If you’re a private tutor or are planning to start as one, remember that tutoring is a serious business. And no business is ever successful without smart advertising. In fact, according to research, even in Ancient Egypt, advertising served a critical purpose in the business world. It enabled sellers to effectively compete with one another for the attention of buyers.
The importance of advertising is intuitive in retail businesses and in the popular fields of art and sports. But, it’s often assumed that a private tutor’s only real means to popularity is word-of-mouth. Throwing in a newspaper advertisement or posting in online classifieds is at the most what most tutors think of as plausible advertising means. Well, that’s not true!
While it may be the most effective form of marketing, there is a lot more that goes into making someone ‘the-sought-after’ tutor.
Also Read: Make Money as a private tutor: Here’s how
If you’re a newbie at tutoring or even if you’re a seasoned tutor wishing to reinvent themselves and get known, here are some quick fixes:
1. Have a well-defined and unique value proposition – know your USP!
Every successful business person has a clear set of goals they want to accomplish. They also have a very clear set of offerings they bring to the table.
As a private tutor, you must also know your end goals and value proposition with the utmost clarity. Don’t consider tutoring as a side hustle, treat this as your core business.
Here are 3 things that you must know clearly before you even start advertising yourself as a tutor:
- Your subject area of expertise – what subjects would you teach? It could be anything from mathematics to the piano. But you must stick to one to three subjects (at most) rather than trying to become a generalist
- Your qualifications that bolster your claims on the subject. This will help you advertise only the most relevant and impactful of your qualifications
- Any rewards or recognitions that might be relevant in adding to your credibility
- Your ONE special skill/advantage/method/experience that is unique to you. This is called USP or the unique selling point. It could be your teaching style or your breadth of knowledge. But it is important you know your ONE differentiating factor as a tutor
2. Create a striking (but not garish) online profile – people will Google you!
The cardinal rule of advertising is that you must be consistent in your messaging everywhere. An online profile is the first thing that parents (and students) will look up when considering you for the job.
This is where they will want to read about the following:
- Qualifications
- Past experience
- Areas of expertise
- Offerings as a tutor (exam specific preparation, cross-subject tutoring, etc.)
You must make sure that this online profile remains consistent with all the other advertising messages you send out. A striking online professional profile (e.g. on LinkedIn) is the key to convince parents of your authenticity and sincerity. We had done a detailed post on how to create the perfect online profile when venturing into tutoring business. Give this post a patient read to know more!
Read here: How to create the perfect online tutor profile
3. Advertise on unconventional online channels – set no boundaries!
It’s not just Craigslist, classifieds, LinkedIn or Facebook where you can advertise yourself as a tutor. There are multiple other platforms where you can reach out to potential students. Talentnook is one such place where you can list yourself as a tutor and also search for suitable students.
For example, here are 2 unconventional channels that can help you harness the power of the web:
- Talentnook – a platform which connects students and parents with neighborhood tutors for all after school learning needs
- Educational blogs – try putting up an informative guest blog on a subject and add a small bio in the end. Also, add contact details for allowing readers to reach out to you.
4. Use the power of testimonials – get people talking about you!
Reviews can impact people’s choices of face creams, hair ties, and cars! Hence, they can definitely affect the chances of your success too!
In fact, a study shows that 92% of users will use a local business if it has at least a 4-star rating.
As a private tutor, if you’ve taught some students in the past, ask them for testimonials. You can choose to publish these testimonials to augment your advertisements. You can also choose to add 2-3 line testimonials to each of your advertisements too. Getting a good word written about your tutoring skills on social media could be another hugely propitious move. These are only some cues, you can go as far as your creativity takes you!
5. Let your work speak – through samples and demo lectures we mean!
No amount of banner and poster ads can make up for the demonstration of actual work. The impact that your sample lectures or notes can have on a prospective student.
You can do the following to increase the impact of your advertisements instantly:
- Link your advertisements to your website/blog/YouTube channel/any online profile
- Showcase some of your work through samples on any of the above landing pages
- For academics, a demo lecture (video) and cheat sheets or handouts on a particular topic can give a nice sneak peek
- For music and other forms of art, a YouTube channel with basic tutorials can demonstrate your skills
- Create sample chapter notes, handouts, formula sheets or a session outline for each chapter
- Make sure your sample work showcases something different from what’s on the market
6. Use unconventional ways of marketing – from soirees to school meetings, there is an opportunity everywhere!
Every parent at some point contemplates hiring a tutor. These parents are everywhere if you wish to connect with them. Don’t hold back from advertising yourself everywhere, without going overboard or sounding annoying or pushy.
Partake in every networking event and create opportunities out of even most unconventional settings. You must go all out to succeed as a tutor, or you might end up losing out on many opportunities.
Here are some examples of how you can make the most out of everyday opportunities:
- Get in touch with the young parents in your neighborhood. They’ll most likely trust a known person more than anyone when hiring a tutor
- Tell people you know about your subject skills. Introduce yourself in social settings subtly but do drop in a hint about your tutoring skills every time
- Attend social events where you can personally meet people and tell them about your skills and profession. Sunday mass, school meetings, annual townhalls, etc. – you can practically meet people everywhere! Only that, you have to be willing to tell about yourself!
7. Create and join collaborative tutor networks – symbiotic relationships work the best!
Reach out to fellow tutors and freelancers. Ask them for an introduction to their students. For example, if you have a math tutor who can put in a good word for your piano or English language classes, it’s the best advertisement you can ever put up!
As an advanced measure, you can also reach out to educational consultants. If you are into tutoring for standardized tests like SAT, a consultant can refer you to the parents. Sometimes a small cut from the fee (flat fee model) or a revenue share works out well as a deal between tutors and their referrers.
You too can always try out this pseudo-advertising route – for it has almost the highest chances of ad-to-business conversions!
Also read: Preparing for the first tutoring session – a step-by-step guide
Now that you know how important is advertising for a private tutor, sign up with Talentnook. We are the world’s first platform that connects parents, students, and tutors for all after-school learning needs. Talentnook gives the tutors maximum visibility and makes it possible for many students to reach out to them, who otherwise wouldn’t have discovered them. Sign up now to explore a whole new, easy way of succeeding as a private tutor!