Content marketers are entrusted with the responsibility of educating potential and existing customers with valuable resources related to their industry, but the content marketing toolbox hasn’t changed in recent years— eBooks, webinars, blogs, and videos.

Today’s customers are expecting more interactive experiences and are also looking to get demonstrated value from the time they spend with your company. According to Demand Gen Report’s 2015 Content Preferences survey, 91% of buyers prefer content that is visual and has an element of interactivity. As a result, marketers are facing multiple challenges, including adopting new interactive content technologies, integrating these advanced tools with existing marketing software, and scaling results.

So, innovative marketers are experimenting with the next evolution of content marketing – offering on-demand training for lead generation. This strategy provides your prospects with demonstrated value from the time they spend with your company, prior to entering a buying cycle.

How BECU Uses Training as Marketing

BECU is the nation’s fourth largest credit union, with nearly 1 million members and more than $13 billion in assets. Providing financial education through workshops at schools and in the community has always been part of their mission to improve financial well-being.

In 2014, they were faced with the challenge of how to scale their financial education program nationwide, particularly for their popular First Time Home Buyer class, which was previously delivered in-person with a live instructor. They decided to launch a free, on-demand version by converting their PowerPoints to short narrated videos and PDF handouts.

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For the public, the on-demand version was a great benefit. Members were able to review the content as they progressed through purchasing a home, share the course with others who couldn’t attend, easily access interactive financial calculators, and even obtain a coupon off closing costs for mortgages with BECU.

For BECU, they were able to double the scale of their program while also getting detailed data on who was registering for information on first-time home buying (valuable to their mortgage team). They were also able to track how engaged students were with each module, all at a decreased cost-per-lead.

With this change to on-demand, BECU was able to expand its scale and better achieve its mission.

For more on customer training as marketing, download How to Use Online Training for Lead Generation.

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