In this episode, Tara emphasizes the importance of tailoring digital experiences to different age groups highlighting the need to understand their preferences such as consumption habits, learning styles and technological proficiency in order to create engaging and effective digital experiences that prioritize the avatar's path to results and personalized learning strategies.

About Me:

My name is Tara Bryan. I help business owners break into the next level of success by packaging their expertise into a scalable business. It's my passion to help you find the fastest path to results to create a greater impact and income for you and your tribe.

This podcast is 100% focused on support, tips and example sharing, and building a community of business owners who are passionate about building awesome customer experiences.

We do that by building engaging, motivating, gamified, and customer-centered digital experiences. We come up with ideas and strategies to ensure that our customers can thrive and succeed.

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Find us at https://www.taralbryan.com

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Mentioned in this episode:

Strategy Call

Tara Bryan: 00:00:05

Hey everybody, it's Tara Bryan, and you are

Tara Bryan: 00:00:07

listening to the Course Building Secrets® podcast. Whether you're

Tara Bryan: 00:00:10

a coach or a CEO, the success of your team and clients is based

Tara Bryan: 00:00:15

on your ability to deliver a consistent experience and guide

Tara Bryan: 00:00:19

them on the fastest path to results. This podcast will give

Tara Bryan: 00:00:23

you practical real life tips that you can use today to build

Tara Bryan: 00:00:26

your online experiences that get results and create raving fans.

Tara Bryan: 00:00:30

Why? So you can monetize your expertise and serve more people

Tara Bryan: 00:00:35

without adding more time or team to your business? If you're

Tara Bryan: 00:00:39

looking to uncover your million dollar framework, package it and

Tara Bryan: 00:00:42

use it to scale you're in the right place. Let's dive in.

Tara Bryan: 00:00:46

Hey, everybody, welcome to this week's episode of the Course

Tara Bryan: 00:00:53

Building Secrets® podcast. In this episode, I want to talk

Tara Bryan: 00:00:57

about how to design for the age of your avatar. Because there

Tara Bryan: 00:01:03

are some considerations that you need to remember for younger

Tara Bryan: 00:01:07

audiences and older audiences and sort of everyone in between.

Tara Bryan: 00:01:12

And so this is a question that I've gotten a lot lately because

Tara Bryan: 00:01:15

we're talking about engagement. How do you engage your

Tara Bryan: 00:01:18

customers, your members so that they show up? They participate?

Tara Bryan: 00:01:23

They stay and they get results? That's sort of the million

Tara Bryan: 00:01:27

dollar question. As you're building your experience, right,

Tara Bryan: 00:01:30

you've got to first get some people in once you do that, now

Tara Bryan: 00:01:33

you can figure out like, okay, so how do you get them engaged?

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How do you get them to stay and participate? And and making sure

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that you're designing the right thing for the, for your specific

Tara Bryan: 00:01:45

avatar is very, very important as part of this whole

Tara Bryan: 00:01:50

experience? And, specifically, as you're getting an online

Tara Bryan: 00:01:56

experience, like how does the age of your avatar interact with

Tara Bryan: 00:02:00

technology, as you know, there's you kind of the younger set are

Tara Bryan: 00:02:06

digital natives, right? Like they use their phone as if it

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were an extra hand. And it's something that they are always

Tara Bryan: 00:02:14

grabbing always in. And paying attention to the way that they

Tara Bryan: 00:02:19

consume content is totally different than someone in their

Tara Bryan: 00:02:21

60s or 70s. And so I wanted to kind of outline a little bit of

Tara Bryan: 00:02:26

that for you today.

Tara Bryan: 00:02:27

So you can have a couple of things to think about as you're

Tara Bryan: 00:02:27

Okay, so the very first rule I have is make sure that no matter

Tara Bryan: 00:02:39

putting together content. So the very first thing is there's a

Tara Bryan: 00:02:42

what you do, you're staying on the path. So regardless of of

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the age of the person that you're working with, you are

Tara Bryan: 00:02:52

leading with your signature methodology, right, like you

Tara Bryan: 00:02:53

number of sort of rules that apply to all. And I want to lay

Tara Bryan: 00:03:06

those out first, and then I'm going to share with you some

Tara Bryan: 00:03:16

have your unique and intellectual property, that

Tara Bryan: 00:03:19

kind of tips and tricks for how to think about your audience.

