Regardless of whether you are already starting another semester of your business or just setting up your own language school, you need to occasionally empathise with your clients’ perspective. The way you communicate with them directly impacts your marketing results and course sales. If you have defined personas in your language school, check out this article to learn how to do it even more effectively!
What will you find in this article?
- Who are personas?
- How and when to define personas in a language school?
- Where should I look for data about buyer personas?
- How to build a persona step by step?
- Personas in a language school – practical examples
- Summary
Who are buyer personas?
Personas are essentially fictional representations of our clients, to whom we tailor our offerings. When creating a marketing and sales strategy, it’s beneficial to focus on a specific category of clients or a single character, rather than thousands of users who might become our students.
Properly describing personas will allow you to more effectively reach the right audience and build stronger school-listener relationships.
But that’s not all! By creating personas:
- You will better understand your audience
Personas allow you to specify in detail who your students are – what their needs and motivations are, and what holds them back from enrolling in a course. This enables you to better meet their expectations. - You will refine your marketing efforts
Instead of directing a general advertisement to everyone, you can create content and campaigns tailored to specific groups. For instance, an advertisement for high school students will differ from one aimed at working adults. - You will optimise your educational offering
Personas help determine which language courses will be most attractive to a given group – from intensive courses for professionals to classes for children. - You will increase engagement and loyalty
Understanding how to communicate with different groups of students helps build relationships based on trust and engagement. Additionally, by building personalised communication, you will increase the loyalty of your students.
It is worthwhile to categorise your potential students, or in other words, segment your business. Of course, it becomes more challenging when a language school offers courses simultaneously for different target groups: children, teenagers, adults, and businesses. Therefore, it is important to dedicate some time and precisely define each of them.
GOOD TO KNOW!
A persona in a language school reflects a model client along with their needs, concerns, motivations, goals, or purchasing preferences. Recognising these characteristics will allow you to better tailor your message, plan future actions, and also resolve customer issues more quickly.
How and when to define personas in a language school?
You first encountered personas when setting up your own language school. At that time, it was essential to decide to whom we are offering language courses.
Have you been running a school for several years? Don’t rest on your laurels – defining personas is a continuous process, as your school is constantly evolving, times are changing, and along with them, your clients.
Creating personas in a language school is not only useful if you are conducting content marketing, such as a corporate blog or creating educational materials, but also when sending sales mailings or addressing students on social media.
You can develop an accurate and personalised communication strategy with your audience.
Where should I look for data about buyer personas?
The foundation for creating imagined profiles of your clients is DATA. Where can you find it?
Within the company
Each employee of the school has different contact with the students and thus a different perspective, so conducting an internal company interview is a very good idea.
Example questions:
- What makes our school stand out?
- What problem do we solve?
- What questions do clients ask most frequently?
- What do our clients say, what do they like, what don’t they like, what are they worried about?
Website
Website for a language school is the primary source of information about your school and clients. A very effective tool for observing our audience is Google Analytics. You will find demographic data, interests, devices, and channels from which they arrive at the website.
Surveys
Surely, you have conducted surveys at the end of courses, whether in paper form or electronically. Go back to them and analyse what your students liked and what they would gladly change.
Social media
Social media platforms, such as Facebook, have quite a comprehensive statistics section where you can find information about the people visiting your fan page. It is worth observing all discussions, topics, shares, and customer comments and drawing useful information from them.
Forms
These are most commonly found on the website or on a landing page where you offer a downloadable e-book or a free online lesson. Through them, you can obtain any information about your potential or current students, but remember, the more information you ask for, the fewer people are willing to fill them in.
How to build personas in a language school step by step?
At the start, it’s worth defining who is not your client. This means excluding users not interested in the courses you offer or those for whom they are, for instance, too expensive.
Questions that need to be developed:
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Demographic data | Who is the recipient? What age? Where do they live? What is their education? |
| Work, study | Where do they work? In what position? Are they studying? |
| Interests, passions | Including how much free time do they have? |
| Rituals | What does their day look like? Do they commute? |
| Shopping preferences | Where do they shop? How much do they spend? Do they pay by card? |
| Problems | What problems do they have that you can solve? |
| Goals, values | What do they value in life? What do they care about? |
| Doubts | What is your client afraid of? What deters them from purchasing a course? |
| Channels | Where do they seek information? |
TIP
It’s best to place such data in a template presented on a single sheet, with the addition of a persona’s photo. The most important thing is for the information to be presented in a clear and easy-to-analyse way. Above all, try to record specific information, and you can additionally supplement it with quotes from your audience.
By developing model clients, you can tailor the perfect message to these real ones. Compare these two examples:
Message 1
Our language school offers the highest quality English courses, with professional tutors and a hundred per cent effectiveness.
Message 2
Do you want to learn a language but only have an hour a day? That’s enough to speak Spanish after our six-month course – because that is your dream… isn’t it?
Which message do you think sells? That’s why personas are created!
Personas in a language school – practical examples
Finally, analyse some examples of personas for a language school, along with a brief description of their needs and appropriate marketing actions. Remember, when creating personas for your own needs, expand their descriptions to include as much information as possible.
Persona 1: Ana, 28 years old, young professional
Language learning goal: promotion in an international company.
Concerns: she has little time for learning and worries that classes will be too time-consuming.
Motivation: she wants to earn more and feel more confident speaking with clients from abroad.
Marketing actions you can implement:
- Create an advertisement for flexible online courses with hours tailored for working individuals.
- Blog articles: „How to combine language learning with a hectic work schedule?”
- LinkedIn posts: „Take a step towards a promotion – learn a language without leaving home.”
Persona 2: Ben, 32 years old, tourist
Learning goal: to master the basics of Spanish to feel confident while travelling.
Concerns: he doesn’t want to invest in a long-term course.
Motivation: he wants to converse freely during holidays.
Marketing actions:
- Advertisement: „Intensive language course for travellers in 4 weeks”
- Social media: posts with practical phrases, e.g., „How to order food in a local restaurant?”
- E-book: „10 essential phrases to use while travelling.”
Persona 3: The Smiths, 40 and 42 years old, parents of Greg and Lily
Learning goal: they want to ensure a good start for their children in the future and focus on language learning from an early age.
Concerns: they worry that their children will quickly get bored or that classes won’t be engaging enough.
Motivation: they invest in their children’s education so they have better career prospects and education.
Marketing activities:
- Advertisement: „Language courses your child will love – learning through play!”
- Social media: posts featuring videos where children talk about their language learning successes.
- Educational materials: e-book „How to support your child in learning a foreign language?”
Summary – buyer personas in a language school
Personas in a language school represent typical groups of your audience. They help you better understand their needs, motivations, and concerns, leading to more effective marketing activities.
But not only that. With well-defined personas:
- you can create personalised adverts and content (e.g., separately for students, working adults, companies),
- precisely tailor your offer to the needs of different groups,
- increase engagement and loyalty, which translates into even better retention in the school. Whether you are targeting busy professionals, ambitious high school graduates, or travelling seniors, accurately defining their needs and concerns will enhance the effectiveness of your actions!
Do you already have personas? Discover their practical application in Customer Journey Map and find out how clients perceive your language school!