Companies that prioritize customer education often experience remarkable revenue growth and increased customer spending.
Why? Educated customers adopt solutions faster, stay loyal longer, and are more likely to expand their investment. In this guide, we’ll show you how to leverage customer education to drive adoption, boost renewals, and fuel expansion—complete with actionable insights and real-world examples to support your journey.
Skip ahead:
- A Hidden Growth Lever: Why Customer Education Drives Business Success
- The Acquisition Trap: Why Traditional Growth Models Are Failing in 2024
- Transform Customer Education Into Your Most Powerful Growth Engine: A Strategic Framework
- Customer Education Success Stories: Real Results From Companies That Got It Right
- Frequently Asked Questions About Customer-Led Growth (FAQ)
- The Future of Growth is Education-Led
Your product isn’t the issue. Your marketing strategy isn’t to blame. And no, your pricing isn’t the problem either. The real challenge might lie in what happens after the purchase. While businesses chase the next growth hack, industry leaders have uncovered a game-changing strategy: customer education. This secret weapon not only boosts revenue retention but also significantly reduces support costs, paving the way for sustainable growth.
Let’s explore a better framework for scalable (and sustainable) growth, helping you turn education into a strategic growth driver.
A hidden growth lever: Why customer education drives business success
While companies spend 5X more acquiring customers than retaining them, an impressive 90% of companies have witnessed the tangible benefits of investing in customer education. Moreover, educational content has significantly increased consumer purchasing likelihood by 131%.
Your organization can help more customers use your product by creating easy-to-follow learning paths and step-by-step guides.
The impact of teaching customers goes beyond just getting them to start using a product. By tracking how customers engage, businesses can notice any problems early and fix them before they cause customers to leave. This approach creates a unique opportunity for growth by clearly demonstrating value and benefits.
As customers learn more through education, they find new ways to use products, try out more features, and look into related products. This turns a simple subscription into a growing partnership.
“Don’t be that SaaS company that waits until they’re going through a round of funding to take churn, retention, and LTV seriously. Not only do these metrics take time to improve upon, but they’re core to everything you’re about to do. They matter a great deal to investors. They’ll influence the valuation you get – heavily. They’ll impact your ability to scale to the next level. As an early-stage startup, it’s easy to put these metrics on the back burner while you figure out customer acquisition. That’s normal, and I’ve been there before, too. But please, don’t wait until churn becomes a thorn to take it seriously,”
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The Acquisition Trap: Why Traditional Growth Models Are Failing in 2024
The SaaS world is facing significant challenges, putting a lot of pressure on businesses that rely on recurring revenue. Simply getting new customers isn’t enough to grow anymore.
The numbers tell a sobering story: it costs 5 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one, yet two-thirds of trial customers never convert to paying users. Even more alarming, 97% of customers churn without warning signs, while 80% consider their experience just as crucial as the product itself.
These statistics aren’t just numbers—they’re warning signals that traditional growth models are becoming unsustainable. As customer acquisition costs continue to climb and retention becomes increasingly critical, businesses realize that their Net Dollar Retention (NDR) strategy needs a fundamental shift, prioritizing customer education and experience as core drivers of sustainable growth.
“We are in the most challenging time B2B marketing has ever seen. Sure, there are lots of encouraging things going on, too, but B2B marketers are facing all kinds of issues, and here are three of the most critical challenges marketing teams are up against today. Acquisition costs going through the roof. Lack of compounding results. Too much friction.” – Jay Baron, CEO at Elevate Demand |
Transform Customer Education Into Your Most Powerful Growth Engine: A Strategic Framework
Customer education isn’t just about teaching—it’s about strategically engaging customers at pivotal moments to drive business outcomes.

Here’s how to implement this effectively:
1. Launch a Strategic Onboarding Course
Design “The First 30 Days” curriculum curriculum as three distinct phases:
- “Quick Wins” (Days 1-7) covering essential setup
- “Core Features” (Days 8-15) focusing on daily usage
- “Advanced Implementation” (Days 16-30) for optimization and scale.
Celebrate critical milestones and personalize the learning experience by awarding digital badges at completion points (Basic Setup, Advanced User, Power User) and triggering congratulatory emails with next-step recommendations.
Work with your chosen tech stack and data team to set up automated tracking for five core metrics: feature adoption rate, time-to-first-value, course completion rate, NPS scores, and support ticket reduction—ensuring new customers hit key success metrics 40% faster than traditional onboarding.
