Whether you want to work with a company or as an independent freelance English teacher, it’s important to be able to market your teaching skills online. Nowadays there are no limitations for anyone to find a job that suits their skills and expectations if they know tips and techniques to sell their skills online. The English teaching industry isn’t just growing, it’s booming! If you’re willing to promote your teaching profession in such a market, you’d better try to showcase your abilities and stand out from the competition. If you’re a newbie trying to get better results in your teaching profession, this post will help you.
1. Join some online English teaching courses
Before starting your career as an online English tutor, you can promote your teaching skills by joining some online English teaching programs. Some of these courses not also allow you to expand your teaching profession, but also offer occupational opportunities. Courses such as the WordUp Certified Coach program, give a chance for you to stand out in the industry as progressive teachers. Any established teacher from all over the world can join this program; This program starts with an online course covering the newest methods for effective vocabulary teaching and learning; After passing the course successfully, teachers will be granted certification and entitled to some benefits and even income opportunities. So don’t waste more time and read all about it here.
2. Don’t underestimate the role of LinkedIn
You definitely have heard about LinkedIn and you may have even created a profile; It’s the largest online platform for professionals; It’s designed for career development and is the best place for showcasing the skills, certifications, and publications. It’s more than an online CV. While you’re reading this post, there may be hundreds of employers and professionals looking for someone exactly with your qualifications on LinkedIn! There are some steps for optimizing your LinkedIn profile for getting better results:
- Upload a high-quality photo of your smiling face with a simple background
- Choose an appropriate photo frame: #opentowork and #hiring frames for profile pictures are available features of LinkedIn.
- Always update your profile and include any new details about your professional experiences; Make sure all your credentials are up to date
- Make sure your headline is compelling enough
Grow your connections (you’d better have over +500 connections by following old and new colleagues, English teaching influencers, university alumni, and any other professionals in the English teaching industry)
- Join groups, organizations, and companies to make sure you’re keeping up with the latest news and job opportunities in the field of English teaching and learning.
- Be bold to speak up about your dream job
- Personalize the job titles you’re looking for, the locations for your future job, types of the jobs you’re willing to find(freelancing, full-time & part-time)
3. Standout as a specialized English teacher
If you want to stand out from the crowd, you should offer different services or specialized educational packages; You can specifically emphasize that you’re not just an ordinary English teacher, but you teach English for special purposes: English for medical students, English for tour guides, English for businessmen, an IELTS, TOFEL, GRE prep specialist and any other niche you feel you have enough experience.
4. Blogging, vlogging, tweeting & making podcasts
If you were avoiding social media till now, it’s time to change your mind. Social media is a great platform not only to find great job opportunities but also to connect with professionals all over the world. Either you can tweet your ideas, experiences, and interests and follow English teaching-related hashtags on Twitter( e.g., #ELTchat, #AusELT,#edtech), or begin blogging on your personal blog or as a guest author on some multi-author English learning teaching blogs (e.g., EFL Magazine, ELT Jam). You can also prepare videos for Youtube, Instagram, or TikTok, teaching some grammatical points while at the same time showcasing your skills in accent, speaking speed, and style! Producing podcasts is another way to show how you sound in English.
5. Offering freebies
Freebies are powerful marketing tools to keep new students flowing into your online classes. Based on some studies, people will talk 20% more about brands that give away something for free. But if you don’t know what kind of free services you can offer for your students, here are some recommendations for you:
- Free e-books: You can prepare some e-books covering some useful grammatical points, a set of practical vocabulary, or any advanced material you have enough information about.
- Video tutorials
- Free online discussions
- Getting discounts from other sources for your students
Some language-related sites or applications offer discounts for students; You can choose programs such as the aforementioned WordUp Certified Coach program that offers teachers a dedicated discount code up to %10 discount to their students.
