Sales and Marketing Success Coaching: Tips and Structures

How to Use Training as a Marketing Tool

While many companies focus on marketing their products or services, combining training in marketing and sales strategy is a real opportunity to stand out from the rest of the competition by providing unique added value.

By providing training and sharing useful information, the company positions itself as a key expert in the market. This position will strengthen customer trust and confidence in the brand and increase customer loyalty and retention. It therefore allows each company to strengthen its authority and ensure its expertise in its target.

Why Training Needs to Be Part of Your Marketing Strategy

Naturally, training greatly increases the engagement of prospects and customers: educational content creates stronger interactions than “creative” communication. People get very busy when they learn something new, especially after they have taken the step of signing up and participating in the training. This brand connection translates into the most common areas of communication.

Finally, taking webinars or physical workshops, training often attracts hot prospects, who are already interested in your technical area, which increases the chances of conversion. Unlike other social media channels, the results are often easily specified because the list of participants and subscribers is usually downloadable.

To summarize, training therefore brings important benefits in terms of business development:

• Strengthening authority and expertise
• Increase commitment
• Competitive differentiation
• Finding qualified leaders

However, before launching a training strategy, it is important to understand the needs and challenges of your target audience. What problems are they trying to solve? What skills would they like to develop? Articles should be directly related to the company’s products/services while providing clear added value to users.

Choosing the Right Training Format

Depending on the audience, the target, and of course, the resources of the company, training can take several forms.

1. Face-to-face format

Face-to-face training where prospects or clients are away for a day or more is an interesting format but is more organizationally complex and expensive to set up. This structure includes having a suitable location, arranging meals and snacks, possibly lodging, transportation, and paying for coaches.

So it’s hard to offer free face-to-face training—unless you reserve it for VIP clients! In this case, the training should be considered as a real event that should mark the minds of the participants. Which means in a special place, with quality food, possible evening entertainment to make VIP clients feel special. The experience surrounding the training will be as important as the training content and will significantly improve the brand image.

2. Webinar

A webinar is a particularly interesting tool, suitable for companies that wish to reach a broad target at a low cost. Relying on specialized solutions, the webinar is easy to set up and allows direct interaction with participants by answering various questions asked throughout the event. Usually very short (30 to 1 minute), webinars are easily accessible as anyone can attend the event, at the office or at home.

Webinars can be used as powerful marketing tools because they allow you to talk about in-depth topics while highlighting the services or products that the company is promoting. That way they improve the company’s expertise and improve its reputation while generating potential leads that can be used by the sales (SQL) and marketing (MQL) teams.

Webinars can be used with people who are already customers, for example, to provide best practices or to explain how a product or certain features work. In this case, the webinar makes it possible to increase customer satisfaction and effectively fight churn.

But for companies that really want to stand out from the competition, it is possible to combine webinars and tests to create a truly unique learning experience!

3. eLearning Training Courses

Creating eLearning modules is often an expensive and time-consuming task. However, this digital training format can be a real vector for company growth. A truly experienced company can offer digitalized training courses based on eLearning courses, quizzes, and assessments. These free or paid courses can lead to the delivery of a diploma or certificate that can be used in professional life.

The eLearning modules can be used in two situations, combined in the sales and marketing method:

1. To improve its popularity by offering high value added content. Prospects who get new information, thanks to the company’s eLearning training courses, will have a good image of the brand.
2. Educating customers about products/services and ensuring customer satisfaction.

To set up and deliver eLearning modules to prospects and customers, it is important to rely on powerful and reliable digital learning tools to provide a seamless experience.

4. Other Possible Formats

Other possibilities, less expensive and easier to use, can also be used. Here are some popular options:

• Articles, eBooks, and white papers
  Since they are static, these formats are ideal for in-depth content or practical guides.
• Instructional videos
  They allow information to be transmitted quickly and are popular, especially in product demonstrations or tips. In BtoC, for example, DIY brands use instructional videos to improve their popularity and gain customers.
• Podcasts and interviews
  The audio format allows you to share thoughts, discussions, or case studies with industry experts.

Final Words

Integrating training into a marketing strategy is an excellent way to provide value to your audience while strengthening your position in the market. By sharing knowledge and helping customers improve their skills, each company goes beyond selling products and becomes a valuable resource and reference.

The key lies in creating the right content, in the right format, and in effective promotion to reach the right audience. The future of marketing lies in sharing information, and companies that know how to capitalize on this aspect will have a head start. Will you use this opportunity to increase the growth of your business?