In this lesson, you’ll learn strategies for extracting and articulating the crucial benefits that motivate older adult learners.
Now that you’ve created a vivid picture of your prospective learner through empathy mapping (or via the Empowerment Marketing Toolkit), it’s time to focus on a crucial aspect of course design: identifying the benefits they seek. This step is so vital that it warrants special attention to ensure you don’t lose sight of your audience’s true motivations.
Understanding the benefits your learners desire is essential because it allows you to:
Align your content with your customers’ wants, needs, and beliefs
Develop a naturally marketable approach that attracts learners
Create a course that resonates with adult learners
Many new course creators fall into the same trap that plagues newbie copywriters: focusing on features rather than benefits. They emphasize the information provided or the structure of the training instead of highlighting how the course will improve the person’s life or career.
Remember, adult learners are motivated by clear, tangible outcomes. They want to know how your course will solve their problems, advance their goals, or transform their skills. By centering your course design and marketing on these benefits, you’ll create a compelling offer that speaks directly to your target audience’s aspirations and pain points.
In this lesson, you’ll learn strategies for extracting and articulating these crucial benefits, ensuring your course not only educates but truly resonates with your learners — making it more likely that they’ll become loyal customers over time.
Andragogy: Understanding How Adults Learn
The term “andragogy” was coined by educator Malcolm Knowles in his seminal work The Adult Learner. Knowles introduced this concept to distinguish adult learning from pedagogy, the traditional approach to teaching children.
Initially, andragogy was thought to apply exclusively to adults. However, recent developments in educational theory suggest that its core principles may benefit learners of all ages.
Andragogy shares many similarities with constructivism, a learning theory we explored in a previous lesson. This overlap has led many educators to believe that the principles of andragogy can be effectively applied to various learning environments, including mandatory schooling, corporate training, and voluntary educational programs.
Research indicates that learners across different age groups and settings demonstrate improved test scores, better retention, and enhanced overall performance when andragogical principles are applied. So, when designing learning experiences for adults, it’s crucial to keep five principles in mind:
1. Explain the importance: Clearly communicate why the subject matter is relevant and valuable to learn.
2. Promote self-direction: Design your content and interface to empower learners to navigate the information independently.
3. Connect to prior experiences: Relate new concepts to the learners’ existing knowledge and real-life situations to enhance engagement and understanding.
4. Recognize readiness to learn: Effective learning occurs when individuals are both prepared and motivated to acquire new knowledge.
5. Address learning barriers: Help learners overcome negative perceptions, behaviors, or beliefs that may hinder their learning process.
A crucial insight emerges from these principles: adult education requires ongoing “selling” of the learning process. This approach mirrors effective marketing strategies:
Anticipate objections: Address potential concerns at various stages — before purchase, at the start of the course, and throughout the learning journey.
Emphasize benefits: Continuously reinforce the value and relevance of the material to maintain engagement.
Provide clear value propositions: Explicitly communicate how the course materials will benefit the student personally or professionally.
From a business standpoint, truly educating your students is far more lucrative than simply securing a one-time payment. By effectively teaching and engaging learners, you increase the likelihood of:
Retaining students for advanced courses
Converting one-time purchasers into recurring subscribers
Generating positive word-of-mouth referrals
In the upcoming lessons on business models, we’ll explore how this approach to adult education can translate into sustainable and profitable online course offerings.
Remember, the key to success in adult education is consistently demonstrating and communicating the benefits of learning. By doing so, you not only enhance the educational experience but also create a more viable and rewarding business model.
Stress Benefits, Not Features: Engaging Adult Learners
When designing training programs for adults, it’s crucial to focus on the benefits rather than just the features. Adult learners constantly ask, “What’s in it for me?” both during and outside training. To effectively engage them, you must clearly communicate the value they’ll gain.
A feature is a descriptive fact about your training, while a benefit is what the learner gains as a result. Many instructional designers make the mistake of assuming learners will naturally understand the benefits associated with training features. However, research in advertising has consistently shown that explicitly stating benefits leads to better engagement and sales.
To effectively communicate benefits:
Weave them into the training content
Relate them to real-life experiences and goals of the learner
Clearly connect features to their corresponding benefits
For example:
Feature: “Module Four covers multimedia content strategies.”
Benefit: “You’ll learn to create engaging paid courses and build a sustainable business.”
To identify and articulate benefits at various levels, consider using the Benefits Pyramid:
Base: Features – Basic informational aspects of your training Example: “Learn how to maintain your car.”
Level 2: Unique Advantages – What sets your training apart from competitors Example: “Learn basic car maintenance through fun videos instead of boring manuals.”
Level 3: Actual Benefits – Tangible gains from the training Example: “Save hundreds on repairs, reduce fuel costs, and ensure your family’s safety.”
Top: Ultimate Benefits – Core motivations and desires driving the learner Example: “Gain peace of mind and avoid the guilt of potential harm to loved ones due to negligence.”
The ultimate benefit often taps into fundamental human motivations such as fear, guilt, freedom, or power. By understanding and addressing these core drivers, you can create more compelling and effective training programs for adult learners.
Remember: Always make the connection between features and benefits explicit. Don’t assume learners will naturally understand the beneficial value — show them how your training will positively impact their lives and goals.
What Adult Learners Really Want
Understanding adult learners’ core motivations is crucial to effectively teaching them. You can create course content and marketing materials that resonate deeply with your audience by identifying what truly drives them.
Let’s explore the key aspects of adult learners’ desires and how they impact the learning experience. Regardless of your specific product or course offering, people generally seek:
Emotional fulfillment: Love, appreciation, admiration, and respect
Personal growth: Creativity, productivity, and self-improvement
Status and influence: Prestige and power
Financial security: Increased income and a stable future
Physical well-being: Good health and attractiveness
Mental well-being: Peace of mind, self-esteem, and self-control
Freedom and authenticity: Being true to oneself, proving oneself, and having fun
Independence: Being one’s own boss and having more control over time and decisions
Experiences: Travel, leisure, and exciting adventures
Avoidance of negative experiences: Pain, fear, sickness, uncertainty, and guilt
It’s worth noting that people often desire instant gratification while simultaneously seeking long-term benefits, creating an interesting tension in their motivations.
Understanding these desires is not just crucial for marketing; it’s essential for designing an effective course. The benefits of knowledge that learners seek should directly inform your course’s learning objectives. Here’s why:
Clear value proposition: Adults are more likely to invest time and money into learning when they understand the tangible benefits.
Targeted content: Knowing what your students want to do and become helps you create relevant, impactful material.
Motivation and engagement: Learners who see how the course aligns with their goals are more likely to stay engaged and complete the program.
A well-designed course bridges the gap between learning and doing. Your learning objectives should demonstrate how the knowledge gained will help learners achieve their desired outcomes. This alignment is vital to creating a successful and appealing educational product.
Next Steps: Crafting Effective Learning Objectives
As we conclude these lessons on course design, your next focus will be on creating precise learning objectives. This will serve as a foundation for upcoming lessons on business models, where we’ll explore how these objectives influence your course’s overall structure and marketing.
Stay tuned for the next lesson, where I’ll take you deep into the art of crafting learning objectives that resonate with your target audience and drive your course’s success.