I am a Mac fanboy. I bought my first Mac in 1994. I’ve had at least 4 of them, plus 2 iPhones, an iPod, and even had a Newton. So you could say I’m extremely fond of their brand and their awesome products. In fact, most of the WebDesign.com team works on Apple computer (thanks for lowering prices, Apple!).

In the past couples of years I’ve seen Apple’s popularity increase drastically, just judging from the number of tech conferences I’ve been to where I’ve seen a flood of Apple logo lights everywhere in the audience.

And here’s an even better example …

The other day, I was talking with an older gentlemen who was at our house to fix our air conditioning and he noticed my Mac laptop sitting on the couch and told me how much he loved the one he got.

For the next 10 minutes, he went on and on about how much he loved his Apple and how many awesome things he could do with it.

He said he was old-school and didn’t know how to “work a computer.” But his wife bought him a Mac for Christmas last year … and he began to tell me about Apple’s One on One personal training, which I knew existed, because I see customers getting help at their little workstations every time I walk in an Apple store.

He told me that for around $100 he could go in once a week for an hour at a time for a whole year and ask all his questions.

Here’s the Apple website’s description of the program:

“There’s no better way to get set up, get trained, and get going on your new Mac than with a One to One membership at the Apple Retail Store. We’ll transfer your files from your old computer, teach you the basics in face-to-face training sessions, and guide you through more advanced projects as your skills grow.”

If you do the math, Apple could lose money on that endeavor IF someone took advantage of all 52 hour-long sessions. But you know a minuscule percentage actually do. The others probably use 4-5 hours I’d guess, but they all have the peace of mind that they aren’t on an island not knowing how to use their new computers.

The $100 cost is an insurance program for those customers.

But for Apple, it’s so much more. Apple knows the value educating of their customers.

For training like this, they could theoretically lose money – but ultimately my A/C guy will never buy another brand of computer. He’s hooked, he’s trained. And people love familiarity, especially with computer software.

Apple bought a lifetime customer.

They have made the second sale, and the third, and on and on. He’ll also be telling everybody he knows about great Apple is and how easy their computers are to use. He’ll insist they buy the One on One training.

(And, by the way, I’m sure it also saves Apple a ton in support costs because they are doing it in the store and not through a call center!)

Here are some ideas I had thinking through how we are going to educate our clients here at WebDesign.com that you could put to use in your own business:

• Tutorials - this has long been a value of mine, writing articles that inform and teach and also creating step-by-step video tutorials that show our clients how to use our products; we are currently building our tutorial library of tutorials as I type
• Live Seminars – we’re working on new office space where we can bring in local clients and prospects to our offices in order to teach them online marketing with websites, social media and more
• Webinars – we’re going to do the same online through webinars – where people all over the world can come and learn too
• Free Downloads – currently we’re offering our 7 Keys to Successful Websites ebook. Ebooks are extremely effective, affordable to produce, and easy to track, but you can also offer audio and video downloadable resources like podcasts
• Blogging - blogs are one of the best online educational marketing tools available – they allow you to build relationships with clients while educating them in your area of expertise; our blog is our primary tool currently for educating our prospective customers and will always be a foundational facet of what we do

How are you educating your customers and clients?