Creating Great Content for Different Learning Styles
There are many different learning styles in the world, each with its own set of preferences and conditions which help people absorb information to the best of their abilities.This information can be valuable to internet marketers and businesses alike. We’ve gathered some basic information about each style and a few things that you can do to help gear your content and SEO towards them.
Learning styles for internet marketing and online business
Solitary
This style of learning is popular amongst introverted, solitary learners. They like to have time to themselves to consume and review information. Despite their solitary nature they can be found in large groups online and are big-time consumers of content. To appeal to a solitary learner you can:
- Publish longer content such as blog posts, ebooks, and whitepapers
- Create longer, more in-depth podcasts
Social
Social learners prefer to learn as a part of a group and benefit from having others around to bounce ideas off of and enabling others to do the same. To appeal to social learners your brand can:
- Publish more interactive content on your social channels
- Host Hangouts or webinars – anything to get people in a group setting in real-time.
- Hold competitions
Logical
By organizing data, logical learners take their love for logic and analysis and use it to consume and enjoy the content around them. You can create the kind of content these learners crave by:
- Publishing Pros & Cons or For & Against debate-style blog posts
- Infographics (static or interactive)
- Purely opinion pieces with open endings to invite commentary
Physical
You might think that people with this learning style might be difficult to reach in an online environment, after all how can you interact hands-on with a website? There is, however, a way to create content that caters to this style of learning:
- How-to instructional materials (blog posts, videos, etc)
- Detailed posts / podcasts / etc that describe a process without visuals but in a very descriptive way.
Verbal
Another learning style that can be difficult to address in an online setting, verbal learners learn best by verbalizing the material they are attempting to absorb, i.e. reading their notes aloud to themselves when studying. In order to reach this style of learning in an online environment you can:
- Make sure that you make it easy to comment on any content you publish
- Communicate with people in real-time in any way you can
Aural
If you content doesn’t translate well into an audio-friendly format you might not be able to reach aural learners, who as the name suggests, prefer to work with sounds in order to best absorb information. Following this logic the best ways to reach aural learners are:
- Podcasts
- Videos
Visual
One of the most popular styles of learning, visual learners prefer to use images and color to organize and interpret information. The key way to reaching those who identify with this learning style online is to find ways to convert other types of content into visual forms such as:
- Blog posts to infographics or videos
- Providing visual how-to guides
- Slideshow presentations
Your takeaway
Regardless of the learning style(s) of your audience there is something that you can do to improve their chances of enjoying (and learning from) your content. It just takes a little bit of research and dedication to providing what might not be the easiest for you, but what is best for them.
