Demand Generation : Why Sales-Based Marketing Might Be Sabotaging Your Business,& An Introduction to Education-Based Marketing

Whether one owns a consulting business or is head of marketing for a startup, one is often under pressure to generate revenue and often grow the business, and you might think that the key to success is through sales-based marketing. Wouldn't it make sense to primarily focus on making sales as this is a for-profit business? While it's true that sales are important, a focus solely on selling may be sabotaging the business.

In this article, we will introduce you to the concept of education-based marketing which is the principle on which true demand generation is built, and explain why it may be a much better approach for your business overall. We will further discuss how education-based marketing is distinctively different from sales-based marketing, and provide some practical tips for implementing it.

Let’s first establish some of the basics

So, What is Sales-Based Marketing?

Sales-based marketing is a traditional marketing approach that focuses on selling a business’s products or services. This approach typically involves creating promotional materials that are designed to convince potential clients to buy from the business explicitly. It may include tactics such as cold-calling, direct mail, and advertising.

While sales-based marketing can be effective, it has some downsides. For one, it can be a lot more expensive to deploy as a strategy. The promotional materials and tactics involved can be expensive, and there's no guarantee that these will lead to sales. Additionally, sales-based marketing can be intrusive and annoying to potential clients. The vast majority of the market does not like receiving unsolicited phone calls or emails from salespeople, and often the rate of conversions is far lower.

And, What is Education-Based Marketing?

Education-based marketing is an approach that focuses on educating your potential clients. Rather than simply trying to sell to them, as a business you provide them with valuable information that they can use to make informed decisions. This approach typically involves creating content that is designed to educate the business’s potential clients, such as blog posts, videos, and ebooks.

Education-based marketing has some significant advantages over sales-based marketing. For one, it's much more cost-effective and efficient. While it does require an investment of time and resources to create content, this approach can be much less expensive than sales-based marketing. Additionally, education-based marketing can be less intrusive to potential clients. Rather than feeling like they are being sold to, potential clients may appreciate the information being provided which eventually leads to them seeing the business as an authority in its field.

How to Implement Education-Based Marketing

Implementing education-based marketing requires a mindset shift from the top to the bottom of an organization. Rather than simply trying to sell to prospective clients, a business will prioritize and focus on providing them with valuable information that will lead them to make an informed business decision. Here are some tips for implementing education-based marketing:

Identify and clarify the target audience

The first step in implementing education-based marketing is to identify the target audience. Who are the people the business wants to reach? What are their pain points, and what type of information would be valuable to them?

Create content that addresses their pain points

Once you have identified the target audience, It is important to create content that addresses their pain points. For example, if your business provides consulting services in the healthcare industry, you might create content that addresses the challenges healthcare providers face in managing their practices. This is often a great place to start as prospects will search for content by using their pain points

Distribution of your content

Once as a business you have invested resources into creating content, distribution is the next important step as you want to share it with your prospective clients. You can do this by publishing it on your website, sharing it on social media, sending it directly to your email list, and leveraging social ads to distribute the content to qualified eyeballs through targeting

Measure your results

Finally, measure your results. As a business, tracking performance is important to establish if what is being implemented moves the needle, and whether the strategy owes to be adjusted. How is the content performing? Are people engaging with it? Are you seeing an increase in leads or sales?

Education-based marketing can be a powerful tool for businesses. By providing valuable information to prospective clients, a business can build trust and establish itself as an authority in its field. Give it a try and see how it can work for your business.

It's important to note that this strategy has several advantages over traditional sales-based marketing.

Firstly, education-based marketing allows a business or entrepreneur to showcase their expertise in a way that is helpful to their audience. By providing valuable information that is relevant to their needs, they can establish themselves as a trusted advisor in their industry. This helps to build a relationship with prospective clients before they even consider making a purchase. When they are ready to make a decision, they are more likely to choose the business that has been educating them over others because they already know and trust the brand.

Education-based marketing tends to be more effective at converting leads into customers. When you provide valuable information to potential clients, they are more likely to engage with the brand and become interested in the products or services. This means that they are more likely to move down the sales funnel and eventually make a purchase.

In addition to these advantages, education-based marketing can also help to differentiate a business from competitors. By providing unique and valuable content that the competitors don't offer, a can stand out in a crowded market and attract more attention from active buyers.

Overall, education-based marketing is a powerful strategy for businesses that want to establish themselves as trusted advisors in their industry. By providing valuable information to potential clients, a business can build trust and credibility, reach a larger audience, and convert more leads into customers. So if you haven't already tried education-based marketing, it's definitely worth giving it a try and seeing how it can work for your business.