Tara Bryan: 00:03:19

helps give them the fastest path from point A to point B, right

Tara Bryan: 00:03:23

from their problem to a resolution, that's always where

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you lead from, that's where you start is you own the solution

Tara Bryan: 00:03:31

that you can give them to that problem. And, and so that's the

Tara Bryan: 00:03:32

Overall, the one that I do 100% recommend is to have a focus

Tara Bryan: 00:03:35

very first thing, a lot of times I see people start to get

Tara Bryan: 00:03:39

distracted. They have their core methodology, they've sold their

Tara Bryan: 00:03:43

core methodology. And then once they produce their content and

Tara Bryan: 00:03:45

group with your your audience, ask them, you know, specifics

Tara Bryan: 00:03:46

start putting it into a membership site, or a course

Tara Bryan: 00:03:49

platform, or, you know, online experience, platform, whatever

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you're using, is they start getting distracted. And there,

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all sorts of extra things end up in there, which dilutes from the

Tara Bryan: 00:03:58

about how they want to consume what you have for them within

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actual success path. So that's my first rule is just make sure

Tara Bryan: 00:04:04

that you're foundationally putting in the right content.

Tara Bryan: 00:04:10

Which is, is that million dollar roadmap, right, like getting

Tara Bryan: 00:04:11

some parameters.

Tara Bryan: 00:04:13

them from point A to point B?

Tara Bryan: 00:04:15

Then the second rule is, nobody wants a boring experience,

Tara Bryan: 00:04:19

regardless of age, right? Like nobody wants to be bored out of

Tara Bryan: 00:04:21

their mind. Nobody wants to be watching something or, or trying

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to interact with something and being so bored that they fall

Tara Bryan: 00:04:28

asleep, right, like nobody wants that doesn't matter how old you

Tara Bryan: 00:04:32

are. And, and, and to just keep it clean and focused and clear

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in terms of how somebody navigates through what you have

Tara Bryan: 00:04:42

to offer. So in every age group, those are sort of the general

Tara Bryan: 00:04:46

rules.

Tara Bryan: 00:04:47

Now I want to break down kind of the differences in four

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different buckets. The first one is the amount of content that

Tara Bryan: 00:04:56

you can serve at at one time. All of us have a really short

Tara Bryan: 00:05:02

attention span like less than a goldfish at this point, which is

Tara Bryan: 00:05:05

frightening. But the older somebody gets, the more of an

Tara Bryan: 00:05:10

appetite they have for longer form content, the younger they

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are, it has to be quick and short and to the point. And so

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as you're kind of figuring out, the general age group of your

Tara Bryan: 00:05:23

avatar, that's something to keep in mind is, is shorter bursts of

Tara Bryan: 00:05:30

content are better for a younger audience, you can get away with

Tara Bryan: 00:05:35

longer stuff with an older audience. So that's the first

Tara Bryan: 00:05:39

thing is think about the amount you're serving and the timing,

Tara Bryan: 00:05:43

how long are you having them sit without doing an activity or an

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action that plays into into how you're creating your content.

Tara Bryan: 00:05:56

The second thing is your materials. So I'm specifically

Tara Bryan: 00:06:00

talking about your workbooks, and worksheets and, and whatnot,

Tara Bryan: 00:06:04

that you may have around your experience. But there are a

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little, you know, you can come up with some additional

Tara Bryan: 00:06:11

examples. But the rule of thumb is, you're always gonna have

Tara Bryan: 00:06:15

people who want to print out the workbooks, again, older audience

Tara Bryan: 00:06:20

tend to want the paper more than a younger audience. And so you

Tara Bryan: 00:06:26

can kind of, you know, pull your people like, who wants this in

Tara Bryan: 00:06:29

paper, who wants to have it as a interactive PDF. But typically,

Tara Bryan: 00:06:35

I include both options for for the majority of the audiences.

Tara Bryan: 00:06:41

So unlike the paper, some like to print it out, other people

Tara Bryan: 00:06:44

like to do with the interactive PDFs, which you can do, like get

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a tablet, or iPad, you know, with your, your Apple pencil or

