Student Referral Programs
Continuing our month discussing ‘Finding Students,’ let’s talk more about a Student Referral Program. If you don’t have one, I think you should, as it is the easiest, cheapest method you have to bring in new clients. Remember, even if you have a full schedule now, your students will eventually cycle out, so there is no harm keeping some in the pipeline (waitlist?) Here are three ways I recommend informing current clients about your Referral Program:
Email newsletters: MailChimp and the like offer great, free email newsletter templates you can send monthly or quarterly. Fill these beautiful, dynamic emails with updates, student achievements, schedule changes, available slots, holiday announcements, links to resources AND reminders of the benefits of student referrals.
Class feedback: I provide a few sentences of feedback to clients after each lesson, and longer feedback after assessment classes; it’s in these assessment feedbacks I remind clients about my referral program.
Parents’ Group: some teachers run a bi-weekly or monthly class for parents. This is a great way to keep parents up-to-date, and also a terrific free bonus when they buy bundles of classes for their children. You can run this as a group conversation class, but also leave time for announcements, such as regarding your referral program! You can even do so by casually congratulating a parent who has successfully referred for their free class, or cash bonus in front of the rest of the group! ????
Do you communicate your referral program in any other ways? Please share what methods you’ve found successful!
