Marketing toolkit for teacherpreneurs tip #7: find your feeder

When I was a private tutor, I got 90% of my clients from one school on the Upper East Side.

At many public and private schools, the teachers are not allowed to make additional income from students enrolled at their own school, so they have to recommend the students who need academic enrichment to an outside source.

Every successful afterschool, homeschool or preschool program I know has “a feeder.”

What is a feeder?

A feeder can be a school, a parent organization, a Parent coordinator, mom’s club, church, synagogue, mosque — or even in some cases, a government official. The unifying theme is that these are places that already are connected to a wide community of families looking for an opportunity like yours.

How do you connect to a feeder?

As you can imagine, leaders in communities like these get contacted by a lot of peope who want to sell their services.

I have found that the key to cutting through the noise is to come from a spirit of offering, rather than asking.

Here are some effective ways we’ve made connections with feeders in a way that we’re giving, rather than asking.

1. Donate to their school auction: Offer to donate to their school auction. (The great thing about this one is you’ll also likely get an intro to the PTA leader)
2. Get curious: Ask if you can visit their school to learn more about what they do and recommend students
3. Offer to buy them a drink: Ask if you can take them out for a drink to learn more about what they do and see if there is room for collaboration.
4. Donate profits: Offer a special to their students where 15% of profits go to the school.
5. Ask if you can visit: Showing curiosity about their learning environment makes people feel good.
6. Invite them to visit your space: This works well when it’s done with a true spirit of hospitality. It works best when it’s part of the person’s job to make recommendations for students. For example, a preschool director needs to recommend good elementary programs to families. A middle school director might have some special needs students who don’t fit at their school and need an alternative environment. A school with no afterschool program or arts program may need to recommend enrichment programs. Use this one with caution, because if someone is busy, they might not be able to take the time and could ignore your email.
7. Host a workshop: Offer to give a “free event” at their school. I know some tutoring agencies who are making millions of dollars and their only marketing strategy is hosting free events at schools and parent organizations. Some examples:

• A workshop on literacy for parents
• make your own toy workshop
• workshop on working with social anxiety

Here is the sample text of an email you can send to principals:

Subject: Can we make a donation to your school auction?

Hi <<name of principal >>,

I’m in the neighborhood and wanted to introduce myself.

I’m the founder and lead teacher of <<title>>

<<description>>

<<link>>

We love what your school is doing and wanted to donate a week of summer camp to your school auction.

Could you put me in touch with the right person to arrange this?

We’re excited to be your neighbor and looking forward to collaborating with you on enriching the lives of children in this community.

Thanks so much and have a wonderful day.

Warmly,

<<First name>>
<<First name>> <<last name>>
Founder/lead teacher, <<title>>
<<profile>
<<phone>>

I also recommend connecting with local businesses that serve children. For example, if you run an art camp, and there’s a big soccer camp nearby, there could be a lot of room for sharing students!

Here’s an email you can send to local businesses

They will be more likely to reply, because they’re already eager to build referral partnerships. I also recommend that whenever possible, you make intros for them if you know students who would enjoy their program. It’s important you don’t have any expectations that you’re giving referrals to get referrals, do it out of selfless generosity, but they will definitely be inspired to refer students back to you.

Subject: Would you like to meet for a coffee?

Hi <<first name>>,

I’m the founder and lead teacher of <<title>>, a new <<category>> in <<neighborhood>>.
<<link>>

I walked by your space today and it looks like an incredible program.
If possible, I’d love to meet you and see if there could be room for collaboration.

Would there be a convenient time to meet for a coffee?

Thanks so much for all you do for children!

<<First name>>
<<First name>> <<last name>>
Founder/lead teacher, <<title>>
<<profile>>
<<phone>>

One ask per email rule

Notice that in both of these emails, I only ask them to take one action in this email, the first, to make an intro to the school auction coordinator, and the second, to pay a visit.

I put the ask in the subject header to make it super easy for them.

If you ask for two things, the person emailing it will generally file your email away for later and forget about you.

If you just ask for one simple 2 second thing, they can reply immediately.

Also, people really appreciate the transparency of getting the ask right out there.

I highly recommend putting your phone number in the email as many principals like to respond via phone.

To find your feeders, I recommend using yelp.com or a simple google search.

1. Just put in your microschool’s address
2. Search for afterschool programs, daycares, schools, churches and synagogues.
3. Filter to “within walking distance” if you live in a big city where people walk a lot and “within biking distance” or “within driving distance” if you live in an area where people drive to get around

Building these relationships and partnerships might take more time than some of the other techniques, but if you can find just one big school or parent organization that sends you all their students, you really are pretty much set for life.

Happy partnering!

Step 8. Host an event
An event can be a great way to generate interest in your microschool.