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.
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.
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:
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:
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!