Contents
(click to expand)
If you are running or marketing a tutoring business, your main goal is to find new clients (while retaining existing ones, of course).
Tutor marketing is a very important aspect of the tutoring business model. It's not enough to just have students sign up for one-on-one sessions, you need to have them come back again and again.
Therefore, tutoring agencies, like many other businesses, are understandably keen to adopt new tutor marketing trends, particularly those with technology at their forefront.
There are so many ways to market your tutoring business. It can be challenging to separate the good from the bad, but we promise that it's worth the effort. With this in mind, here are some top strategies to consider when marketing your services.
Word of Mouth Marketing
Personal referrals are still the lifeblood of the tutoring industry. You may have the best online tutoring company in town, but if one knows about it then your success is going to be very limited!
Word of mouth marketing can be a great means of exposure to recruit new clients and even build existing client loyalty. Satisfied parents and students are your best source of new business as they're likely to have insider knowledge on what you offer as well as contact with other students who might need your tutoring services.
Having a strong focus on customer service will ensure that your agency develops a positive reputation in your area. Great customer service will often get clients speaking for themselves on your behalf, but you could even offer incentives like discounts in exchange for an honest review that you can share on your website or across social media.
Reviews and feedback will help to legitimise your services and in such an oversaturated and competitive market, it is important to share what makes your service so unique and beneficial to students.
Word of mouth marketing and face to face networking opportunities will help get your business name and reputation circulating in the educational sphere. From this you may even be able to land some partnerships, sponsor opportunities or other forms of collaboration that can all be effective ways to improve your agency's presence.
Content Marketing
If you have a blog or an ezine on your website, people will be able to find out more about you and what you do with ease. You must make sure that this content is updated regularly and is fresh and vibrant. This way, when people want to search for a service such as yours, they will be able to find you quickly and easily. Many people use Google to look for things like this every single day, and if you are higher up on the Google search rankings then you will get more customers (more on this later).
It is a good idea to get people to sign up to receive your blog updates via email whether you post weekly, monthly or just whenever suits you. This way you will have their details and can send them information on what you offer and updates to your services. They will also be occasionally reminded of your business keeping it at the forefront of their minds.
If you can demonstrate a small amount of value to them through this blogging or email marketing, they may be more likely to sign up to a more permanent service.
Face to Face Networking
One way to build a presence in your local community is to attend business networking events. Meeting other local companies can create several marketing opportunities, particularly if the other business is in the educational sphere. Partnerships, sponsor opportunities and other form of collaboration can all be effective ways to improve your agency's presence in your community.
Social bookmarking
Social bookmarking sites like Reddit are a great way to boost your marketing efforts. You can use them for getting unique backlinks from pages on other websites to your own where potential clients might be looking for services related to what you are offering.
To make sure you're on the right thread or site for your business, it's best to try several bookmarking sites before deciding which works best! Each platform has its own unique features. For example: some allow users to share links other than themselves while others don't and some only accept content that is submitted by their members or moderated manually.
Similarly, getting a live link to your online tutoring business listed in a directory will increase exposure and give your company a sense of genuineness as other sites promoting your business can make it appear more authoritative and trustworthy. Many online directories allow you to sign up for free so there is no harm in requesting a listing.
Read More:
- Tutoring subreddits: /r/Tutor, /r/Tutoring, /r/Teaching and /r/TeachingUK
- Quora Topic: Tutoring
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is one of the most powerful tools and biggest online marketing strategies for getting your business seen by others. Popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter can give your online tutoring company a massive boost if used effectively.
Students of all ages are active on social networks so create a business profile to expose your tutoring company and post content regularly. Post educational news and study tips as well as the services you are offering. The key to successful social marketing is knowing when and where to post, like early morning on weekdays or in the lead up to seasonal periods (in the case of tutoring companies, the run up to exam season).
Social media also offers tools to monitor what is trending at certain times in order to get even more attention for your business and analytics on how your own content is performing.
Paid social media advertising is also a great marketing option if you are willing to pay for potential leads. This feature can help you hone in on your chosen target market to ensure your social media content reaches your preferred client base. When done correctly and when closely monitoring your CPA (cost-per-acquisition) - it is a lucrative way to maximize exposure through these platforms.
Read More:
- Facebook Groups - Online Tutoring, Online tutoring for adults & kids UK, UK Tutors tech networking - online tutoring ideas
- Disclaimer: TutorCruncher are not part of any of these groups, these have been found via search.
Search Engine Marketing (SEO)
Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO, is a great strategy for any tutoring business looking to expand their reach beyond traditional face to face marketing. SEO involves optimising your website for specific keywords to get your website or web pages ranked higher on search engines. By doing this you will receive more online traffic to your site than those that offer similar services but rank lower.
The tutoring industry is growing rapidly, so it's important to stay on top of the latest trends. Therefore you want to ensure that you are featuring all the currently relevant keywords in the tutoring industry and in your area within your online content, for example, ‘online tutor UK'.
Search engines will take this optimised content as a sign that you are a competent and relevant website for those searching for online tutoring services and therefore rank you higher.
SEO can be complex but having it in place on your website can be an amazing asset. Consider learning how to apply SEO techniques like internal linking and writing keyword optimised meta descriptions.
If SEO is beyond your business capabilities but you are still interested in it as a marketing tool, you can outsource to a specialist SEO service who can help you out. They will make sure your website is optimised for relevant search terms within the industry and keep your content useful, valuable and up to date.
Read More:
- The Complete Guide to SEO for Beginners by Ahrefs
- 17 Ways to Get More Traffic To Your Blog by Backlinko
5 Top Tips for Tutor Marketing
Now that the basis of your strategy is in place, here are a few helpful marketing tips and tricks for tutors to ensure success.
- At the end of the day marketing is a science. Do your research into the current state of the market and test a few ideas before settling on a final strategic approach. This may be a little time consuming but it will save you time, money and resources in the long run!
- Invest a little amount of money at a time into ads or outsourcing before committing to a full time budget or plan. This way you will really see what is effective and necessary for your business in generating new leads.
- Each digital platform has its own unique characteristics and benefits and every channel will likely require tailored messaging styles, tone, content types and posting frequency for maximum return. It is therefore better to have a few core channels upon which to share your content rather than saturating every platform you can find with the same posts. Try a few before committing to see which is most effective for reaching your target audience.
- A good marketing strategy can get you a long way, but ultimately, the key to success is building your brand reputation. Once you have your strategy in place, make sure to communicate and engage with those visiting your website or social media pages. This will add value for potential clients and build you a reputation that raises your business above others.
- If you want to be successful in marketing your tutoring services, you must invest time and effort into providing a top quality service. Find your niche and use your business to share your knowledge and expertise with others. If you are able to do this well then the returns will follow!
- Bonus Tip: Use quizzes to engage your audience and to show off your skills. Quizzes also make it easier for people who are looking for tutors to find you because they can search by quiz type or location!
Wrap Up
The importance of having a strong online presence only grows with the rise of the internet and digital media. All of the different marketing strategies mentioned throughout this blog will help to boost your online presence and reputation and help you develop a robust marketing strategy that will give your business competitive advantage for attracting new students, retaining staff and growing your tutoring business.
What are your experiences of marketing a tutoring agency? Which of the methods above do you think are the most effective for tutors? If you would like any further tips on how to set up a profitable tutoring side hustle and run a successful online tutoring business check out our other blog posts!
