Getting tutoring clients without paying for advertising

Written for other tutors starting out. The honest answer is that paid advertising is close to useless for this work, and the things that do work are slower and free.

Why ads do not work here

The people who most need a computer tutor are, by definition, cautious about technology and cautious about being sold to. Many have already been overcharged by somebody who turned up in a search advertisement.

They do not click ads. They ask a friend, they ask at the library, or they search and pick something that looks like a person rather than a company.

Spending on ads for this audience buys clicks from people comparing prices and very few bookings.

What actually works

1. Google Business Profile

Free, and for a local service business it matters more than the website.

It is what puts you in the map results that appear above the normal listings for “computer help near me”. Most local searches never scroll past that.

Set it up properly: correct category, service area rather than a shop address if you visit people, accurate hours, real photographs, and a description that says plainly what you do and what you charge.

Then ask satisfied clients for a review, in person, at the end of a session that went well. This is uncomfortable the first few times and it is the single highest-value thing you can do. Reviews are most of what decides local ranking, and they are what a nervous person reads before ringing a stranger.

2. Word of mouth, deliberately

Your first clients come from people who already know you. Tell everybody what you are doing: family, neighbours, the people at your gym, your children’s school.

Then, and this is the part people skip, make it easy to pass on. Leave two business cards, not one. Say plainly, “if you know anybody else who is stuck, pass one on.” Most people are glad to and simply do not think of it.

This clientele talks to each other constantly. One well-run session in a retirement village produces three more.

3. Physical noticeboards

Libraries, community centres, neighbourhood houses, church halls, bowling and RSL clubs, medical centre waiting rooms.

Unfashionable and genuinely effective, because the audience reads them. Keep the card simple: what you do, that you come to them, the price, and a phone number in large print.

4. Offer to speak, for free

Probus clubs, senior citizens groups, community centres and libraries are constantly looking for someone to talk for forty minutes, and they cannot find anybody who will explain online safety without selling something.

Offer a free talk on spotting scams. Do not pitch at all. Answer questions, be useful, leave cards on the table.

This is the most effective single thing I have done. A room of thirty people, several of whom have been quietly worried about a message for weeks, and you are the first person who explained it without condescension.

5. Genuinely useful free writing

Write things that help people whether or not they ever hire you. Somebody searching for whether a text message is a scam finds your explanation and now knows you exist.

This is slow. It takes months before search traffic amounts to anything. It also compounds, and unlike advertising it does not stop the moment you stop paying.

Write for the person, not for the search engine. Thin pages stuffed with suburb names are both obvious and penalised.

6. Be findable and be a person

Put your face, your first name and your price on your website. This audience is choosing whether to let a stranger into their home. Anonymity and “contact for a quote” both work against you.

What to do in your first three months

Month one. Set up the Google Business Profile. Tell everybody you know. Print cards. Do your first few sessions free or cheap for people you know, to build confidence and get your first reviews.

Month two. Noticeboards. Contact three community groups and offer a free talk. Ask every client for a review, in person.

Month three. Start writing. One genuinely useful article a fortnight. Keep asking for reviews.

Expect very little for the first two months and then a fairly sudden change once the reviews accumulate and the first few clients start recommending you.

The thing that matters most

None of the above outperforms being good and being kind.

This clientele has almost universally been made to feel stupid by somebody: a family member who sighed, a call centre that talked too fast, a shop that took the device out of their hands. Simply not doing that puts you ahead of everybody they have dealt with.

People remember that, and they tell their friends about it in detail. The piece on teaching technique covers the practical side.

If you are starting out around the Hunter

I am glad to talk it through with anybody setting up something similar, and I am genuinely not worried about competition. There is far more demand in this region than one person can meet, and most of the people who need this are not being reached by anybody at all.

The setup guide covers ABN, insurance and the working with children check, and there is a separate piece on pricing.