Are Educational Marketing Interactions Ruining Clients

Regular value packed interactions with client keep your company top of mind. Newsletters, seminars, workshops, and articles are great ways to educate while improving your relationship with prospects in between rendering solutions. However, value created through interactive marketing may lead clients to take your company for granted.

Inside Strategic Relations, the Center's twice-monthly newsletter, provides practical advice for both clients and prospects. ?While the newsletter builds rapport, it steps readers through methods that improve business relationships that create and keep customers. Nevertheless, a large percentage of readers think the newsletter is all they really need, even while real business relationship problems are eating their bottom-line.

Are your educational marketing interactions preventing people from getting the solutions they really need now?

If all a prospect sees are educational marketing and retention materials, then I've done them a great disservice. To solve this problem I've hired Jessica Albon, a newsletter expert, to help me better serve readers by moving them past the newsletter into tailored solutions that solve the real problems they face.? My goals are to:

Improve issue relevance for paying members and consulting clients.? The newsletter is a functional sample of what members receive, but ultimately members and clients benefit more than anyone does. Reader retention will be a key measure for this goal.

Increase the number of qualified readers.? Like lead generation, my newsletter prepares prospective clients for membership or specific consulting services. I'll measure this by looking at the number of members and clients who started out as newsletter subscribers.

Increase per issue revenue generated from nonmembers. ?To keep costs low while further qualifying readers for membership and consulting services, it's important to generation some revenue from every piece of collateral. I will measure this with hard dollars received.

Help readers learn of options to improve implementation.? I do a disservice to readers if I don't make it clear what resources are available to improve results. I'll measure this by click through to partners, inquiries generated, and requests for more information.

Are you making the same mistakes by giving free advice that only solves part of the problem?? If you have a complex solution that requires an educated buyer, be careful about how you educate them. ?Make it clear there is a next step and encourage prospects to take it.

I highly recommend Jessica's The Newsletter Spa, a subscription program providing tools, which help produce better results business newsletters. She has experience with corporate clients and would certainly have ideas for improving your education based marketing or retention programs.

Your interactive marketing efforts can be too good if they give your clients a false sense of security. Your newsletters and education based interactive marketing could be so good it keeps prospects from solving real problems. Reevaluate what you are giving away; it could be hurting more than you think.