Promotion Ideas
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted. We’ve been pretty busy with our NCLEX tutoring site.
We have talked quite a bit over the years about discounts around the holidays. What if you need the cash flow? We all get in a tight spot every now and then. Here are a few ways to give discounts, while adding to your bottom line. Use these ONLY if you have plenty of TIME (you’re not booked).
1) Create a discount(s) that gives extra tutor sessions.
2) Email your current students – offer them buy / prepay for x number of tutor sessions and get some free.
3) Add something of value to your tutor packages for a limited time – buy five sessions today and get free entrance to the weekend studyathon… or something similar.
Those are some ideas. If you would like we can do a tour of our NCLEX platoform, which helps streamline most of the things you have to do, just let me know by posting a comment in our Facebook.
Building your Tutor Business – Planning Promotions
Hopefully your doing well. A reminder we post things mostly as if you’re tutoring students in school, but you can modify them even if you tutor something like guitar or crocheting etc. If you are tutoring students that are in school you’re into the first month. I have found that there are two time periods that I get the most students. One is when the semester begins and the other is after the first test. You’ll now be getting calls from students that have failed their first exam or paper so be prepared for that. Also you can modify your Facebook advertising to reflect that.
Example:
Failed your first math test, pass the next one and the class with our proven system. Click for details.
Believe it or not the holidays aren’t too far away. We have about 90 days or so until Christmas. The next few weeks we’ll going to teach you how to create a few things that will help you make more money during this time. Today we’ll be talking about brain storming some ways that you can do this and then the next issues we’ll give you step by step instructions on how to implement them.
Think outside of the box for a few minutes. We want to think about ways that family members or friends can purchase your tutoring services. So Johnny’s grandmother can buy him six tutor sessions as a gift.
We’re going to go after a different type of customer so we’ll need to use a slightly different approach. We also want to create some type of campaign / advertising for Cyber Monday and for Black Friday. Think about some unique discounts that you can give to your customers / potential customers. You’ll want to make a couple of different lists one for potential customers and one for current customers.
For current customers I suggest instead of giving them a discount for purchasing something they’re already using, do something different. Offer them an exceptional bounty if they bring you in a new customer.
To Do –
1. Think about some potential offers. Remember if you want some ideas you can email us, we’re here to help.
2. Make sure that you change your advertising to focus on test / paper results.
3. Take care of your current students. When they do well in their classes they will help to spread the word and you won’t have to do a thing.
Four things you want to make sure you cover in your first tutor session.
Did you get to see the eclipse… hopefully you did, it was pretty awesome. Today we’re going to cover something that we should have covered earlier but we’ve been busy. What should you make sure you cover during that first tutor session. If you have younger students, you’ll of course want their parents / guardians to attend the first part of the session. How young they are determines whether the parents will need to be present for the other tutor sessions.
- Contact information – You’ll want the student to have several ways to contact you. You will also need a way to contact them (several ways are better than one).
Phone – A number where they can always reach you or leave a message if they need to. Explain what hours your business is open. When your business is not open, they’ll get an answering machine. Just make sure you check your messages every morning when you get started.
Text – up to you, if you enjoy texting and can respond promptly then give them the information.
Email / Facebook – Another method. Unless you have this synched to your phone it wouldn’t work for time sensitive things. - Goals for the sessions – your students should know exactly what you’ll be doing during the tutor sessions. Let them know how the sessions will go and what they can expect. If you give them homework, things to do then let them know when you’ll review that with them. Remind them it is up to them to make you aware of tests / assignments / papers that are coming up. If you’ve tutor students with the same teacher, you may have an idea, but you’ll want them to let you know the schedule for tests etc. as soon as possible. You’ll want to create a calendar for them that outlines things you’ll be covering. Make sure they bring a text book with them so you can make sure you have a copy of it.
Review also the student / parent goals and expectation, provide your plan for how you’re going to help them meet the goal.
- Rules – What are your rules. Give a list to the students and the parents. Make both sign it and give a copy to you. Make sure you at least include the following in your rules.
Attendance
Missing a tutor session
Cancellation time frames
Homework
Conduct during the tutor sessions
Hours the student needs to study - Confirm tutor times / introduce the tutor – make sure the student knows the time / hours you’ll be tutoring them. If you tutor them at a specific location, remind them where that is. Explain they should come a few minutes early and expect to stay a few minutes later.
Hope this helps a bit. Don’t forget to remind them about telling people about your tutoring service.