Tara Bryan: 00:06:52

whatever, and they like to interact and do the activities

Tara Bryan: 00:06:55

on the screen themselves. And then, then that's kind of the

Tara Bryan: 00:07:01

third way. And again, this is great for younger people who are

Tara Bryan: 00:07:05

used to using their phones, their tablets, and devices, to

Tara Bryan: 00:07:11

just do their work is, is to create an interactive activity,

Tara Bryan: 00:07:17

meaning instead of having it be like a worksheet style, it's

Tara Bryan: 00:07:21

just an actual, like, you know, click on this to do this thing,

Tara Bryan: 00:07:26

or type in your response. And so so you're using the technology

Tara Bryan: 00:07:31

to have them interact with it, instead of thinking about it in

Tara Bryan: 00:07:35

a paper format, like a workbook. And so those are sort of the

Tara Bryan: 00:07:39

three different ways right like and, and I always recommend

Tara Bryan: 00:07:44

having all three as an option. But you'll find that depending

Tara Bryan: 00:07:49

upon who your avatar is, they'll have a preference one way or the

Tara Bryan: 00:07:52

other. So a paper workbook, or a workbook that they can print, or

Tara Bryan: 00:07:57

buy or whatever, an interactive PDF, which allows them to fill

Tara Bryan: 00:08:01

it in, and and save it as a as an electronic document, or

Tara Bryan: 00:08:08

interactive activities, meaning you're creating interactions

Tara Bryan: 00:08:12

that they can do straight in your platform, and track and get

Tara Bryan: 00:08:18

feedback and all that kind of stuff. And so that plays into

Tara Bryan: 00:08:22

again, who your audience is and what they're used to doing.

Tara Bryan: 00:08:26

The third thing is gamification. And this is how you reward and

Tara Bryan: 00:08:33

recognize people's progress through the program. So it's not

Tara Bryan: 00:08:37

about a bunch of badges and trophies and whatnot, that are

Tara Bryan: 00:08:44

randomly put within your program. But it's intentional

Tara Bryan: 00:08:47

movement in a particular direction. Like for us, it's,

Tara Bryan: 00:08:52

it's are they taking the steps that we need them to take to get

Tara Bryan: 00:08:55

closer to solving their problem. So younger audiences, again,

Tara Bryan: 00:08:59

you're gonna do shorter pieces of content, more gamification

Tara Bryan: 00:09:03

elements. To get them moving forward, you're going to be able

Tara Bryan: 00:09:08

to, to do some different, maybe some more advanced gamification,

Tara Bryan: 00:09:15

because they're going to be ready for by like they're used

Tara Bryan: 00:09:18

to having some sort of gaming or progress indicators. as they're

Tara Bryan: 00:09:24

going through an electronic experience. Your older audience

Tara Bryan: 00:09:28

maybe doesn't need as much, but they still like to be rewarded

Tara Bryan: 00:09:32

and recognized for hitting certain milestones. And so look

Tara Bryan: 00:09:36

at that, in terms of how you're dealing with, you know, all the

Tara Bryan: 00:09:43

different ages. But again, it's a great strategy for engagement

Tara Bryan: 00:09:47

for any age. Again, nobody wants to be bored. But the way that

Tara Bryan: 00:09:51

you are going to use it is going to be a little bit different. My

Tara Bryan: 00:09:55

favorite example, of game of gamification, if you're looking

Tara Bryan: 00:09:59

for one is Duolingo. And those are short daily lessons, that

Tara Bryan: 00:10:05

each time you do a daily lesson you're recognized for doing it.

Tara Bryan: 00:10:09

And you, there's some, you know, sort of sophisticated

Tara Bryan: 00:10:15

gamification in there. But it's a great thing to model for any

Tara Bryan: 00:10:19

age. And you can see how, if you're going through it, you

Tara Bryan: 00:10:24

there are some things you'll like some things that maybe feel

Tara Bryan: 00:10:27

like they're, they're over the top or too juvenile, though,

Tara Bryan: 00:10:32

that's a good indication that it's for a younger audience. And

Tara Bryan: 00:10:37

so you can look at that as some indicators for how to start to

Tara Bryan: 00:10:41

structure that.

Tara Bryan: 00:10:43

And then the last big factor that I just want to cover for

Tara Bryan: 00:10:54

kind of figuring out the age of your avatar, and what they need

Tara Bryan: 00:11:06

is how they're consuming your experience. Nine out of 10

Tara Bryan: 00:11:16

times, if you have anyone under I don't know if I shouldn't say

Tara Bryan: 00:11:28

an age, but under I don't know, let's just say 30, maybe 35,

Tara Bryan: 00:11:40

they are primarily using their phone first, and then using

Tara Bryan: 00:11:50

their desktop or the depending upon your audience and where

Tara Bryan: 00:12:02

they are, are they primarily at a desk? Or are they primarily

Tara Bryan: 00:12:13

out and about doing different things? You need to consider how

Tara Bryan: 00:12:25

they're going through your experience. They're using the

Tara Bryan: 00:12:35

phone, you need to make sure that you're designing for

Tara Bryan: 00:12:38

So those are the four big things that I look at, and kind of

Tara Bryan: 00:12:43

consider when I'm helping people think about the different age

Tara Bryan: 00:12:45

mobile, right, everything that you're doing is going to be

Tara Bryan: 00:12:48

groups that they are serving. Now, some people are serving all

Tara Bryan: 00:12:52

of the age groups, which we can argue that maybe you need to

Tara Bryan: 00:12:56

like, can they read it? Can they see it? Can they go through the

Tara Bryan: 00:12:57

specialize in your avatar, but that's not this conversation.

