It has been a strategy that has worked for decades – allowing students to personally experience a professor’s tutelage before joining their lectures.
As the tutoring space has gotten more and more competitive over the years, free online tutoring demo sessions that are effective and memorable have become an essential marketing strategy for every educator.
So, if you’re asking yourself: “Should I Take Demo Classes?”
Yes, You Absolutely Should.
Over the past two years, online learning has accelerated at an unprecedented pace and simply turning on a camera and teaching is no longer enough. If you wish to grow your business as an EdTech owner or an educator, you remember certain vital lessons. These are a few crucial steps to help you better ensure that your demo classes convert into business. After all, as e-learning evolves, so must e-teaching.
Start Strong: Nothing Is As Precious As The Audience’s Attention
You may have allotted a certain amount of time for your demo, but grabbing the audience’s attention at the very beginning is necessary to start the session on a strong note. Start with a surprising statistic. Or ask a seemingly obvious question. Stir conversation, garner responses. Let people know that they are not just here to observe but also to participate. If you interact with a small group of attendees, begin with a few quick introductions that help everyone understand the other members present in the session. This also encourages participants to be alert at the very beginning.
When dealing with larger sets of people, make sure that you spell out your offerings coherently at the start to make it clear that every individual present has something to gain from the session. These are not just attendees. These are groups of people with similar questions, challenges, issues. It is for this reason that they have come to you. Emphasize this cooperative association at the inception of the session. This also allows you to go beyond education and into marketing – moving beyond a simple demonstration to a real-world example of how your offering solves the problems that each participant currently has. The better you can present yourself and your product as the solution, the higher your chances of conversion.
A quick video that will help you start your session with a bang.
Be Impactful: The More Memorable You Are, The Higher The Chance Of Conversion
As you may have realized by now, online learning can be restrictive in its own manner. Without the advantage of being physically present with the students, it can be challenging to put forward the full force of your personality while teaching. Students may have a shorter attention span than in-person lectures, which makes it all the more important to grab and hold their attention.
The critical deciding factor for preparing a demo class will not be what you teach but how you teach. Especially during K12 learning sessions, parents will be looking for teachers who can truly engage their child’s attention. Showcasing your teaching ability by being memorable, impactful, and driven is an easy way to engage parents and students. So, make sure to bring your knowledge and energy to the classroom, engage in a riveting manner, and drive interactions.
As an EdTech owner, having demonstrators that reflect the spirit and drive of the organization is just as important. While your marketing department head may provide all the information, they need to listen, engage, and communicate in an impactful and convincing manner to improve conversions.
A short video that can help your team prepare for your demo lecture
Tech It Up: Show Them That You Are Comfortable With Technology
It may be a struggle to switch to teaching digitally after spending years in a classroom, but technology can truly be an invaluable asset. Start by mastering the basics – know the essential buttons, be confident of your delivery, make sure that crucial equipment like microphones and cameras function smoothly. Your next step? Ensure that you have the right digital partner. Platforms such as WISE can help you maximize the services you offer through your demo lecture. They can provide you with a significant advantage on the marketing front as they allow you to conduct large-scale demonstrations.
Such platforms also provide you with tools that make demonstrations an interactive experience – an essential metric for driving conversions. By ensuring that your demo lecture reflects your ease with technology, you can be a step ahead of half your competitors. By utilizing the right digital tools, you can ensure that you are the first choice for potential users and truly drive conversions.
Here is a quick introduction to WISE and all its digital tools
We, Not Me: Provide An Interactive Experience
An essential point that we touched upon just a few sentences ago. In-person demonstrations are inherently interactive – there is space to ask questions, raise doubts, and engage in conversations. While online demonstrations have several advantages of their own, they can quickly turn into a one-way speaking experience if you are not careful. Digital sessions give you the freedom to decide how interactive they need to be. Remember, you are in charge, and you dictate the tone.
As a marketeer, it would help to be mindful that your audience may already know of your offerings. The information you are sharing might be something they are already familiar with or receive through any other medium. They are here to connect with you, so give them that opportunity. Create space for them to be part of the demo so that this is not just another video that they could be watching on YouTube. This is an incredibly essential marketing strategy for EdTech companies, as the information on their offerings may already be readily available online. Your goal here is not educating. It is selling. And selling is about listening and interacting as much as it is about speaking.
