How to help your members complete their CLE courses on time

The last day of 2022 may seem far away, but many continuing legal education providers already have December 31 on their minds.

Associations across the country are entering their crunch time as end-of-year reporting deadlines approach. And while some members get their hours completed early, there are always those who wait until the last minute and find themselves spending New Year’s Eve in front of the computer instead of with their friends and family. Members like these can help make for a busy and overwhelming December for you and your team.

So, what can continuing legal education providers do to help these procrastinators? Here are six tips on how to encourage your members to get their CLE credit submitted early and often.

How to help your members complete their CLE courses on time

1. Use your data.
   The systems you use to track your member’s activity, like your association management software (AMS) and learning management software (LMS) are chock-full of useful data you can use to target those customers who are putting off getting their CLE. Run a report to find out who is still in need of hours and contact them to let them know about upcoming learning opportunities.
2.  Do the work for them.
   Create bundles of content so your learner can register for topics of interest and get all the credit they need with one purchase. Does your state have an ethics or professionalism requirement? Put together a bundle with all the ethics hours they need for the year to make it super easy on your members to get exactly what they need to be compliant.
3. Give them a discount.
   Have a fall sale during the month of October so your members are tempted to buy their programs earlier in the busy season. If customers spread their purchases out over the last few months of the year this can help your staff not to feel so overwhelmed come December.
4. Take advantage of hot topics.
   Keep an eye out for any opportunity to host an event around a hot topic. These sessions are a sure-fire way to draw big crowds and attract those procrastinators.
5. Repurpose your content.
   Many associations have different requirements about what can be considered live credit vs. self-study and how many hours of each members are required to have each year. Consider how your association can mix up your content offering and use one program in numerous ways. For example, single-day in-person events can be webcast live, offered as one large on-demand package, broken up into smaller on-demand sessions, and rebroadcast multiple times. These rebroadcasts are a great way to offer live credit without the work of creating additional programming.
6. Entice them early.
   It’s never too soon to start thinking about next year, so make a plan to reach out to your early birds. In January offer a discounted subscription which allows your members to pick and choose their content and create their own bundle of programming. You can place a deadline on when they need to make their selections to ensure they get their hours in during the first half of the year.

Register Now

Hopefully these tips can help make the end of the year a little easier for both your member and your staff. Discover more insights when you register for our CLE webinar: How to Create High Quality Content on October 27th at 12PM EST