How To Find High Paying Students On LinkedIn- The Step by Step Guide

When you start a freelance teaching business, the most challenging task is to find students. I have heard many teachers who want to go independent mention this as their biggest fear holding them back, hence they stick with ESL companies. There are so many ESL students around the world,  close to 3 billion, and China alone has over 1 million students learning English. You definitely have your share in this big number. I am going to share with you how you find the high paying students on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a gold mine for many businesses. You just need to know how you can get to your targeted clients.

Before I give the step-by-step guide to getting students on LinkedIn, let me re-emphasize the importance of delivering an excellent service to your clients in return for premium charges. People will pay for the value they perceive your business to have. LinkedIn will not make the magic for you if you offer crap services. You won’t get students willing to $50-100/hr just because you got them there. You need to shift your mindset to think and act like a teacher-entrepreneur.

How To Get High Paying High Students On LinkedIn.

step 1.

Create a professional account that clearly spells out what you do.

Professionals want value, so we attract them with clear profiles in which they can quickly see if the person can add value to them. Here is what you should include in your profile.

• Clear headshot
• Name that looks professional (not some nicknames or social media funny names).
• A Headline that tells who you are.  The trick here is to show what people become after connecting with you. People want to see if your services add value, so tell them what they will become, not what they are currently. This is what my about section says: ” I help committed business professionals secure future career opportunities in Zimbabwe by advancing their communication skills in Shona”. 

Here is another example of an about section that speaks direct your audience and is irresistible: “I help committed accountants to improve their job performance and secure future career opportunities in Europe by advancing their communication skills in English,”. You already call out to your niche “committed accountants who want to work in Europe,” their dream “improved job performance,” and you show them how they will get there, ” advanced communication skills in English”.

Here is what my profile looks like.      Here is another example of an English entrepreneur profile.

Creating an attractive profile is the first step to getting your high paying students on LinkedIn.

step 2

Find Potential Clients

Now that you have your profile settings, you have set clear your targeted clients. The next step is to connect. Let’s see how you connect to your high paying students on LinkedIn. The best thing about LinkedIn is you can filter your search by region, people, companies, content, schools, groups and events. This is where you see how important it is to have a niche. A niche-based teacher can directly talk to their clients because they know who they want to speak to. From the profiles above, the English teacher entrepreneur is clear that they are speaking to architects and landscape architects.

LinkedIn allows you to send 100 messages to connect. Use the filter search and write the niche you want, then search for 2nd and 3rd-degree connections. In this instance, I wrote “Chinese students in American Universities”  and here are the results. You will then need to see if these are the right people for your business. You go through their profile to get more information.

There are so many ways to filter further. You can even search by university name or school or country of origin. The idea is to be as close as possible to your target client.

step 3

Send Invite to Connect

When you find your target client, you need to send them an invitation to connect. To ensure you get their attention, you need to send a private note (value proposition). This is where you sell yourself. You arouse their interest to know you more.

Here is what my invitation message is like, “Hey [First name], it is Melody. I help committed business professionals improve their job performance and secure future career opportunities in Zimbabwe by advancing their communication skills in Shona. Would you be open to connecting with me on LinkedIn? Thanks!”

With this message, I have already clearly defined who I am and what I do. I have also shown them what value I can bring to them.

Step 4

Follow up

Keep searching and connecting. You just have to be careful to stay within LinkedIn rules. When your invitations are accepted you need to send follow up messages. This message should get you the client wanting to talk to you more so that they understand how you can help them. This happens only if you have connected with your right niche and are clear with what you do.

Step 5

Strategy Session

Like I mentioned earlier, searching for the right clients leads to meaningful connections and finally, business for you.  After the second message, the last step is to have your potential client book a strategy session with you. This should be free. This is where you understand their learning needs and show them how you will help them achieve their goals. Every entrepreneur should develop their sales skills. These are very important at this stage.

This is the stage where you present value in a way which helps the potential client see how much you are worth. This is the stage where you also should never leave the client doubting that you are worth those premium rates like $75/hr. I know of very successful teacher entrepreneurs who are charging anywhere between $50-100 an hour.

Quick Reasons Why you should  Find Students On LinkedIn

1. LinkedIn is the hub for professionals. Professionals are serious about their development and self-growth. If your value proposition meets a ‘specific urgent need’ in their life, then they will give you business.
2. Professionals are more likely to have a budget for self-development. This means they are more prepared to pay premium rates than people who are not professionals for example kids. The reason why most ESL companies pay lower rates is that they target mainly children. Children do not have any urgent need, neither do they have self-motivation for growth.
3. LinkedIn opens the door to a new audience by connecting with up to 3-degree connections. You have a wider reach.
4. Search filters on LinkedIn help you be as specific as you want. This helps you get the exact potential clients for your niche, thereby increasing your chances of striking a business deal.
5.  Because clients on LinkedIn are more likely to have a budget for self-growth, you eliminate the chances of freeloaders. Freeloaders are students who want to learn for free. They don’t see the value in paying for your services because they don’t have a budget.

Lastly, to enjoy full services on LinkedIn, you need to be a premium member. Using the sales navigator will bring you the best results. I hope you will find this information useful to help you find high paying students on LinkedIn and grow your Teaching business to 5 figures.

If you have tried this method of finding high paying students on LinkedIn, please share with me in the comments. I will be happy to find out how it went.