In this episode, I explore why marketing efforts often fail and how to build a sustainable, reliable demand for your tutoring business. I share practical insights on avoiding common pitfalls like rushing changes, spreading yourself too thin, and relying on cold marketing, emphasizing the importance of an ecosystem approach.

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👋🏽 Hello! I'm Sumantha McMahon, and I've supported over 100 tutors and education business owners.

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© 2024 Sumantha McMahon

If the thing that used to bring you students has stopped working and you can't quite put your finger on why, then this one is for you. Because when sales slow down, almost every tutor reaches for the same answer. Do more marketing, post more often, try another platform, try a new format like video, for example. And a lot of the time that's actually the very thing that keeps you stuck because it keeps you in the loop of struggling to make sales.

So in the next 20 minutes or so, I want to talk you through what's actually going on when your marketing stops delivering and the handful of reasons behind it that hardly anyone stops to check. Once you see them, you'll know exactly where to look instead of just doing more and hoping for the best.

If we haven't met yet, then I'm Samantha and welcome to the podcast. I help tutors earn more from their business in a way that's sustainable and that builds real options for their future.

And this topic sits right at the heart of that because a business that only grows when you throw more and more effort at it isn't a business that gives you your life back. So this matters both for the students that you'll go on to teach and for how hard you have to work to actually reach them in the first place.

So let's start here. You've got something that's worked for you in the past. Maybe it's always brought students in or maybe it worked some of the time and not others. So it's inconsistent. Maybe it was a particular platform or a style of content, maybe it was referrals or maybe it was just this rhythm that you kept that kept the students coming.

Then suddenly it slowed down or it just didn't perform the way that it used to. The moment that happens, the instinct is always the same, just to try something new or to do more, because we assume that if it's not working, the answer must be to turn up the volume. But here's the thing that I want to highlight. When your sales slow down, the slow down is actually really good information.

We need to pay attention to it first before we react. So ask, what is it telling you? Usually it's telling you something has changed or that there's a variable that's affecting how well it works. Timing, for example, or the time of year. So piling more effort on top of it before you've even found the cause just wears you out.

You get more of the same result, except now you've worked harder for it. You end up busier, more tired and still not booking the students, still not making the sales. So before you change a single thing, before you jump on posting more on a new platform, the job is to work out exactly what's going on rather than just doing more of what you're already doing. And that's what we're going to look at today. So before we do, if this is already making sense to you, then do follow or subscribe wherever you're watching or listening. So the next episode finds you without you having to remember to come back for it. Okay, let's get into it. When the sales slow down or they become very inconsistent, the real reason is usually one of two of these things.

The first reason is that you have changed something and you judged it too soon. So maybe you brought in new messaging. A lot of my one-to-one clients have refined their niche. So it's almost like they're creating a fresh brand. Maybe you've moved to a new platform or you've tried doing a different type of content like a blog or videos, and then within a few weeks the results aren't really showing up much, and so you decide a bit too soon that it isn't working.

Reality is, and I know you know this, most things that really work usually need longer than we give them because it's a lot of work, and it's really hard to stay motivated when you're not seeing results yet, because you just don't know whether you're wasting your time or not, so I do get it. But at the same time, we have to give things time and trust the process. We are so often looking for proof in the first few weeks for something that was only ever going to pay off in, let's say, three months.

So if you've recently changed something, just ask yourself honestly whether you've really given it a fair run or whether you pulled the plug before it had a proper chance. I've given you a few examples around marketing here, but this could just as easily be a new sales process or anything. The point is you've made a change and you have to ask yourself two things. Have I given it long enough? And in that time, have I been consistent? Have I done all the things that I know I should be doing consistently over a proper stretch of time? Because if you can't honestly answer that, then you risk piling on more effort and getting the very same result, all because you weren't willing to give it longer or to look at it through an analytical lens.

The second reason is that you're spread too thin. You're doing a little bit of everything everywhere. You're trying lots of different strategies all at once and none of them get the depth that they actually need to work.

