Providing Value
Many of the best versions of marketing provide value. Value in this instance has a really broad definition. Value could be: something that is funny, something that makes you feel good, or something that educates. We like to suggest to many of our customers that providing education is always a good idea. When you provide education to your customers, in business to business (B2B) or business to consumer (B2C), you will gain a few things:
- Evergreen Content: If you educate your customers, that content is evergreen. A restaurant talking about a weekend special is only valuable to the audience for a limited amount of time. A restaurant doing an explainer about what certain terms mean on their menu or how to select the best steaks provides value and is relevant for a long period of time. These pieces can also be reused over time without much reinvention.
- Higher Value: If you are able to educate your customers on why things are valuable to them, you increase your own value. If an accounting business is able to talk about how certain business structures can end up saving owners money, they are at the same time increasing the value of their services in the customer’s mind. Sometimes people do not understand that full value proposition of a good or service. If you can educate someone about the full value, you might take them to a place where they are willing to pay more for that good or service than they would have previously paid. Saddleback Leather does a great job about educating customers on their quality which helps them charge high amounts for their products.
- Positioning as an Expert- This might be the most valuable component of education. The more you are able to demonstrate your expertise to your audience, the more you will be viewed as an expert in the industry. People like hiring experts. Being the top in your field means extra money for you. Being seen as an expert on a subject in your geographical area, leads to free marketing opportunities and the increase of reputation leads to more business.
- SEO Value- Educational content usually answers questions for customers. Answering questions is a key component of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) marketing. When you create content that has informational aspects to it, you will likely end up adding keywords to those posts that will help your potential customers find you on Search Engines.
This blog post is a portion of Attention and Action. The book walks you through the marketing process that Adelsberger Marketing follows with its clients. You can read this book for free as a blog on the Adelsberger Marketing website or purchase on Amazon.com.
