1. Use Any Data You Currently Have
Start by reviewing any information you have, such as Google Analytics data, to learn more about your clients. Google Analytics breaks down your website insights according to gender, age and location. You can also derive information from email lists and current student demographics.
This information will give you an idea of who is already interested in your educational offerings. Analyzing this data lets you identify trends and patterns associated with repeat, loyal customers. This analysis will help define your education target audience.
2. Review Education Trends and Student Preferences
Next, consider researching education trends and student preferences. This research helps you identify any education niches that you can take advantage of. For example, students may be increasingly interested in innovative online education options like what we offer at MedCerts.
Education trends appear and disappear, which can affect your learners and competitors. Staying on top of these trends will help you create effective marketing campaigns that resonate with your education target market.
3. Create a Customer Persona
Once you have an idea of your target audience, create a customer persona or avatar. A customer persona is a detailed fictional representation of your ideal customer. It personifies the key traits of your target audience, allowing you to effectively interpret audience insights and market research.
To create the persona, you’ll need to collect general demographics, client interests and student psychographics, like hobbies, desires, motives and lifestyles. Your customer persona will guide your marketing messaging and help you connect with your target audience on a deeper level. Remember to update the profile regularly to keep up with emerging trends.
4. Create and Test Different Audience Subsets
Layer interests, demographics and other variables to create different audience subsets. The subsets will help you road-test and refine your audience-targeting efforts. The world of education has a wide audience that goes beyond young learners. A few subsets you can target include:
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Adult learners
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Active-duty service members or spouses
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Marginalized groups
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Retirees
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Working professionals
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Career changers
Creating different subsets allows you to identify the groups that are most likely to respond to your messaging.
5. Try Reverse Thinking
Identifying who your target audience isn’t can sometimes be as helpful as determining who your target audience is. Reverse thinking helps you identify groups that are unlikely to be interested in your educational offerings. These groups often resemble your target audience but won’t be receptive to your offer. Tweaking your marketing strategy appropriately allows you to avoid targeting the wrong people and wasting your budget.
6. Work With a Trusted Academic Partner like MedCerts
Working with a trusted academic partner like MedCerts can be incredibly beneficial in expanding your reach and growing your target audience. MedCerts has years of experience in the education industry and can help you reach the next generation of individuals pursuing higher education. Working with MedCerts allows you to access academic partner resources and increase your ROI. Work with us to broaden your academic reach and prepare for the new landscape of academia.
