fellow tutors, where do you advertise?

[steppemum]

Hi all. I have been 11+ tutoring for years, and usually all my students come through recommendations.

I want to do something new this summer holiday - run a summer school for one week at the end of the holidays, and I realise that I am stumped about where to advertise this.

I have sent out an email to all previous parents.
I have put it on local facebook, and a couple of 11+ facebook pages.

But as I look at every other 11+ link, there is a constant 'no tutor advertising/recommendations'

I used to be on a tutoring website, but got so few recommendations through them that I stopped.

Any advice? Where can I advertise? What has worked for you?

I run 11 plus courses and mock exams in the summer.

I invite all my current 1:1 students to book. Lots of them also pass the details on to their friends and family.

Advertising wise, I have some little leaflets printed out which I leave in local coffee shops (with permission obv). I also advertise on local mums FB groups and donate raffle prizes to local primary schools in exchange for my logo on their posters etc.

It takes a while to build up a reputation locally. You need to think about your USP. Mine is that I don't 'fill a village hall' or use readily published materials.
I write all my own stuff and I keep my groups small and give very personal feedback. I'm now in my 4th year of doing these courses and am starting to get repeat customers and recommendations from people who aren't my regular families.

Thanks that's great, some good ideas there.
I have a good set of students each year via word of mouth, I only do 1:1 and face to face, so it is all very tailored to the student. (which I guess is my USB)
For my regular tutoring I usually have a waiting list.

But the summer course is new, and is actually for those who are NOT my current students. (I will cover this stuff in their lessons in June and July.)
I have contacted all my current and previous students and asked them to put the word out and also those who asked me for tutoring but I had to turn away this year, I have 2 bookings already that way. I need 4 to run it, and I probably would do 8 max.
It is a bit of an experiment to see if there is a market for it.

I like the idea of leaflets, I will have to have a think about where to put them, we are not really a coffee shop kind of town. The grammars are in the next county so not many kids sit it compared to the size of the town.

I'm not on many FB groups, so I'll have to have a look at that too.

I should say that my current students will do the mocks I run over the summer, it is the summer school that they don't do.

Getting ranked high on tutor listing websites will result in a good number of enquiries.

But this is about advertising summer school. Not for individual students. Listing sites aren't really going to help for finding summer school customers.

It would work as well if you can present an option to persuade the parents to reconsider. There's a lot of parents who don't have a huge budget or simply don't want to pay a huge amount for tuition. All they need is the evidence that an alternative option will deliver what they want - an improvement in their child's skills.

I had and have the same issue with online tuition vs in person. A lot of parents want in person tuition, but they are interested to see how the online lessons work once they realise that they have to pay for travel time - which doubles the price compared to what can be delivered online without sacrificing on quality of the lesson. The main exceptions to this are children who have behaviour and attention issues.

well that is great, but I was on a tutoring website for 5 years and only ever got one student through them.
All my regular students come through word of mouth.

So short of paying a lot of money, how do you get ranked high on a tutor website?
I am a qualified teacher
I have been tutoring for more than 10 years
I have good results
I have plenty of good references.

makes no difference.

One problem that we do have is that it is a small pool of kids in this area. We are in the next county to the grammar schools. There are about 200-300 kids total who go from our (large) town to the grammar schools, and that is spread over years 7-11.

But there are also only a tiny, tiny number of tutors doing it here.

@steppemum I've not paid much for being listed on tutor websites. The websites I've had the most enquiries from are free - and they produce multiple enquiries per day during the busy times.

Getting ranked high on tutor websites is mostly about getting good feedback. The websites take other factors into account such as the time you take to reply to enquiries and your conversion to sales.

It makes sense if you think about it from the tutor website's perspective:

• If they are confident in being able to make sales for tutors, then they won't be charging tutors fees - because that will deter the better tutors.
• They want customers to keep using their site to find more reliable tutors - so their listing algorithm will put high priority for tutors who have received the best review scores.
• Their primary purpose is to make money, so they need to make sure that tutors they promote are likely to convert to sales - they make money on introduction fees.
• Their listings are automated - so you need to make sure that your feedback is on their website so their algorithm can identify you as a good tutor.

Parents also look at multiple tutor profiles. You need to identify what type of parent you're aiming your services to:

• Affluent parents who are only interested in results regardless of price.
• Regular parents who want to get the most from their reasonable budget.
• Limited budget parents who are in need of help.

