The Power of Education in Marketing

What’s your idea of an effective marketing message?

BUY FROM US BECAUSE WE’RE BRILLIANT!

Hmm, I’m guessing your marketing campaigns haven’t been very successful then.

Contrary to popular belief, your marketing message isn’t actually about you.

Nope, it should be about your customers because, at the end of the day, they are far more important than you. Without them you don’t have a business.

You see marketing should all be about education – gently nudging the reader to the realisation that your product or service is the thing that’s going to change their life for the better by solving the issue/challenge/problem they’re facing.

Back to the classroom

Recently I’ve been working with a long-standing client to produce a series of case studies to highlight the diverse work they do.

During an interview I conducted with one part of the business, the interviewee spoke about some conferences they’d arranged to encourage sharing of best practice and knowledge with other departments within the same organisation.

Although this an example of interdepartmental education the same principle applies for any marketing strategy.

My client knew that if the value of their work was to be recognised throughout their organisation they had to find a way to educate their peers and the conference was the perfect solution.

The same goes for your customers.

Education is the key to any marketing strategy. Sales messages like the one above (the shouty one) will simply turn your readers off. For starters they won’t like being told they have to buy from you; they want to be wooed.

You have to tell them you understand the problem they have (they must have one otherwise they wouldn’t be searching the Internet for a solution) and the benefits your product or service can offer them and how it will enrich their lives.

This ‘educational selling’ is far more subtle as they will believe they have reached a buying decision all by themselves without being sold to.

Sally Ormond, Copywriter and blogger