Any ideas for marketing on low budget for a mandarin school?
August 23, 2013 5:01 AM Subscribe
I am running a Chinese school in Beijing now to teach mandarin. Even it can not earn a lot of money right now, I still love this job and want to help more people learn Chinese and experience life in China. I really need help to develop the school, so that will be good if any one can give me some ideas for marketing on low budget to expats in Beijing for a mandarin school. Thanks!
Best answer: Are you advertising on the Beijinger's forums? I remember that being a classifieds hub for both expats and locals.
Your most powerful advertising medium will be word-of-mouth, though, especially when you're targeting expats. Mention your school to expat friends and offer discounts for referrals. It also may be a good idea to offer a free trial class. Market yourself as a "practical" Chinese course.
Also: where are you located? Accessibility is a big thing, particularly since most expats don't have a car and rely a lot on public transportation, and probably won't have much Chinese for navigation if they're taking classes. Make sure you're located close to expat hubs (Chaoyang, the middle of Beijing, etc.) and you're easy to access from the subway and/or bus.
posted by krakus at 6:28 AM on August 23, 2013
Your most powerful advertising medium will be word-of-mouth, though, especially when you're targeting expats. Mention your school to expat friends and offer discounts for referrals. It also may be a good idea to offer a free trial class. Market yourself as a "practical" Chinese course.
Also: where are you located? Accessibility is a big thing, particularly since most expats don't have a car and rely a lot on public transportation, and probably won't have much Chinese for navigation if they're taking classes. Make sure you're located close to expat hubs (Chaoyang, the middle of Beijing, etc.) and you're easy to access from the subway and/or bus.
posted by krakus at 6:28 AM on August 23, 2013
You might want to advertise / float this question on Chinese-forums.com too
posted by kitkatcathy at 6:56 AM on August 23, 2013
posted by kitkatcathy at 6:56 AM on August 23, 2013
Answer questions on this Q&A site for Chinese language learners and use your school name in your signature:
http://chinese.stackexchange.com
They have a resources page (http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/1120/resources-for-learning-mandarin-chinese) but I don't think there's a category there (at least not yet - maybe you can propose it) for schools.
Secondly, you should probably have a marketing "angle" or "niche" for your school to differentiate it from others and thereby enable it to stand out in some distinctive way. It needs to have some special character that people identify it by. For example, maybe you have comfortable chairs, great teachers, a special teaching method, a good teacher/student ratio, free beverages, free learning materials, a flexible make-up policy, etc. Whatever it is, emphasize what's special or different about your school so that you are distinguishable in some way from other schools. Of course not everyone will like your angle, but you can't please and cater to all potential customers so don't worry about that as long as what you are doing is appealing to many customers.
posted by Dansaman at 9:17 AM on August 23, 2013
http://chinese.stackexchange.com
They have a resources page (http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/1120/resources-for-learning-mandarin-chinese) but I don't think there's a category there (at least not yet - maybe you can propose it) for schools.
Secondly, you should probably have a marketing "angle" or "niche" for your school to differentiate it from others and thereby enable it to stand out in some distinctive way. It needs to have some special character that people identify it by. For example, maybe you have comfortable chairs, great teachers, a special teaching method, a good teacher/student ratio, free beverages, free learning materials, a flexible make-up policy, etc. Whatever it is, emphasize what's special or different about your school so that you are distinguishable in some way from other schools. Of course not everyone will like your angle, but you can't please and cater to all potential customers so don't worry about that as long as what you are doing is appealing to many customers.
posted by Dansaman at 9:17 AM on August 23, 2013
Response by poster: Thank all of you for helping me with this, and I am much appreciated!
posted by love888 at 8:26 PM on September 3, 2013
posted by love888 at 8:26 PM on September 3, 2013
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Also, we give a discount to students who refer other people to us. People like studying with their friends, so it makes things stickier, and it gives them a wee bonus. Win win.
posted by Wrinkled Stumpskin at 5:45 AM on August 23, 2013