Understanding the Customer Lifecycle: Education

If you made it here, congratulations! You’ve done the work to get through to your audience and garnered some interest.

Whoever you’ve reached wants to learn more about you. It’s like a second date. They know they’re interested, so they just keep moving that relationship forward.

If you’re trying to keep up with the many stages of the lifecycle, we define them as:

• Awareness
• Education
• Conversion
• Onboarding
• Retention
• Brand Advocacy
• Word-of-Mouth

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Why Care About Education?

Simply put: the more relatable you are to them, the more likely they are to buy. 

You’ll continue to educate customers once they’re locked in. But this preliminary education stage is make-or-break when it comes to securing them.

This is your chance to show them why you’re different. If you don’t do that, you’re likely to lose clicks.

By this point, they’ve probably left an email trail on your site or given you a call.

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The Right Fit

Think about that fitness tracker example again: once someone decides to go all-in on a tracker, they have to decide which one. It’s daunting, really.

The customer has two watches to choose from: a full-blown smartwatch and a simple fitness tracker. By this point, they’ve already decided they don’t want all the bells and whistles, just health tracking.

Their choice? A fitness tracker.

Next step? Get to know the fitness tracker brand.

They’ll probably research functions, styles, prices, battery life, even your company’s values. Most people Google and check out social media pages and websites. 

They’re now weighing their options based on these (more specific) things:

• Does this product do what I need?
• Is the price in my budget?
• Does it seem user-friendly?
• Is the company upstanding?
• Do they align with my values?
• Did I have a good customer experience?
  

Consider featuring explainer videos highlighting its best assets or a product comparison chart, like this one, that compares your product to others.

You might add a values page to your site and clips of happy customers on social.

plus, you have to think about those new prospects filtering back in.

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Key Concepts During the Education Stage

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The point of this stage is to move potential customers to customers.

There are a few places they might have found you:

• Commercials
• Social Media
• Website
• Web Searches
• Word-of-Mouth
  

You should be able to market directly to them in any of those places, with a CTA at the end.

Wherever they found you should send them to your site where they’ll find a transitional offer or to your phone number to find out more.

Once they reach out, you’re in. You now have contacts.

You’ll now be able to find out what they’re most interested in and send them exactly the right messages.

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Start nurture campaigns.

Since they’ve given you their email address, they’ve opted into your emails. This is a great time to catch them up to speed on what you’re about. 

You want to show them your options, maybe offer a discount code. 

Use their data to decide what direction to go from there, only offering them relevant content.

This might spur them to a decision, meaning you get a sale.

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Write regular blog posts.

Almost 4 billion people are connected to the internet. (!!!)

And 75% of internet users read blogs regularly.

Make sure you market to the people who will click every page on your website for the most complete picture possible.

Update your blog section regularly so they have the information they’re looking for and understand more about your company. 

A blog section also functions as a home for successful CTAs, so you’ll likely get leads here.

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Make good videos.

People like to watch quality content.

There are few ways to take it if you want to try your hand at filming:

• Training series for their new purchase
• Welcome videos
• Educational videos in their inbox 
• Virtual site and service tours
  

You can place these on your site or in their inbox after they sign up.

It doesn’t need to be a documentary -- a few short videos will do.

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Showcase testimonials.

Doesn’t everybody like proof that a company does what it says it will? *slowly raises hand*

Adding testimonials gives you that extra edge so your customers know they can trust you.

When you get down to it, this is the deciding moment. It’s your acquisition pivot point.

Moving forward, you’ll reach the conversion stage, where all of your customer personalization skills make the dream work.

Need better education strategies? Schedule a call now!

To educate yourself a little better, read the rest of the posts in our series: “Understanding the Customer Lifecycle.”