image via ConstantContent

Everyone who uses the Internet knows online ads are annoying, and as you close the third pop-up ad you encountered in a 5-minute YouTube video, you may find yourself wondering, “Do companies generate sales through these ads?” or “Do people even click on these on purpose?” 

 What do people think of these types of unsolicited marketing?

 Brian Halligan from HubSpot believes that the average human is inundated with over 2000 outbound marketing interruptions per day – probably the reason why ad blockers were utilized by roughly 25.8 percent of internet users in 2019!

If spam emails are getting redirected to junk folders and online ads are getting blocked, it means that although your advertisements are well-thought, all of them don’t matter especially if only a limited range of audience is being reached.

 One of the best strategies for inbound and outbound marketing is “Education-Based Marketing.” Just like the term states, it’s the process of educating your prospects with valuable information setting yourself as an expert in your field and industry gaining your prospects trust and respect. If done correctly, education based marketing is a tool that can lead your prospect to the logical conclusion that they need to work with you without ever having to pitch your product.

 Sounds good right? 

 Getting in the door of your prospects tends to be one of the hardest things to do and if you stop selling and start educating you will be able to reach 9x more prospects according to the buyer’s pyramid.

The average prospect is consuming 5 pieces of content on average before even reaching out to a sales person today. That means you should be educating them with great blogs, videos, posts, whitepapers, emails, phone calls. Heck, your voicemails should even be educational! Everyone thinks differently but rarely does a person decide to purchase a product just because of a single interaction.

A great example of education based marketing is the successfully trendy world renowned photographer Nick Onken. Known for his work photographing celebrity personalities like Justin Beiber, Usher, Jessica Alba, and Bono, Nick uses education based marketing to gain clientele.

After just one session about education based marketing with Nick and a Chet Holmes expert strategist, an educational strategy was created teaching how to create an iconic personal brand that rises above the noise. He explains what has made his clients so successful. He sites case study examples of his own clients starting with his non-profit work with Pencils of Promise who he photographed at the very beginning of their journey and now they’ve made hundreds of schools in third world countries.

It is crucial that you use education based marketing to reset the buying criteria and preempt your competition. Let’s continue to use Nick Onken’s example. First you must find what’s unique about you and your product/service. For Nick, he is different from most photographers because:

1. He works with A-list celebrities and high end brands.
2. He runs his own online brand so not only does he understand pictures but he’s very familiar with how they work in marketing collateral everything from magazines to social media posts.
3. He hosts his own podcast documenting people’s journeys in life. Again showing that all around he’s not just a photographer, he is a serious entrepreneur that has viral success. Having 66,000 followers on Instagram is no easy feat and there’s a reason. He has a gift to make pictures liked and loved by the masses.

So when a prospect is interested in working with Nick he sends over his educational report on how to build a brand that sells. In this education he teaches that when looking for a photographer you want to have someone who:

1. Has built brands,
2. Who knows marketing,
3. Who has an eye for promotion, not just an artist looking to make something artsy.
4. He teaches his prospects to look for a photographer who gets the whole picture and knows what sells.

That is how Nick utilizes education based marketing to preempt the competition and continue to travel the world taking the most outrageous photos of his clients. Just this one simple report gives him a leg up from every other photographer out there because as Chet always said, “The strategist will slaughter the tactician every time.”

You can read Nick Onken’s report about how to create a personal brand that rises about the noise here: Onken.co/personalbrand

He built this educational piece and has been using it as one of his main sales collateral for years now. This is the power of education-based-marketing.

Normally, there are three stages before a prospect can be converted to a loyal customer – awareness, consideration, and decision-making.

A typical buyer’s journey always starts with awareness; a problem they realized – it will be something that is of interest to them. What are your prospects searching for on YouTube every day? What do they google on their phone? These topics are not necessarily about your product, they can be anything that relates to their every day life if you were in their shoes. It can be topics such as an effective way to lose weight, tips on how to increase sales, the best gadget for their needs, or how to increase interactions on social media.

After realizing these, what will they do next?

Rather than aggressively selling, what we are doing is educating them. A great approach can also include letting them have the option to enter their email address or other contact information on the website, in case they are interested in knowing more.

Next is the Consideration Stage where the main goal is to provide content that can highlight what your company can offer or guarantee, its unique features, and what sets it apart from other similar brands. While the first stage is about educating the client on information regarding their problems, the Consideration Stage is formally introducing you as a trusted advisor, where free trials, demos, and scheduled webinars can be effective.

The last step before they decide whether to purchase your product or not is the Decision Stage. It’s often where they will take time to conduct an in-depth review, compare the pros and cons of different brands, and consider several possible approaches. Offering a consultation with an expert or providing them estimated and price quotes can help them in this decision making but might not be needed if enough loyalty was built up during education.

 FACT: Did you know you’re 65% of the way to a sale if you just build rapport and establish the prospects need?

With this in mind, it’s important to ensure that while using education-based marketing, all details on what you can offer should be relayed accurately and to a wide range of audience, capturing the attention of those interested, influencing their purchasing decision, converting them into customers – all while establishing a relationship of trust.

What will you do to educate your prospects today? To gain their trust and loyalty?

If you’d like assistance to better understand your education based marketing approach sign up for a complimentary consultation here.