Blog

B2B Content material Advertising and marketing’s Subsequent Step: Licensed Programs

Graduation cap in the air against a blue sky

PHOTO: Jody Hong Films

Towards the end of last year, my LinkedIn timeline was inundated with executives emphasizing the importance of continued learning and upskilling, and sharing the shiny new certifications they had earned.

I don’t know if this sudden excitement is because LinkedIn’s algorithm decided I’m interested, or if a significant increase in people certified themselves in the fourth quarter and wanted to make this public.

The interesting thing was that not all courses were academic certificates from traditional universities. Although these certifications are very reputable, they are more expensive and require a certain investment of time. Instead, the certifications issued came from a range of players, including:

  • Ivy Leagues MOOCs: Paid Certifications.
  • Aggregator learning platforms like Coursera and Udemy: Both free and paid certifications.
  • Industry organizations such as Digital Marketing Institute, Online Marketing Certified Professionals and Content Marketing Institute: Paid Certifications.
  • Walled garden platforms like LinkedIn Learning: Paid (subscription based).
  • Independent content entrepreneurs (Neil Patel, The Tilt): Both free and paid certifications.
  • Providers offering courses related to their product, category and beyond. For example HubSpot, Drift, SEMRush, Trust Insights, Sweet Fish Media: Mostly free.

The last group was fascinating.

Informational and educational content has long been the foundation of B2B marketing for acquisition and engagement. However, the training was typically aimed at helping potential buyers (members and personas who fit the ideal customer profile) make a more informed purchasing decision. You haven’t seen many certifications in the mix. That seems to be changing.

Why do B2B companies offer certifications for industry professionals?

This trend – product companies offering evaluated and certified courses – marks an evolution in content marketing. It fundamentally redefines what educational content means to a brand, while creating new opportunities for engaging, retaining and advocating prospects and customers.

That’s why more product companies (alongside HubSpot Academy, which remains the pioneer and leader in this space) are offering educational certifications that help you do your job better, as opposed to educational content that helps you “make a more informed to make a purchase decision.”

Here are some of the benefits a brand can expect when this long-term commitment of funds, resources and expertise goes well:

1. Build an engaged community

The community model has gone through a few evolutions: from internal communities to more interactive, transparent, and decentralized communities hosted on platforms like Slack and Discord. Brands are now using certified courses and programs to add new dimensions to community engagement. It not only proclaims, “We care about your career and have an interest in your long-term professional success,” but also gives the brand a direct line to the pain points and expectations of users and customers. Because professionals see themselves as learners rather than students, B2B brands can better engage them by embedding them in the broader community experience.

Drift Vice President Mark Kilens previously ran the HubSpot Academy and recently launched Drift Insider, a community of marketers looking to delve deeper into conversational marketing. Certified courses, he said, offer a powerful new way to drive quality content down the funnel of prospects and customers. “When things get more serious, community and education can really help to engage potential customers more deeply with the world of the brand. The trick is to organize all three types of content (branding, engagement, and conversion) into a single team so we can align those content experiences across the business lifecycle,” he said.

Related article: Content Hubs, a safe place to meet your audience

2. Create a category

When a brand starts in a relatively unknown solution category, it needs to build awareness, usage and demand, and drive adoption through process and culture shifts. Community and education can play a key role in achieving this goal. Think content marketing, inbound marketing, and now conversational marketing: all three categories have benefited from building a community that also offers category-specific certified training. The approach helps create a new cohort of practitioners (users and customers) who understand the new solution (before their peers) and even champion the category as they advance in their careers.

3. Shape the industry narrative

Indeed, B2B companies that invest in training and certification of practitioners play a large role in mainstreaming the category, driving standardization or setting benchmarks in all vertical customer areas. They bring an in-depth knowledge of the niche that others like MOOCs and learning platforms simply cannot. Robert Rose, founder of The Content Advisory and Chief Strategy Advisor of the Content Marketing Institute, said B2B companies can offer much more timely, relevant and differentiated offers in their niche. “It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if a company like GE, Apple or LinkedIn offered a fully accredited four-year degree. To be honest, why no major B2B brand has done this before is a mystery to me,” he said.

Related article: Ideas for Marketers to Combat Webinar Fatigue

4. Increase Customer Success Results

New products, brands in highly dynamic industries, and those struggling with adoption can all benefit from offering certified courses that increase the perceived value of the solution. Educating customers on how to use your product will help them achieve better results. Certifying customers as authorities on your products creates champions who can drive adoption within the organization long after a training session is complete.

The evolution of content marketing creates a win-win situation

When brand certification is done right, everyone wins. For example, let’s say a B2B company decides to start a podcast. Your options are: hire an expensive consultant or agency and remain dependent; Hire an outside marketer with a proven track record of delivering podcasts. Or develop in-house talent by having a middle manager take a certified course offered by a popular B2B podcasting platform.

The third option gives the company an in-house expert for a fraction of the cost of a consultant or agency, while nurturing internal talent. The employee acquires a new skill and becomes more employable; the podcasting platform is likely to make a sale and create a tangible stake in the manager’s longer-term success; the Podcasting Industry Gets Another Informed “Certified” Champion; and the larger pool of marketing talent is growing stronger.

As you can imagine, this approach is labor and resource intensive. Interactive course content developed by real subject matter experts, real educators to balance pedagogy, relatively high production values, and long-term follow-up for assessment, feedback, and upgrades. While the easier availability of technologies such as prepackaged learning platforms allows for more cost-effective delivery of content at scale, it also requires superior content and learning experiences. Certification is a long-term commitment compared to providing a set of guidance.

In part two, we’ll explore how brands can leverage this trend to drive real business outcomes. What are the best practices and key considerations to get the model right? What does the future hold? Don’t miss the expert insights from The Tilt’s Robert Rose, Mark Kilens and Ann Gynn in the next article.