Putting The Four Learning Styles To Work - Part One by:Neil Asher
The "four learning styles" is derived from the work of Harvard Psychologist David Kolb
. He spent years studying how people learn. My friend Wyatt Woodsmall taught this formula to me, and I adapted it to the purpose of information marketing.
Kolb watched people and how they learn. He observed that there are four different styles generally. They are totally different from each other. Those who don't know the four learning styles tend to teach in their own learning style. They are not communicating well with 70% or 80% of their audience. So, you can see why it's important to know these four styles and how to apply them to your information marketing, as well as the content of your information products.
In a nutshell, the four learning styles ask four fundamental questions: Why? What? How? And What If? Let's begin by examining the first two.
The why-learning style asks the question, "Why do I need to learn this?" Why-learners need to be motivated to learn. Up front, when you're teaching some information or developing an information product, you need to help them understand why they're learning.
So suppose your information product is an audio course. You might start out, at the beginning of every section, by saying, "Here's why it's important that you learn this. If you learn it you're going to get this great benefit. If you DON'T learn it you're going to have this bad thing happen to you."
You might have noticed that I started out this information marketing article the same way. I wrote about Kolb's research, and I told the why-learners that they are missing the boat. They "are not communicating well with 70% or 80% of their audience." Then I wrote, "You can see why it's important to know these four styles." That's an example of how you can use this in your own information products.
The second style is the what-learning style. What-learners ask the question, "What is it?" These are the theoretical learners, the academics. Most college professors fall into the what-learning category.
If you've ever read an academic book, you know exactly what what is all about. It's full of theories, concepts, ideas, perspectives, and history. That's what the what-learners want.
I use a lot of what-learning content in my information products. I love theories. I'm the kind of guy who zooms in to see the cover on a puzzle box. I don't care about the pieces. I just want to know what the cover looks like.
In this article, the what-learners were hooked the moment they saw it was going to be about the "work of a Harvard Psychologist." They view the four learning styles as a theory, and they want to know what it's all about.
So give your what-learners plenty of theory in your information products and show then what they are going to get through your information marketing. The more specific you can be the better. Show them how all the pieces fit together. And they love big picture stuff, because that shows what has developed.
You can take what-learners through the steps of history, too, because they enjoy that, and so do the next category of learning styles, the how-learners. That's what's next.
About the author
Neil Asher (
http://www.neilasher.com/freestuff.htm) has built five multi-million dollar companies from zero, including one he took to $8 million in sales in under two years. He has created and sold successful franchises in England, Italy, Ireland, Australia and South Africa. Visit his web site for access to 17 FREE videos, 6 FREE books and two hours of audio training, revealing "How To Make BIG Money Selling Information Products On The InternetEven If You Don't Have A Website And You've Never Sold Anything On The Internet Before."
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