Your marketing could use an education.

Until recently marketing was pretty straightforward. People either believed what they heard and saw or they didn’t. There was little opportunity to learn more or get under the hood. And it leaned toward hype.

Today, the world is transparent and everyone’s a student. That’s why the best promotion for almost any service that’s important to people starts with education. Whether it’s investments, technology or health care (especially these days), education can be the key to making the sale – and keeping the customer.

Education lets people buy, not be sold.

It used to be that certain complicated products need to be “sold,” not bought, which, in the past, has put the buyer at a disadvantage. With education inserted into the process, health insurance, for example, can become an informed buyer’s market. Armed with the right information, consumers can ask questions and make their own comparisons.

There’s a huge opportunity for companies that choose education as the first step. Here are some examples from the Field that we’ve encountered firsthand:

• Health insurance. In response to more and more people relying on themselves rather than their employer for health benefits, more and more seminars are teaching people how to buy it. The best of them take a simple, non-threatening approach to explaining the fundamentals and trade-offs. It’s a seamless way for health insurers to move “students” into prospects.
• Group retirement plans. Corporate retirement plans are only as good as their rates of enrollment. But in too many cases, dense, confusing information leads to indifference rather than adoption. Which is why we’re seeing online education emerging as a helpful alternative to guide people through enrollment. The interactive approaches can engage and convert many employees who otherwise would not take the time to wade through printed material. And it’s more cost-efficient.
• High-deductible health plans with reimbursement. This is a good example of needing to educate someone after they are already on board. Products and services like these can be very confusing and often lead to an underutilized plan and unnecessary expenses. And that leads to an unhappy member that may not renew. An online video we’re aware of doubled comprehension for this kind of service and became a best-practice model for other company communication. Similar efforts have reduced enrollment costs while increasing the numbers of people enrolled.

All of these examples feature education as the first step in securing positive action from consumers. It may be your “marketing” budget, but to sow the seeds that will grow into sales, leave room in it for online education.

We want to hear from you about how to use online education to your advantage.