If you’re reading this, the likelihood is we don’t need to tell you how quickly learning and development evolves. It’s one of those sectors that must constantly adapt to new expectations, whether those be cultural or legislative.
That is why it’s so important for any organisation within the space to nail its positioning and have a brand that drives meaningful connections with learners within their target audience.
Put simply, if you’re a government-funded functional skills training provider working to improve adult employability, nothing about your marketing, messaging, or brand should be remotely similar to if you’re a leadership skills coaching company working solely with c-suite personnel.
One of the easiest ways to ensure your positioning, copy, and marketing materials are on point is to create accurate learner personas (also called learner profiles) that you regularly sense-check against.
These personas provide the insight to design tailored materials and learning experiences that support business goals and align with your brand promise.
What are Learner Personas, and Why Do They Matter?
Learner personas are semi-fictional profiles that represent segments of your ideal learners, ideally based on real data and insights.
Unlike basic demographic profiles, they dive deeper into motivations, learning preferences, challenges, and goals.
A well-rounded learner persona includes both Demographic and Psychographic attributes.
Demographics = These measurable attributes describe the “who” of your learners. Examples include:
- Age: Understanding generational differences in learning styles.
- Location: Ensuring training content is relevant for different regions.
- Job Role: Tailoring programmes to specific responsibilities and skill gaps.
- Education Level: Gauging baseline knowledge to determine content complexity.
- Employment Type: Adapting learning schedules for full-time, part-time, or freelance workers.
Psychographics = These explore the “why” behind learner behaviours and attitudes, offering deeper insights into their needs. Examples are:
- Goals: What they hope to achieve from their career or even life.
- Challenges: Barriers that might impact their ability to learn, such as lack of time or confidence.
- Learning Preferences: Their preferred delivery methods, like interactive workshops or online courses.
- Values and Motivations: Factors motivating or discouraging participation, such as career progression, KPIs, or team success.
- Tech Savviness: Their comfort level with digital tools, influencing how content is delivered.
On our illustrative example above, we’ve demonstrated how these can be mapped onto a visual persona. Although you could theoretically add any number of attributes to your personas, we recommend sticking to 3-5 of each type. This allows you to paint an accurate picture of your usual learners without restricting your content and materials too much.
If you reach 4 or 5 attributes for both demographics and psychographics and you still feel you haven’t captured your audience accurately enough, there is absolutely no harm in creating more personas. In fact, it’s probably better to have a handful of personas to keep your brand and marketing realistic and varied.
We have been working with two L&D clients recently with entirely different target audiences. Below is a brief example of a learner persona and how it could then impact the output of work:
Change Formation
Learner Profile: James, a senior engineering manager in STEM, aged 45. Manages a diverse team and wants to improve leadership and communication skills, as well as transparency throughout his department. Prefers evidence-based workshops with actionable strategies.
Impact:
- Marketing: Highlight leadership in technical sectors with LinkedIn content and case studies like “How STEM leaders can understand different personality types on their team.”
- Copy: Use professional language that is concise, and evidence-based to appeal to someone short on time; E.g. “Improve technical employee retention by 25% with Change Formation.”
- Branding: Clean, precise, and modern visuals reflecting professionalism and expertise.
Eden Training Academy
Learner Profile: Sarah, a 33-year-old single parent seeking work in healthcare. Struggles with digital tools and balancing childcare but is motivated to gain certifications for stable employment.
Impact:
- Marketing: Focus on practical outcomes via local outreach: “Free training for live care and nursing jobs.”
- Copy: Simple, supportive language: “We’ll help you every step of the way.”
- Branding: Warm, colourful, and approachable visuals showing empathy through language and examples of real-life successes.
These profiles ensure that both brands understand and connect with their target learners’ unique needs. Tailoring marketing, copy, and branding to these personas helps each organisation resonate with its audience, making their respective brands more authentic and boosting engagement as well as outcomes.
How Learner Personas Help Beyond Branding and Marketing
- Align Training with Business Goals:
Learner personas clarify what your audience needs to achieve, enabling you to create programmes that align with business objectives like improving team productivity, developing leadership skills, or building technical expertise. - Create Personalised, Engaging Content:
Tailor content to specific preferences – interactive modules for hands-on learners or self-paced materials for busy schedules – boosting engagement and practical skill application. - Improve Retention and Completion Rates:
Address barriers like time constraints or lack of confidence by delivering relevant, valuable content. This strengthens connections with learners, increasing programme completion rates and loyalty. - Guide Strategic Decisions:
Use insights from personas to allocate resources effectively, identify growth opportunities, and ensure your learning strategy stays aligned with audience needs.
A Six-Step Guide to Creating a Learner Persona
Building learner personas may sound complex, but here is a straightforward process to follow that makes them as simple as possible to create:
- Define Your Objectives
Clarify the purpose of your learning programme. Are you onboarding new employees, developing leadership skills, or reskilling a workforce? Defining your objectives will help you focus on gathering the most relevant data for your personas. - Collect Data and Insights
Gather insights about your learners using your CRM data, surveys, LMS analytics, interviews, and feedback forms. Go beyond surface-level demographics to explore motivations, challenges, and learning preferences. - Segment Your Audience
Group learners by shared characteristics, such as job role, experience level, or preferred learning style. These segments will form the foundation of your personas, helping you create profiles that are both focused and actionable. - Build Persona Profiles
Using the examples earlier in this article, start to fill out each persona with 3-5 demographic attributes and 3-5 psychographic ones. - Role Play the Personas
Put yourself in the shoes of each of the personas you’ve created and start to consider how you can tailor your communications and operations to better serve your target audience. - Test, Refine, and Update
Learners’ needs evolve, so it’s important to revisit your personas regularly. Use feedback and analytics to refine them over time, ensuring they stay relevant and effective.
Learner personas are far more than a tool for marketing and branding – they’re a strategic asset for creating relevant, impactful learning experiences.
By combining demographic and psychographic insights, they provide a roadmap for aligning your L&D efforts with the needs of your audience and the goals of your organisation.
Whether you’re looking to boost engagement, improve retention, or ensure your training programmes are aligned with business objectives, taking the time to properly map out learner personas is a valuable step worth taking.
Ready to create personas that work for your brand? Let’s explore how we can help you develop a brand strategy that makes a difference.