Did you know that students are spending billions of dollars each year on tutoring?
Grand View Research estimates that the global tutoring services market was worth $4.8 billion in 2019. Despite the booming demand for tutorial services, many tutors struggle to gain clients.
Some rely on traditional methods like networking with teachers and parents through your local school. The pandemic has shown us the risk of relying exclusively on in-person networking to earn clients.
Instead, take inspiration from tutors like Tutor Lim in Australia, who has over 6,000 Facebook followers to promote their math, science, and engineering tutoring services. To make the most of your limited time on social media, use these tips.
1. Set up your social media foundation
Promoting your tutoring business on social media can be powerful if you set up the proper foundation. Use the following tips to get prepared.
- Offer a free resource. Before students sign up with you as a tutor, they may want some proof of your expertise. That’s why you might want to create a small PDF file (e.g., 5-10 pages) for students. For example, a math tutor might create ten free practice questions to help students study.
- Add a link to your website. Booking a tutoring session with your needs to be easy. By adding CheckYa to your website, your students can pay for a session with just a few clicks.
- Present a professional image. Potential students may look through your profile before booking a session with you. Make sure you take down embarrassing posts, photos, and messages that might discourage potential customers.
2. Publish useful content to social media regularly
Publishing helpful content is a crucial way to demonstrate your expertise to potential tutoring clients. Take Math with Rae on Facebook – she posts helpful math links and videos to help her followers.
By posting educational tips and resources, you achieve two goals. First, these math tips help students learn immediately. Second, sharing these tips sends a message that the tutor is credible.
Coming up with social media content to post every day may feel overwhelming. To help you come up with ideas for posts, use these suggestions.
- What are the ten most common questions your tutoring questions ask you? Make a social media post to answer each one.
- Mistakes. Students in every field make mistakes as they learn – it is part of the learning process. Make a few posts about common mistakes in your field (e.g., the top 2 calculus mistakes beginners make) to help students/
- Study Motivation Tips. Some students struggle to progress in their studies due to motivation problems (e.g., too many distractions). Publish tips to help students overcome distractions. For example, you might listen to a certain kind of music when you study. If so, make a post about that studying tip.
You might be wondering how posting all of these helpful tips leads to new clients. The answer is simple. Use the 80/20 rule in your posts. That means 80% of your posts should provide helpful tips that students can use right away, and 20% of your posts should promote your services. For example, if you post five times per week, you would have four posts with tips and one post inviting people to contact you for tutoring services.
3. Tailor your approach to each network
Social media tools will let you publish the same update to nearly every social media network. At first, these tools sound like a great time saver. However, there is a flaw with using these tools. It ignores the fact that each social media network emphasizes different kinds of content. When you ignore those patterns, your posts are less likely to appear in front of your audience.
Check out the following tips and resources for guidance on what kinds of content to publish on each platform.
- Facebook. To drive engagement on Facebook, there are a few proven types of content that does well. According to Brid.TV, funny posts, inspirational quotes, videos, and giveaways do well on Facebook.
- Instagram. As a visual social network, your photo and video skills make a big difference. Sprout Social recommends posting high-quality images and posting at the right time of day (usually between 10 am to 6 pm).
- Twitter. The character limit on Twitter means you have to be focused on each update. The best types of content to post on Twitter include news (e.g., links about people using math skills or whatever you teach to succeed), GIFs and memes, and flash sales (e.g., get 50% off tutoring when you book today). Get more Twitter content ideas from Sprout Social.
4. Use Facebook Groups
There are three ways you can use Facebook Groups to grow your tutoring business. Depending on how much time you have available to get new clients, you can use one or more techniques.
- Participate In Facebook Groups.
What if you had the opportunity to share your tutoring expertise with hundreds or thousands of potential students looking for your help? That’s possible when you participate in relevant Facebook Groups.
However, it is essential to take a thoughtful approach when you participate in Facebook Groups run by other people. Before you post for the first time, review the Group’s rules and guidelines and read a few posts. Many Facebook Group administrations have strict policies about when and how self-promotion is allowed. If you ignore these rules, you might get kicked out of the Group.
Get started now by looking into these Facebook Groups filled with potential students:
Teachers and Students of English Language. This public Facebook group has over 42,000 members.
Maths for Grades 6 – 10 : Teachers/Parents/Students. This public Facebook group has more than two thousand members.
- Run Your Own Facebook Group.
Consider setting up a public Facebook Group that anybody can join with an interest in your topic. Making the Facebook Group public matters because it lets potential students pose questions and get help. If students want in-depth tutoring help, you can then offer a tutoring package.
- Create A Facebook Group For Paying Students.
Create a special space for your tutoring students to post questions and get support. This type of Facebook Group can make your tutoring service more valuable than competing tutors. For example, Jo Boaler’s How to Learn Math Facebook Group was created for students of an online course. The Facebook Group is now public and has over 35,000 members.
5. Make It Easy For Tutoring Clients To Pay You
Social media is a great way to attract potential students by sharing your expertise. It can also help you become a better tutor because you can see the questions students are asking.
However, social media does have limitations. It is not easy for students to buy a tutoring session. That’s where CheckYa can make life easier for students and tutors. Here are two simple ways you can make it easy for tutoring students to pay you.
Option 1: Introductory Lesson.
Put yourself in the shoes of a potential tutoring client. They might feel embarrassed that they need to get help. That’s not all. The student might wonder if your teaching style is going to work with them. These concerns might prevent students from working with you. Fortunately, there is a simple solution: offer an introductory session at an affordable price (e.g., 50% of your standard price or whatever you feel comfortable offering).
Use CheckYa to accept one-off payments so that students can easily buy an introductory tutoring session.
Option 2: Monthly Tutoring Packages
After a student completes an introductory session, they might be ready to keep working with you. At this point, offer students a package of lessons (e.g., four tutoring sessions for $400 per month). Selling a package of lessons at once means your student can pay today and then focus on learning.
Use the recurring payment feature in CheckYa to sell recurring monthly tutoring packages to your students.
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