Tara Bryan: 00:13:01

But if you're serving a really wide range of avatars, then my

Tara Bryan: 00:13:06

recommendation for you is to split them up into different

Tara Bryan: 00:13:08

experience? What does that look like? If you're asking somebody

Tara Bryan: 00:13:10

different membership types or audience types. So that you can

Tara Bryan: 00:13:14

so you can create content specifically for how they would

Tara Bryan: 00:13:19

go through the journey. So for example, like I was saying, I

Tara Bryan: 00:13:20

to fill out an interactive PDF on a phone, that's very, very

Tara Bryan: 00:13:23

was just going back and forth with someone who had a whole

Tara Bryan: 00:13:27

curriculum for 10 to 18 year olds. And within there, some of

Tara Bryan: 00:13:32

difficult, because it's, you know, really, really little. And

Tara Bryan: 00:13:32

it was teaching them how to get a job in a specific thing. Some

Tara Bryan: 00:13:37

was to get them to be able to do I don't know it was just do a

Tara Bryan: 00:13:41

specific technique. And other things was just like, hey, we

Tara Bryan: 00:13:43

so they have to transfer over to their desktop to do that, if

Tara Bryan: 00:13:46

just want them to get involved and get to know all of the

Tara Bryan: 00:13:50

different things. And and just have general excitement around

Tara Bryan: 00:13:54

the topic. All three of those have really different needs in

Tara Bryan: 00:13:55

you're asking them to go and get a bunch of links in a bunch of

Tara Bryan: 00:13:59

terms of how the content is structured, how people are going

Tara Bryan: 00:14:03

through it, the experience that they have, and how they're

Tara Bryan: 00:14:06

different places, and save things. Again, that's difficult

Tara Bryan: 00:14:08

learning what you want them to learn to get to the resolution

Tara Bryan: 00:14:12

to the problem. And, and so if you can segment those, so your

Tara Bryan: 00:14:17

you know, 10 to 12 year olds have one experience your 13 to

Tara Bryan: 00:14:17

to do on a mobile device. Because it's not set up to do

Tara Bryan: 00:14:21

15 year olds have one experience and your 16 eight year olds 18

Tara Bryan: 00:14:26

year olds have a different experience than what you're

Tara Bryan: 00:14:28

that, right. So it, you know, if people are at a desk all day,

Tara Bryan: 00:14:30

doing is you're giving them the experience that matches their

Tara Bryan: 00:14:35

age matches how they are going to consume what you've given

Tara Bryan: 00:14:39

them and to be honest, it's more age appropriate Right? Like I

Tara Bryan: 00:14:39

desktop may be the way that they're going through the

Tara Bryan: 00:14:44

don't know if you would be teaching a 10 year old the same

Tara Bryan: 00:14:48

way you would an 18 year old and you probably shouldn't be but

Tara Bryan: 00:14:49

experience. So really think through that some of that is

Tara Bryan: 00:14:52

the way you're organizing the content, if it's all the same,

Tara Bryan: 00:14:57

would definitely be different. And and you can do that all In

Tara Bryan: 00:15:00

situational in that age. But again, your digital natives,

Tara Bryan: 00:15:01

one, one experience and make it really, really effective to

Tara Bryan: 00:15:06

attract all of those different ages. It's just in how you

Tara Bryan: 00:15:10

organize it. And so that's why, you know, thinking about how

Tara Bryan: 00:15:11

your younger crowd, nine out of 10 times are doing almost

Tara Bryan: 00:15:15

you're organizing by age and what they need. Those 10 year

Tara Bryan: 00:15:19

olds probably don't have a way to, you know, work on an

Tara Bryan: 00:15:21

everything on their phones, as as certainly as much as possible

Tara Bryan: 00:15:23

interactive PDF, they would probably want to have little

Tara Bryan: 00:15:27

activities that they could do that are in the program itself,

Tara Bryan: 00:15:32

so that they can do that and move on.

Tara Bryan: 00:15:33

on their phones. And so the experience you're designing

Tara Bryan: 00:15:34

So there you go. There are some tips for you on really thinking

Tara Bryan: 00:15:39

about the age of your avatar and what they need, and how each age

Tara Bryan: 00:15:43

group may have some different needs as you go through and

Tara Bryan: 00:15:44

needs to be able to start there and then look at like, how would

Tara Bryan: 00:15:47

design your experience. All right, there you go. If you love

Tara Bryan: 00:15:51

this episode, give us a high rating. Give us a thumbs up

Tara Bryan: 00:15:55

subscribe, all the different things so we will see you on the

Tara Bryan: 00:15:56

they do that on a desktop.

Tara Bryan: 00:16:00

next episode.