Why Education-Based Marketing Sells
Why use education-based marketing sells is because today just about anyone can research a product before buying it.
In the old days you had to trust the salesman because they knew most about the product and there was no access to internet. The only resource you had is knowing someone who already bought what you wanted.
Years ago I’ve actually thought that marketing was lame and useless because whenever you had the desire to find something just search for it (google it). A great product (or service) should sell itself, right? But what if nobody hears about it? And how is your target audience going to find it in a massively competitive market? So marketing is actually crucial.
Many people go about marketing the wrong way and that’s why 80% of new businesses fail. The ones that cold call and direct mail asking people directly to buy their product/service have the lowest conversion rate and put us (consumers) in a defensive and resistant mindset even though we may benefit from what they actually have to offer. These are tactics used by sales people only to achieve a short-term goal (buy the product). However, at any given time only 3% of potential buyers are buying right now.
A strategy is much more important for success, because your line of communication is more effective in reaching your target buyers. It involves the 7% of people open to the idea of buying and possibly the 30% of people not thinking about it. Imagine the your services is present, set up and marketed ideally (let’s take the example of Improv training in this scenario). The 30% of people who are interested but not thinking about it, become interested because they heard about your service from a satisfied friend or saw an ad in business magazine to become a better presenter.
They decide to research your service to find a fantastic up-to-date website with students’ testimonials cheering about how they laughed more in one class than they have all week at their stressful [insert occupation here] job. Not ready to buy they decide to sign-up for your newsletters which you send out descriptively stating anecdotes how your student Daniel Tosh moved to LA and got a TV job after taking your course. Another letter explains how Harry became the office manager after improving his speaking skills in your class.
However, that 30% crowd is still unconvinced they should enroll yet, so you put up some video clips of class doing the Sensei game where everyone breaks up in laughter. Okay, now that crowd wants to buy because they saw that video during their half-hour lunch break, but they don’t have time to drive to the stage and pay because of their busy schedule. Neither do they know if the class is full, but scrolling down the website, they notice a big “register” and pay button. So they pay online and are thrilled to experience the benefits which await them.
In the end you’ve achieved success by tripling your 3% of “buy now” people to 9% or even greater.