OnTuition is one of the most demanded jobs in the modern world, and tutors play a significant role in education. Many students rely on tutors teaching various subjects to advance their education. Tutoring statistics show that over 41 million students use tutoring services, which is expected to reach 60 million by 2025. Additionally, the current number of tutors worldwide is estimated at 2.5 million, which is predicted to increase to 3 million. In other words, the tutoring market is proliferating, creating an excellent opportunity for teachers to maximise their incomes through tuition. The statistics look promising at first sight, but there is a concerning aspect, at least for tutors. The growing number of tutors means that they should try harder to find clients. This is why we decided to write an article on how to advertise as a tutor to survive the fierce competition in the tuition industry. Here is the gist of the article.
- Set definable and achievable tutoring goals.
- Know your audience and their desires.
- Choose an appropriate advertising method (online/offline).
- Make up a creative, precise, and brief headline for the ad.
- Pinpoint your extraordinary approach to tutoring (emphasise your unique selling point).
- Showcase your speciality, educational degree, and background experience.
- Mention testimonials when advertising yourself as a tutor.
- Make your tutoring advertisement visually attractive based on the target audience.
Offline vs. online advertisement
Before we get to designing an effective tutoring ad, it is essential to decide whether you want to advertise your tutoring service online or offline. Online methods include running a website for your tutoring service, advertising on social media, and registering on online tutoring platforms like Ostado. Offline channels include sending out flyers, printing an ad in the local newspaper, distributing business cards, and asking for referrals. Both ads have merits and demerits, and you should decide which works best for you based on your circumstances.
Online tutoring advertisement
If you are located in a small city with enough tutors and want to expand your tutoring service, it is better to use online advertising methods. Online ads can reach millions of clients worldwide through colourful banners or animated pictures at reasonable costs. You can also track your ad (the number of reaches, shares, and requests) and analyse its efficacy. Additionally, online ads are much easier to edit than offline (print) ads; therefore, if, for example, your contact information changes, you can easily edit the ad and add or remove parts of it to make it more effective. On the other hand, there are countless ads everywhere, and you must put extra effort into designing your ad to make it stand out. Also, if you wish to do the online advertising yourself, you must sacrifice long hours to create an engaging ad; otherwise, you have to pay ad agencies to do the job. It also takes longer for online ads to find your customers.
Offline tutoring advertisement
Offline or print ads are the best solution if your service is targeted at the audience in your vicinity. It is more personal and friendly and more likely to attract the audience’s attention. Personally, I rarely pay attention to online ads despite being bombarded with them, but print ads draw my attention more easily. Offline ads are even more effective if the target audience are adults and the elderly. The fact is that they are not as exposed to the online world and social media platforms as the younger generation. Moreover, the physical existence of the ads makes the service look more real. A flyer sitting on the corner of a person’s desk constantly reminds them of your service, and it is more likely that the audience will reach out to you through offline ads.
On the contrary, rarely do internet users save an online ad on their desktop to contact you later. Nonetheless, print ads are more expensive, especially if they are colourful and do not reach a large audience. In fact, if you cannot find the right placement for print ads, you have literally wasted your money. For instance, if you are a kids tutor but send out flyers to university students, the chances of being ridiculed are higher than the chances of being hired.
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Pros and cons of online and offline tutoring ads |
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Who is the target audience?
Tutors have clients of all ages and levels. When advertising your tutoring service, it is crucial to tune your ad according to your audience and the subject you want to teach. Are you going to teach Literature to high school students, or are you looking for tutoring positions for kids? If your tutoring service targets kids, your ad should attract parents, but if you are going to teach older students, the ad should appeal directly to them.
Points to consider when advertising for kids
- Make the ad attractive for the kids as well as their parents. Children do not read the words; instead, they focus on the colours and figures in your ad. Parents, on the other hand, look for clues in your ad to make sure you are a pro and the right tutor for their kids. So, maintain a balance between the playfulness of the ad and professionalism.
- Use simple and friendly language. Kids are not persuaded by sophisticated terminology. If you want to advertise yourself as a private tutor for kids, you should show that your demeanour is fit to work with children.
- If there is enough space in the ad, you can include testimonials from parents who have previously worked with you. If not, just point to the satisfaction rate from previous clients.
- Tell the kids or parents what they should do to have you as their tutor. Without call-to-action elements, your ad is more like informational content.
- Mention contact information and make it noticeable by highlighting, bolding, or using a different font and colour from the rest of the ad. You can use a cellphone number, email, or your accounts on social media. Again, you should select the contact method based on your audience.
Points to consider when advertising to adults
- Describe your service in a formal and rather serious tone. Avoid using flashy colours like orange or yellow.
