Audience personas are a crucial building block for your brand. By identifying which parents and learners are most likely to be interested in your classes, you can design your brand, class listings, and profile to speak directly to them.

A “persona” is a fictional character that represents a group of people in your audience. To create these personas, think about the people who’ve already enrolled in your classes or whom you would like to attract to your teaching business. Identify aspects of each persona using the worksheet we’ve included at the end of this post, and give them a name! Naming personas can help you think of them as real people that you’re speaking to when you write class descriptions or communications. You should try to group your audience into no more than 5 or 6 personas, and it’s okay to have fewer.

Here’s what your persona descriptions may look like:

Wanda Wordsmith, Parent
Wanda is a parent of a teenager needing help with their English writing and reading skills. She wants to enroll them in an academic-focused class that will help them perform better in school. She’s not very interested in cute or playful class themes, and she wants her child to be in a class alongside other teens ages 14-16 or older. She needs an engaging, insightful instructor who can help get her child interested in a subject that they struggle with.

Sahid Scientist, Learner
Sahid is an upper elementary student who LOVES science experiments and hands-on activities. He’s got a lot of energy and needs an online class that helps him complete a project or incorporates physical activity into the lesson. He’s most interested in classes that teach you how to do chemistry experiments at home, and he responds well to educators who can match his energetic spirit. He prefers to be in classes with elementary learners and may not fit well in a class with older students.

To help build out the characteristics of each of these personas, use the worksheet below to start brainstorming! Once you’ve created a list of traits for each group in your audience, boil those ideas down into a quick description like the examples above.

Whenever you’re creating a class or marketing materials, ask yourself: Which persona am I speaking to? How would this fill a need or answer a question for Wanda or Sahid (for example)? If it doesn’t speak to any of your identified personas, you may need to reevaluate the potential for that class or campaign to succeed. You can always change or add to your target audience down the road, too! And make sure you visit our post on building a brand for your teaching business to find out how your target audience fits into a broader brand strategy.