“No matter what your product is, you are ultimately in the education business. Your customers need to be constantly educated about the many advantages of doing business with you, trained to use your products more effectively, and taught how to make never-ending improvement in their lives.” – Robert G. Allen
As I have said already, if I was to describe what Marketing is in one word, it would be ‘Education’.
Education based Marketing is a powerful marketing strategy that establishes trust and credibility using educational messages. It is the direct opposite of traditional marketing, which uses selling-based messages. It tells your prospective clients that you are teaching them, not selling to them, and people like to buy, not be sold to.
People are extremely resistant to sales pitches. Barriers shoot up the moment they detect a ‘buy from me’ message. It’s a clear indication they are dealing with a salesperson, and no one wants a salesperson in the lounge room unless they must. In contrast, people sit up and listen when you share important facts and expert information that help them make a good buying decision. People want to deal with someone who knows what they are talking about and is just trying to help them, which I believe is how the vast majority of Mortgage Brokers see themselves.
“The best marketing is education.” – Regis McKenna
By educating your clients you are answering your questions before they ask them, you are proving to them that you understand their situation and what they need to know. You are showing them you know things that they didn’t even know they had to consider. You are empowering them and giving them information which helps them make better decisions, which makes you the expert who is trying to help them. You are demonstrating ability trust and personal trust, as I have defined previously.
In a perfect world you would teach your potential clients everything that you know — don’t you think they would really respect you and your advice if they knew just how broad and detailed it is? If they fully understood how you are incentivised to get them the best financial outcome you can? Don’t concern yourself that you are talking yourself out of a job, because they will want to keep you on their side. They want to go to you because you have proven you know what you are doing and are up to date with all the latest industry information.
People can’t be bothered doing everything for themselves — but they do want to know they are as well off, or at least close to being as well off, as if they did it themselves. A large part of the effectiveness of educational marketing is that, by showing people everything they need to know to get close to your level of knowledge, you are showing them it is all too hard for them to replicate — it’s much easier to hand it off to the expert, and that expert is you.