearning company based in the US who offered academic and professional courses was looking to strengthen their learner relationships as a way to boost lifetime value. The platform they were already established on was attracting learners, but they needed an advanced system that would bring in repeat purchases, organic referrals, and boost engagement.

The company noticed a pattern among its learner networks. New learners purchased one or two courses, completed them, and became inactive. Together with inconsistent cross-selling and upselling efforts, absence of referral incentives did not motivate users to bring in new learners. As a result, customer lifetime value and network growth came to a standstill.

Acquiring new learners added to their digital marketing expenses and the company needed a system that can enhance community-driven growth with repeat purchases and loyal learner network.

Setting up a loyal learner network with an engagement-driven platform

eLearning company contacted Epixel MLM Software to realize their sole idea of developing a loyal learner network. We developed an AI-powered MLM platform that can strategically expand their learner network and increase lifetime value. The system helped the company structure a new distributor model in which learners, tutors, and affiliates can become brand ambassadors who could refer others, earn rewards, and progress through multiple tiers based on their performance.

AI-powered personalization

The system analyzes learner behavior to recommend new courses and completion schedules. Past course performance of learners including completion time and scores are analyzed to make advanced and complementary course recommendations.

Reward system

Referral rewards and commissions were carried out through an automated reward management system. It attributes rewards correctly to the corresponding referrer irrespective of channel or touchpoint. In the event of multiple referrers, rewards are split to each referrer based on their contribution weightage.

Rewards were given for course purchases, referrals, completing certifications, and rank achievements.

Genealogy management

The referral genealogy of the eLearning business was displayed as a distinct feature in an organizational tree form. Each distributor listed in the genealogy tree can track their downline network with details of commissions earned, referrals made, and courses completed with just a hover of the mouse. Each distributor’s status is indicated as “active” or “inactive” based on their activity log.

Course management system

In addition to the basic features such as managing course catalogs, updating curriculum, designing assignments, and generating course certificates, the course management system will assist the business in making cross-selling and upselling suggestions to learners.

The system reminds each learner to complete courses through alerts and notifications. Learners can create a course completion timetable with each course module assigned at a preset time. The courses will be auto-delivered to the user on their device at the set time. The system also has quiz and quick assessment templates for tutors to reinforce knowledge.

Performance dashboard

Admins get a clear and solid view of business performance across various metrics such as distributor earnings, course sales, referral conversions, number of active learners, and engagement. Distributors get a similar but role-based dashboard with their performance and team performance displayed. They can track their earnings, milestones, and downline performance to develop plans for future improvement.

Learner dashboard

After course signup, each learner gets a dashboard where they can view their signed-up courses, their progress, and certifications they have achieved so far. The learner can track community activities, rewards, and recommendations on the dashboard to get a detailed report on their course progress and community developments.

Online learner communities

The online communities brought together learners, distributors, and tutors with separate discussion rooms for different topics. Inside the community referrals are generated, new course registrations happen, and interested learners convert to distributors. Users can host online events and support peers in their learning process. This improved learner loyalty and long-term engagement boosts the brand’s customer lifetime value.

Loyal learner network with an engagement-driven platform

Results of loyalty and engagement-focused platform

Personalization and fair reward attribution improved learner engagement and motivated distributors to perform better. Course sales improved through cross-selling and upselling and through personalized recommendations. Online community ensured engagement and activity within the learner-distributor network.

The brand saw an increase in enrollment as well as course completion rates. New learning features helped learners to complete courses through strategic planning, and this improved learner retention rates. Rewards and referral incentives followed a transparent process and increased referral numbers.

Increase in referrals, cross-sells, and upsells helped the brand reduce its customer acquisition costs but still build a network that is strong and loyal.

Challenges in building a loyal learner network

Learners hesitated to take on the role of a distributor at first. The hesitant learner segment was encouraged with easy-to-understand incentive structures and referral models that are easy to share and operate.

Different learners from different locations learned courses at different times. Bringing together their behavioral and academic data without compromise on quality was a real task. A centralized data system combined data of learners from different regions and applied automated cleaning and validation processes.

Calculating rewards and converting them to commissions across multiple touchpoints was risky because any minor error would impact brand trust and credibility. Advanced automation-powered commission management system warded off the risks with real-time accurate commission payments.

Multi-level marketing and eLearning industries have strict rules on compliance. MLM compensation process should be audit-ready and transparent. eLearning content had to be licensed and data had to comply with regional policies such as GDPR, COPPA, and CCPA. The company and the admin panel were mandated to preconfigure regional guidelines related to these, and the system will auto-alert the team in case of violations.

Expected Results

Boost in customer lifetime value

62%

Improved course completion rates

43%

Increase in new course enrollments

38%

Improved ROI

58%

Improvement in distributor performance

52%

Increased cross-sell and upsell revenue

48%

Reduction in customer acquisition costs

28%