Since Optimizely acquired Episerver, it has become one of the leading DXP platforms, with capabilities expanding content management, ecommerce, web experimentation, and more. While some of the best, it's a sophisticated platform that can be difficult to take advantage of the full breadth of capabilities without some expert help.
Implementing Optimizely takes a village, and - for the price you pay - organizations will benefit from investing in training on their specific solution. Optimizely training prepares digital marketers and web developers to roll up their sleeves and learn by doing.
We'll discuss the types of Optimizely training available and how choosing the right option will help you get the most out of your Optimizely implementation and enable a sufficient employee experience.
Where to get Optimizely Training
There are two trusted sources to get training on the Optimizely platform.
Official Optimizely Training
Optimizely offers several types of training, including on-demand, instructor-led, masterclasses, and certifications for anyone who needs to manage the platform effectively.
On-Demand Learning Programs & Instructor-Led Courses
Optimizely provides online training across its product line for marketers and developers. These courses are available over several days or at your own pace for a year. There are several role-based business user training options for:
- Content editors
- Merchandisers
- Customer Service Representatives
- Administrators
- Marketers
- Ecommerce Managers
- Experimentation
Meanwhile, technical training is available for developers in the following Optimizely products:
- Digital Experience Platform
- Content Cloud
- Commerce Cloud
- Experimentation
These courses are great for beginners who want to learn the basics of individual Optimizely products or available features and functionality used by a specific business user. Additionally, Optimizely offers several expert-led, virtual training. Learning from an expert allows you to ask questions and get guidance during the learning process.
Masterclasses
Elevate already acquired developer and architect skills with Optimizely Masterclasses. These courses are taught by experts and designed to give you the extra tools, skills, and knowledge to work with Optimizely solutions.
Bonus: Certifications
One way to "show what you know" in the Optimizely developer community is to become an Optimizely certified developer. Becoming certified will drive more Optimizely learning and give you increased confidence to achieve your goals with Optimizely.
Technical developers can take several certification exams to achieve recognition in Optimizely products, including Content Cloud, Commerce Cloud, and B2B Commerce Cloud. All exams are given by a remote exam system and on a pre-scheduled date that you choose. During the exam, you will have exactly two hours to answer approximately 70 questions about one of Optimizely's platforms.
Tailored Training from a Trusted Optimizely Partner
The most impactful training is custom to your unique business needs and specific Optimizely implementation.
For example, your developers may benefit from sitting down with certified Optimizely developers to assist with best practices and advise your team on the day-to-day support of your specific implementation. With consultative dev support, you get the opportunity to grow your internal development practice and get up to speed on your site, integrations, and systems.
Meanwhile, for marketers, custom training can help marketers take advantage of advanced Optimizely features. Practical training will show you how to set up and use:
- Content workflows
- Campaign management
- User personas
- Personalization
- Marketing automation
- Multivariant or A/B testing
- And more
Suppose these features are not working or configured correctly. In that case, you'll need an Optimizely agency partner to help make sure they are available and configured to your implementation.
For instance, training from Optimizely may help you understand how to create audience segmentations and run experiments. Still, they won't be able to consult on how you should construct them for your customers, business requirements, or integrated platforms. Only with the help of an expert Optimizely partner will you be able to achieve these goals.
What are the benefits of an expert Optimizely training partner?
A competent Optimizely partner will carefully consider your implementation when customizing your training. They will use real examples to teach you how to use Optimizely in the context of your solution and your organization's specific goals.
Better use of functions and features
Partnering with an Optimizely trainer will give your team a better understanding of Optimizely basics while also introducing them to Optimizely features to better utilize in your business processes. An expert training partner will teach best practices for templates, blocks, menu options, and functionalities to help your team work its way around Optimizely.
More effective Optimizely users
Poor employee adoption of digital tools leads to dissatisfaction, frustration, and even abandonment of digital systems. When employees can't perform their job effectively, they perform poorly. Proper training eases tension and confusion, makes learning more enjoyable, and reduces the learning curve. Expert Optimizely trainers will enable your team to solve issues themselves and feel empowered to do better work.
Quicker to market
Optimizely solution training will help your developers and marketers quickly deploy digital experiences. By increasing their subject matter expertise of Optimizely, teams will increase their productivity and level up their skills in actual scenarios.
Increased talent retention
Evidence collected by Gartner suggests that employees who find it easy to adopt digital platforms are twice as likely to stay at an organization. Increased adoption of tools like Optimizely results in increased employee and organizational performance due to enhancing business operations and workforce efficiency. With the shift to work from home and the Great Resignation still at play, expert training helps employees utilize their tech stack, accurately perform their accountabilities, and have a positive employee experience.
Finding Optimizely Experts to Help You With Training
When choosing a partner from the Optimizely ecosystem, make sure that the partner has:
- Qualified experts with hands-on Optimizely experience
- A defined training curriculum that can be tailored to your business goals and use cases
- Course materials that are personalized to your implementation
- Detailed coverage of authoring tools for non-technical users
- Tips and tricks for Optimizely configuration and optimization
C2's Custom Optimizely Training
Whether you're new to Optimizely or have been using it for years, training can equip your team to get the most significant insight and return from your Optimizely investment. Training on your specific implementation makes it easier - and more fun - to build digital experiences in Optimizely.
The C2 Group can customize training for nearly every phase of implementing and using Optimizely. By following web and Optimizely best practices, C2's certified developers and strategists can coach your marketers, content editors, developers, and administrators to maintain and scale your Optimizely site.
Learn more about C2's custom training and how we can enable your web teams get more from Optimizely, or get in touch with our Optimizely experts here to get started.