Digital Marketing at the LCL Awards Forum
09 Jul 2025
Following the LCL Awards forum on 27th June, digital marketing expert Jonny Lawrence covers the main points of his workshop delivered to LCL Awards training centres.
By Jonny Lawrence, JL Creative
It was a pleasure to once again talk to training centres at the LCL Awards forum about marketing.
In 2024 I asked the attendees a question:
“How many of you are using AI tools?”
1 or 2 hands went up.
12 months later, the same question, this time a room full of hands raised. What a difference a year makes.
In nearly 15 years of working in digital marketing, I have never seen so much change so quickly, particularly with how people search for things online.
Why is this important? Because search engines, along with word of mouth, social media, and referrals, are at the heart of a candidate's journey to discovering your training centre and booking a course.
For my presentation this year, I decided to focus on these changes, and how data and AI are significantly impacting the way marketing works.
In this article, I will cover the themes of the presentation and offer advice on what training centres can do to cope with the rapid pace of change.
● Exploring the changes
● The impact of AI on your training centre
● Learn to love your data
Exploring the changes to search
First a brief overview of the last two years.
These can be split between changes to privacy and AI developments.
Privacy rules
Over the years, Google and social media platforms have gradually removed the amount of data you are able to collect from users.
Google recently launched consent mode, a requirement for websites running Google ads or using their analytics tools to track users.
The idea is to give users more control over their data, but Google still tracks everything. In reality, this is Google keeping a lot of the data for themselves.
Consent mode requires a compliant cookie banner tool. We recommend CookieYes.
Why does this matter? Because if you want to do effective advertising on Google, track user behaviour on your website, or learn about who your ideal customers are, you need to comply with the rules Google has put in place.
You might be tracking the number of users arriving on your website, or how many people see your social media posts. Thanks to the evolution of privacy laws over the last few years, these metrics are no longer completely reliable.
This means the data you do collect is more valuable than ever before.
Value your data, learn to use it to make informed decisions.
Ai revolution
Since Chat GPT burst onto the scene in 2024, there has been a mixture of excitement and fear over Large Language Models (LLM’s or AI’s as they are also known).
When I spoke to centre managers and training centre marketing teams in 2024, I found that nearly everyone had a negative opinion of AI tools.
But, like it or loathe it, they are here and they are moving at lightning pace.
Google has entered the ring with Gemini, AI Overviews and AI Mode, which was launched in the US earlier in 2025. This has fundamentally changed the way search engines work.
I shared a statistic in my presentation:
● 10 years ago for every 2 pages Google checked on your website, it sent you 1 visitor (2:1)
● 6 months ago, AI overviews launched: Google 6:1, ChatGPT 250:1, Anthropic (Claude)
● 6,000:1Now: Google 18:1, ChatGPT 1,500:1, Anthropic (Claude) 60,000:1
What does this mean? A lot of training centres rely on Google to send them traffic. With Google adding AI to search, less users are actually clicking on search results.
If you were writing a lot of blogs, you may have noticed a reduction in traffic. If you are spending money on Google ads, the cost has started to creep up due to an increase in competition (including more training centres spending money on ads).
The impact of AI on training centres
In a nut shell, it means fewer clicks, less traffic, but that doesn’t mean you will sell less courses.
At JL Creative, we have seen that content and SEO still works for training centres because of the way courses and qualifications are named.
This means what people search for is quite specific.
When candidates know what they are looking for, they tend to look for the best price, location and how many reviews a centre has.
The bigger challenge for training centres is serving up the right information for new entrants.
This audience doesn’t necessarily know what they are looking for.
They might search “how much does a plumber earn” or “How do I become a plumber”.
This sort of information is now being served by AI, however the information is still coming from training centres and industry bodies. So while you can’t see the clicks to this information, if your information is cited by the AI, your brand is still being seen by potential customers.
What does this mean? Training centres need to strengthen their brand and be strategic about the content they produce. Specialise, talk about your niche (eg if you are a heat pump training centre focus on heat pumps and renewables).
Use E-E-A-T as a guide
My presentation also included a section about E-E-A-T. This is a set of guidelines Google uses when rating website quality. It stands for:
● Experience - You are who you say you are and can prove it (eg, Photos of your training centre, content written by you)
● Expertise - You know what you are talking about (eg. You are a gas training centre and you talk about gas)
● Authoritativeness - Others consider you an expert (eg. You appear in the trade press, you have a presence online)
● Trustworthiness - Other people say you are good at what you do (eg. You have reviews, testimonials and partners)
These values should be familiar to anyone in building services.
This is what Google, and your audience wants to see, and these signals appear to be helping training centres build a stronger brand and appear in AI search results.
Learn to love your data
Data can drive your centre forward and there are plenty of free tools to help you do this.
● Google Analytics
● Google Search Console
● Google Keyword Planner
All of these tools are free, and can help you understand what people are searching for in relation to your training centre and the courses you deliver.
How many people are searching for your courses in your area?
We’re offering a personalised visibility report for LCL Awards training centres to help them understand what’s going on in their area.