Classtools.net can be a quick and easy website for you to use to further engage with students.
Act And Transact: Facilitate Easy And Immediate Conversions
You have aced the demonstration. Your potential users are impressed. This is the moment for you to take advantage of the situation and prompt immediate conversions. Here too, technology can be of great use. End your demo on the right note and leverage digital tools to immediately push for conversions. Establish the consumer data you have gathered to reach out to the audience, establish contact, and understand what can be further provided to convince the user.
Simple assets such as dedicated QR codes and online forms can be beneficial in laying the groundwork for conversions. In all probability, your demo is the most comprehensive opportunity you have to convince the student and other decision-makers. Make sure you take the chance to seal the deal, for the more time passes after your demonstration, the lower the chances of conversion. Try and reel those individuals back in with a follow-up meeting or an opportunity to personally interact with you. It reminds them of you and your offerings again, providing better conversion probabilities. And that is how to grow your tuition business.
Freebies Help: Provide Value Through Additional Assets
By the end of your demonstration, you should have convinced the audience of the potential of your offerings. Now is the time for them to get a glimpse of your resourcefulness. Provide them with additional assets that will remind them of your unique inputs. If interacting with students, provide them with digital notes and materials that they will remember you by. Keeping an open communication platform and encouraging these students to reach out to you directly for further information will also allow conversations to foster sales to begin.
Even a quick test at the end of your session, followed by certificates provided to the participants, ensures that your offerings go beyond the demonstration you just conducted. Once again, platforms like WISE can help you design automated tests that provide immediate results to the students, easing the process for you. They can also give you access to tools that quickly distribute documents and other information to all your attendees.
Tests conducted on apps such as WISE make the process simpler for you and memorable for the students.
Personalise The Experience: Let Your Demo Address Specific Challenges
Online classes provide teachers with the opportunity to aggregate data. You can throw the floor open – let participants vote on the topics to be covered, the offerings to be highlighted, as well as particular demonstrations to be held. Assess the needs of every demo and make sure that your team is flexible enough to address the needs of the moment.
One deeply problematic assumption tutors may hold before each lecture is that demos don’t need to cater to student needs. A simple Google form circulated before the session can provide you with invaluable information on the exact requirements of your next set of consumers. This allows you to address specific concerns and highlight particular features without feeling the pressure of covering all the assets on offer. Online sessions provide you with unprecedented access to data – do not just use it to gather contact information. Utilize it to target specific requirements, and evolve your demos with each session. The EdTech tools you provide will only improve through a constant feedback procedure, and so should your teaching methodologies.
Study And Practice. Constantly.
Your demo lecture is your pitch. And no pitch is ever perfect. It does not matter how often you have conducted your session or how many years you have spent in the industry. Take inputs from your colleagues, mentors, and new sets of students coming in. Gain insights into how you can provide a more convincing argument for people to sign up for your offerings. Only through these insights will you identify loopholes in your pitch and resolve them.
The reason why you are not driving conversions may change with every session, every experience. Examining the tactics of others, watching industry examples, and attending similar seminars conducted in other industries could provide you with unprecedented ideas that drive your conversion numbers up the roof.
Renowned entrepreneur GaryVee provides insights on how he usually responds to business pitches and ideas.
Don’t Just Say It, Sell It.
The platform is laid out for you. You have the experience, the expertise, and the product. Demonstrations are a long-form, detailed opportunity for you to bring a customer on board. But they are also intensive. Ensure that you treat your demos as acquisition opportunities and not merely a sample of your services. Like we mentioned before, technology is your friend. Leverage it to make sure that your demos are a tool that rapidly drives conversion. And remember, keep constantly learning. The more you upskill, the wiser you sell.
Now that you have all this information go ahead! Start preparing to take your online demo game to a whole new level and drive conversions up. Combine teaching and marketing to drive customer acquisitions. Jump deeper into the world of demonstrations and find ways to push your services even more effectively. And remember, you do not have to do it all alone. There are several diverse and handy online tools at your disposal, so make sure you use them all!
