In today’s competitive business world, your clients expect a lot from you – expectations are set a lot higher than what they were years ago and you need to convince your prospect that they need you, more than you need them.
The days of the uninformed buyer are over; they have the world at their fingertips, they can find out exactly who is providing the best solution to their problem… so why should they choose you?
When you are wanting to differentiate yourself from your competitors, how can you make your company stand out?
By providing a never-ending source of value – educating your prospects!
There are numerous different marketing tactics that you can adopt as part of your lead generation strategy, however there is a standout, underlying strategy which has frequently proven to be extremely valuable and effective for many businesses…
Education-Based Marketing
Studies have shown that consumers are 131% more likely to buy from a brand straight after they engage with early-stage, educational content. The number almost seems hard to believe, but is the perfect example of how important it is to educate your prospects.
To win over your prospects, you need to provide them with value. In this case, we’re talking about knowledge…
What is customer education?
Simply enough, customer education is all about focusing your marketing efforts on educating and enhancing your target market’s knowledge with content. Giving value to your audience in advance, before they make a transaction with you – before they know they need you.
You know everything there is to know about your product or service, but remember – your customers won’t! In time, and with all the right information, your potential clients will be able to make more informed purchases with the value you have given them.
When you are running your business, you know all the in’s and out’s… you know your product and service, quite literally, like the back of your hand. Because of this, it isn’t uncommon to forget that people who are new to your business don’t actually know all the great, unique qualities of your company – they don’t know your business like you do.
Don’t assume that people know your products and services; you need to educate them.
This method of marketing is a sure way to fill your client with trust, and help build credibility for your business, as you show yourself as an expert in your industry!
Why is customer education important for YOUR business?
When we’re talking about B2B sales, there are 2 key elements; trust and credibility.
Times have changed and now the world has moved on from the concept of straight line selling to people buying upon trust and credibility.
- Trust – How does your prospect know you will do the right thing by them?
- Credibility – Does your prospect feel confident that you know what you are doing?
There’s also a psychological element to this strategy… when you take on the role as a teacher, or someone who is educating or providing value, your prospect or target market can’t help but see you as an authority figure and respect you as an expert. All of which, are great for your business!
Perhaps the most important reason of them all is that it proves you can help people. You’re showing your prospect that you know what you’re doing, you are able to educate others and you can help them do it for themselves.
How can you add education and value into your lead generation strategy?
Incorporating education and value into your strategy is easier than you may think; some effective ways to do this can be:
- Webinars
- Seminars
- Content Marketing
- Video Marketing
- Strategy Sessions
You may now be thinking…
‘’I don’t want to give away all my secrets’’!
Well, to let you in on another secret… the secret is, show your prospects the what and the why – but not the how.
What we mean by this, is that you can educate your prospects on what they can do and why they should care, but not every detail on how you do this. After all, that is what you are there to do!
Typically, there are 2 types of prospects who will view your content:
- The person who will want to learn it all and then do it for themselves – they will soon realise they are not an expert and are most likely to eventually engage with you later down the line.
or
- The person who will hire you because they do not want to do it themselves, as they already appreciate you are the experts and can do it for them.
The worst case scenario to come from an education-based marketing strategy is that you’ll either position yourself as an expert to your target audience in your chosen industry, or you’ll have a pipeline of keen prospects, ready to access the experts and ask to use your services… not bad for the ‘worst case’!