- If you are to use a picture in your ad, choose a professional photo that is appealing to the target audience. For instance, if you want to tutor exam prep tutoring service, you can use a picture of a smiling student wearing a graduation gown.
- Focus on the practical aspects of your tutoring service. Tell the audience what to expect in your tutoring session.
- Use professional terminology to impress the audience. You should rely more on words and less on the appearance of the ad when targeting adults.
- Give them what they are looking for. Adult clients are usually short of time. Tell them your tutoring service is flexible, and they can acquire the subject in the shortest time possible.
- Regarding the contact information, it makes you look more professional if you use your LinkedIn account as the contact method. You can also use other ways mentioned above.
Pinpoint your Unique Selling Point (USP)
As mentioned earlier, making your ad seen and acted upon is tough. You should state why, among many tutors, the client should choose you. Expand on your abilities and skills as a tutor. For example, a tutor for kids can claim that they can teach the kid the lesson by using games, or a tutor for adults should briefly explain their unique method that helps learners achieve their goals sooner. The exceptional service you offer and the creative tutoring methods you use to teach are what distinguishes you from the rest of the tutors. We call this your unique selling point, and the more innovative and plausible it is, the more clients will be attracted to it.
If you have it, flaunt it!
Do not be shy about including your abilities and skills in the ad. You can explain your educational records and professional experience to contend your teaching skills. You can mention your degrees and certificates and elaborate on your background experience. But keep in mind that the ad is not a resume. So, keep it brief and relevant. The audience is not interested in your part-time job during high school unless it contributes to the enrichment of your tutoring service.
If you do not have a presentable educational background to qualify for tutoring positions, click on Online English teaching courses| Which course is best for you? This is a great start for novice tutors to empower their tutoring resume.
Hook the audience with the headline
The headline should scream at the audience. They should not pass by the ad indifferently as if it is an old piece of paper on the wall or a disturbing banner on a webpage. If the headline is not engaging, it does not matter what you have written in the rest of the ad. Therefore, you must do your best to make the first glance count. A good headline answers the following questions for the audience:
- What does it sell/offer?
- Who is it for?
- How does it help me (the client)?
- How can I get it?
Let us answer the above questions for this headline: “Don’t let maths mess with your marks; Let’s ace KS3 maths in 10 sessions.”
The title tells us the ad is for maths tutoring, and the subtitle indicates it is for students in secondary school in the UK, and the students will improve in maths in 10 sessions. However, the last question is not normally answered in the title. Instead, the title and the subtitle arouse the audience’s curiosity and make them continue reading the ad to find out more.
Less is more!
Keep the ad brief. The shorter your ad is, the more probable the audience will view or read it. I personally look away if I see an intensely worded ad. You should select the words wisely to keep the ad brief.
Spruce up your tutoring business
Make your advertisement eye-catching and pleasant to look at. This part can be tricky because it requires adeptness at designing. Even a single logo can take hours to design, but you can get help from a designer to create the logo or design the visuals you want to use in the ad. Keep in mind that the keys to a professional ad are precision and simplicity. So, do not exaggerate the visuals. Use the visuals to make the ad attractive, not mystifying.
Another way to make the ad memorable is to play with words or make your title and subtitle more rhythmic. The example headline above might have a musical load and stick to the viewer’s mind.
Analyse the efficacy of your ad
Advertising yourself as a private tutor does not end with publishing the ad. You should also keep track of the number of views and interactions. Of course, this is a feature of online ads that you post on social media.
By way of explanation, if you want to market yourself as a private tutor, you should set achievable goals based on your knowledge and skills. Once you decide what you want to achieve, you should research how to make your ad appear at the top of internet searches. This is possible through Search Engine Optimization. Although it may take more time to optimise your ad for search engines, it is worth it.
Where to advertise yourself as a tutor?
Ad placement depends on the mode of advertising. For online advertisement, you can run your private tutoring business by opening up a website. Bear in mind that this requires lots of time and energy, and the results are not immediate. However, in the long run, it will yield substantial returns. You may want to consult this with web page developers to see if this is the right choice for you. If it is too much trouble, you can use websites like Reddit to advertise yourself as a tutor. Click on a list of online platforms to promote myself as a tutor to find more information about online third-party tutoring ads.
If you want to advertise offline, the best places for flyers are bulletin boards at libraries, local schools or universities, depending on the type of your audience. You can also print business cards with your contact information and distribute them among potential clients. You can add a touch of modernity to offline ads by using QR codes linked to your website or social media account. We have elaborated on the subject in further detail. Click on What Is the Best Marketplace for Private Tutors? to learn more.