Using an Assessment tool for your tutor business
I hope your August is going well. We’ve written over the past several weeks of a couple of different topics that might interest you. Here they are –
http://cleverapple.com/finding-new-tutor-customers/
http://cleverapple.com/getting-tutor-students-before-school-starts/
http://cleverapple.com/an-easy-way-to-get-tutor-students-and-a-great-tool-for-scheduling/
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Creating an Assessment Tool
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We talked some last time about creating an Assessment tool for your business. What we want to happen is something like this.
- Customer comes to your website.
- They see that you have a free assessment tool and contact you.
- You send them information about the tool, give them clear instructions and how to return the assessment to you.
- If they don’t send the assessment back – email them a couple of days later, reminding them.
- When you get the assessment review it, find some ways you can help them and contact them for a phone call. Create your review / pdf that will go over problems area.
- Send them the pdf the day of the phone call, remind them of when you’ll be calling them.
- During the phone call, go over what the student needs work on and talk to them about their strengths as well. At the end of the call – many times during the call they’ll ask, offer them your services at a discounted price.
It is super easy to do. A ‘live’ example of the process can be found at the bottom of our tutor page.
http://www.nclexreviewonline.com/nclex-tutor/
Finding an assessment tool to use is easy. You probably already have one, if you don’t they are easy to find. For our NCLEX site we use a tool that future students will need anyway, a book that has a question database. If you need one just do a search. Example ‘geometry assessment’.
We found this page which has assessments for all different type of Math.
https://www.opened.com/search?area=mathematics&grade=10&resource_type=assessment&subject=geometry
Remember it isn’t the assessment you’re selling, it is you telling the student what they need to work and focus on to make a good grade.
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To Do
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Get copies of all the calendars for schools you tutor in. Make a note know of when all the long breaks are going to be. Fall, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring break etc. Remember these are times that you can add some additional tutor income to your business. You could plan specific camps or tutor packages during this time, both for new students and current students.
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Promotion
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As school is starting give your tutor students and their parents information they can give out to people that they meet. This can include business cards and brochures that you’ve made.
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Don’t forget!
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Each new customer you sign up for the school year has the potential to send you more business. As you’re signing them up, don’t forget to explain to them about your referral program.
Hope you enjoy your week.
Finding New Tutor Customers
This week we’re going to talk about businesses that don’t cater to a specific area. Some of the techniques we’ve went over can work for strictly online businesses too.
Use the first techniques – http://cleverapple.com/an-easy-way-to-get-tutor-students-and-a-great-tool-for-scheduling/
You have students, they probably have friends that are taking the same class or enjoy the same activity that you’re teaching. Take a look at your current and past students and email them.
- Create a getting ready for the semester page.
2. Create something useful to help them. This can be a pdf / video / whatever. In order to get that they’ll need to give you their email address.
3. On the same page offer them a discount for signing up this week and offer them something if they refer a student to you. The goal is to actually speak with them, if I can talk to someone then I can usually sell whatever type of tutoring I’m offering.
4. A great way to get the phone number and to speak with them is to offer a free assessment. The prospective student can take an online test, you get the results, then call them with a list of five ways they can improve.
5. When you speak with them on the phone and they turn you down, don’t forget to tell them about how they can earn something by sending students your way.
By the way if you need some help in getting some students, we’ve been helping people for almost 20 years and we would love to help you.
http://cleverapple.com/grow-your-tutor-business/
Next time we’ll talk about how we created an assessment tool.
Getting Tutor students before school starts
Last week we talked about an easy way to get some new clients, you can find that article here –
An easy way to get tutor students and a great tool for scheduling
Now we’re going to talk about another way to get students. You should have figured out the date of the back to school things for the schools you tutor at. Now we’re going to plan on what to do for that date.
- Create a specific page for each school if you tutor more than one. If they each have separate dates then make a note of that. Create a page on your WordPress site – a static page, not a post. Make is something easy like, yoursitename.com/school (abbreviate if you can). On this page put in your offer. If you’re going to different schools make each offer unique. We’ve talked about discounts before. Highlight specific things on the page – how you helped Johnny last year, subjects you tutor, the discount and how to contact you.
- Find out how it works for each of the schools you want to go to. If you already know the guidance counselor, teachers you can speak with them. If possible, you want to set up at the school. Explain that you’ll be providing the students with a free lesson before school starts back. Don’t hide the fact that you are a tutor. This depends on the school district, it may not work, but they may allow you to set up with vendors… if not don’t worry there is another way.
- Create the content – we’ll say I’m tutoring math. I create a list of things the student might have forgotten this summer. This depends on the school grade, let’s say I’m tutoring high school and I tutor Algebra students at the freshmen level. Then create a guide that helps to remind them of the basics of what they learned last year (or get them ready for Algebra if this will be their first year of Algebra. Videos are best, but you can also create a pdf. Create the content – add it to the school’s page.
