Marketing with Your Own Website

As we mentioned earlier, very few private tutors have their own websites due to high competition from online directories and other tutoring platforms. However, if private tuition is a long-term career goal for you, then it’s definitely worth investing in your own corner of the internet.

Generally speaking, there are two options available to tutors who want to create their own websites.

1. Pay a web designer to build one for you.

2. Learn some basic web design skills and build your own.

Of all the website builders out there, the best long-term choice for flexibility is WordPress. If you’re looking to create a website on a shoestring budget, then you can choose from many of their free templates and you’ll only need to pay for hosting and the initial purchase of a domain name.

A well-designed tutor website - this one belongs to Victoria Olubi aka The Tutoress

However, if you want your website to look a bit slicker and have added functionality, then you can choose to buy a premium theme which will enable you to create a website precisely as you want it.

One of the great things about WordPress is that it caters for most levels and abilities. Whether you’re a web design pro or completely new to the idea of building a website, WordPress has something to offer everyone.

WordPress – the No.1 choice for DIY website design

Seeing as this guide is all about marketing, we won’t go any further into the technical side of creating a website although it is worth mentioning the importance of choosing a suitable domain name.

If you plan on keeping your tutoring business within your local area, it can be worthwhile from an SEO perspective to buy a domain name that includes the word ‘tutor’ and your local area, e.g. ‘mathstutorlondon.co.uk’. Given how competitive the tutoring industry is however, you may need to settle for more of a ‘branded’ name as the keyword rich domains are often already taken.

Using Website Templates

Another way of quickly coming up with a website is using Website Builders such as Wix. Wix has diffferent packages include free and paid options. Wix provides customizable website templates and a drag-and-drop HTML5 web site builder that includes apps, graphics, image galleries, fonts, vectors, animations and other options. Users also may opt to create their web sites from scratch. Wix also has a mobile editor to allow users to adjust their sites for mobile viewing. Users must purchase premium packages to connect their sites to their own domains, remove Wix ads, access the form builder, add e-commerce capabilities, or buy extra data storage and bandwidth.

Paying for Online Advertising:Google Ads

If you’re looking for a ‘quick fix’ to your online marketing efforts then you may want to consider using Google Adwords, of ‘Google Ads’ as it’s now known. Although it can take a little time to get your head around the intricacies of setting up a Google Ads campaign, here, we provide a brief overview of the benefits of using Google’s paid advertising platform.

In a nutshell, Google Ads are a good way to promote your tutoring services if you: a)Have a website b)Don’t have much of an online presence

Google Ads essentially let you pay for top advertising space in search results, so that you show up above all the ‘organic’ results. It can be a great way of ensuring your site appears on Google’s first page for some of the most commonly searched phrases that relate to your services.

You can spend as much or as little money as you like on AdWords because it operates on a pay-per-click model and you’re only charged when a user clicks on your ad. Here are our top tips for implementing a successful AdWords campaign.

Choosing Your Keywords

You should think carefully about which keywords you want your ad to target. For example, if you’re a Maths tutor in London, you’ll likely want to include keywords. like ‘Maths tutor London’, ‘London Maths tutor’, ‘Maths tutoring London’ etc.

The keywords you decide on will be used to determine which searches your advert will appear under.

The more popular the keyword, the more expensive the cost-per-click of the ad. And the more specific your keywords, the more effectively you’ll be able to target your audience. Although shorter tail keywords like ‘London tutors’ can have high costsper-click (due to there being more competition), you should also try to target some long-tail keywords as well using longer sentences or phrases. People often search using several different combinations of words, so make sure you have those covered too.

You can use the keyword planner within the Google Ads interface to help you find more keywords when you’re stuck for ideas.

Target Your Audience Geographically

Google Ads also enables you to target specific locations. For example, if your agency is based in Central London and you only tutor within this area, you probably don’t want to appear in results that relate to Edinburgh.

You can target your audience based on postcode, city or by choosing a specific radius around your local area, e.g. within 5 miles of your town. Geotargeting your AdWords campaign is a clever way to improve your conversion rates and ensure that people who click through to your site are actually interested in using your services.

Device Targeting

With Google Ads, you can also adjust your ads for specific devices, i.e. desktops, mobile devices or tablets. Think about which devices your audience are likely to be using. Parents, for example, may be more likely to search for your services on desktop devices while they’re at work, or in the evenings on a laptop. Students on the other hand, may be more likely to search for tutors on mobiles and tablets.

Remember that with Google Ads, you only spend as much as you want. You’re able to set your daily budget and change it at any time. Although your daily spend might vary, you won’t pay more than your monthly charging limit.

Paying for Google adverts can be a good introduction to paid advertising and is a low risk way of discovering whether paid advertising will work for your tutoring business or not.