Some websites as well as online agents offer paid leads, are they effective to get students?

Some websites as well as online agents claim to offer paid leads, are they effective to get students locally and internationally?

Paid leads, where tutors pay a small fee to get contact details of potential clients, may or may not be effective, depending on several factors:

-are the inquiries new or recent enough that the client still has not found a suitable tutor?

-how many other tutors have contacted the potential client before you?

-are the inquiries local or international to you?

-do the inquiries match with your hourly rates? Some websites make their paid leads offers look attractive by offering a very low cost per single lead; those leads are cheap provided you get a certain inquiry-to-client conversion rate. Something to consider is that, assuming the leads they are selling are real, the same leads are typically sold to many tutors, so you should try to be among first tutors, to contact a prospective client. Note that some agents may also sell you fake or recycled, expired leads. If you are considering purchasing contact details for a fee, make sure they are genuine and recent, if the seller cannot provide evidence for that, they are probably not.

Suspicious tutoring agents often use social networks to find their clients. They approach tutors and claim they can provide tens or hundreds of students; their narrative is usually something like the following: “We have a strong and established presence at international schools in the Middle East (or any other location) and would be happy to provide you plenty of students for your business”. They often request a hefty payment in advance to give you access to a supposed database with an unlimited number of leads for a specific time period, typically one year. When asked some specific questions about how they get their leads, the reputation of the company, etc… they typically give unsatisfactory explanations or just stop replying.

This post is not suggesting that all companies or agents offering paid leads to get students are a scam or fake, some in fact may be legit and could be good option depending on several factors, among which, those above.

If you found this post useful, agree or disagree with it, we would be glad to hear from you, just leave a comment below.

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