Best Way to Expand My Wife's Tutoring Business? (not an askhole, I promise)

[Hassassin]

So we launched a Arabic home tutoring business for kids...

It's been exactly 1 year now. We've made some progress, but things have started to plateau. Her income is capped at £800-900/month from a couple of evening clients and busy weekends. But I know I can drum up MUCH more business, + I want to develop stronger sales/marketing skills, so challenge accepted

Each client = £10-15/week minimum.

Our primary method for lead gen has been leaflets, but we've exhausted our local pool of leads and are seeing a significant decline in returns now. She doesn't drive at the moment because insurance is ludicrously high, otherwise we could expand by simply broadening location.

My alternatives to this were:

1. Increase prices, and aim for higher paying clients
2. Obtain online clients
3. Market to adult women who want to learn so there's more billable hours

What are we doing now?

She's started joining groups on Facebook that match the ideal customer and regularly posting. The aim being to share valuable content, quick tips on pronunciation, and brief vids of her students to boost credibility and attract clients.

We started it this week, and someone local has already called her for an initial trial.

We're also planning on launching a Youtube channel for a more scalable "fastlane" venture, but that's for later...

So I want to choose one marketing method and stick to it through the end. I'm considering Facebook ads...

But what would you fellow fastlaners do in my shoes?

Getting some feedback and suggestions on this would be great! And I'll execute if it makes sense.

Peace

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ApparentHorizon]

Target affluent areas and 10x your price.

Then for your online campaign, offer Skype sessions at half the price. Targeting the same demo.

Judging by your name, I'd assume you're from, or have strong indicators, that you have a native Arabic-speaking background.

IE: You're authentic. And rich women love that.

 

[ZCP]

Skype groups. High monthly fees. Add culture tips and tricks. Also target business people.

 

[Youngrahn]

Hi, Hassan!

I worked for a few English institutes and LG electronics R&D center in Seoul when I was in Korea. Even after moving to England, I continued teaching Korean students online until I got a new job. So as a former online tutor, I'd like to add a piece of advice here that might be helpful.

When advertising and promoting your class, the major social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are not always the answer.

90% of the students who contacted me and took my class for a long time actually saw my advertisement on a website called 'Joong-go-na-ra', one of the most popular 'second-hand goods sales platforms'(similar to Craiglist) in Korea. Thousands of people visit the website every single day because that's where their friends and family found good deals and good price, not on Facebook.
So I suggest doing your research on what is REALLY the most useful tool/platform to you and your wife.

Hope you have a great weekend!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[becks22]

Like others have said, targeting adults might also be a good option. Adding value ons like business tips, dress codes for women, etc can help increase revenue. Maybe your wife can write a ebook to upsell to clients that offers other information that is about the explicit and implicit cultures of the middle east for traveling business people.

 

[Hassassin]

Target affluent areas and 10x your price.

Then for your online campaign, offer Skype sessions at half the price. Targeting the same demo.

Judging by your name, I'd assume you're from, or have strong indicators, that you have a native Arabic-speaking background.

IE: You're authentic. And rich women love that.

You're spot on with more affluent targeting.

I had a chat with someone who offers the same service but charges 2-3x more, after questioning I realised the demographic is made up of more professional families (plenty of Dr.s/Lawyers) in more upscale areas.

Ideally, Skype lessons with people in affluent areas would be a solid way to drive up business.

Skype lessons aren't as popular, but they'd be a additional supplemental service that's convenient and efficient.

 

[Hassassin]

@ZCP Definitely need to find a way to target more professionals and business owners. At the moment trying to scour through local facebook groups for specific professions.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Hassassin]

Hi, Hassan!


When advertising and promoting your class, the major social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are not always the answer.

90% of the students who contacted me and took my class for a long time actually saw my advertisement on a website called 'Joong-go-na-ra', one of the most popular 'second-hand goods sales platforms'(similar to Craiglist) in Korea. Thousands of people visit the website every single day because that's where their friends and family found good deals and good price, not on Facebook.

So I suggest doing your research on what is REALLY the most useful tool/platform to you and your wife.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Thank you for this, this was very insightful.

After checking the our UK "craiglist", (called Gumtree), I've seen multiple ads offering the same service. Considering that they're paying for advertising on the platform, they must be seeing some kind of ROI.

And even then, the ads suck.

I now we can do a better job. Will get cracking on this!

 

[ApparentHorizon]

Skype lessons aren't as popular, but they'd be a additional supplemental service that's convenient and efficient.

Exactly. Bad weather for driving? Client goes on vacation? There's always the option to skype in for the day.

Then if you need to branch out of driving distance this may be the only option. Especially for referrals.

 

[Hassassin]

We've had some progress on this!

So realizing how bland some competitor's ads are, I decided to jump into Gumtree ads. But first, here's what I noticed about competitors:

• Boring headlines
• No attention grabbing images (some literally had basic iphone screenshots! time and notifications showing n'all, haha)
• Plain vanilla copy - "I've been teaching since the Jurassic period so you should hire me to teach"

We went in with stronger images, slideshow style, a bold headline explaining the offer, and benefit driven copy in the description. The next day we had 5 calls and 2 secured clients, including one who pays 3x the amount of other customers.

After posting another ad yesterday we've had 2 more bookings.

The amazing point this drove home was the power of intent/searchbased marketing, or being there when your customer is looking for you. These £7 gumtree ads overshadow the returns from £50+spent distributing door to door leaflets, talk about ROI aye?

The ad if anyone is interested: https://www.gumtree.com/p/other-tuition-lesson-services/-female-tajweed-quran-teacher-one-to-one-/1302492106

From here, planning on testing out more ads, paying for stronger search positions, and expanding to Google Adwords. Will keep updating progress, thanks for reading!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.