Real-Life Success Story: Higher Engagement with Key Features
Faced with the challenge of scaling customer onboarding for their complex subscription billing platform, Chargebee transformed their approach by launching a structured online academy. The self-paced program systematically guides customers through product setup, billing integrations, and advanced features, replacing traditional onboarding processes. The results were immediate: increased customer confidence, higher engagement with key features, and the ability to scale customer education without straining support resources. |
2. Design Engagement-Focused Learning Paths
- Break down complex features into digestible, action-oriented modules
- Embed quick-win activities that show immediate value
- Create personalized learning tracks based on user roles and goals
Break each complex feature into 5-10 minute micro-learning modules, combining
- Video tutorials
- Step-by-step guides
- Hands-on exercises that users can complete within your product.
Experiment with creating role-specific tracks (Admin Track, End-User Track, Developer Track) with tailored content and relevant use cases for each persona.
3. Leverage Data-Driven Intervention Points
Data is your friend, and you should be using it to see what’s really going on with your customers. Set up an early warning system that flags users who haven’t logged in for 7 days, completed key setup steps, or are showing declining usage patterns in core features. Create targeted “rescue campaigns” with specific educational content for the top three customer friction points:
- Initial setup challenges
- Feature underutilization
- Integration issues.
Set up an automated drip content schedule that triggers when usage drops below 40% of the customer’s usual patterns, offering educational content, success stories, and direct access to customer service or success teams.
4. Build a Community-Powered Learning Ecosystem
Launch a three-tiered certification program (Basic, Advanced, Expert) with clear requirements, practical assessments, and professional development benefits for each level. Salesforce Trailhead is a prime example, with its Trailblazer Community having 500+ user groups across 90 countries.
Create a dedicated community platform where certified users can:
- Earn reputation points for answering questions
- Share templates and tips
- Create how-to guides and share advice for fellow users
Pro Tip: Establish a “Global Champions” program that identifies and supports power users in different regions to create localized content and run regional user groups, starting with your top five markets.
Customer Education Success Stories: Real Results From Companies That Got It Right
Let’s look at PayShepherd, a cutting-edge platform for managing contractor relationships in heavy industries. With a business model heavily reliant on customer adoption, PayShepherd recognized the need to scale its onboarding process. Previously, their one-on-one training approach consumed significant resources and left gaps in consistency.
In response, PayShepherd adopted a self-guided online education model using Thinkific Plus. This transition transformed their onboarding, saving over 350 hours in just three months and reducing one-on-one calls from 60 minutes to 15. By creating engaging, multimedia course content, PayShepherd not only improved efficiency but also boosted user engagement and satisfaction, ultimately enhancing customer relationships and driving business growth.
Now consider Weights & Biases (W&B), a leader in tools for machine learning practitioners.
With the goal of scaling education to a global audience, W&B launched their AI Academy using Thinkific Plus. Their comprehensive approach included branded learning experiences, courses tailored to varying skill levels, and seamless integration of their products into lessons. This strategy positioned W&B as a thought leader, strengthened community engagement, and enhanced customer trust in their tools.
By scaling their education initiatives, W&B empowered learners worldwide to tackle real-world machine learning challenges, fostering a sense of innovation and community while cementing their leadership in the field.
Getting Started
Take inspiration from PayShepherd and Weights & Biases to level up your customer education program:
- Assess your onboarding and education needs: Identify inefficiencies and opportunities for scaling.
- Leverage technology: Choose a platform that supports branding, scalability, and varied learning formats.
- Create meaningful content: Address real-world challenges with engaging, practical lessons.
- Foster engagement: Encourage collaboration and interaction among learners for stronger community ties.
Education is a growth multiplier. Whether you’re streamlining onboarding or scaling a global academy, thoughtful investment in customer education pays dividends in loyalty, trust, and adoption.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Customer Led-Growth and Education
Q: How much does customer education reduce support costs?
A: Customer education significantly reduces support costs, with companies reporting an average 6.1% decrease in support expenses. Businesses conserve budget in support costs for every dollar invested in customer education because educated customers submit fewer tickets and can solve common issues independently. Additionally, when customers reach out for support, their questions are more advanced and valuable for product development.
Q: How do you measure customer education success?
A: Customer education success is measured through key metrics, including course completion rates, feature adoption rates, time-to-value (TTV), support ticket reduction, and Net Dollar Retention (NDR). Leading companies track these metrics using learning management systems integrated with customer success platforms. A successful program typically shows improvements in multiple areas: 40% faster time-to-value, 50%+ reduction in support tickets, and 15-30% increase in product adoption within the first 90 days.
The Future of Revenue Growth is Education-Led
How SaaS companies grow is changing quickly. As it gets more expensive to find new customers and people expect more, the best companies are changing their focus. Instead of just trying to get new customers, they’re teaching people how to get more value from their products.
By implementing a strategic education framework—from structured onboarding academies to data-driven intervention points—you’re not just teaching customers; you’re building a sustainable engine for growth.
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