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Strategy

Providing Value Using Science: Content Marketing and 3 Learning Styles

What is providing value? Teaching people something useful and new.

People like to throw around the concept of creating content with “value.” But what is value? It’s providing your audience with useful information they can easily absorb and implement — teaching people something new and useful.
So if your objective is to teach, it’s important to understand the way people learn.
GEEK_ConsumerLearningStyles.001
According to the pros, there are three basic types of learners. They are:

Visual Learners

This type of learner understands content best by seeing and observing. Things like demonstration, charts and infographics are particularly valuable to visual learners.

Auditory Learners

Listening and the spoken word have the most impact on this type of learner. For instance, while some students fall asleep the moment a professor starts lecturing, there are others who absorb every word like a sponge. That’s not necessarily because the sleeper was up all night doing keg stands and enjoying the glorious hook-up culture on his or her campus. Some people just have a knack for hearing something and remembering it.

Kinesthetic or Tactile Learners

Physical experiences are the best way to reach this type of learner. Basically, you want to get these people doing stuff. This category of learner learns through experience.
Studies show visual learners are the most common of the three but most people have two dominant types of learning traits. So if you’re a visual learner, there is a good chance you also do a pretty good job learning by listening or doing. There are plenty of tests online if you’re curious about the type of learner you are.
What does this all mean for content marketing? Simply put, the best content is going to include aspects of all three types of learning.
For instance, an infographic could be complemented by a survey for kinesthetic learners and a clever audio recording for auditory learners. A video should include a call to action to get kinesthetic learners doing things and there should be plenty of information expressed verbally for the listeners out there.
There is no limit to how creative marketers can be to meet the needs of all three types of learners – but it’s essential that it gets done. This is how the human brain is wired. There is no getting around it.
The content marketers who can harness this knowledge won’t just provide more value to their audience. They will provide more conversions and growth for the brand they represent.
That’s what content marketing is all about.

The Numbers

65% – Percentage of people who are visual learners
30% – Percentage of people who are auditory learners.
5% – Percentage of people who are kinesthetic or tactile learners
90% – Percentage of information that goes to the brain that is visual
36,000 – The number of visual images the human eye can register in an hour
40% – Percentage of nerve fibers connected to the brain that are linked to the retina
30% – Percentage of neurons devoted to sight in cerebral cortex
8% -Percentage of neurons devoted to touch in cerebral cortex
3% – Percentage of neurons devoted to hearing in cerebral cortex
125 – Number of words per minute a human is capable of speaking
400 – Number of words per minute a human can understand

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