Customer Spotlight: 4 Strategies to Promote Your Customer Education Academy

Creating an academy for your customers is an effective strategy to help them get the most out of your product and turn users into brand advocates. But you can’t just build an academy and expect users to show up on their own. Promotion and marketing are necessary to spread the word and help customers find the resources they need. 

In this month’s customer spotlight, Mia Ford, Head of Customer Engagement at Spinify, shares four marketing tactics her team used to create and promote Spinify Academy. Use these strategies to get the word out about your customer education academy and help users get the most out of your product or service. 

Email marketing

Chances are you’re already using email as part of your marketing strategy. According to Databox, 33 percent of marketers send weekly emails, and 26 percent send emails multiple times per month. That’s because email is effective. On average, email drives an ROI of $36 for every dollar spent, which is higher than any other channel. 

You should use email to promote your academy content if you’re not already. “Everyone is on email,” Mia says. “Customers are accustomed to interacting with you through this channel.” 

Mia’s team uses a two-email sequence that includes an announcement email and a reminder message. Her team also includes banners in every email they send. 

Based on data from Opensense, email banners can have a click-through rate between 5 and 10 percent. Using banners helps make your email stand out in a crowded inbox, grab readers’ attention, and build brand awareness. 

In-product messaging

In-app or in-product pop-ups can act as helpful sales or customer service reps. They can be beneficial for sales, customer service, and customer education because:

• They grab the user’s attention
• They eliminate distractions and encourage the user to take the desired action
• They reinforce your message and values

“Anytime users login to Spinify, they’ll see a pop-up,” Mia says. “It says, for example, ‘you haven’t tried this before; how about coming into our academy to learn how to use it? Or how about getting certified so you can become a Spinify ninja.’” 

Some examples of in-product pop-ups include:

• Pop-ups for announcements and important messages. Triggered by ChurnZero, Spinify uses these pop-ups to ensure customers are aware of important information. 
• Notification buttons for platform updates. Triggered from Beamer, these buttons keep Spinify customers updated on platform features and updates. 

In-product messages and pop-ups give users another touchpoint and help them feel supported. Users don’t have to leave the product to get help or ask questions.

Website banners

In addition to email banners, Spinify also uses banners on its website. Using banners offers many benefits, including:

• Grabbing visitors’ attention
• Building brand awareness
• Increased visibility–banners are noticed instantly

Banners are a low-cost way to spread the word about content, special offers, promotions, and more. 

Spinify uses banners on their Helpdesk Pages and as a ticker tape banner in customers’ MySpinify accounts.

Some customers have shared that it’s convenient to access the academy from the Help page, and it’s an effective way for customers to learn and troubleshoot by doing versus reading. This approach can also be helpful to kinesthetic learners who prefer to learn new information by doing versus reading or watching video tutorials.

Read more: What is Multimodal Learning

Content marketing

Content marketing is an effective way to generate brand awareness and can also help you attract customers and drive revenue. According to SEMRush’s State of Content Marketing 2022 Global Report, 97 percent of respondents use content marketing in their overall marketing strategy.

Brands use content marketing to educate users and prospects on relevant topics and address pain points. Academy content can and should be incorporated into your content marketing strategy. 

“We talk about the academy in our blogs,” Mia says. “We are throwing it everywhere to get the word out.”

You can promote your academy with blog and social media content and help users understand the benefits.

Help customers get the most from your product or service

Email marketing, pop-ups, banners, and content marketing are all effective tactics to promote your customer education academy and equip users with necessary resources. When customers use your academy to get certified or become experts, they can get the greatest benefit from your product or service and become lifelong brand champions.

If you want to improve product adoption through customer education, WorkRamp can help. Request a demo to learn more about how to drive engagement and revenue through scalable customer training.