Most go-to-market (GTM) strategies focus on driving awareness, acquisition, and retention—but they often overlook a critical component: education. Education-Led Growth (ELG) is the missing piece that enables customers, partners, and employees to successfully onboard, adopt your product, and perform at a high level—allowing your company to scale faster and more efficiently.
But what does an effective education strategy look like, and how do organizations that integrate education into their business strategy see greater impact?
The 2025 Education-Led Growth Report explores these questions and reveals key trends in how education contributes to revenue, retention, and operational efficiency. Here’s what the data shows about how education programs drive measurable business outcomes—and what separates those that achieve meaningful impact.
1. Education Directly Impacts Revenue—But Not Everyone Measures It
Education is more than just an engagement tool—it’s a revenue driver. According to the report:
- 70% of education programs aim to accelerate sales cycles and drive expansion.
- 84% prioritize retention, ensuring customers see value and renew.
- 75% focus on performance, equipping users with knowledge to maximize success.
- 57% see cost savings as a primary goal, using education to reduce onboarding and support costs.
Yet, despite these business-critical objectives, many teams struggle to quantify education’s full impact. A lack of measurement strategy remains a major barrier, making it difficult to justify further investment.
2. Teams with Marketing & Analytics Support See Greater Success
One of the biggest differentiators between successful education programs and those struggling to prove impact? Access to dedicated marketing and analytics resources.
Organizations with strong marketing support (either through a dedicated education marketer or central marketing collaboration) were significantly more likely to report high revenue impact. Meanwhile, teams lacking analytics struggled to tie education to business outcomes—limiting their ability to scale and secure executive buy-in.
3. Smaller Teams Can Still Win with a Strategic Focus
While larger education teams naturally have more resources, the report found that team size alone doesn’t determine success. Instead, the most impactful programs—regardless of team size—are those that align tightly with their company's GTM strategy.
In fact, smaller teams that focused on high-impact initiatives and integrated education deeply into marketing, sales, and customer success achieved similar results to their larger counterparts.
4. Early Measurement Drives Confidence in Education’s Impact
The best-performing education programs don’t wait a year to measure impact. The research found that:
- 60% of teams measure within 3 months of launch, giving them real-time insights to optimize programs.
- Teams that measure early are more confident in education’s role in revenue generation and customer retention.
- Organizations that delay measurement—or fail to measure consistently—often struggle to prove ROI or secure more budget.
5. Education is Still Underutilized in Demand Generation
Despite education’s proven ability to drive engagement, many organizations still underuse it as a demand-generation tool. The majority of programs are post-sale focused—helping with onboarding, adoption, and retention—but fewer are using education to attract and convert new customers.
- 85% of programs support implementation.
- 81% focus on product adoption.
- Only 31% use education in marketing efforts.
This represents a huge missed opportunity. The report suggests that by integrating education into top-of-funnel marketing and sales enablement efforts, businesses can create stronger demand, accelerate conversion, and improve pipeline quality.
What’s Next?
The 2025 Education-Led Growth Report makes one thing clear: education isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a business necessity. Companies that integrate education into their go-to-market strategy and invest in measurement and marketing support are seeing real, measurable growth.
