Teaching is Good Marketing

Teaching is a great way to promote your business. In 10 Low-Cost Ways to Promote Your Business I talk about giving seminars or presentations related to your business to get your customers/clients fired up about your products or services and to create good word-of-mouth.

I mention a flooring store offering free seminars on how to install a particular product as an example, but others abound. Many stores offering kitchen products and restaurants have had success offering cooking classes themed upon a particular product or type of cooking, for instance.

Now John Jantsch reminds me that marketing materials can teach too and give you similar promotional benefits to face-to-face teaching. He says:

Far too often we sell a product or service and just assume our customers are getting the results they desired or were promised. By creating a systematic “how to” set of materials we can help them be more successful, use more of the features, and ultimately experience greater value.

In Teach Your Way to Referrals John gives several examples of the kind of marketing materials you can create that will get the positive buzz going about your business, such as creating a getting started guide for your product, company or service and creating an automated series of emails that gives tips about using your product or service.

Like he says, it takes some work to prepare the materials, but the benefits can be tremendous.