The phrase “education is the key to success” is true regardless of professions and fields. Whether it is to ladder up the business or to do marketing of the firm, education has the solution for everything. In this article, I am going to educate you that how you can market your business to the masses by leveraging education.
Introduction:
When you combine education and marketing, a new term and phenomenon generate which is called as Education based marketing. The Education based Marketing can be defined as the sharing of knowledge with the motive of building trust with the consumers.
To implement this education based marketing strategy, the marketers use educational messages and target the emotional side of the consumer’s brain.
Since the customers and consumers attributes are changing at a rapid pace, it is important to present your product or service in a way they want to see. This can only be possible by creating emotional feelings in the customers and will help to keep the rational side away from purchasing decision that is the motto of every marketing campaign.
Difference:
By comparing it to the traditional marketing, education based marketing is entirely different. Where traditional marketing builds on the messages and practices that encourage customers to buy their product, education based marketing affiliate the customers to your product by building their trust.
The marketing agencies or the marketing departments of the companies apply this education based marketing strategy when they get the feedback that their consumers are now getting fed up from their sales based marketing, and now they need something new to attract towards your product or service. That is why all these public service messages campaigns or infotainment from the companies are derived from the strategy that makes customer emotionally attached to the brand.
This approach will make them buy your product indirectly rather than hammering them to buy your product directly.
How to implement it?
The strategies like public service campaigns are not enough to make education based marketing as your marketing tool.
You have to make sure about the timings of using such type of approach which involves numerous factors like brand’s personality, brand’s identity and the brand’s value.
Following are some points that are important to oversee first before planning to do this type of adventure for your business.
Knowledge is the key:
We have already discussed that education is the key to almost every locked door in the world. But when you look it from a marketer point of view, you will find that this claim is not as straightforward as it sounds.
The marketers are the ones who cannot only open the doors with that key, but they can also lock it again. They are the one who creates the buzz, and they exactly know how to manipulate things and expert in molding it.
For example; What if an investment company asks you to do their education based marketing because their customers are now tired of their old and worn out sales pitches.
Now you have to change all the science behind the education marketing, but the basics of its will remain the same. You have to make info graphics or infomercials to educate the target market in such scenarios where emotional approach cannot get you your objectives.
You have to make your customer feel that you have all the knowledge regarding your product or service sector by showing your infomercials and have to make a claim (subliminally) that what you are saying is only the truth. See what I am talking about?
Think like the customer:
You are also a customer for lots of brands so start thinking of that state of mind while strategizing the campaign for education based marketing. To find the questions that your customers could have in their mind, you have to think like a customer first and then like a marketer who will help you to find the answers of those questions.
Your first task is to establish these issues even in the minds of such consumers who never thought of such matters before and then you have to give your version or your answer to them which should satisfy them.
The customers of this era are much smarter than the last one that is why you have to be smarter than them. They don’t like to see the sponsors everywhere so respect their wishes and just show your brand name at the end of your message.
Find the trigger points:
Once you have developed your message by the consumer’s questions, now this is time to find those points that can trigger your consumers to act.
These customers touch points could be included in the BTL and ATL. If your research says that BTL is the method of triggering your customers, then solid BTL activities like brand activation and kiosks setups in the mall are important to achieve your targets. If it is ATL, then print marketing, TVCs, social media marketing and other means of ATL becomes very important.
Persuasive enough copy:
Those touching points will only trigger your customers when your copy touches the hearts of your customers. Your focus should be on the motive of your education based marketing message which is to get a response from the customers.
You can also add the traditional marketing phenomenon of AIDA in which you will get the attention of your customers first through your body. Second, your copy should be attractive enough that can make your customers interested in it. Third, your copy should be persuasive enough to create desire feeling in the customers that will lead them to do any action on your call.
Value Proposition:
The value proposition is an after sale thing but promising it in your education based marketing campaign can do wonders for the brand. Where your marketing strategy educating the customers about your sector of business, subliminal marketing of your value propositions (not your product or service) can make people take action on your call.
Your copy using the trigger point of the customers will be establishing your authority of knowledge in the sector, and the people will start seeing you as their source of knowledge. The more they will seek knowledge from your message, the more they will be exposed to your value propositions that in the end will drive sales for you from the different perspective as compare to traditional marketing as I said earlier.
Final Words:
Traditional marketing builds your business on the sales and revenues that only produce short term benefits, but education based marketing will build your business on its integrity that will make a place in your consumer’s hearts.
This will help you to stay relevant and top of the mind whenever your target market will think of buying your sector of the product. This is how you will always find a way to stay prominent in the market, and the use of education in marketing will keep your business among the masses forever.
Author Bio:
Ivan Hamlin is a man who not only drinks too much coffee but also knows how to sell it in dozens of ways. He is an entrepreneur, marketer, blogger and also provides Dissertation help to the young students.
