For many years I worked for an organization that relied on a successful, unique style of marketing. The style was marketing through education and the company was Whitmire Research Laboratories. Back in the '70s, Whitmire was developing a unique system of pesticide application for homes and businesses. The company faced the challenge of selling a system that was initially more expensive and required more actual work on the technician's part than traditional systems. The upside of the system was that it required less pesticide and targeted the pest specifically; thus it was more effective.

Traditional methods of advertising weren't practical because the target audience was unfamiliar with the new concept. The president of the company, Blanton Whitmire, decided that prospects needed to be educated about the system before they would buy it.

The company's first of many educational efforts was to conduct nationwide seminars to teach customers how to use the system. But the seminars were not just “commercials.” They included facts and practical information. This balance of commercial and educational information satisfied those attending because they felt they learned information that would help them on the job. And it satisfied the company whose prospects were becoming educated with the specifics of the new system.

Whitmire says, “Any product or service can benefit from marketing by education. People are much more receptive to learning about a product than they are to being sold a product.”

Education-based marketing exploits these common traits in people to help overcome obstacles to buying: fear of the unknown — not understanding why or how the products work; aversion to being “sold”; desire to know insider information; and justification of purchases based on logical facts.

Education-based marketing takes away the threat of making a wrong decision. David Frey, president of Marketing Best Services, says, “You're replacing the selling pitch with an education pitch. People respond to that because they are tired of worn-out old sales pitches. If you provide people with hard-to-find, useful information, they feel as though they are empowered to make decisions on their own.”

Education-based marketing overcomes one of the main enemies of marketing — skepticism. Skeptical people make purchase decisions by first gathering information, reviewing their alternatives, selecting an alternative and, finally, reviewing their choice after the fact.

There are several steps to conducting education-based marketing:

• Gather information that you think your prospect would like to know, but probably doesn't. This information can be techniques, tips, background, and features and benefits of the product or system.

• Create the image of demand. When Whitmire began offering 3½-day symposiums for a fee, few signed up. To create the image that it was a successful educational venture, we invited select customers to come without paying. After the first year, the word got around that the education we offered was well worth the money, and from then on, the room was filled.

• At each of the touch points where your company has contact with prospects and customers, educate! The touch points can be ads, phone contacts, sales calls, newsletters, flyers, seminars, or mailings. At your Web site, add actual information, some having to do with your product or service and some that is purely educational. This adds to your credibility!

As Whitmire stated, any product or service can benefit from education-based marketing. So think about how you can educate your customers about your product or service, begin an aggressive educational campaign and wait for the phone to ring!

June Van Klaveren, Compelling Communications Inc., author of The Edge Up, offers marketing and customer service to help her customers attract more clients. She can be reached at 800/779-0067 or through the Web site www.compelcom.com.

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© 2007 Penton Media, Inc.