Use the power of social media
Virtually everyone with an internet connection is a member of one or several social networking apps. And the ones who try to keep a distance from social media apps, cannot resist YouTube as a rich source of information. You can use social media to introduce yourself and your service. Moreover, social media is a great place to include testimonials. You can also interact with other accounts and advertise your tutoring service on their pages. Therefore, you should learn how to promote yourself as a tutor on social media. Several techniques, like proper use of hashtags, engaging captions, and regular uploads, can make your posts seen. Here are 6 ways to make sure your posts are seen on social media.
Offer referral plans
We cannot talk about advertising, especially for tuition services, without mentioning the tested word-of-mouth method. The fact is that prospective clients trust a referrer more than they trust you and how you describe yourself. For instance, a few years ago, I was looking for a violin tutor, and I did some research to find the best tutor in my city. I came up with a few names, but eventually, I chose the tutor whom my friend had recommended.
So, if you want to advertise as a tutor, you should benefit from your current clients and encourage them to find you more pupils in return for discounts. If you are new to the tutoring position and have no clients, you can ask family members and friends to recommend you to others looking for your tutoring service.
Keep in touch with local schools and other learning centres
Schools and other academic institutes are the perfect place to advertise yourself as a tutor. You have a better chance of finding clients if you are a teacher in these learning centres. In other words, students already know you and your teaching style, and if they need extra support in their education, you can be their ideal tutor.
Be an active member of the tutoring community
Keep in touch with other successful tutors in online forums and professional social media like LinkedIn. Stay updated with current trends in tutoring by reading articles published by journals active in the teaching and tutoring domain. Here is a list of journals that publish articles on teaching and tutoring:
For the complete list click on A Selective List of Journals on Teaching & Learning.
Register on online tutoring platforms
People search virtually everything online before they take the next steps to do something, and finding a tutor is no exception. The best way for teachers to find clients for their tutoring service is through online tutoring platforms like Ostado. Ostado is a popular tutoring platform among learners worldwide. In other words, you do not need to worry about finding clients for your language skills. Our tutoring platform is a professional environment for you to monetise your teaching skills. Each tutor has a profile under which they can introduce themselves and advertise their tutoring service for free.
Become an online tutor on Ostado
Tutoring is the best approach to quality academic performance, and many students are seeking a tutor to learn or improve grades or skills. That’s why we created Ostado. Ostado connects private tutors and teachers with clients all around the world to make learning available and accessible for everyone. We have created a straightforward and user-friendly platform that is available to all tutors with the necessary skills to teach their preferred subjects and disciplines.
How can I become a tutor on Ostado?
Ostado has kept its recruitment process simple. You just need to click on “Become a tutor” and complete the forms. You can also upload your university degree, teaching certificate, and other relevant documents to increase your chances of being accepted and listed on Ostado’s tutoring platform. It’s highly recommended that you take a short introduction video of yourself, upload it on YouTube, and share the link with Ostado. We will place the video under your profile so that students can find more information about you. This short video can help you attract more clients.
After filling out the forms, our experts will analyse your qualifications and evaluate your tutoring skills. Once approved, you are listed among other tutors, and your profile is visible to all clients. Once a client makes a request that matches your expertise, qualifications and preferences, you can start teaching.
How to advertise as a tutor; final remarks
Tutoring is a popular and profitable career path among those who work in the education domain. With an increase in the number of students, the demand for tutors in various subjects has also increased, giving tutors a chance to maximise their earnings. However, tutoring is a competitive career domain, and tutors need to learn how and where to advertise as a tutor.
Online tutoring platforms are the fastest way for tutors to find clients from around the world. Ostado is a popular tutoring platform with a large international clientele. We are looking for expert tutors like you to join our tutoring board and share your knowledge with enthusiastic learners. Start your tutoring job in the UK now in the comfort of your own home!
How to advertise as a tutor FAQ
- How to write a tutor profile bio?The bio of a tutoring ad should be written in a friendly yet formal tone and include your educational background, experiences, and testimonials.
- How can I advertise myself as a new tutor on Instagram?You should create a business account with a memorable name and choose relevant keywords in your account's bio. Then, you should post high-quality content related to the subject you want to teach. The captions should invite viewers to comment on your posts. For example, you can ask a question or ask for viewers' opinions for future posts. Business accounts have added features that allow you to monitor your content interactions.
- What makes a good personal tutor?A qualified tutor has extensive knowledge about the subject they teach and is aware of the latest trends in the field. They should also have excellent communication skills and break down complex subjects into smaller, more comprehensible units. A good tutor is flexible and chooses the proper teaching style based on the learner's learning style. Additionally, they should constantly monitor pupils' performance and provide them with constructive feedback.