Valeo Scales, Reaches Audiences with Its Virtual Training Program

Virtual training programs are powerful tools beneficial to both audiences and organizations. These programs allow professionals to learn more about an industry, obtain continuing professional education credits and nurture skills.

But, when all is said and done, businesses may benefit more from virtual training programs because they empower organizations to connect with new audiences, build brand loyalty and scale the reach of their content.

For example, Valeo, a global producer and leader in the automotive market, uses virtual training to connect, educate and certify its audience of mechanics and distributors. Its approach to virtual training and certification has helped the company to:

• • Increase content views by 339%
  • Grow website traffic by 158% 
  • Boost unique user engagement by 45%
  • Scale its certification and virtual training program to accommodate more than 20 languages

Let’s examine why Valeo’s program is such a success.

Why Valeo’s move to virtual training made sense

As a producer and distributor within the automotive industry, Valeo needs to train mechanics and distributors on its products. The problem, though, is that Valeo’s audience is massive. The company itself employs more than 110,000 people spread across 33 countries.

For a long while, Valeo used in-person trainings to educate its audience. But facilitating in-person training had significant drawbacks, including:

• • Cost of travel 
  • Language barriers
  • Personalizing trainings 
  • Fleeting memories

Valeo found that traditional classroom training didn’t empower the organization to meet the needs of its audience. In-person trainings were both expensive and time-consuming. Trainees couldn’t learn at their own pace and skill level, couldn’t revisit lessons and often couldn’t get past the trainee/trainer language barrier. And that’s not even getting to the actual issuance of certificates.

A virtual training program, then, made sense. With a digital approach, Valeo could easily issue certificates, localize content and scale its reach.

How Valeo set up its virtual training program

For Valeo, the keystone element in its virtual training program were webinars powered by ON24 Webcast Elite. With webinars, the company could provides learners — which could range from remote employees to mechanics on the other side of the globe — with a virtual classroom they can use at any time.

To help audiences better understand the subject at hand, Valeo makes great use of multimedia capabilities within its webinars. In some cases, Valeo starts a virtual training session with a video recording where an instructor reviews what attendees can expect from the program before switching over to slides. Slides here give attendees a clear image and diagram of the part in question as instructors walk them through the details.

Valeo sometimes switches back to video so its instructors can show a physical asset and answer any questions through a live Q&A. In short, what Valeo does is:

• • Share pre-recorded video
  • Move to detailed slides with audio
  • Back to a video demonstration
  • Answer questions through Q&A (both live and on-demand)

With this webinar format in place, Valeo can easily stand up interactive virtual learning experiences that attendees can access virtually anytime, anywhere — and it can do so in more than 30 different languages. Suddenly, the limitations of in-person trainings were gone and the benefits of remote training were clear.

What Valeo does to set its virtual training program apart

Having engaging, interactive webinars that scale was just one part of Valeo’s plan. To set its virtual training program apart, it took three core elements to heart.

It emphasizes on-demand consumption

No one can be everywhere all at once. Doubly so for busy professionals who often can’t take a day off to learn about Valeo’s latest innovations.

Valeo makes all of its content available on-demand to get around this issue. Not only that, but it uses ON24 Engagement Hub to organize its training events and empower visitors to filter by language, product line and profession so visitors can quickly find the content they’re looking for.

By making its content easy to access and, more importantly, extending its content across different languages, Valeo helps itself extend its reach and engage more potential customers.

It listens to audience needs

Virtual training and certification courses provide brands with a unique opportunity to see what audiences actually want. That’s because webinars and content hubs, like the ones Valeo set up, provide brands with data-backed insights into audience behavior. With ON24, Valeo can see:

• • How long attendees engage with its training events
  • Which topics resonate with attendees
  • Which courses are completed most often
  • Requests for new courses

And more. Valeo’s training team also works across its organization to identify additional training opportunities. For example, the company’s quality control team will highlight customer pain points — pain points that can be used as the basis for another lesson.

It provides certification

A certification is a compelling offer, especially to audiences that need to collect continuing education credits to maintain a license within their industry. But a CPE program isn’t just advantageous to attendees, brands can also enjoy the perks of providing certification, including:

• • Increased brand reputation and credibility 
  • Nurturing brand advocates 
  • Qualifying leads 
  • Retaining audiences and customers

For Valeo, certification is a definite draw. With ON24, it can automatically issue certificates to participants who meet the correct criteria — usually, time spent in a training course and correctly answering quizzes — and do so at scale.

How Valeo’s Virtual Training Program Has Driven Results

Since implementing ON24, Valeo has produced two to three monthly webinars and offers more than 100 training sessions in more than 20 languages.

More workshop mechanics and distributors now rely on Valeo’s digital experiences to gain technical knowledge, rather than face-to-face sessions. That means more presence within the company’s market, more awareness, and more international reach thanks to its approach to virtual training.