When people are looking for a tutor, they often rely on personal referrals, asking people they know for recommendations. If they can’t find anyone who can recommend a good tutor, however, they usually take their search online.
It is important that you use the right keywords to ensure that you are found in the relevant searches, for example someone searching for tutors for a level wouldn’t want to see a primary school tutor appear in their search.
In order to connect with potential clients, private tutors need to establish a solid online marketing strategy. The section below focuses on techniques that you can use to create a stronger online presence for your private tutoring service.
Add Your Information to Directories
As a tutor working in this day and age, having your own website is important. At the same time, however, there is nothing wrong with adding your information to tutoring directories. These directories help connect you with clients who may not have been able to find you in any other way. This is particularly true if you put some time and effort into getting your listing noticed.
Directories in the UK usually fall into one of two categories: free or paid.
Although free directories can be beneficial, they are also highly competitive. So many tutors advertise on these directories that it is hard to stand out. You may find that you get noticed more often on paid sites since fewer people pay to advertise.
Typically, directories that are free for tutors make their money by charging parents or students to access the directory. A lot of people are unwilling to pay for access, limiting the number of people who will see your listing. Even given that, it is usually still worth adding your information to these directories. After all, apart from the time that you spend creating your listings, it doesn’t cost anything.
Based on my experience, directories that charge a fee are usually a better option when it comes to finding new leads. They are a lot less competitive since fewer tutors pay to advertise on these sites.
Whether you opt for a free or paid service, you should try to draw more notice to your listing by being active on the platform. For instance, if they have a forum, you should participate regularly.
The hardest part is figuring out which directories are the best. A good place to start is by looking at things from the perspective of a parent. If you were searching for a tutor for your child, what phrases would you type into a search engine?
Write down all of the possible search phrases that you can think of. Then, search for those phrases to see which directories come up at the top of the results. Adding your name to the directories that are listed the highest will usually help you connect with the greatest number of potential clients.
Build A Website
Building a site of your own opens up the door for a lot more online marketing options. For instance, if you have your own site, you can use paid advertising through programs like Google AdWords to drive visitors to your site. You can also place ads on popular social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. This can help your business gain traction when you are first starting out.
Ideally, however, you will eventually be able to move away from paid advertising. You definitely don’t want to have to keep paying for ads forever.
A better long-term solution is to look into search engine optimization (SEO). Optimizing your site for the search engines is a relatively straightforward process. You can find a lot of different guides and informative articles online with tips and information on how to get your site to perform better in the search results. Even though the process can be quite time-consuming, it is generally worthwhile since it will help you build a more successful business over time.
As you begin delving into the world of SEO, consider researching these topics:
* Finding and using longtail keywords
* Developing an effective content marketing strategy
* Optimising your on-page content
* Obtaining high-quality backlinks
Developing an effective SEO strategy is all about mastering the basics. Avoid the temptation to implement too many SEO techniques at the same time. Otherwise, you may find yourself feeling overwhelmed. Instead, focus on the basic elements of SEO. These include creating high-quality content that is extremely beneficial for your visitors and engaging with your followers through social media. If you follow these basic guidelines, you most likely will start getting at least some search engine traffic.
Connect with Clients through Social Media
For years now, social media has been an effective tool for private tutors since it makes it possible for them to connect with potential clients. As an added bonus, search engines like Google use social signals as a ranking factor for websites. That means that being more active on social media could help your website rank better.
The goal with social media is not to promote your products directly to your followers. Instead, your focus should be on finding ways to engage with other people. By sharing helpful information or insights through your social media accounts, you can establish yourself as an expert. You can also use your profiles to promote high-quality content that you have published on your website. Over time, this can help you discover more leads.
Providing Tutoring Online
In the UK, a number of online tutoring services have cropped up over the past few years. The popularity of online tutoring is growing, making this a great time to get on board.
These services can be advantageous since they make it easy for you to connect with new customers and clients. All of the lessons are conducted through your computer. Even though you and the student are not in the same room, the same basic teaching methods and concepts still apply.
These platforms are usually easy to master. After all, they are designed for students of all ages. If you can use a computer, you most likely have all of the skills that you need to provide tutoring services through one of these platforms. The best part is, when you work as an online tutor, you don’t ever have to leave home.
