I’m not a marketing expert, or even a marketer, so take the following with the proverbial boulder of salt. Still, I have to market Quinnovation, and I’ve advised orgs on marketing (learning) products, and I’ve taken down a lot of bogus marketing. So when something prompted me to reflect, I realized I had some thoughts on authentic marketing.

First, I’ve argued that good marketing is really good customer education. That is, you should be helping your customers understand why your product is the right thing for their needs. Of course, you should be first designing to ensure that it is the answer. Or, perhaps, an answer, and then helping your customers to understand if they’re the right customer for this solution.

And, when I’ve studied marketing for services, there are several steps that make sense. First, the clear thing is knowing your customer’s pain, and being able to articulate how you solve that pain. You want to help articulate clearly what the problem is, and what’s it’s costing, so that then you can suggest a solution and the benefits.

At core it’s about building up a solid, scrutable, case. Which is, in essence, building up trust that you know what you’re talking about, and that you can truly meet the need.

And that may not be the quick easy way. It appears to be the case that some folks would rather use clickbait-style advertising. Perhaps to cover up from not having a defensibly different product or solution? When there are hundreds of LMSs around, how do you differentiate yourself?  And I guess it works, because I keep finding new examples of marketing that goes for the cheap ploy rather than authentic education.

So I guess this is a plea for being an aware consumer. It’d be great if orgs started building products that really do make their customers awesome, and then use authentic marketing to sell them. In lieu of that, be wary. Look for unsubstantiated hype, buzzword bandwagon behavior, and style over substance. Know what you need, take your time to do due diligence, and spend wisely. Caveat emptor, after all.

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