So maybe you send an email when you remember, but you've never really been consistent with your email marketing. Now I know this one from the inside. From years, my own business felt like this. There were elements that were consistent, but there were others that I really struggled to keep up with. So they became inconsistent and so they didn't work. And the reason I was inconsistent was because I was so busy.

I spread myself too thin trying to do too many different things based on what I saw everyone else doing. I was ticking along, sometimes even ticking the boxes, but I was never really committing properly to anything. I wasn't reacting, I wasn't designing. The truth is a bit of presence on a lot of platforms will almost always be beaten by real depth on one. So if you've started stretching yourself across a lot of different things, choose the one platform or the one method with the most promise and go properly deep with that before you decide whether or not it works. And if you've already done that and you're still feeling really stretched, then maybe this is your signal that it's time to delegate or to systemize your marketing a bit more.

I'm actually going to create an episode in a few weeks time all about delegating, streamlining, how to get time back. And it's something that I focus on very heavily with my one-to-one clients in particular, because we look so closely at this. We audit things, we examine things. We're trying to build something sustainable. The point here is that when you're spread too thin, it never lets you give anything a proper shot. So you can never really judge whether it's working.

So these are the two most common reasons, but I've got two more that I really want to bring into the picture. So reason three is a bit more subtle, so it's harder to spot. And it's when your message has drifted or it's not quite landing or connecting with your audience anymore. So maybe you're comparing yourself to a time when things were really working. And if you did a really close comparison, maybe your messaging was a bit more targeted back then and it isn't quite as targeted now.

So you're still visible, you're still showing up, but somewhere along the lines, your actual message, who you're speaking to and how you're connecting with their problems, maybe that has drifted. It's just not as clear as it was. And when the right person can't tell immediately that your message is for them, remember, people have very short attention spans, they'll just scroll straight past. Even if what you've made is brilliant or the offer's brilliant, often they do need what you offer. They just didn't realise you were talking to them. So this one is about reconnecting your messaging to the specific person that you want to reach. And a really good tip is to say it in their words, not yours.

Something I do, and I encourage all my clients to do, is to take really detailed notes on discovery calls or just general conversations that you have with clients or potential clients. These days with things like AI, you can transcribe it, you can summarize it, and it's such valuable information, because it means that you understand how people describe their own problem, their pain points, in their language, rather than you reaching for your language and not getting it quite right.

The fourth reason that I want to bring in is that you're relying on cold marketing. So everything you're doing is resting on complete strangers, people who you don't have any relationship with at all. Now let me be clear about what I mean by a stranger. Someone can be a stranger online in the sense that they've never met you, but they've been in your content world for a while, so they feel like they've gotten to know you. What I'm talking about here is a stranger who hasn't even had that. So maybe everything is resting on those people finding you, and there's nothing warmer running underneath. There's no follow-up or outreach, or there isn't a habit of asking, let's say, existing clients for referrals, where there's a relationship set underneath. There's no bingeable content that pulls them into your world and keeps them there because they're so interested in everything you've got going on and everything you talk about. Maybe you've got a freebie section on your website or a YouTube channel or a podcast that can draw them in.

I worked with a tutor a while back who was doing all the right marketing. She was visible, she was posting, she was getting inquiries. But she kept getting ghosted and she couldn't work out why. When we looked at it properly, her marketing was completely fine. The gap was in what was happening after someone actually messaged her, and it was in her follow-up. So we found that it had become very transactional rather than relationship building. Once we fixed that, and I promise I am not exaggerating, I have a screenshot to prove this, this took about 24 hours, where she went from being ghosted to having around 25 conversations in 24 hours. She had clients booked, and this really happened inside a day. It was the same marketing. The only thing that changed was what was happening next. So you have to look at the bigger picture. How are you building relationships? However you choose to do it? How are you warming your audience up and creating real rapport when you actually get into conversation with someone? This is so common and easily overlooked.

