Tweet

Educating Your Customers

Written by: Joe Love

Article Overview: One of the biggest marketing mistakes businesses make today is failing to educate their customers and prospects about the unique advantages that are being offered to them. Education is a powerful marketing technique. When you educate your prospects and customers you will see your profits soar.

Educating Your Customers

One of the biggest marketing mistakes businesses make today is failing to educate their prospects and customers about the unique advantages that are being offered to them. The cornerstone of any marketing plan should be to educate your customers.

You should first educate them about your product or service, and your company. Then you need to educate them about your industry in a way that is useful to them. The more you educate the stronger the business and the human bond will become. This will build rapport and trust. People like to do business with ethical people they can trust.

For example, if you’ve reviewed 100 different manufacturers of the products you sell, let your customers know. It’ll impress them that you’ve screened out the products that don’t have the quality, dependability, or warranty, you know they want. Maybe you offer a guarantee that is longer or covers more potential problems than the one offered by your competitors. Your prospects and customers won’t know this unless you tell them.

When you educate your customers, you are building both a business and personal bond with them. Think about yourself: When you buy or consider buying a product or service, you very seldom know as much as you would like to about it. If you have unanswered questions about a product or service, you’re less likely to spend the money to buy it.

When a company or salesperson takes the time and initiative to objectively educate you about all the products and services available to you in the particular field you’re considering, it gains your trust and confidence. Educate your prospects and customers about everything, including any potential downside or risk of your product or service may have.

Leading your prospects and customers is a big part of the education process. People need to be specifically told how to purchase your product or service. Make it simple and clear in your sales letters, advertising, and your Web site, how to order your product or service. Give your prospects a brief education, then take them by the hand, figuratively speaking, and tell them what specific action to take next.

Whenever you make an offer, whether it’s by a letter, an e-mail, or an ad, always ask for the sale. When you are offering something at a special discounted price, always tell the reason why you are doing it. Is it because you have lower overhead or volume buying? Are you providing limited services because of the lower price? Why is your price so good? You have to tell your prospects and customers what the reason is.

If your price is high, tell your prospects why. Do you offer a product or service that is far superior to your competition? Is your product of higher quality than that of your competition? Do your products last longer than those offered by your competitors? Tell them the reason why your price is high.

You have to tell your prospects and customers the reasons why! Why should they patronize you, instead of your competition? Tell them why, what you are doing makes doing business with you better for them. Why can your company handle their purchase better than someone else?

Tell them all the reasons why. The more factual, believable, and credible information you can give to your prospects and customers as to the reasons why they should do business with you, the more compelled they will be to patronize your business. Educate them without making them feel stupid, and then direct them to action.

Educating your customers requires that you become an expert in your field. To become an expert in your field or industry, you have to constantly educate yourself. Read everything you can get your hands on that is related to your field or industry. Listen to audio programs and attend seminars that are related to your industry. Keep current on industry trends, developments, and forecasts.

As you receive information that you think would be of benefit to your prospects and customers, pass it along to them. Remember, we are in the information age. People want and need information that will help them. The more information you can give to your customers that you know will help them without any selling on your part, the more they will feel that you genuinely care, and have their best interest at heart. You’ll become their trusted advisor and they will want to do business with you, and refer their friends and associates to you as well.

Effectively educating your customers goes far beyond just offering free reports and sending out a weekly newsletter. Educating means getting to know your customers wants and needs on a more personal level. Educating your customers means calling them on the phone, sending them a personal letter or e-mail with some helpful information that is specific to their needs.

Every business has countless opportunities to educate, but very few actually do. Education is a powerful marketing technique. You have an obligation as a business to constantly educate your prospects and customers. Educate them to appreciate the value of your products and services. When you do, you’ll see your profits soar.

Copyright© 2005 by Joe Love and JLM & Associates Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.

Joe Love draws on his 25 years of experience helping both individuals and companies build their businesses, increase profits, and achieve total success. He is the founder and CEO of JLM & Associates, a consulting and training organization, specializing in personal and business development. Through his seminars and lectures, Joe Love addresses thousands of men and women each year, including the executives and staffs of many businesses around the world on the subjects of leadership, achievement, goals, strategic business planning, and marketing.

Reach Joe at: joe@jlmandassociates.com

Read more articles and newsletters at: http://www.jlmandassociates.com

Related Articles
  Focus on educating your customers
  A Proven Sales Process Should Educate First, and Entertain a Distant Third
  Dramatically Increase Sales Conversion Rate Using Education Based Marketing
  Top Tip On How You Generate Leads For Your Network Marketing Business
  A Social Media Strategy for Business Owners

Article Tags:



Related Forum Posts
Re: Two Useful Books To Help You Focus On The CLIENT - Hi David, To add to your thread, I'd like to recommend Jonathan Tisch's "Chocolates On The Pillow Aren't Enough: Reinventing The Customer Experience". Tisch's book includes content on "Welcoming Customers", "The New Art of Customization", "The Challenges of Customer Diversity" and "Offering Something Extra to Your Customers" to name a few.
Re: How do you earn trust with an online business? - Add VALUE to your target market. How? Well depends. If your business can start by Educating the target market about how your product or Service can add value to their lives. This can be done via Video (hot right now), basic text, audio etc. I've had a lot of success with Video and am using it primarily as a lead generation tool. If done right your Content can add Value and add to your bottom line at the same time while building Trust.
How to Do Great Marketing with (Amost) No Money - I've given this presentation to CEOs many times. Now i can share it with you. But I cannot because I do not yet have 20 posts. Jeff Ogden, President Find New Customers
Re: Are Business Owners too Old School to be Sold by a blog - [quote:140e27hj]Customers Pick Static Documents over Blog Entries 8 to 1 on Average[/quote:140e27hj] Interesting study. Just as a commenter said on your post... don't call it a blog. I agree.
Re: pitching - Friendliness is closely related to the concept of "permission marketing" as articulated by Seth Godin. The subtitle of his book says it all: "Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers." The old method was "interruption marketing" where you suddenly get an ad in your face whether you want it or not...


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

How To Improve Your CTA (Call To Action)

Ready for a Fresh Image?

Emotional Intelligence in Business

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.