7 min reading time

Attract with Customer Education: How Learning Builds Trust Before They Buy

Flavia Bianchi, Content Marketing Manager at LearnUpon

What you’ll learn:

Prospects form trust in your brand long before clicking ‘Request a Demo’.
Attract-stage education sparks curiosity, builds skills, and positions your brand as an authority.
Early education draws better-fit leads ready to progress toward purchase.
Educated prospects arrive informed, shortening the sales cycle.
Trust built early drives long-term retention, advocacy, and growth.

The world of marketing is changing fast. Think about it: endless AI-generated content, constant information overload, and the consequent decline of organic reach. All of it makes it harder than ever to stand out.

The way forward? A thoughtful and purposeful educational approach.

Awareness-focused, pre-sales education not only cuts through the noise, but also attracts the right prospects and builds trust, generating leads in a way that marketing alone can’t.

And that’s exactly the power of Attract—the pivotal first stage in LearnUpon’s framework, designed to align education with every moment of the customer journey. Focused on sharing expertise, building trust, and guiding informed decisions, Attract amplifies brand awareness, grows credibility, and nurtures leads through educational experiences.

Today, we’re going to share why customer education should be part of your marketing strategy. Not just a tool to spark curiosity, build skills, and position your brand as the go-to authority, but also one to help shorten sales cycles, attract better-fit customers, and set up success for later stages.

Content vs. Education: Why the Difference Matters

When we talk about Attract-stage approaches, it’s easy to blur the line between “content” and “education.” So what’s the difference, and which should you lean on?

The key distinction lies in intent and structure. Content—think blog posts, videos, or infographics—delivers information. Education is different: it’s structured, intentional, and designed to build skills. It goes beyond sharing facts; it helps prospects learn, apply, and feel more confident. That’s why educational experiences tend to be perceived as more valuable.

And yes, the distinction matters. Prospects don’t just want to read about best practices—they want to learn how to apply them.

Real-World Example: HubSpot Academy

Understanding the difference between content and education is one thing, but seeing it in practice is even more powerful. HubSpot Academy is the ultimate example of Attract-stage education. By offering free certifications and world-class content, HubSpot turned learning into a global marketing engine—and its number one source of lead generation!

The Role of Attract in the Customer Lifecycle

For too long, customer education has been viewed almost exclusively as a post-sales onboarding tool, but that has changed. Today, leading companies use education across the entire customer lifecycle to drive benefits for both the customer and the business—including in pre-sales.

Now that you know why education belongs at the very start of the customer journey, it’s worth stepping back to see the bigger picture: the entire customer lifecycle.

Attract is about brand awareness, and nurturing leads with education for later acquisition.
Activate focuses on onboarding and enablement, helping customers master your product faster, and reducing time to value.
Engage deepens relationships and boosts retention through content that reinforces ongoing product value.
Grow turns satisfied customers into super users who drive revenue and advocacy.

When you get Attract right, you set the stage for a more impactful customer experience. Educated prospects onboard faster because they already understand your product’s value. They engage more deeply because they know how your solutions fit their needs, and they’re more likely to grow into advocates, since trust was established from the very first interaction.

Why Education Is Your Strongest Customer Trust-Building Tool

Early education teaches prospects how to solve their pain points and signals that you’re invested in their success. This builds trust, boosts confidence in buying decisions, and increases loyalty. In fact, 95% of organisations with 250-500 employees said yes, they have seen a direct ROI from their customer education efforts.

This early trust has a ripple effect. Prospects who have benefited from your expertise are more open to engaging with your team, more confident in their buying decision, and more likely to become a loyal customer—since uncertainties are drastically reduced.

What Expert-Led Education Looks Like in Attract

Understanding the ‘why’ is one thing, but what does expert-led education actually look like in practice at the Attract stage? Your experiences should do more than show you know the topic you’re approaching. Think depth and practical value. They need to be actionable and skill-building, giving prospects clear takeaways. At the same time, keep them neutral and non-promotional—so it doesn’t feel like a sales pitch.

