6 Targeted User Education Tactics: Ready for Adoption

December 7, 2012

Last week, I shared a post explaining why under-funding targeted user education and customer marketing can lead to customer retention and long-term profitability issues. This week, I will share six targeted user education tactics that some innovative companies are using to drive increased levels of customer satisfaction.

These tactics require different levels of sophistication that may make more sense to companies at different stages of development.

Without further ado, here are six targeted user education tactics being used by a few well-known software companies:

1. MailChimp has targeted user content that pops-up to guide users on how to use its platform, while also occasionally highlighting features you have never used before and asking if you would like to learn how the functionality works.

This makes learning new functionality less intimidating and encourages users to give it a shot.  The fact that it is targeted also increases the likelihood that a user like myself will actually check-out the content.

Targeted User Education Example 1

2. MailChimp also operates a user resource blog, which is a convenient central resource that users can refer to when learning how to use a feature or functionality.

3.SalesForce.com hosts DreamForce, which is its annual user and developer conference aimed at making sure users get the most out of the company’s products. One key focus of this event is to introduce users to new features and functionality in the platform. It also offer strategic partners that develop for the ecosystem the same opportunity.

4. Salesforce.com also delivers its #SUCCESS monthly newsletter to customers to highlight new features, tools, and best practices for getting the most out of Salesforce.

5. Pagemodo has a feature page on its website that lists all of the software’s product functionalities, along with links to tutorial videos that are well-organized and complemented by another page full of examples for utilizing these features.  The company also operates a product news section of its blog that is used to notify users of new Pagemodo functionality and features that could help them achieve their business goals.

6. Swiftpage’s Marketing Blog releases a series on Fridays that highlights an underused product feature. The intention is to teach users about infrequently used functionality. That way, they can be aware of it and evaluate whether or not it could make the product do more for them.

Obviously, each of these tactics requires a different level of targeting. The most effective techniques will be targeted down to specific user behavior, but these are also the most expensive types to implement. Getting started with some of the more direct tactics — like an underused product feature newsletter or an easy to access feature library — is a good start.

Ultimately, choosing to be customer-centric will make your products much stickier and it will greatly improve customer satisfaction.

Users gravitate towards products that are seamless to use, and it’s never too early or late to start integrating these targeted user education tactics into your marketing mix. Don’t miss out on an opportunity to on-board and retain customers long-term.

Next week, I will share a couple examples of things you can do to take your company’s user education to the next level and further drive customer satisfaction.

Marketing Manager, Pricing Strategy

<strong>Brandon Hickie</strong> is Marketing Manager, Pricing Strategy at <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/">LinkedIn</a>. He previously worked at OpenView as Marketing Insights Manager. Prior to OpenView Brandon was an Associate in the competition practice at Charles River Associates where he focused on merger strategy, merger regulatory review, and antitrust litigation.