5 Tips for Effective Education Marketing

Does marketing ever feel to you like you’re bothering people? Does marketing make you feel uncomfortable because you feel like you’re “selling”?

People’s lives today have become so incredibly inundated with an avalanche of information, commercials and advertisements, so it is no wonder that as business owners and service professionals you can often feel like yet another unwanted interruption or worse, spam in your attempts at prospecting and marketing.

There’s a lot of different ways I help my clients improve the results of their marketing. Today, I want to help you with one specific component of your marketing and that is to shift your marketing tactics from one that is perceived as something you are doing “to” them (that is unwanted) to something you are doing “for” them (that they appreciate and thank you for!)

Most people approach marketing as a means to sell. But, instead, practice approaching your marketing as a means to EDUCATE. This seemingly subtle shift can make a transformative difference in your marketing results.

5 Tips to Educate Through Your Marketing

1. Educate through a problem-solving centered newsletter. The top 2 questions I get from people who do have newsletters are “How can we get more clients through our newsletter?” and “How can we get more people to open and read our newsletters?” The #1 answer I continue to give to both of those questions is shift away from a “selling” newsletter to a solving newsletter. If your prospects are reading 4,5 or more issues of newsletters that are predominately all about YOU and what they should buy from you, they eventually begin to put your newsletters in the same box as all their other junk mail and flyers — ones that are rarely read or remembered. So, decide instead to use newsletters as a vehicle for you to build their confidence and trust that you can solve their problems.

2. Publish a problem-solving Special Report. I often see websites that lack content in terms of advice and resources – (not useful to your visitors). Other websites might offer more content for readers, but they miss the mark on creating a relationship because there is no newsletter offer or no opt in offer to receive a Special Report. While newsletters are a great drip method, the Special Report offers the benefit of engaging your visitor in a deeper relationship with you. You allow them to get to know your level of expertise better and overall, the know-like-trust factor is easier to cement over 10-40 pages than it is through a one page (or sometimes 1 paragraph) newsletter.

Example 1: Let’s say your customers are homeowners. Your platform for your special report could be something like “Pitfalls Your Parents Didn’t Tell You About Home Ownership”.

Example 2: Let’s say you’re a healthcare consulting company and your customers are doctors. You might have a special report called “101 Critical Business Health Lessons That Med School Never Taught You”.

3. Educate through short videos. Videos offer an abundance of benefits for your marketing strategy.

A. Videos help increase the SEO of your website than just the written text.
B. Many people prefer to watch (or listen) to a short video over reading
C. People retain your content better when they can see, hear and read vs just read.
D. It’s more entertaining to the visitor to be educated through video vs reading alone

Before you go and invest in hiring a professional videographer, I would suggest first using cheaper options like your home videocamcorder, your webcam or even your iPhone. First work on delivering useful content (the steak) before focusing on a beautiful video (the sizzle). When you try to focus on both the sizzle and the steak what often happens is your video (or any other marketing tactic) never gets done because you’re waiting for perfection before it goes public. Take the pressure off yourself. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just needs to get done. The second reason you want to first utilize home video options is it allows you to test how great your steak is without all the sizzle. But, eventually, you do want to drizzle in the sizzle.

4. Promote your educational content through social media. Just like those fudge samplers you see at the boardwalk in the summer, you want to offer a sample of your newsletter, your special report and/or your videos on your Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter. If they loved getting your sample they can opt in to receive more from you via newsletters or more video clips. You don’t want to limit your education to only those who happen to enter your website. Social Media is a great vehicle to broaden your reach.

5. Make yourself memorable. Tie in your educational content each and every time with your personal (or your company’s) unique value proposition. Avoid simply closing your message with “this content was brought to you by X healthcare company or X electric company or X promotional products company. Make sure they know what your special unique WOW Factor is.

My clients tell me over and over again what my WOW Factor has been for them. And, that’s having started, grown and sold 3 of my own companies over the past 20 years.

That is my important difference … my unique WOW Factor appeal to all of my clients.

Check my Wow factor.

Details are at

https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/507025542

So, in closing, if you’ve been feeling uncomfortable in your marketing because you feel like you’re trying to do something “to” them instead of “for” them, then practice marketing to EDUCATE vs marketing to sell.

And, why not get educated yourself on a critical cornerstone to your own marketing message on How to Find Your WOW Factor. Invite a friend and join me on this free webinar offer at

https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/507025542

Here’s to your success!