Formats for the Attract stage

Open Academies & Free Mini-Courses: Prospects can get real value from experiences that address industry challenges, without any commitment to a product. They help you establish brand authority, while making the experience low-pressure.
Free Certifications: They allow your prospects to get to know your product better. Those who engage with these programs are more informed, more committed, and more likely to become long-term customers. This information is backed by Courtney Sembler, Senior Director, HubSpot Academy, when she states that customers with active Academy certifications see a 13% Customer Success Rate lift. It’s worth noting that the courses you offer don’t even have to be about your product. For example, HubSpot offers certifications that help marketers build their skills—like improving email marketing or social media expertise. This approach hooks people in by teaching them skills to better their careers too.
Interactive Tools (Assessments, Quizzes, Knowledge Checks): By testing knowledge, offering instant feedback, or helping them identify gaps, these approaches turn education into a full experience that ultimately helps surface early lead signals.
Educational Webinars: Ideal for educating about nuanced topics, while providing practical takeaways. These pieces also encourage real-time connections, increasing its value.

Real-World Example: WebPT

WebPT provides free product-training modules that let learners explore and understand the product without commitment. While not overtly advertised as “prospect-only,” this kind of access is very similar to what Attract-stage education offers, letting people try, learn, and build trust before purchase.

“LearnUpon as a company is used as a selling point in our sales process. People want to know they have access to high-quality training resources, and we’ve been able to deliver on that promise.”

Moriah Ujano
Member Education Manager at WebPT

How to Create Attract-Stage Education That Builds Trust

Your educational programs need to address your audience’s specific challenges, so linking your learning experiences to these pain points is crucial.

Ask yourself: what recurring issues are your prospects facing, or what common questions are they asking? When you have their main queries, provide the answers through the most appropriate format, delivering value while positioning your brand as an authority in your niche.

Include proof points, such as case studies, industry statistics, or expert quotes, to reinforce your authority. Showing evidence of your expertise builds credibility and reassures prospects that your insights are trustworthy.

Best Practices for Attract-Stage Education

To ensure your Attract-stage education drives meaningful results, make sure to follow these best practices to make the most of your educational programs:

Keep it vendor-neutral to build credibility
Make it accessible—ungated if possible!
Align topics to prospect pain points and education goals
Measure lead signals, lead quality, sales velocity, and learning engagement (course completions, quiz scores)

Maximizing Reach for Attract-Stage Education

Even the most thoughtfully designed educational experience won’t make an impact if it doesn’t get in front of the right audience. To maximize reach for your Attract-stage education, consider a few key strategies:

Enable Your Sales Team to Share it With Prospects: your education can go further and have a greater impact when they use it as a tool to build trust.
Search & Discovery: Optimize courses, open academies, and educational resources for relevant search terms like “how to…”, “what is…”, or “best practices for…”. This helps learners find you when they’re actively seeking solutions.
Leverage Your Channels: Share educational offerings through your own networks—LinkedIn, newsletters, and email campaigns are ideal for reaching professionals looking to gain practical skills and knowledge.
Make Education Discoverable: Offer open courses, mini-certifications, or interactive assessments—and make them widely discoverable. Share them across your website, social channels, newsletters, and partner networks to extend reach while providing value and capturing early signals of qualified leads.

Measuring Attract-Stage Success

At this phase, success isn’t about closing deals immediately; it’s about laying the foundation for stronger customer relationships. The real impact of Attract-stage education shows up in three key ways:

Better-fit leads: Educational experiences help prospects self-qualify. By the time they reach sales, they already know if your solution matches their needs.
Shorter sales cycles: Prospects who engage with Attract-stage education come in informed, so decisions happen faster.
Higher retention and advocacy: Because trust is built early and the leads are qualified, customers are more likely to adopt successfully, stay longer, and eventually advocate for your brand

You can still track supporting metrics like traffic, registrations, or course completions, but the real value of Attract-stage education lies in how it shapes the quality of your pipeline and accelerates growth across the lifecycle.

The Attract Stage Is Just the Start: Next Comes Activate

A clear sign of success in the Attract stage is when the relationship moves forward: your prospects understand the value of your product, see themselves using it successfully, and are confident enough to take the next step. Whether that’s signing the deal or committing to a pilot, they’ve now become your customer. And this is where the next stage, Activate, begins: onboarding and enabling them so they can realize value quickly.

Want to see how customer education drives value across the lifecycle? Download our whitepaper, Customer Education in 2025, for the latest trends, strategies, and insights shaping education-led growth.