Finding more clients as a private tutor doesn't have to be stressful. Follow our guide, and your tutoring business should be inundated with new clients.
Do you work as a private tutor, and you’re wondering about how to get tutoring clients more easily? There’s never been a better time to work as a private tutor as demand for better education increases exponentially, but attracting new clients can still be a daunting prospect.
To stay ahead in a field as competitive as tutoring, you have to understand how to attract new clients consistently; to make sure you know how to advertise tutoring services intelligently. Calday can help you do that; we’ve researched the best ways to attract new clients, and if you follow these tips then your business will be all set.
1. Build up a strong local presence
Your local community is the best place to start building your home tutoring business as you’ll be able to access clients who are most likely to remain consistent. That’s because convenience and word of mouth referrals still go a long way. As such, start by building up a strong local presence to get the attention of those around you.
Get started by going old-school; design and print flyers, and distribute them in places where potential tutoring clients are likely to congregate. Go to coffee shops and student unions, hang your flyers up on notice boards wherever you can, and hand them out at events that are related to your tutoring subject.
You can also leverage any existing contacts you have in the education sphere by attending events like fairs, seminars, workshops, etc., to meet potential clients and other tutors as well. The face-to-face interaction you’ll participate in at these meetings will build trust in you as an individual, and also connect you with lots of potential clients.
While you’re doing this, make sure you’ve also set up your Google Business Profile as networking with people in person needs an online backup. An online business profile with verified contact and professional information will make sure you’re taken seriously, and you’ll be able to subsequently use your profile to boost your marketing as well.
2. Build up an online presence
This brings us neatly to our next point. To get your private tutoring business ahead of the rest, it’s important to create an online marketing network to get you and your services noticed.
Start with a website
Your website is the lynchpin of your online presence, so make sure that you both set one up and ensure that it’s high quality as well. To make it really eye-catching to potential clients, include testimonials from happy students and a call to action (CTA), inviting visitors to book a session with you via your Calday account. If you’re stuck for a design, there are plenty of private tutor website examples and templates out there, just get Googling!
Use social media to advertise your services
Next comes your social media and it's important here not to rely on just one page; you need to have a well-developed network of accounts on different sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Use your accounts to post interesting content about your work, highlighting successful clients, and advertising your various services. Make sure you interact with content posted by other users as well to generate extra engagement.
Invest time in creating video content
This could fall under the point listed above, but we wanted to emphasize the importance of creating video content for sites like TikTok and Instagram Reels. Videos are highly effective at generating followers if you create interesting content.
The trick is to post consistently while appealing to the right audience. Your best bet is to make this content educational and informative, without directly advertising yourself, as this demonstrates your expertise without 'hard selling.'
3. Double down on referrals and reviews
Understanding how to advertise tutoring requires you to acknowledge a simple fact: No matter how much technology we have at our disposal, regardless of how much material you print or publish, the likelihood of you becoming successful as a private tutor will come down to the positive feedback your services generate.
Word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool you’ll have at your disposal; we are inherently social creatures who trust those around us more than anything. In the age of social media, this has translated into our predilection for well-written and comprehensive reviews, especially if they appear to be unbiased.
Lean in to this phenomenon by encouraging your clients to leave reviews online on as many of your social media pages as possible. Positive reviews, especially those that are comprehensive and well-written, are extremely effective at attracting new clients to tutoring businesses, so always make sure you ask your clients to write them.
Referrals are also extremely valuable, and this more old-fashioned version of social proof is just as effective as online reviews; it's also really easy to use them to full effect. Simply offer your clients discounts for bringing their friends and acquaintances to you, and you’ll be more than likely to get more business.
4. Make it easy for your clients to pay you
Have you ever tried to pay someone for a product or service and they’ve just not made it easy at all? Either their bank won’t accept transfers, or they don’t have a commonly used app, etc.—nothing can be more frustrating.
Make sure you’re able to receive payment for your private tutoring services by making it easy for your clients to pay you. The good news here is that there’s never been more options for receiving payments, and by focusing on the following essential choices you shouldn’t have any difficulties.
Support multiple digital payments as standard
Some people prefer PayPal, others only opt for Venmo, so make sure you’re able to accept payments via a wide variety of payment apps. Providing multiple payment options shows that you value your clients' convenience and that you’re able to keep up in this digitized world. Sign up for as many as you can, especially if it doesn’t cost you anything.
Offer prepaid lesson bundles
If you’ve established a good relationship with a client, then you should consider offering them prepaid lesson bundles—for example, allowing them to pay for 10 lessons at a time with a discount. This works particularly well because it provides an incentive for students to commit to a series of lessons, and thus secures a predictable income stream for you.
Integrate your payment options with your booking system
Always make things easy for your clients, and what could be more convenient than allowing them to pay you when they book a lesson. Integrate your payment options with your booking system, preferably with customization for your tutoring service’s branding. Of course, Calday can integrate payment options into your booking flow.
Automate your scheduling
You know where to advertise tutoring services, but you won’t be able to turn a profit if you can’t actually schedule meetings with students. Just like your payment options, you need to make scheduling meetings as simple as possible, otherwise you may accidentally turn away prospective customers.
By using a scheduling system like Calday’s, you can create a single booking page link that will allow students and parents to see your real-time availability and book a session instantly, without a single email exchange. This booking page can then be customized to include any custom branding you use, and you can set up customized notifications as well.
Whatever you do, it’s important that you go for a scheduling system that’s easy to use. We’ve found that a lot of private tutors work in fields that aren’t exactly known for tech adoption, so we recommend our system as it can be customized to the individual user while also being intuitive for easy daily use as well.
Michael was struggling with his work as a private tutor; he was highly qualified and well-regarded by his peers, but he couldn’t get any students. He’d always been tech-averse and realized it was hurting his business, so he turned to Calday as he’d heard it was simple to use.
Within three months of signing up with Calday, Michael had increased the number of his students by 35%. How? A simplified scheduling system with a booking page customized to show his availability that was easy for both him and his customers to use consistently.
Make tutoring less taxing by signing up with Calday
Being a private tutor is stressful enough, with worrying about how to advertise tutoring services, organizing sessions, and social media, etc. There’s no need for you to have to stress about scheduling though, thanks to Calday.
Sign up with our scheduling service today to get your free Calday account, and if you want to upgrade to our premium version, it's just $10 a month in most locations. Good luck with your tutoring, and welcome to stress-free scheduling!.
