Driving Growth & Engagement: Unleashing the Power of Marketing for Customer Education Programs

Introduction

Shannon:
All right, hey everybody! Welcome to this month's Underscore.

Today, we're going to be talking about marketing your education program. Whether you're in Learning & Development, Customer Education, or Partner Education, there's something for you in this discussion. I’m super excited about this topic because I’ve worked extensively at the intersection of marketing and education.

Learning is most powerful when people are engaging with it. So today, we’re going to discuss various aspects of marketing education—not just marketing channels and tactics, but also how we can get into the mindset of our learners and ensure ongoing engagement with our learning programs.

Before we dive in and introduce our guests, let’s go over some quick housekeeping:

1. The chat is open, so feel free to introduce yourself, tell us where you're calling in from, and participate.
2. There’s a Q&A box at the bottom of your screen. Later in the webinar, we’ll take your questions, so feel free to drop them in there at any time. This helps us keep track of them so nothing gets lost in the chat.

Guest Introductions

Shannon:
I’ll start by introducing myself. I’m Shannon, the Director of Customer & Content Marketing at Intellum. My background spans marketing, curriculum development, education marketing, and product management for learning platforms.

Now, let’s introduce our amazing guests!

Lindsay

Lindsay is an advisor at SaaS Academy Advisors. She spent eight years at HubSpot, where she was part of the founding team for HubSpot Academy. If you're in customer education or marketing, you’ve likely come across HubSpot Academy.

While at HubSpot, Lindsay led several key initiatives, including:

• Managing a 12-person global training team, delivering 300+ annual trainings in over 40 locations.
• Expanding the Academy’s content beyond just certifications to include lessons, classes, and courses.
• Driving 25% year-over-year growth for the Academy.

Hannah

Hannah is the Marketing Director at Moss Marketing, and today marks her three-year anniversary with the company!

She has over ten years of experience in marketing, with the last seven focused on the Learning & Development (L&D) space. Moss Marketing’s mission is to help L&D teams embrace the power of marketing to increase visibility and engagement with learning programs.

The Key Topics for Today

Here’s what we’re going to cover in this discussion:

1. Understanding learner motivations – Why people engage in learning and how to align marketing efforts with these motivations.
2. Choosing the right marketing channels – How to determine the most effective channels based on your learners’ needs.
3. Internal marketing for education programs – How to find and cultivate internal champions who will help promote your programs.
4. Driving learner retention – Beyond attracting new learners, how do we keep them engaged over time?
5. Creating consistent engagement – Moving beyond one-time promotions to a sustained marketing strategy.

Understanding Learner Motivation

Shannon:
Let’s start with motivation. When it comes to customer or partner education or internal professional development, learning is often optional.

Lindsay, how do you motivate learners, especially when they aren’t required to take a course?

Lindsay:
Great question! Motivation is key to marketing and developing education programs. As educators, we aren’t just delivering content—we’re helping people develop skills that will lead to tangible outcomes.

One framework I use is the Jobs-to-Be-Done (JTBD) framework, developed by Harvard professor Clay Christensen. It helps us understand the deeper motivations behind learning.

For example, someone may take a course to develop new skills, but their real motivation could be:

• Getting a promotion
• Landing a new job
• Improving efficiency in their role

If we align our marketing with these motivations, we make our education more relevant and compelling to our audience.

Using Learner Insights to Determine Marketing Channels

Shannon:
Hannah, once we understand these motivations, how do we decide which marketing channels to use?

Hannah:
The biggest mistake I see in L&D is skipping audience research. Many teams assume they know their learners, but they don’t actually talk to them.

At Moss, we spend hours interviewing target audiences to understand:

• Their learning preferences
• Where they spend their time
• What barriers prevent them from engaging with learning

Then, we use a framework adapted from the AIDA model (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action) to map out the learner’s decision-making journey.

For example:

• If employees frequent the company intranet, we might place marketing there.
• If they spend time in the break room, a physical poster might be more effective.
• If they use Slack, we ensure learning resources are easy to find there.

By understanding where learners are already engaged, we can market education more effectively and without adding noise.

Creating Internal Champions

Shannon:
How can we get internal teams to help promote our education programs?

Lindsay:
Stakeholder management is crucial. If education teams are the only ones talking about learning, we’ve missed an opportunity.

Here’s what works:

1. Find influential internal champions. Managers are especially important because they directly influence employee behavior.
2. Tie education to their goals. For example, customer success managers want to reduce support tickets—show them how education helps them do that.
3. Share success stories. When CSMs see that education leads to faster customer success, they’re more likely to promote it.

Hannah:
I recently worked with a company where managers set up email filters to automatically delete messages from L&D. They saw learning as a distraction from real work.

To turn this around, we focused on marketing to leadership first—showing them how learning benefits their teams. This changed the narrative, and now those managers actively encourage professional development.

Maintaining Ongoing Engagement

Shannon:
A common mistake in marketing education is focusing only on one-time promotions. Lindsay, can you walk us through how to maintain continuous engagement?

Lindsay:
Yes! Instead of a one-time launch, we should create a learner engagement flywheel that includes:

1. Learning – Introduce learners to your program.
2. Applying – Help them apply their knowledge to real-world scenarios.
3. Expanding – Encourage them to build on their skills with additional courses.
4. Evangelizing – Equip them to share their success stories, becoming advocates for your education program.

By continuously engaging learners, we drive retention and create word-of-mouth marketing for education programs.

Final Thoughts & Key Takeaways

1. Think like a marketer. Education teams must market learning the same way a company markets its products.
2. Focus on learner motivations. Align messaging with learners’ real-world goals.
3. Leverage internal champions. Get managers and stakeholders involved in promoting learning.
4. Make engagement ongoing. Don’t stop marketing after launch—keep reinforcing value over time.
5. Work smarter, not harder. Build on existing marketing channels instead of reinventing the wheel.

Shannon:
Thank you, Lindsay and Hannah! For everyone listening, take a moment to fill out the post-webinar survey to help us plan future sessions.

Also, follow Lindsay and Hannah on LinkedIn for more insights. Thanks for joining us!