The Secret to Better Personas? Adding in “Learning Preferences”

Organizations often invest heavily in building their customer personas, being careful to include all the attributes that influence a click or a buy.  But when it comes to conducting research, they often leave out one of the most important determinants of engagement: their customers’ learning preferences.

Ignoring learning preferences is a huge oversight. Research shows that when our audiences engage with instructional content – or content intended to teach them something – they’re more focused, interested, and likely to remember the brand and message if the content aligns with how they like to learn. 

Here’s a quick overview of common learning preferences:

• People with a Social preference want to interact with others.

• People with a Solitary preference like to engage with content independently.

• People with a Physical preference like to engage with content by doing something and seeing things done.

• People with a Visual preference want content to have a visual component.

• People with a Logical preference are often mathematically minded and respond to patterns and reasoning.

• People with a Linguistic preference want to connect and communicate through reading and writing.

• People with an Auditory preference engage with content when they can listen and speak.

Knowing the learning preferences of your audience helps you create content that’s appealing to them and that sticks. So, when conducting research to build your customer personas, make sure to include questions about how your panel likes to learn.

Below are three questions to include in your next survey to find your audience’s learning preferences. We recommend asking at least two of these questions to get a more accurate result.

*Note: Just like many of our preferences, learner preferences aren’t fixed or exclusive. They can change based on the topic or channel, and we can have more than one preference. Don’t try to fit your audience in a box. The whole point of understanding learner preferences is to be inclusive – to create a range of content that meets the needs and desires of the most people possible.