- Make sure you have brochures and business cards. Make sure you have the link for the school. Make sure you have enough. If they let you in the school, you’ll want to have a giveaway. Get a gift certificate for a local store. Make some sheets, students / parents will be putting their contact info on the sheet and you’ll be doing a drawing for a month’s free tutoring. Have the drawing during the contest and contact the winner if possible. [[ there are rules / laws for contests – I am no lawyer so please make sure you follow the applicable laws for where you live]. Give out cards / brochures – let them know the discount. – make sure your discount is limited. They will need to contact you before school starts, also note on your page that spots are limited.
- If you aren’t in the school, hang out outside of the school, I did it at a grocery store in our town, getting permission from the owner. I setup a table, with a poster and my brochures, you can do that too.
- From the names, you get contact them within a day or two. Explain that they didn’t win but you’ll give them one tutor session for free before school starts, just to make sure their student is ready. They can take you up on it or not. If you do well with the student during that session, you’ll likely keep them for the school year.
Don’t worry can’t do it offline, at the school, near the school or if your tutor business is not local, we’ll give you an idea next week.
An easy way to get tutor students and a great tool for scheduling
I know it’s been a while since we’ve sent a newsletter, it’s been a busy summer for us. Today we’re going to start a series over the next four weeks that will help make sure you have a full house when you start tutoring this fall. I realize that some of you don’t tutor students that are in school, you can use these techniques as well, you just will need to tweak them a little bit. These tips are for those of you who tutored last year.
Email past students –
Our goal for this process is to fill up our tutor slots for the next semester / year. Figure out now how many tutor students you’ll need to be able to start the school year with a full boat. Next create a list of your tutor students from last year along with phone numbers, print out that list. Make some notes of students that will no longer need your tutoring and students that have confirmed their tutoring for next year.
- Contact the students that have not signed up yet. We’ll want to offer some kind of incentive if they sign up this week. This could be a decreased tutor price or something extra. Here is a sample script – modify it as you see fit. Good Morning, I’m the owner of Clever Apple Tutoring, we tutored Johnny last year and I was wondering if I could speak with you for a few minutes. [[ if it’s a bad time, figure out a good time and call them back ]] Johnny did well last year, we helped him go from a C to a B+ in Math, we’re working on getting students scheduled for the new school year. This week we’re offering 2 weekly sessions for $50 for the first month or 1 weekly session for $30.00 for the first month. After the first month we’ll charge you what we did last year. This offer is only available this week, we have Mondays and Weds available from 6pm till 9 pm, which slot would you like. – They will either go for it or not. If they go for it, sign them up, if they don’t thank them for their time and then say the following.Do you know anyone that might benefit from our services? We’re offering a $50 Amazon gift card if you introduce us to someone and they sign up with one of our tutoring programs. There is no limit on how many gift cards you can get. Do you know anyone that could benefit from our services? If yes then fill out the info below. If no then remind them that the offer is ongoing and if they hear someone during the school year that needs help, give you a call.
- Prospective students name –
Parents –
Subject they need help with –
Grade –
Contact info – Phone / Email / Facebook page - Continue through your list of old students that didn’t sign up. Did you fill up? If not then go through the students that have already signed up. Ask them how their summer is going, remind them of the days / times that you’ll be tutoring their student and then ask them about any students they may know.
- Now call the folks – prospects. When you call them –
- Introduce yourself
- Tell them why you are calling. Who refered you, how you can help their student. Ask them what their child had the most trouble with. Let them know that you have a page on your website devoted to that subject / topic. Offer to send them an email with the link, also offer them a time limited discount.
C. Give them your contact information if they don’t sign up, if they do sign up, do the happy dance and go to the next person.
Hopefully this helps you and you at least get a couple of students, next week we’ll talk about another way to get more students.
To do:
Find out the dates of back to school bashes. Many schools have them, get some firm dates for when this is going to be, a school calendar from each of the schools you’re tutoring and touch base with teachers / guidance counselors that you have relationships with.
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We have discovered a tool that we’ve been working on implementing. We have been super busy, but we do plan on using it and have a tutorial video that we created – you can check it out below. The cool thing is that integrates with Paypal and Stripe – you don’t really even need a website to use it, but it does now integrate with Word Press. The best thing is that it takes the hassle out of scheduling. You have a new client that needs some extra time, send them to a page where they can pay and schedule the session.
The are running a special for $97 for the year that lasts till August 3rd. Click here for details and to sign up. [that is an affiliate link]
How to deal with tutor cancellations
I hope you and your business are doing well. Today we’re going to talk about a problem that I think we all encounter at one time or another – missed tutor appointments. For those of you whose school years are winding down congratulations, there is still plenty of work to do getting your students ready for finals or to turn in those last papers. We also talk a bit about motivating students. If you have something specific you would like for us to talk about, please let us know. This is your newsletter.