So many tutors have switched off the warmer routes to a student without even realizing it. And those warmer routes very often outperform the cold ones. So you can absolutely have your marketing running in the background, building your digital footprint and nurturing people once they're in your world. But alongside that, there are some really good ways to build relationships more directly. I've actually got a whole episode on this from last season called Five Ways for Teachers to Attract Students Without Digital Marketing. And I'll pop the link in the show notes for you.

So all four of those reasons that I've mentioned so far are really worth paying attention to, but sat underneath all of them is one deeper reason. And this is the one that actually changes things for good. It creates long-term change. So you're not landing back in the same situation over and over again. Let's talk about that now. So what's usually going on underneath all of those reasons that I've already mentioned is that the demand for your work was never actually designed to be reliable in the first place.

So I'll explain what I mean. Let's say that in the past it worked through word of mouth or a little bit of luck, or maybe one platform did a lot of the heavy lifting for you. And that's really lovely when it's flowing, when it's working, but when it dips, there is nothing steady to catch you, because it was never built to be steady. It was built on the hope that that one thing would keep working for you for a long time.

Now you might be getting a bit confused here, because earlier I was saying just do one thing and do it well, do it properly. And now I'm saying you need more than one thing. So I want to be clear about what I mean. When I talk about doing one thing, I don't mean one thing overall. I mean one thing for each purpose. So one thing that does each job really well. Using my own business, when it comes to how I sell, I know that I make most of my sales through social media, emails, and often through my podcast.

So if I wanted sales in a particular week, I'd probably lean on email marketing, on LinkedIn and Instagram, with maybe a sprinkle of Facebook, because that's what tends to work for me. And I've noticed that pattern over the years, but I'm not always selling something. So I also need something that nurtures my audience and brings new people into my world and keeps them there. And this really matters because we so often focus on getting new people, new sales, new followers, new names on the list. But it's just as important to look after the people who have already chosen to give you their time and their trust. So my podcast, for instance, is exactly that. It gives me a way of giving something tangible, something with a bit of meat on the bones, to the people who have chosen to spend their time with me. So I'm not relying on one single platform to do absolutely everything. I've got different platforms doing different jobs. And when I'm selling, then I really go for it on social platforms and with my emails.

But all year round in the background, I'm thinking about my podcast, and I'm still nurturing people on those other platforms too. My podcast is probably the one I give the most time to, because it's the one where I can really give something tangible and detailed to people who have chosen to be in my world. So when we talk about this deeper reason, what we're really talking about is putting all your eggs in one basket. You say, right, I've got a podcast and that one thing has to make all my sales for me, and it might do for a while, and then it stops. And you've got nothing else to lean on, nothing else to rely on. So the goal here, rather than patching up this month's dip and moving on, is to think about how you build demand that you can really count on month after month. And the way that you do that is with an ecosystem. You recognize that in order to make sales, you need a warm audience. And in order to have a warm audience, you first have to grow that audience and then you have to nurture it.

Once you can see that your marketing has to play these different roles — selling, growing, nurturing — it becomes so much easier, because each of those roles can have its own home. Different things are good for different jobs, and you let each one do what it does best. And that's where you put your energy into, and you're learning.

So if this episode has struck a chord with you and you want to keep thinking about how to build demand that you can rely on rather than something that rests on hope, along with lots of other things I talk about — like building a sustainable business and attracting clients rather than chasing them, all those good things — then this is exactly the kind of thing that I share in my free VIP club. It's my email list, and every Wednesday and every Friday I pop over an email — one that updates you about podcast episodes, and one that's observational. Sometimes it's chatty, sometimes it's something that I've learnt that I want to pass on to you. Totally free to join, and the link is in the description. I'd love to have you in there.

So I hope you found this episode useful. I hope it's got you thinking about how you can really make sure that you are not just relying on one thing to make all the sales or one method, but most importantly, that you view things through an analytical lens and not an emotional one. So something that you're trying, that you're putting effort into, isn't quite working — look at it analytically and make sure you're giving it enough time, and make sure you're not spread too thin. As always, thank you for giving me your time. It really means a lot to me. I'm really pleased you're here. And don't forget to subscribe or follow, so you don't miss the next episode. You'll hear from me on Wednesday.