4 Benefits of Informational Marketing

Informational marketing pertains to marketing content that dives into detail about how a product or service works. 

Companies with complex customer journeys commonly turn to informational marketing services to get people familiar with their offerings. These companies include automotive companies and other operations that require several steps and a lot of consumer buy-in.  

   

While informational marketing is more popular in some industries than others, it offers distinct benefits that will foster growth in success in just about any business. This article will highlight 4 key benefits of integrating informational marketing into your current digital marketing plans. 

Benefits of Informational Marketing

1. Clear messaging
2. Shape customer expectations
3. Promote understand
4. Build trust

1. Clarity in Messaging 

Nothing feels better than being on the same page. Informational marketing helps bring your customers closer to your services through clear communication that makes new processes make sense. 

Informational marketing is known for combining graphics and text in logical ways to explain a process. This is especially common when a product or service requires an unfamiliar process on the consumer end. 

Marketing materials are designed to empower customers to comfortably service their needs without having to rely on you for individualized support. 

Instacart rose to significant popularity during COVID-19 lockdowns and stay-at-home orders. Their services allowed those most at-risk of the virus to get their groceries without having to leave their home. 

While revolutionary and helpful, this process wasn’t necessarily familiar to audiences at the time. Plenty must have been wondering exactly how a service like this would look and what it would require of them as customers. 

To shed light on the possibilities and features of their offerings, Instacart created several visuals for their website that would give people an idea of what they had to offer. 

Source: Instacart

Some revealed various benefits of using the process such as free delivery possibilities and an absence of “busy fees” for orders at peak hours.

Additionally, the informational marketing included that customers could order from multiple stores at once, making their services even more appealing to the public during the challenging times of the pandemic. 

Informational marketing made it possible for Instacart and plenty of other companies to establish clear, understandable messaging that enables audiences to become knowledgeable customers. 

2. Information Shapes Customer Expectations

Giving detailed information through marketing campaigns about how your company works helps customers understand what they can expect from investing in you. 

This is a significant benefit for those looking to disrupt the way their industry functions. Industry disruptors can leverage informational marketing to showcase how their unique structure adds value to customers. 

For instance, car retails solutions company Carvana is known as an industry disruptor with their simplified, informal process for purchasing new and used vehicles. 

Through the introduction of car vending machines, a digital-first experience, and car delivery haulers, Carvana established its own unique process intended to simplify traditional purchasing processes. 

However, without a similar familiar service, audiences may not have understood what they could expect from the new-and-improved service. That’s why Carvana employed informational marketing tactics for its social media channels.

Source: @gocarvana   

On Instagram, they showcased a behind-the-scenes video that detailed how a newly-purchased car gets from one of their car vending machines to a buyer’s home via branded hauling trucks.

Through this video, audiences can start to form their customer service expectations and picture what the buying journey would look like for themselves. 

3. Details Promote Understanding 

Informational marketing helps audiences feel comfortable with making a purchase by providing details that address questions and hang-ups they may be experiencing while learning about the company.

In this way, informational marketing helps smoothly guide consumers through the marketing funnel, from gathering basic information toward making an educated purchasing decision. 

Companies such as clothing upcycling solutions organization ThreadUp give users more insight into details surrounding the upcycling process. They break their process into three visualized steps that help readers understand the service. 

Source: ThreadUp

The steps and images include the company’s branded ThreadUp bag that’s used to collect and ship high-quality clothing and accessories back to ThreadUp for upcycling. The steps also include key shipping details such as using a FedEx Office or USPS location. 

These small details encourage comfort and confidence in consumers who want to take part in the process. Any company can leverage informational marketing to help audiences understand more specific details about their services.

4. Honesty Builds Trust 

Lastly, informational marketing is straightforward, which invites companies to build trusting relationships with their customers. Even if someone is just starting to learn about your company, they’ll be more likely to stick with you if you lead with transparency. 

By leveraging informational marketing and connecting customers with honest information about your processes and services, you're showing your customers that you understand their concerns and priorities. What’s more, you’re being open about how your company addresses them. 

In practicing this form of marketing, you’re putting empathy at the center of your customer service operations. That will impress consumers and encourage them to become long-time customers.  

Informational Marketing Is a Good Fit for Complex Offerings

It can be difficult to distill complicated information regarding your company’s processes and service offerings, especially if they’re unique and aiming to disrupt the industry. Informational marketing promotes the understanding, familiarity, and confidence that users need to invest in your services.