More money per hour can be made from selling to the affluent parents, but these are only a small part of the market. You get a a lot more enquiries with an affordable budget - which leads to more sales and reviews, which pushes your profile further up the listings.

The websites I've had the most enquiries from are free - and they produce multiple enquiries per day during the busy times.

well this is not my experience of being registered on one of the most popular websites, and yes I have quick replies, and references etc etc. I have good feedback, but not much of it, as I have so few enquiries from the websites.

And I am well aware of the cost v. type of parent etc. As I said I have been tutoring successfully for 10 years. I have it pitched right for the parents in this area.

I suspect that the difference is where you are based. As I said there is a small pool of potential parents here, nultiple daily enquiries are very unlikely for 11+ for this area.

But anyway, all of that is for regular tutoring, not for a summer school. Which is what I am looking for ideas for for advertising.
It is a different group, people will not be looking on tutoring websites for a summer school.

@steppemum Yeah, being based in a city means that there are more people who seek tuition. Most of my lessons are online these days - which is more profitable because it cuts out travel time.

With that said, marketing as a concept is very basic - it's about getting noticed by your target audience. Here's some questions to consider:

• Are your potential customers actively looking for a summer school?
• Are some of your potential customers open to consider the idea of a summer school?
• Why would your potential customers be interested in a summer school?
• What types of places do you expect to find the types of people who could become a customer?

All of this applies to online and real world marketing. If you're only targeting local people, then are there any community places you can advertise? Maybe there are online communities you can join. Content marketing is also a way to generate interest.

What about nextdoor website/ local groups? Notices in post offices/ pharmacies/ supermarkets- could you offer a free “ intro call” to prospective parents/ students?
anything a local newspaper might cover?

yes I am thjinking about leafleting all the places where there are community notice boards

With that said, marketing as a concept is very basic - it's about getting noticed by your target audience. Here's some questions to consider:

I don't want to be rude, because I really appreciate the time taken to answer my thread, but as you say this is pretty basic and yes of course I have already considered these questions before I set this up, and, again, I have been doing regular turoring for 10 years with a waiting list.
I know there is a demand, I was just wondering how other tutors advertised themselves for things like this as there isn't an obvious way in my town. There isn't a place where parents congregate (and most parents round here are working), and tutoring websites have not worked for me.

We are a large town, city sized but not a city by name.
But the grammar schools are in the next county, so it isn't like being in Kent or London.

I do all tutoring face to face, I find it is much more effective than online. I did all online through COVID and with primary school aged kids it is not as effective in my opinion than face to face.
I tutor at my home, so they travel to me, that saves them paying for travel time, and ensures that there is a quiet place for us to work.

But it does mean that it is a smaller pool because they have to be in travelling distance, whereas online you could do the whole country. (although I have had people who travel quite far to get tutoring)

@steppemum It sounds like your biggest obstacle is that you're being limited by the target audience being too small without a specialised location to target them. This means you have to invest more in terms of time and money to utilise more random places to target your advertising, etc.

Are you able to hire a leaflet dropping company to distribute your leaflets? This could be a way to get noticed, especially if you can target areas where parents are known to be competitive with their children's education.

What was the problem with online tuition?

Dear @steppemum , @rosesinmygarden , @Leonab , @thesandwich , my daughter is currently preparing for 11+ entrance exams for Latymer Upper and SPGS, I am looking for a one to one tutor in West London - kindly could you let me know if you offer tuition on English/Writing for these entrance tests? Many thanks and best wishes.

I do not want to divert the thread from the OP's question, but a lot of what has been said also covers the questions I have.

I am thinking of starting online tuition as a self employed tutor over Zoom. As far as price goes, when I stopped tutoring over 20 years ago, I charged £25 per hour for A-Level mathematics tuition. Is a reasonable price now £40 for GCSE and £50 for A-level? I am a PhD level mathematician.

@JAA17 Yes, depending on your teaching qualifications and experience, £40-45+ for 50 minute sessions is the going rate.

@JAA17 If you are on Facebook there are some really helpful supportive groups:
Tutors who thrive - grow your tutoring business
Twinkl private tutors
Tutors supporting tutors
Katie's tutor support

Good luck.

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I'm teaching all levels, ages and any purposes you have to learn the language.