Ways to promote your biz

Who is your client?

It is crucial to know who you are hoping to attract to your course:

• level of English
• gender
• age
• typical job
• motivation
• needs

In this post I’ll use some of the info from the BUILDING GROUPS post because I partly covered this topic there.

Preparation

What to prepare:

• when and where it will take place
• how many people you want to service – maximum and minimum
• what the goal is – better fluency, grammar, vocab, pronunciation?
• who will teach – you, guest speakers, guest teachers, sub teachers in case of emergency
• basic structure – this applies to packaged courses, not the neverding 1-on-1 cooperation

Channels and ways to promote

Your community

The best shot is your community – your past and current clients and your followers, tell them personally or virtually

• email them, message them – and tell them about the course
• where most people follow you – most of my former and current clients follow me on my FB profile so I simply announce it there; your 1st choice might be different!
• other social platforms – IG, FB page, FB group, Stories, YT, Linkedin – depending on where your community is, 20% of your posts should be about your services, not just free content for followers, otherwise they don’t know you have something to sell!
• blog – that’s how I started, I blogged about my pilot group course and people became interested in the following ones
• newsletter – this also works well!
• your website – when it’s an existing course I first update the info on my website and then start sharing and talking about it slowly everywhere.
• website or Google doc / Canva poster – if you don’t have your own website, this is a good place to start so you have something to send to people

Outside your community

80% of people first need to hear about you, build trust and then you can sell to them. But it is very smart to grow your community by attracting new potential clients. And always keep in mind, not to waste your energy, where your ideal client is – is it on Facebook, IG, Linkedin, Youtube, Tiktok, offline events, conferences,…?

• guest interviews and posts – this is a great way to reach out to people outside of your community
• online networking events, clubs, groups – if you are active online, mention your services whenever appropriate
• paid ads – on social media or ppc, better to attract them to your content first, rather than your courses, you want them to know your work
• create posters – and publish them online and offline where you think your ideal client is

When to promote

Longer group courses

With group courses I run in trimester cycles – autumn, spring and summer and I always start marketing the longer group courses for the next trimester as soon as I get my courses up and running.

Usually it’s one month after they start. So I’ll be teaching autumn courses from the beginning of October and start preparing and marketing the spring ones (which start at the beginning of February) around beginning – mid November.

Shorter group courses

With shorter courses (weekend, one-week, 5-week) I try to stick to 3 months before they start. When I forget (I am only human) and it’s less than 3 months, it is more difficult to fill up the course.

But it’s not a rule, when you manage to create mementum, it can be filled up in a couple of hours since the first idea. Last year this happened to me with online kids course (the parents needed help fast) and in the autumn with Zoom courses for women (they were stuck at home with little socializing and were going crazy).

When I have a new idea, I usually start on my FB profile or even Stories. Sometimes I manage to create the above mentioned mementum.

Individual courses

Talk about your work anytime and anywhere, with anyone

Don’t be afaid, when you sound excited and natural it will be also great community and brand building.

Paid info products

This is a whole area where I can’t help much because I don’t really create paid info products. I only have a few free ones (see the section Ke stažení on my www).

However paid info products are a great way to support your income passively and build more trust. Long overdue in my case.

This will be the topic in the autumn!