Today, the most savvy businesses and entrepreneurs understand that customers want to understand what they're purchasing before they part with their cash.

Indeed, consider a site like TripAdvisor. With more than 385 million customer reviews, TripAdvisor is one of the biggest knowledge databases on the Internet. With reviews on everything from hotels and restaurants to spa days, the site is often a consumer's first port of call when they want to learn more about a company. In fact, according to Statista, TripAdvisor's 34 websites generated $1.4 billion (£1.1 billion) in revenue in 2015.

If you want your business to thrive in an era of the enlightened customer, you need to find ways to educate them. Fortunately, thanks to a wealth of technology out there, teaching your customers a lesson or two is now easier than ever. In fact, we've picked out three companies that have utilised three different ways to inform new customers about their services.

Three Modern Marketing Moguls

Joe Wicks

We've blogged about him before, but Joe Wicks (aka the Body Coach) is the perfect example of an entrepreneur that's used social media to promote his service through tutorials. Using his now-famous mantra "lean in 15", Joe has been able to become both a social media and mainstream TV celebrity.

According to BlueCliff Media's Gavin Bell, Joe has been plugging away on social media since 2011 when his first Facebook posts would only get "5 likes". However, by consistently putting out useful content in the form of written exercise plans, meal ideas and, more recently, live workout videos, Joe now has 1.6 million Instagram followers and his Facebook posts get well over 1,000 likes.

By taking fitness concepts and making them accessible and applicable to the general population, Joe has been able to use Facebook and Instagram videos to educate the masses. The end result is a huge rise in popularity and, therefore, revenue for the young businessman.

888poker

Following the growth of online poker from the late nineties onwards, more people are now discovering the game. However, as is often the case with games involving an combination of logic, timing and psychology, the early going can often be intimidating for newbies. Fortunately, that's where education comes in. 888poker has been active since 2002, but as the market has changed, it's also had to adapt.

In a bid to encourage more recreational players to take up the game, 888poker has recruited the likes of former Brazilian footballer Denilson to promote the competitive aspects of the game. However, before players will ante up, they need to know how to play.

Cue a new concept known as The Game. Essentially an interactive tutorial, this allows prospective players to learn everything from hand rankings to tips on how to play by running through virtual poker games. The overall goal is to teach newbies how to play so they can then explore the nuances of the game for real - a great starting point to educate and attract new audiences.

Volvo

Virtual reality (VR) may have only kicked into life on a commercial scale in 2016, but already it's being touted as the next frontier for advertisers. Speaking to The Guardian, GE's global chief marketing officer Linda Boff said VR has the "potential to revolutionise marketing". Creating a 360-degree, fully immersive environment through which to promote your product is clearly a huge advantage if you can get it right.

Naturally, for small businesses the cost of creating a VR tutorial is prohibitive. However, as that starts to change, there are some great examples out there of how it can be done. For example, Volvo was able to show off its XC90 by letting customers take a virtual test-drive.

By creating an app that plays a VR video compatible with mobile headsets, Volvo was able to show customers how the car works without them actually touching it. As well as saving the company money in the long-term, it also helped promote the XC90 to more potential customers.

More Information to More Customers

In fact, whether it's VR, online tutorials or social media, the overriding benefit here is obvious: potential. Using technology, especially online, to educate customers, it opens you up to many more markets.

Indeed, instead of preaching to the converted or a small group of new customers, online tutorials allow you to provide valuable information to a huge number of people. The end result should eventually be more customers - or at least raised brand awareness and a bump in SEO. So, as you move through 2017, be sure to give some consideration to the benefits of online education.