Knowing your market

You can’t begin to attract new learners unless you have some idea of what kind of people they are.  When creating communications that are intended to encourage people through your front door, it helps to know where they live, what they do for a living, what their families are like, and their attitudes to learning.

Start by putting down on paper what your potential learners may be like – ask yourself the following questions to help form a picture, (see also the Marketing Plan):
  

•         how old are they? 
•         are they married?
•         do they have children? 
•         are they in work? 
•         what sort of experience will they have had previously with  learning?
•         what is their attitude to learning?
•         what might stop them from pursuing a learning opportunity?
•         why should they want to learn something new?

You may decide it’s impossible to come up with one description of the   people who use your centre because you attract such a wide variety of people.  In that case, try to put them into groups of broadly similar people (for example school leavers, unemployed people, women returning to work, retired people).

Each of these groups is likely to differ in many ways - not only in the courses they’re interested in or the method of study that will appeal to them, but how learning fits their lifestyles.

Will all these groups be as important as each other?  Bear in mind the objectives set for your centre and try to prioritise the audiences that are most important.

A great way of getting this information is by getting feedback from visitors – either from an informal chart or from a simple form. To encourage people to participate, consider entering their names into a prize draw.  We have provided a template for a suggested layout and questions and included the terms and conditions for a prize draw.