Sign up here: https://bit.ly/405s7CZ
Following the LCL Awards forum on 27th June, digital marketing expert Jonny Lawrence covers the main points of his workshop delivered to LCL Awards training centres.
By Jonny Lawrence, JL Creative
It was a pleasure to once again talk to training centres at the LCL Awards forum about marketing.
In 2024 I asked the attendees a question:
“How many of you are using AI tools?”
1 or 2 hands went up.
12 months later, the same question, this time a room full of hands raised. What a difference a year makes.
In nearly 15 years of working in digital marketing, I have never seen so much change so quickly, particularly with how people search for things online.
Why is this important? Because search engines, along with word of mouth, social media, and referrals, are at the heart of a candidate's journey to discovering your training centre and booking a course.
For my presentation this year, I decided to focus on these changes, and how data and AI are significantly impacting the way marketing works.
In this article, I will cover the themes of the presentation and offer advice on what training centres can do to cope with the rapid pace of change.
● Exploring the changes
● The impact of AI on your training centre
● Learn to love your data
Exploring the changes to search
First a brief overview of the last two years.
These can be split between changes to privacy and AI developments.
Privacy rules
Over the years, Google and social media platforms have gradually removed the amount of data you are able to collect from users.
Google recently launched consent mode, a requirement for websites running Google ads or using their analytics tools to track users.
The idea is to give users more control over their data, but Google still tracks everything. In reality, this is Google keeping a lot of the data for themselves.
Consent mode requires a compliant cookie banner tool. We recommend CookieYes.
Why does this matter? Because if you want to do effective advertising on Google, track user behaviour on your website, or learn about who your ideal customers are, you need to comply with the rules Google has put in place.
You might be tracking the number of users arriving on your website, or how many people see your social media posts. Thanks to the evolution of privacy laws over the last few years, these metrics are no longer completely reliable.
This means the data you do collect is more valuable than ever before.
Value your data, learn to use it to make informed decisions.
Ai revolution
Since Chat GPT burst onto the scene in 2024, there has been a mixture of excitement and fear over Large Language Models (LLM’s or AI’s as they are also known).
When I spoke to centre managers and training centre marketing teams in 2024, I found that nearly everyone had a negative opinion of AI tools.
But, like it or loathe it, they are here and they are moving at lightning pace.
Google has entered the ring with Gemini, AI Overviews and AI Mode, which was launched in the US earlier in 2025. This has fundamentally changed the way search engines work.
I shared a statistic in my presentation:
● 10 years ago for every 2 pages Google checked on your website, it sent you 1 visitor (2:1)
● 6 months ago, AI overviews launched: Google 6:1, ChatGPT 250:1, Anthropic (Claude)
● 6,000:1Now: Google 18:1, ChatGPT 1,500:1, Anthropic (Claude) 60,000:1
What does this mean? A lot of training centres rely on Google to send them traffic. With Google adding AI to search, less users are actually clicking on search results.
If you were writing a lot of blogs, you may have noticed a reduction in traffic. If you are spending money on Google ads, the cost has started to creep up due to an increase in competition (including more training centres spending money on ads).
The impact of AI on training centres
In a nut shell, it means fewer clicks, less traffic, but that doesn’t mean you will sell less courses.
At JL Creative, we have seen that content and SEO still works for training centres because of the way courses and qualifications are named.
This means what people search for is quite specific.
When candidates know what they are looking for, they tend to look for the best price, location and how many reviews a centre has.
The bigger challenge for training centres is serving up the right information for new entrants.
This audience doesn’t necessarily know what they are looking for.
They might search “how much does a plumber earn” or “How do I become a plumber”.
This sort of information is now being served by AI, however the information is still coming from training centres and industry bodies. So while you can’t see the clicks to this information, if your information is cited by the AI, your brand is still being seen by potential customers.
What does this mean? Training centres need to strengthen their brand and be strategic about the content they produce. Specialise, talk about your niche (eg if you are a heat pump training centre focus on heat pumps and renewables).
Use E-E-A-T as a guide
My presentation also included a section about E-E-A-T. This is a set of guidelines Google uses when rating website quality. It stands for:
● Experience - You are who you say you are and can prove it (eg, Photos of your training centre, content written by you)
● Expertise - You know what you are talking about (eg. You are a gas training centre and you talk about gas)
● Authoritativeness - Others consider you an expert (eg. You appear in the trade press, you have a presence online)
● Trustworthiness - Other people say you are good at what you do (eg. You have reviews, testimonials and partners)
These values should be familiar to anyone in building services.
This is what Google, and your audience wants to see, and these signals appear to be helping training centres build a stronger brand and appear in AI search results.
Learn to love your data
Data can drive your centre forward and there are plenty of free tools to help you do this.
● Google Analytics
● Google Search Console
● Google Keyword Planner
All of these tools are free, and can help you understand what people are searching for in relation to your training centre and the courses you deliver.
How many people are searching for your courses in your area?
We’re offering a personalised visibility report for LCL Awards training centres to help them understand what’s going on in their area.
Sign up here: https://bit.ly/405s7CZ