Education: An Industry Differentiator That Grows Your Business with Courtney Sembler [DMC Recap]

Courtney Sembler, Manager of Hubspot Academy Education, joined us at the Utah DMC Conference to educate us not only about the importance of educating clients but also how to leverage client education to grow your business.

Courtney started her presentation by sharing a little background on Hubspot Academy and how it came to be. From a humble launch in 2012 to a large network and assortment of certifications, it’s safe to say Hubspot loves education and knows how to educate well.

The main three main reasons for education and why it is so impactful:

1. Attract prospects
2. Engage leads
3. Delight customers

Customers look to businesses to help them achieve their goals and they come to businesses for a reason. Educating customers HELPS customers achieve their goals. When a business helps customers achieve their goals and does so in a way that helps elevate their knowledge, the customers then become that business’ best marketers, sales people and service people.

Knowing these principles, there is a difference between education and information.

Information allows learners to resolve uncertainty and answer questions, but education allows learners to perform a skill with unaided recall and apply the knowledge learned across multiple topics/subjects. 

When creating education for your customers, it’s important that it meets certain criteria:

1. Is it relevant for the learner’s context of their life or job?
2. Is it learner controlled and/or self-directed?
3. Is it based on prior experience the learner can draw from?
4. Is it timely?
5. Is it scenario or case-based with real life best practices and examples?
6. Is it self-motivated, which encourages the learner to continue developing?

When creating these learning experiences for your customers it’s always important to remember the WHY, HOW and WHAT. 

• The why = the outcome or objective
• The how = the best practices or approach
• The what = the steps needed to complete

The WHY is what provides the power of validation for the learner to see the value and importance in the content being presented to them and makes your educational material more impactful.

Courtney then shared her favorite framework for instructional design, which is The ADDIE Method. It is a framework used by instructional designers and learning professionals when creating educational assets, and is made up of 5 parts:

1. Analysis
2. Design
3. Develop
4. Implement
5. Evaluate

• Analysis is where you would identify an area you can attract or engage customers with education and select the type of delivery, and the employee to create that education.
• Design is the part where you identify the WHY, HOW and WHAT. 
• From there, you get into Develop where education is created and assessed, and feedback is provided. Running tests and reviewing them with stakeholders is key here.
• Implement is making your customers or audience aware of the educational resource and then delivering it.
• Evaluate is where you review the outcomes and the feedback and then go on to repeat the ADDIE process all over again!

To help your customers market your business, encourage social promotion of the courses or materials you’ve created! Spread the word on social channels.

In conclusion, we all agree that Hubspot is one of the greatest customer educators in today’s business world. Educating your clients is a great way to empower your customers with information and knowledge, and to also solidify yourself and your business as a thought leader in your industry!