Creating a Craigslist post to advertise your tutoring

First of all, quite frankly, I’d advise you not to rely on Craigslist to advertise your tutoring. Marketing through Craigslist is hard and the space is very crowded.

There are much better ways to market your tutoring. However, when you’re first starting out, Craigslist is an easy, relatively cheap way to advertise your tutoring. Last time I checked, it was only $5 for a post.

So, let’s talk about Craigslist.

What should go in the title of your Craigslist ad

If you’re marketing on Craigslist, the title of your ad should contain the subjects that you’re tutoring for, and the best reason for someone to hire you.

For instance, if you have excellent credentials (which I highly recommend), you could write “Taking the SAT? 2400 SAT tutor now taking new clients”.

Or, if you offer a guarantee of better grades, you could write “Tutor de español| In-home Tutoring| Better grades guaranteed!”

The point is that you need to get the information across quickly and convince the relevant people to click on your ad. Both the information and the convincing should be in the title.

Do not put the price in the title. If the best reason to hire you is that you’re cheap, you are going to have a miserable time dealing with cheap clients.

What should go in the body of your Craigslist ad

Essentially, the body should contain all of your brand factors: credentials, affiliations, social proof, and logistics. You need enough information that people can read your ad and decide you’re a trustworthy individual.

Of these, the most important by far are social proof and logistics. First of all, people need to know that you can be trusted. How do they do that? By seeing if you’ve helped other people.

You can do this either by putting testimonials in quotes in the ad or images of reviews you’ve gotten. If you don’t have testimonials, go out and get them ASAP.

Second, people need to know what you teach, when, and how you teach (i.e. your strategy/method). You don’t have to go too in-depth, but reassuring people that you’re not going to show up to the first session unprepared is helpful.

Finally, you should include a way of contacting you. Phone number is good, email is better. Include your actual email like (info AT justaddtutor DOT com): Craigslist relay system can be faulty.

If you have a website, put a link to that as well. Don’t just put a link to your homepage, though. Add a page to your site that is specifically for visitors from Craigslist. It should have all the information they want to know, and additional ways of contacting you.

Sample Craigslist Ad

Tutor de español| In-home Tutoring| Better grades guaranteed!

[pictures: your logo, headshot (or picture of you tutoring with your face visible), reviews]

Hi, my name is Trevor Klee, and I am a muy excellente tutor de español. I’ve been tutoring Spanish for 5 years, and I majored in Spanish at the University of New Mexico.

I have a lot of experience teaching honors, AP, and college-level Spanish. In fact, I recently had a client score a 5 (the top score) on their AP Spanish exam after only a month of working with me!

Each client I work with gets a customized study plan and a list of recommended resources. I also assign homework in between sessions, so you’re continually improving. I show up prepared to each session to make sure we get the most out of our time.

I do all my tutoring at the Boston Public Library, and I’m free nights and weekends. I charge $40/hr. If you’d like to schedule a free info session, please text me at 555 555 5555, or email me at info AT justaddtutor DOT com. You can also check out my website.

Here are some testimonials:

Trevor was really a great Spanish tutor. I liked him a lot.
-Albert Einstein

I started off not knowing Spanish. Now, I’m fluent!
-Barack Obama

[Preferably I’d put a lot more testimonials after this].