Educational marketing, as we’ve gone over earlier, is a great and effective tool you can utilize to reach your audience and establish yourself as a leader while also establishing your authority in an area.
But why does educational marketing work? Because you step outside of your normal role as a seller or marketer of a company and instead act like an educational resource; as such, you are able to really establish & work to meet the needs of your buyers by providing them with useful information they are looking for & the answers to their questions.
The key to having it work: Make your educational marketing resources free to access. The goal here is to begin the sales process by first earning the buyer’s trust and by providing them something of value.
Some items to consider when attempting to implement educational marketing:
- Avoid talking too much.
- Avoid selling.
- Be truthful, honest, and transparent.
- Use contact information correctly.
- Offer something that is actually valuable.
These free resources and the main goal of educational marketing is to share something of value with people, not to sell to them. First, give them something they can use and are looking for; this will make them think of you next time they need help in an area since you were so kind as to give them something for free.
Don’t sell contact information and avoid spamming them yourself; this is a sure way to ruin and destroy any amount of trust that you might have created when they first came across you and your resource.
Additionally, think about things from your own standpoint and what you would consider useful as a consumer. Offering someone something for free that they don’t want or won’t use is just like you never gave them something for free. Do a little research and see what people are looking for and asking about and offer them a solution that they can actually use.
Some last things to note:
- Skeptical consumers can become informed buyers.
- Consumers appreciate assistance and become familiar with the company helping them with their homework.
- A relationship is developed with the prospect based on expertise and trust. That consumer is now a potential buyer.
Remember that this is a place for you to show your expertise, share answers and solutions, and be available to answer more questions; to make that more valuable to yourself and others, make a blog post out the questions you get and share it with others. The point of educational marketing is provide information for customers and buyers to use in their own decision making processes.
We recently went over the definition of educational marketing and the benefits it can have for your company. This post will give you some ideas of how to create educational marketing, what tools work best, and how you can implement them in to you already present online marketing and PR plans.
To start, here is a list of some educational marketing tools that you may already be using:
- A blog
- Whitepapers
- eBooks
- Social networking tools
- Press releases
- Interviews
- Videos
- PowerPoint presentations
- Webinars
- Interviews
While this list does include most of the basics, I’m sure there are many more areas where you can share your expertise online, and even offline.
Applying educational marketing can be a tough task (especially when you’ve only ever done sales-based marketing), but it can be done. It involves the following steps:
- Establishing what your educational message is. For instance, suppose you are a marketing consultant. Perhaps your prospects are asking themselves, “How can I market my business at the lowest cost?” or “Why are my marketing efforts not succeeding?” Now that you have defined what your prospect’s questions are, you can craft a marketing message that answers those questions. In the process of answering those questions you’ll be building a relationship of trust with your prospect.
- Putting that message into a deliverable form. Take that message you’ve created and put it in a form that you can deliver to your customers/buyers for free. This can be through any of the methods we talked about earlier, like the blog or whitepaper. The key to making this a success is to get their contact information in return for the download. If you want to have more success in getting people to download and share your information, make it completely free with no need to give contact information. You may not be able to track the number of downloads, but you may be able to track the traffic that goes to a specific website, at least giving you an idea of how many people are clicking on a link.
- Drive traffic through keywords, press releases, and collaboration with others in your industry. Optimize your website, blog, and press releases with keywords that customers are searching for to help drive that traffic to your free resource. Also, when using press releases make it clear therein that you want their next step to be going to your website, and from your website, make it clear that you want them to download your free eBook.
In terms of where to share your free content, do your research and evaluate the distribution channels that will make the most sense for you to use in regards to your situation and company. This should be a part of your overall marketing or PR plans, so be sure you’ve defined this as it pertains to each campaign.
- Follow-up with those who have utilized your resources. Be sure to follow up with the people who respond, share it with others (that you can track, like on Twitter or FB), and thank people for downloading the resource. Also, be sure to ask for feedback and comments from them, letting them know that you appreciate their time and their input.
Educational marketing is an effective tool that will benefit you and your customers, and when it comes down to it, your customers benefiting is all that really matters.
Check back for part 3: Why Educational Marketing Works.
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
Educational marketing, as we’ve gone over earlier, is a great and effective tool you can utilize to reach your audience and establish yourself as a leader while also establishing your authority in an area.
Recent Posts