Why & How to Tailor Content to Different Audiences

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been asked to create a single course for a large group of learners with different needs and varying levels of prior knowledge? 🙋

It’s a request that comes up a lot. And I can see why! Making one catch-all course seems easier than making multiple versions for different audiences. And it might actually be easier, but will it be as effective? Probably not. 

I’d like to walk you through why it’s worth taking the time to tailor content to specific audiences and how to go about doing that.

Why Creating a One-Size-Fits-All Course Is Usually a Mistake

Have you ever bought clothing that claims it’s one-size-fits-all? A more accurate description would be one-size-fits-nobody-perfectly, am I right? It’s the same when it comes to e-learning courses. If you try to create a course that fits everyone’s needs, chances are it’ll end up fitting no one’s needs perfectly. And when you present learners with content that’s irrelevant to them, they’re more likely to tune out—leading to lower retention and higher dropout rates or lower scores.

Tailoring the course to specific audiences, on the other hand, gives learners exactly what they need—no more, no less—and makes the information you’re sharing feel more relevant. That means learners are more likely to deeply engage with the content, retain the key messages, and ultimately meet the objectives of your course. 

How to Tailor Content to Different Audiences

Now that we’re all on the same page about the importance of tailoring your course to your specific audience, you might be wondering how to go about doing that. Basically, you’ll need to adapt the content included, the way you present that content, and the wording or framing of your message. Let’s have a closer look at how to do each of those things.

Decide What Content to Cover

To decide what content to cover in each version of your course, you’ll need to think about your audience, their prior knowledge, the reason you’re creating the course, and their needs. If you’re not already doing an audience analysis as part of your course creation process, check out this article to learn how: How to Do an E-Learning Audience Analysis.

To illustrate what this looks like, I designed two courses on the same topic for different audiences. Let’s start by looking at the target audiences for both courses:

Target Audience	People without food allergies	People who’ve been newly diagnosed with food allergies
Prior Knowledge	Little to none	Little to none
Training Goal  (why you’re creating the course)	Raise awareness of the serious nature of food allergies and educate people on how to recognize and respond to reactions	Help people who’ve been newly diagnosed with food allergies get up to speed on the basics quickly
Learning Objectives (what the learner needs to be able to do after taking the course)	Be able to: explain the difference between food allergies and intolerances list the top nine foods responsible for most allergic reactions recognize and respond to allergic reactions empathize with people living with food allergies implement small changes to support people with food allergies	Be able to: explain why it’s important to take food allergies seriously identify whether your allergen is on the top nine list recognize and respond to allergic reactions implement strategies to prevent an allergic reaction locate trusted resources with additional information

 

Notice that even though both target groups have the same level of prior knowledge, their needs are different, which is why one course won’t do the trick.

To make sure the needs of each target group are met, I needed to think about what content to include in each course. Here’s what I decided:

Target Audience	People without food allergies	People who’ve been newly diagnosed with food allergies
Course Content	Definition of a food allergy Top nine food allergens How to recognize a reaction How to respond to a reaction (overview) Glimpse of life with allergies to encourage empathy Ideas for ways to support people with food allergies Links to a few key resources	Definition of a food allergy Top nine food allergens How to recognize a reaction How to respond to a reaction (step by step) Details about how to manage food allergies in everyday life Tips for educating friends and family Links to many helpful resources

 

You’ll notice that the first three bullet points are the same. In this case, that’s not surprising, given that both of my target audiences have little to no prior knowledge, so they both need to get up to speed on the basics. However, starting from bullet point number four, you’ll notice that things start to diverge, which makes sense given that each group has very different needs. 

Decide How to Present Your Content

In situations where there’s overlap in the content that’s presented, it’s important to consider whether it makes sense to present that content in the same way for all audiences.

Take my courses on food allergies. Even though both audiences need to know what to do in the case of an allergic reaction, it’s more likely that people who’ve been newly diagnosed with an allergy will actually have to follow those steps in real life.

For that reason, I decided to present them in slightly different ways for each audience. For people without food allergies, I used an accordion block with bullet points to outline each step. And for people who’ve been newly diagnosed, I used a process block to add more emphasis to the importance of these steps and, hopefully, to increase learner retention. Here’s what that looks like:

Target Audience	People without food allergies	People who’ve been newly diagnosed with food allergies
Responding to a Reaction Lesson	An accordion block with bullet points outlining each step	A process block with a photo and text for each step
	View interactive version	View interactive version

 

Do you see how much changing the way you present content can impact the learning experience?

Reframe Your Message

Good instructional designers know that it’s not enough to present learners with the content they need; you also have to explain why they need it, so they’re motivated to engage and explore. That means you also need to reframe your message so it’s relevant and relatable. 

But what does that entail, exactly? Basically, it means rewording your text so that it speaks to your learners. To do that, you’ll need to put yourself in your learners’ shoes and ask yourself questions like:

• Why should they care?
• How will they use this information in their daily work/life?

Then, let the answers to those questions guide your writing. Let’s go back to my two allergies courses and look at the course description to illustrate what this reframing can look like. 

If I had been creating a single course for both audiences, I would’ve had to stick to a generic course description that simply states what the course will cover. But because I decided to create a separate course for each audience, I was able to write an introduction that truly speaks to each group of learners, (hopefully!) increasing their motivation to take the course. Have a look at both versions below:

Target Audience	People without food allergies	People who’ve been newly diagnosed with food allergies
Course Description	Food is a huge part of our daily lives. And often, eating is about more than just nourishing our bodies—it’s about spending time with people we love. Think about it: when was the last time you got together with family or friends and food wasn’t involved?  For people with food allergies, eating can be stressful. And for good reason! You’d probably be stressed too if your life was potentially at risk whenever you put anything in your mouth. After taking this course, you'll be able to . . .	If you or someone you love has just been diagnosed with a food allergy, you might be feeling stressed and overwhelmed. What does this mean? How will it impact your day-to-day life? We’ll take a look at all this and more in this helpful course. After taking this course, you’ll be able to . . .

 

Do you see how changing up the wording on the course description really changes how you feel going into the course? If you open up both courses and compare the first few lessons side by side, you’ll see a bunch of other examples of this kind of reframing:

Target Audience	People without food allergies	People who’ve been newly diagnosed with food allergies
Course	View interactive version	View interactive version

 

If you’re struggling to reword your content to better fit the needs of your target audience, check out this article: Empathy: What It Is, Why It’s Important, and How to Build It.

The Bottom Line

If you want your course to make an impact, it’s important to cater to your target audience. If that audience includes people with a wide range of needs, you’re probably better off creating separate courses tailored to each audience. After all, what’s the point of spending time and effort building a course if the content doesn’t speak to your learners, or help them retain the key messages they need to satisfy the course objectives?

More Resources

Looking for more practical instructional design tips? Don’t miss these helpful articles:

• All About Learning Objectives for E-Learning
• Converting Instructor-Led Training into E-Learning with Rise 360
• How to Write Plausible Incorrect Answer Options for Quiz Questions
• 4 Impactful Ways to Boost Your E-Learning Writing Skills

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