Teaching Online in 2017: What’s Changed, What’s the Same, and What You Need to Focus On
In 2013, I wrote various posts on how we can market ourselves as online teachers and sell our lessons and courses.
Nearly four years later, some things have changed.
That’s why I have made this video and written the article below going through what you need to know about online teaching in 2017.
Watch the video / read on to stay ahead of the game.
Email Marketing
I’m still big on email marketing.
Why?
Because it’s the number one way that we can communicate with our audience. And like I said in this post, this is something we own.
Social media platforms come and go. Email stays with us.
And later on, you’ll learn how to combine the two.
Lesson Plans
When I first started, it was tough to find materials for my online lessons.
A lot has changed since then. The biggest indicator of this Off2Class.
This platform has ready-made lessons that are tailor made for the online world.
With a few simple searches, you will find a whole range of materials and lessons plans that you can use.
Teaching Niche
This focuses more on my outlook of a teaching niche.
I used to limit this to what area of English we can focus on. However, I now see a niche as:
- what you teach
- who you teach
- and how you teach
For example, you can offer general conversation lessons. But you can deliver this in your own unique way. Or you can offer these to specific learners.
What’s more, I highly recommend being open to the evolution of your niche. Things change as you start teaching. You realize what works, what you enjoy, and which type of learners you prefer working with.
If you’re stuck at the niche stage, don’t let it stop you from teaching.
Get started and work it out as you go.
Online Courses
A few years back, it was difficult and, potentially expensive, to create and sell an online course.
These days, there are all-in-one solutions that makes it much easier to do.
That is why you see more teachers creating on-demand video courses and programs.
This has allowed teachers, including myself, to scale and reach more learners.
Learn more about how to do this here.
Live Video
2016 was the year of live video.
This was when Facebook opened this feature to everyone.
YouTube have been doing live video for a while, but they really started to push this in 2016 too.
Learners love live lessons. Teachers, on the whole, love them too.
They are raw, can be done a phone, and the interaction brings more to the lessons.
I predict that live video will consolidate in 2017 and that YouTube will push live mobile video.
Social Media
Back in 2011 – the year I started teaching online – business still saw social media as a fad.
They weren’t ready to use their marketing budget on platforms such as Facebook.
In 2017, it’s fairly clear that social media is here to stay. Platforms will come and go, but the idea of connecting with our audience on these sites will play a large role in our marketing efforts.
Like I said in the video, it’s wise to use each platform natively.
In the past, everyone just pasted links that pointed back to their website. That doesn’t work like it used to.
Now, we have to create specific content for each platform. Some people will feel overwhelmed by this, however, go all in on one or two platforms at the beginning. You don’t have to be everywhere.
Create useful mini-lessons with a call-to-action, preferably, sending people to join your email list.
Advertising
Advertising in 2011 meant Google Adwords.
In 2017, Facebook advertising is the most cost-effective way of growing your audience.
However, you need to:
- Send the right message to the right person
- Get people’s attention
- Get people to take action
This means that you’ll need to have an offer that people want, get their attention through your ad (image and text), convince them to click your link, convince them to take action on your landing page, and create a follow-up process that converts learners into paying students.
Don’t just throw something up and then, if it doesn’t work, give up.
Start with a small budget and keep making changes to increase your conversions.
Google Ads still work. Again, you need to get this right to make it cost effective.
Technology
Things are so much easier now.
We can record a video on our phone.
We can create a website using templates
We can connect with learners through social media (for free!).
We can easily create online courses.
We can set up an email list without getting confused (the software I use).
And we have much better software that we can use to teach our lessons.
If you’re someone who tells yourself that you’re not good with technology, know that it is much easier to use these days AND you will get used to it.
How to Get Learners
The strategy remains the same:
- Get clear on how we can help and what we want to achieve
- Create an automated system that convinces learners to pay for our lessons
- Build awareness (send learners into this system)
We may do certain things differently now, for example, using Instagram to build awareness; or using LeadPages to build high-converting landing pages; or making courses instead of teaching one-to-one…
… but the principles behind the process of bringing learners into our lessons hasn’t changed.
Set up a system, build awareness, and keep improving as a marketer and a teacher.
Want to Teach Online?
A good place to start is by getting my guide: click here to do that.
If you want to jump right in, join our course and community.
