Why Invest in Product Education?
An education strategy empowers customers, drives adoption, and meets people where they are (plus a whole lot more).
This post is part of an introductory series to product education. Topics covered in this series will start at a high-level, while future posts will build upon them in more depth.
By investing in an education strategy (and the people, tools, and processes that come along with it), successful companies are able to create value both for customers and for themselves. This post covers just three of the many tangible benefits of an effective customer education strategy.
An education strategy empowers customers
It may seem obvious, but as the old saying goes, "knowledge is power”1. Providing access to educational content about your product gives your customers the ability to learn and leverage. When you help them connect the dots (learn), they’re well positioned to use your product more and more as they create more value through it (leverage).
💡 TIP
Empowerment isn't exactly quantifiable. But, you can measure if your customers are using - and coming back to - your educational content. Measure things like usage (site traffic, signups) engagement (click through rates, bounce rate), and satisfaction (CSAT, NPS) to gauge how your customers are using your content.
An education strategy drives adoption
Providing effective education content helps customers to understand the value of a product and guides them through using it to meet their needs.
Effective education content drives adoption by showing customers the benefits of a product or feature and how to use it effectively. This can lead to increased user adoption as users are more likely to see the benefits of the product and continue using it over time.
Here are just a few examples of how targeted content can drive adoption:
Product onboarding tips can guide new users through onboarding, focusing on the most important features that lead to long-term adoption.
Videos and webinars can convert potential customers to net-new signups by targeting specific verticals and use cases.
Blog articles can highlight the value of new paid features and drive traffic to pricing pages (and ultimately lead to upgrades).
Quick start docs can reduce barriers to entry by guiding users through core functionality and decrease time to value.
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One way to measure adoption is by using conversion metrics. For example, a webinar could include a call to action (CTA) at the end to sign up for your product or try out a new feature. The CTA conversion rate is just one way to measure the success of that educational content.
An education strategy meets people where they are
The majority of people actually prefer to learn and resolve questions on their own without speaking to a real person2. This may sound surprising to some, but think for a moment about the best experience you've had with engaging in some form of educational content for a product or service you love. The best experiences are when:
You have a problem, question, or interest
You’re able to easily search and find content that addresses your need
It provides the right information to help you move forward
Effective content delivers the right information in the right format at the right time and in the right place. In other words, it meets people where they are.
Product education creates value
Effective education strategies have the potential to create value in the areas covered above, plus a whole lot more. Successful strategies also see tangible impact in:
Building awareness
Decreasing customer time to value
Scaling customer success operations
Increasing self-service
Creating an effective customer success flywheel
Lowering support and service costs
Leveraging 1:1 interactions for high-impact connections
This publication will cover all of these benefits (and more) of investing in and executing on a customer and product education strategy. I hope you’ll subscribe for more.
Scientia potentia est, Wikipedia
Kick-Ass Customer Service, Harvard Business Review