According to a study led by Nielsen, 92% of consumers worldwide say they trust earned media, such as recommendations from friends and family, above all forms of advertising. Here are some tips to maximise your word-of-mouth potential:
Make yourself visible
The Nielsen research highlighted above demonstrates that Facebook users are the most likely to share content. That does not mean that you should not use all other social media channels you are comfortable with and are willing to use often. If you’re a teacher and need more students, create a FB business profile, group, or business page, where you can detail who you are, what are your course objectives, what you can do for students, and especially important- testimonies. Collect and publish testimonies of success from your previous students/parents/clients to back up your teaching potential and successes.
Create a trigger
You can design something that people may find interesting and want to share with their contacts. This is called referral marketing, and it does not cost an arm and a leg to make it work. Think about freebies your students might want to download. Maybe a free IELTS class on speaking techniques, which might lead to payable writing techniques, lists of useful expressions for an exam, tips on how to master your reading, etc.
Share valuable information
Everything mentioned above will only be shared and appreciated if it’s really useful, unique, and relevant to your potential customers. If you’re a teacher, but you share ‘tips on travel’, they might not support your educational background, nor DEMONSTRATE any teaching successful stories.
Personalise your stories
People relate to other people’s personal stories much more than numbers and citations. Tell people why you’ve decided to be a teacher, what took you to get where you are, and what you like most about it.
Identify your potential clients
As a teacher, it’s important to identify who you’re most comfortable teaching… think about age group, subject knowledge, online vs. face-to-face, General English or ESP (English for Specific Purposes), which countries from (according to your work permits and possible methods of payment), timetable, etc. Once you have that clearly defined on your profile, start looking for groups or pages where you could link your profile and describe your services.
Provide quality service
You can not sustain any marketing campaign (word-of-mouth is a form of marketing campaign) without quality service. Remember that word-of-mouth works both ways, for you and against you, and the same way it can boost your profile among your future customers, it can put you out of work, too.
