How to Generate Traffic to your Online School    
                        

One of the strategies schools should look while promoting their online school is to target a wider audience. Yes, your online school target market should not be restricted to just parents in your school. Once you are online, you are air-borne and no longer restricted by land borders. A parent outside the country can even access your content online as long as you grant them the permission.So how can you generate traffic to your Online School?

1. Create Rich Content

Since your content (Free or Paid) can be accessed online, you MUST go the extra length to ensure that the content you are delivering is top-notch and tailored around your school curriculum. Even when hosting a Free Online class, NEVER water-down your content because the students are not paying for it. Remember, people are reviewing your content and they will make their decision to pay for the subscription-based class depending on the perceived value they get from your free online classes. Showcase those Free Classes as much as you can. Use your Whatsapp Status, Facebook Story, Instagram page, Youtube , etc to show what you can offer in your school. I usually tell school owners, whatever you do this period to market your schools online; the results will show during September new in-take. 

2. Promote! Promote!! Promote!!!

Promote your online school as if your life depends on it. There are different social media channels for you to use to showcase your online school as mentioned above. However, you can go a step further by doing paid advert for your online school. Yes, paid advert on Facebook, Instagram, etc to promote your subscription-based online school. Make noise about your online school and by so doing you are inadvertently promoting your offline school. Use the channel to showcase your best students result in external examinations (National and International examinations). Remember, parents are interested in the destination for their children and not the vehicle. As I pointed out above, potential clients are on the look-out and will make informed decisions in your favour come September new-intake.

3. Promote to the Right Audience

As you promote your online school, ask yourself: “Am I promoting to the right audience who will afford my online school subscription?” Someone asked: “Are parents really paying for these online school?’’. The answer is YES. Ask schools like Corona, Greensprings and Atlantic Hall if their parents are paying for their online school. Also, I shared on this platform how online tutoring companies like Tuteria, Prepclass, etc are still in business despite the lock down. Is it not the same parents that are hiring tutors on these platforms?
Where is your target audience? Are they here on Facebook? Are they on Instagram? Are they more on Whatsapp? Have you searched for them on Linkedin?
Linkedin is a professional social media platform wherein professionals interact with other professionals. On Linkedin, you have Business executives, bankers, Medical personnels, etc whom you can target based on their professional profiles.From my little research, many educators are not active on Linkedin. I have one of my connections on Linkedin, a teacher, who shared a live video while he was teaching students in public school mathematics. He explained the mathematical concept so easily that many people who commented on the post applauded his ingenuity. On his profile, he showcased how he had helped students score A1 in Mathematics. Imagine how many professionals there who would be willing to have him tutor their children as their Mathematics teacher.If you want to target the middle class of our society, working-class adults, go on Linkedin and promote your online school there.
Do you have a Linkedin profile as a professional educator?

4. Use a Referral System

To generate traffic to your online school, have a reward system to reward those who refer clients to your online school. Online courses websites like Udemy, Coursecraft, etc make use of referral system, whereby you earn commissions referring students to take courses with them. In my last class on Online tutoring, I shared how Tuteria, Prepclass also use this same referral system to reward anyone who refer clients to them. They pay as much as 10% of the value of the online class after each completed cycle. You may not pay as much as 10% of your online school subscription, but having a reward system for referrals can generate traffic to your online school.Your satisfied parents are the first point of call when looking at how to get more clients into your online school.

Conclusively, your online school must not be focused on just your parents nor on the subjects you offer in your school. As a school owner, are there skills you can teach others through your online school- bead-making, face-mask making, graphic design, etc? What is stopping you from teaching these skills as subjects in your online school? I know of a school that got someone knowledgeable in Coding and Robotics to teach on selected days in their online school. You needed to see how parents and other parents were willing to pay for their online school. Go online and research the 10 hard skills needed by 21st century workplaces and get tutors knowledgeable in that field to take classes in your online school.
We will pass through this stage of our lives. We need to be alive first to make the dreams of today to become reality tomorrow.