2022 Customer Education Content Roundup

Was 2022 better than 2021? 

That’s a loaded question. 

Nevertheless, it’s coming to an end, and my annual content audit is underway. 

As I looked at Northpass’ 2022 content engine, I put together a list of our top pieces of content and listed them here with a snippet of what you can expect from each of them.  
Let’s dive in. 

1. How to Create Online Training Courses in 5 Incredibly Easy Steps
   
   This was by far our top piece of content in 2022, with thousands of people diving into the 5-step guide to start their online training journey.
   
   The popularity of this article—along with a few others on this list—epitomizes the rise of customer education and its growing importance. It also illustrates its nascent status and need for people to wrap their heads around how to get started.
   
   The article outlines the only five steps you need to get your first course off the ground as well as several outlines and illustrations to help you make sure your content hits the nail on the head.
2. What's Customer Education? Strategies, Best Practices & More
   
   This guide on customer education was one of the first projects I worked on at Northpass. While I’ll admit it's long—it’s more than 4,000 words—it covers everything you need to know about customer education programs, including strategy, best practices, LMS features and integrations.
   
   Oh, and there’s a table of content, so you can jump to the section you care about—no scrolling required.
3. What's an LMS? Benefits, Types, Features, Cost and More
   
   This guide is similar to the one above. It’s long, but it dives into the necessary information you need to make an informed purchase and make the most of it in 2023.
4. The Beginner's Guide to Creating an Online Training Program
   
   Again, much of our top-performing content in 2023 was geared toward customer education pros at the early stage of their journey—and that’s great. This beginner’s guide to online training is no different.
   
   This guide is similar to “How to Create Online Training Courses in 5 Incredibly Easy Steps” but goes into much more detail about the steps.
5. What is Blended Learning? Types, Examples & Everything Else
   
   Everyone learns differently, and the popularity of this article proves that customer education teams know this. While many cogs in your customer education engine will revolve around digital- and video-heavy content types, other types of content need love, too.
   
   This article on blended learning explores its importance and how you can combine online and offline training to deliver an experience that meets every customer’s learning preferences.
6. HubSpot LMS: Power Sales, Services & Marketing with Learning Data
   
   Customer education isn’t new, but its role in a company’s growth engine is changing. 
   
   Historically, customer education programs operated in siloes, away from core organizations, like Marketing, Sales, and Services. As companies realize the importance of customer education and leadership buy-in becomes the norm, it’s spread its wings.
   
   As that happens, the learning management systems (LMS) that power so many of these programs are syncing their powers with other core internal technologies, including CRMs.
   
   This article explores what that integration looks like and the power behind Northpass for HubSpot, the only LMS available in the HubSpot Marketplace.
   
   
   
7. The ADDIE Model: Understanding the 5 Steps
   
   The evolution of your customer education program is equally, if not more, important than its launch. The reality is that you’re not going to get it exactly right the first go-around—and that’s ok.
   
   This article outlines the ADDIE Model (analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation), which will help you simplify and streamline the production of your course material to ensure your content—and program—are driving the best outcomes for your customers.
8. 6 Customer Onboarding Steps to Get Customers Up and Running Fast
   
   I’ll say this loud for everyone in the back: There’s nothing more important to the retention of your customers than the onboarding process. Full stop.
   
   So, I’m not surprised that this article was popular in 2023. Although customer onboarding processes vary, this article covers—generally—the required steps to get your customers off on the right foot.
9. How Much Does an LMS Cost? Pricing Models and Hidden Costs
   
   Ah, the pricing question. How much does an LMS cost?
   
   Well, it varies.
   
   But this article provides you with just about every other piece of information you need to wrap your head around pricing models and what you should be paying for when you buy an LMS.
10. 6 Ways to Boost Your Customer Education Strategy
    
    As customer education programs gain steam inside companies across industry lines, teams will be searching for ways to improve their programs, generate better customer outcomes, and maintain leadership buy-in.
    
    This article—updated for 2023—explores six ways you can take your customer education strategy to new heights in the new year.

What’ll Be the Top Customer Education Content in 2023? 

I don’t have a crystal ball, but I’m going to pretend I do and attempt to predict what we’ll include in 2023’s content round-up—or at least the topics that’ll be top of mind.
Customer outcomes: KPIs for customer education will continue to change. In 2023 and beyond, teams will shift their focus to customer outcomes, e.g., product adoption, cost efficiencies, and retention.

Cost savings: Will we enter a recession in 2023? Who knows. We do know, however, that budgets will be under pressure. Customer education teams will have to shift their focus and demonstrate how their programs are helping their customers—and saving the company money.

Use cases: Customer education has largely been an initiative reserved for SaaS companies. That’ll change in 2023 as more companies wake up to the realization that their customers need post-purchase support—think companies in finance, manufacturing, healthcare, and retail. 

Is there anything else you’d like to see us write about in 2023? Send us a note to marketing@northpass.com and we’ll add it to our content calendar.