By popular request we have created some additional ad plans – you can check them out here. http://cleverapple.com/grow-your-tutor-business/
A better business.
We have all experienced this, you have your tutor slots filled for the week. A student calls a few hours before their next tutor sessions and says they can’t show up for whatever reason. You don’t have time to get another student for that time slot, so you’re out how much money you would have made for that time. Let’s pretend you make $20 a session. If it only happens once, that’s not a big deal. But what if it happens once every week… for a year. Then you’ve lost $1040. Here are some suggestions to keep these absences to a minimum.
- Let your students / parents know when they sign up what your policy is. When they sign up with you, they should be signing that they understand the policy as part of the things they are agreeing to.
- Stick by that policy. If you let it go for one student, the others will hear about it.
- Adjust the policy as you grow and learn about your students. Example, if you find that everyone leaves for spring break, then make a specific note about that in the policy.
Ideas for the policy –
- Allow for at least one absence for emergency / sickness etc.
- Make a time frame for cancellations that can be excused and a time frame when the absence wouldn’t be.
- Detail what happens with the unexcused absence – is it counted as a tutor session / half a tutor session?
- How are the missed sessions made up or can they be made up?
I have run into this problem with some of my NCLEX students. I have found most students come for all of their sessions, and some students are habitually absent. I’m still working on creating a policy, when I have it complete I’ll make sure and share it with you. If you have one you would like to share with us, please put it in the comments.
Getting Students –
Summer is approaching – here are some ideas for starting a program.
http://cleverapple.com/tutor-tips-creating-a-summer-tutor-program/
Part 2 – http://cleverapple.com/creating-a-summer-tutor-program-part-2/
Part 3 – http://cleverapple.com/creating-a-summer-tutor-program-getting-the-word-out/
Business Tip –
Take a survey of your tutor students to find out who will be with you next year (and who won’t). This will give you an idea of how many students you need to get this summer.
Reminders –
As the school year winds down, now is a great time to get testimonials from your current students. Ask them or their parents how you’ve helped them. Get permission from them to use their comments on your social media, website, advertising etc. Let them know that you won’t give their full name, etc. for privacy reasons.
Example : GW from Hazard says this about our math tutoring. “My son had a hard time with word problems at the beginning of this year. He has improved in math from a D to a B and he love’s how Tim tutors. “
Enjoy your week!
Improve your sales process for more tutor business
I want to share with you today a couple of changes I made to my NCLEX Tutor website and how those changes worked.
Here was the visitor flow before.
Step 1 –
A qualified visitor fills out a form detailing their Nursing student history.
Step 2 –
Follow up email from us – letting them know we received the email. Making sure they had the required book in order to take the assessment tests.
Step 3 –
They responded they did have it, we would respond letting them know to take three assessment tests, email them to us and then we would let them know what would happen moving forward.
Step 4 –
They email the results to us / we send them a spreadsheet and a calendar.
Step 5 – hopefully they ordered.
So why the long process. One thing we wanted to do was to filter out a couple of things. Our program requires the student do a certain amount of work. We can tutor them 20 sessions a week, but if they don’t put some effort into studying then it won’t matter. We are providing them with something valuable as a freebie (they get an assessment and a calendar and spreadsheet highlighting what they need to study).
What Changed / Why I changed it
We monitor sales and ad spend very closely. We want to make a profit with our advertising, like you do (I hope). We had a week where we spent a few hundred bucks and hadn’t made a single sale. So we paused the ads and reviewed things – what could we tweak to make things work better.
I decided to work first on the system we used (the steps above).
We decided to smooth things out a bit and showcase what we’re doing for the student.
We decided instead of emailing results in Step 4, we would segment things. We Emailed them the spreadsheet with a note. To better serve you and create a perfect calendar we need to call you so we can ask you some more questions about what your situation is. We would give them some times to schedule the phone call and then we would call the student. During the conversation, we would learn more about the student, talk to them about creating the tutor program and more importantly speak with them about the different solutions we offered them.
After the call we would email them with the calendar and a discount code – the code included a time limit.
We emailed two customers in our pipeline and telephoned them, sent the calendar and had two new customers. So we have restarted the ad campaign, again we’ll keep you updated.
So how can you implement this?
- Try to offer a freebie that allows you to telephone the customer. Doing this lets your prospective student (or their parents) how well you do your job.
- Make your freebie something that is useful and will help them even if they don’t decide to tutor with you.
- One thing we’ll be working on is shrinking the filter a little – just like anything else you’ll want to fine tune this as you grow your business.
Questions / Comments, we would love to hear from you.
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