The Ultimate Marketing Guide for Online Teaching Businesses

This guide aims to outline the key marketing foundations to succeed with your online language teaching business.

Marketing is essential to filling your business with quality leads that can eventually become your customers. Its worth remembering that very often prospects will only by after the 3rd, 5th and 10th time they hear from you so getting your marketing funnel clear and consistent is really important.

In this guide you will develop the right strategy and action plan to turbo-charge your language tutoring business:

Note, many of these ideas are explored in further detail on the Get More Students podcast.

1. Developing a Winning Marketing strategy

We have two great resources to help you develop your strategy.

The first is this video with marketing guru, Ben Dubuc, which gives a high-level outline to build your marketing strategy. It gets you to dig into your customer, buyer personas, buying process, and work out where to spend your marketing efforts.

The second here is this podcast with Herbert Gerzer on 'How To Create An Effective Marketing Strategy For Your Language or Tutoring Business'.

Your first challenge is to get clear on:

• Your Ideal Customer (Note this episode on how to Choose Your Niche)
• Your Marketing Goals
• Your Metrics To Achieve Those Goals
• Your Priorities to Improve Metrics

To learn more about developing your marketing strategy, check out this presentation to take you from developing goals to choosing your channels.

2. Create a High-Converting Website

Your website is the "shop front window" of your online business.

What does your current website (or lack of website) say about your business?

If you do not have a website yet, you can start with this video on how to create one with one of the free tools available.

If you do have a website, then next you will want to ensure it has the 4 ‘Must-haves for a High-Converting Tutoring Website.

Your challenge this week is to check (and improve) your website for:

• Clear, simple, language
• Easy-to-navigate
• Meaningful "real" visuals
• Compelling Social Proof

3. Build Trust on Social Media

Social media provides a platform for businesses to connect and build relationships with customers, prospects, and influencers.

To know which platform you should spend your energy on, you need to think of your ideal target customers ('buying personas') you would have learned about in week 1.

Where is the "watering hole" for your ideal prospects?

Learn about the different social media platforms and how you can leverage them to boost your business using the resources listed below:

• Facebook
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• TikTok

4. Crack Content Marketing

Content marketing is "the process of publishing written and visual material online with the purpose of attracting more leads to your business. These can include blog posts, pages, ebooks, infographics, videos, and more."

Having a content marketing strategy is critical to fuelling your feeds on social media (discussed last week) with "on-brand", effective content.

Learn about content marketing from one of the masters, Korinne Algie. In this video she will help you answer these questions:

• What is the difference between content and content marketing?
• How often should I post?
• How much do I need to invest?
• What kind of content works for education providers?
• How to build a content marketing strategy?
• What free tools can you use to measure results?
• When should I post?
• How often should I post?
• How do I create a consistent company brand online through social media and content marketing? Any practical tips?
  
  

Note: All of your marketing should at a minimum be exchanging value in order to get a prospects email.

Your email list is your ticket to building relationships with prospects over time and is incredibly effective when employed correctly.

5. Leverage Effective Advertising

6. Sell Like a Pro

Selling is sometimes seen as a dirty word for educators but selling doesn't mean 'screwing over' and is critical if you want to help more people.

Learn about selling from one of the best in the business, Nicola Lutz. In this video (skip to her section at minute 22):

• How to start the conversation
• The power of the "follow up
• See where you are
• See where you lose customers (and improve).
  
  

Here are three good questions to ask yourself:

• What is working (based on the numbers)?
• What is not working (based on the numbers)?
• What is 1 practical step you can implement this week and this month to improve your sales process (and results)?

Final Words

To create a winning marketing strategy for your online teaching business, you need to use a range of tactics and channels.

Start by creating a website that converts visitors into students, build trust with potential customers on social media, and create engaging content that showcases your expertise.

Then, use the power of email marketing to stay top-of-mind with your audience and leverage effective advertising to attract new leads.

Finally, hone your selling skills to turn interested prospects into paying customers.

By following these steps, and being consistent, you'll tip the odds in your favour of success.

We wish you every success with your online teaching business!