Oct 19, 2017
Ten effective advertising methods to help tutors bring in more clients.
Whether you’re a first time tutor or an established tutor, advertising will be key in growing your client base. Advertising often brings to mind expensive fees and challenging work. In reality, there are many strategies you can employ to easily gain exposure without breaking the bank. Here are ten methods for tutors to effectively advertise to prospective clients.
Putting together a resume is often the first step in a job search, but it can also be used as a tool in advertising a current job. Prospective clients often consider experience when looking to hire a professional, and resumes are a great device to showcase your background. When preparing your resume, consider the following:
Create a summary section, concisely outlining your overall experience and skills. You should also include points to help potential clients determine that you’re a good fit for the job, such as broad accomplishments and specific subjects and age ranges that you tutor.
Tailor job descriptions to highlight key skills and details clients look for in a tutor. Examples include honors received in your subject, and past duties where you provided support.
Keep it short and sweet. Excess information that doesn’t speak to your tutoring experience or relevant skills need not be included.
If tutoring isn’t your full time job, you should consider having two separate resumes, one for your own personal use and another to distribute to potential clients.
It’s imperative for tutors to establish a digital presence as more and more independent businesses move online. Creating a shareable profile for your tutoring business is the first step in the process. There are numerous websites specifically geared toward freelancers, and it’s wise to get set up on these platforms as they often take much of the legwork out of the profile-building process. Web traffic is another benefit of these platforms, as potential new clients frequently search for specific services, resulting in more exposure to your brand. Some are more targeted, allowing you to reach your ideal audience more quickly (Clark is a great option for the latter, focused specifically on tutoring!). When creating your profile, you’ll want to include the following:
Information relevant to your tutoring business, such as the subjects you tutor, usual availability and schedule limitations, along with grades you tutor and standard price range for a typical session. You should also specify any limitations you may have with regards to traveling to sessions and whether you normally work on a more long-term or short-term basis with clients.
Your qualifications, such as your own education, any awards or honors, and any certifications, diplomas, or programs relevant to your tutoring subject or education.
Specific key accomplishments and success metrics that showcase your skills. For example, note if you had a tutoring engagement in which you helped your client climb from a D to a B, or the percent increase in a client’s SAT score that resulted from your work together.
A short bio focusing on information relevant to your work. You should include a bit about your own personal background, but you’ll also want to highlight any specific teaching styles you employ during sessions, notes on big wins, and other details along these lines.
Your contact information, so potential clients can get in touch with you. This is especially important if you work on a platform that doesn’t have a built-in messaging system.
Because so many businesses and individuals now maintain an online presence, standing out is key. Outlining accomplishments are helpful in getting a leg up, as is a profile photo that is centered, well-lit, and professional. Finally, make sure sure you proofread anything you’ll be publishing on your profile.
Business cards are an essential tool in advertising your business. They act as a simple way to exchange contact information outside of digital methods. You can’t always anticipate when you’ll meet a potential client, so keeping business cards on hand keeps you prepared for unexpected encounters. They show that you come prepared, and also further legitimize your tutoring business through a physical medium. When making business cards, follow these tips to maximize advertising as a tutor:
Be sure to include your name, email address, and phone number at the very least. You’ll definitely want to specify that you offer tutoring services as well, whether that is through your company name and logo or simply noted on the card.
Design it to be eye catching, but don’t go overboard with the clutter. Color and patterns can be helpful in making your card stand out among others, but too much material can be off-putting. Texture can also a great tool and many business card companies provide different options in this category.
You’re in the business of education, and you want to make sure your advertising materials reflect your capabilities. Therefore, the language you use should be intelligent and refined. This applies to all elements you utilize as you advertise, such as your online profiles, resume, business cards, and flyers. Proofread multiple times before you print anything and steer clear of excess wording. While showing a bit of your personality can also be helpful in attracting clients, strike a balance. Familiar wording can often help attract a broader pool of clients, while small injections of personality can simultaneously help you stand out.
One of the chief goals in advertising is to introduce clients to your brand by getting as many eyeballs on your name as possible. Your major focus should be advertising everywhere and, to do this effectively, you’ll need to create and distribute marketing materials. Flyers can be posted around your neighborhood and on public bulletin boards. Think strategically when determining the location. You’ll want to maximize exposure to parents and students, and bonus points for education-related locations. Consider making postcards that can be placed in mailboxes. You should also take out an ad in your local paper’s classifieds section as many parents utilize this in their search. Additional digital outlets for effective advertisement include Craigslist and Taskrabbit.
These days, social media can be a business’s best friend. By creating cohesive accounts and being active across multiple platforms, tutors can gain free exposure. Use hashtags and search Twitter and Instagram for users you can engage with, such as parents discussing homework or students talking about upcoming standardized tests. Look for groups on Facebook and LinkedIn that are tutor-specific or education-focused to join and utilize the group to expand your network. Other social media platforms that can be helpful to tutors include Nextdoor, a neighborhood-news focused app, and Reddit, among others. You can also pay a small fee to have your advertisements directly target specific demographics. For a great guide on paid advertising via social media, check out Hubspot’s article.
To effectively advertise your services, consider a variety of emails you should send out with the goal of reaching new clients. First, send a note to your current contacts with information about your tutoring business, asking them to spread the word. You should also email local schools and student centers to inform them that you’re available to tutor students, as they will be able to quickly reach students and parents who may need your services. It’s also a great idea to draft a cold email template that you can send when any helpful contacts come to mind, even if you don’t necessarily know them personally.
There’s a reason you recognize so many logos and know so many jingles by heart. Brand recognition is an extremely effective method for businesses to remain top of mind. To build up recognition of your tutoring business, your business should have cohesive branding. Think through a color scheme you will use throughout your materials and create a logo, even if it’s simple. Mottos and slogans can be helpful if they’re catchy. Describing your vision and mission as a tutor on your advertising materials is also important. If you’re frequently out and about, it’s a good idea to sport some of your own gear to get additional exposure. Having decals, t-shirts, and more with your branding is cheap and can get you free advertising as you simply walk down the street or do work at a coffee shop.
Forming strategic partnerships can be an excellent way to increase exposure as a tutor. By working with other companies and individuals, you can gain valuable access to their client bases and followers. To identify ideal partners, consider schools, local education companies, and even parent groups. If you are just starting out and trying to get your tutoring business established, think through things you can offer to potential partners at a low cost in exchange for exposure to their clients. There are many concepts you can test in a partnership, such as running a social sweepstakes to drive traffic to your business and capturing email addresses and contact information from people in your target market. You can also give discounts to your partners’ clients that will get people in your door more easily.
Content is powerful. By creating and distributing original content to your target audience, you can increase your visibility and credibility, reaching potential clients in greater numbers. Driving engagement through content also makes it more likely that readers will share with their networks, driving traffic to your business. Consider starting a blog associated with your tutoring business with relevant articles and information for parents, students, and educators. You can also create infographics and visuals to share with your networks. Another content-related idea to advertise your business includes guest posting, which can be especially helpful if you don’t already have a large audience to share your own content with. Contact influencers, bloggers, and others with a large following, offering interviews and other information that they can link back to you, getting you relevant exposure to their audience.
Standing out among the competition and reaching a wide audience may appear daunting to both new and experienced tutors, but there are many effective strategies to combat this issue. By leveraging multiple advertising channels and ensuring your presence is cohesive and smart, tutors can significantly increase exposure to potential new clients. If the goal is expanding business, these ten places are where to start.
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