I am trying to market our e-tutoring website by posting comments on the posts of people needing help or by sending private messages to such people or people in college and university. I am trying to use social sites like tumblr, reddit, instagram, google plus, pinterest etc. How can I improve on my process without increasing chances of getting banned. At the moment even if they are landing on my homepage they are not going further.
Social engagement requires more than posting information about your product or service. You need to look for ways to be helpful to people without trying to drive them to your site. Look for opportunities to build relationships first and foremost. Once people see that you're helpful they'll begin to be interested in what you do and offer, but rarely before then.
On the issue of your site, you may have some optimization/usability issues that need to be looked at. High bounce rates are indicative of improper messaging and a site that just isn't meeting visitor's needs and expectations.
1) You may be targeting the wrong personas either a) at the comment / message stage, or b) at your landing page. If you're sure that you're targeting the right, and the same personas at both stages, then there's something wrong with the layout of your landing page (i.e. the actual visual layout and options for actions). There's no other reason why people would be bouncing off.
2) The most important advice for increasing click-throughs from a lot of those social sites is to make sure you are posting a lot of useful / interesting stuff that is _not_ a targeted marketing pitch. That will a) get more people to passively be attracted to your service, and b) it will increase your credibility, and c) increase likeliness of being upvoted / shared (since you will be less of an annoying marketer, and more someone that posts useful content, that also happens to sometimes pitch their product if it could be useful to someone).
Those are the two most important points, but there are a bunch of more subtle ones. If you'd like to talk about social media marketing specifically with respect to your product let me know,
best of luck,
Lee
The most powerful marketing is word of mouth marketing (WOMM). At present word-of-mouth marketing seems to be an outdated, ineffective, and pretty much gone
In reality, word of mouth is huge.
In my experience doing social media marketing for small businesses, I have found that the 80/20 or 70-30 rule works very well. 70-80% of the time, try providing value in the form of what your target audience likes. (20-30% of the time, promote your e-tutoring courses outright).
Here's an example: We live in a big tourist area, the Smoky Mountains. If we're marketing to people coming to town, we have to do it nationally because the locals already know how great it is and they don't need to be persuaded - so forget the local market for now. So what do we do? We post gorgeous images of our local scenery. Do this enough times and people wonder who you are, they will quickly make a decision that they like you and could maybe use your service; like a cabin rental company or grocery delivery service for instance.
For your e-tutoring business, your images could focus on the results your courses will provide. For example, an image of a happy young person jumping for joy, with text that says something like "this could be you". This will make them wonder how they can be happy and jumping for joy, so they'll follow you to see more. Now, that said, it's important that you are marketing to the right people. Just posting anywhere to get attention is like trying to win the lottery. You need to find your audience.
Feel free to call me for more assistance if you have follow-up questions. Be sure to send your questions in advance, and share your e-tutoring website with me so I can better and more quickly respond to your particular needs. Good luck!
You are in a crowded, but also very narrow, space. WyzAnt essentially owns this market in the US, although there are a couple of minor players. You don't say where you are geographically. In Canada, for example, there is a real void in this area.
Are you putting all your efforts in guerilla marketing, as your comments suggest? That can only take you so far.
You are generating at least some interest. However, most are abandoning your site upon landing. Before you address your marketing, you need to discover why there is no "stickiness." I'm guessing the product is either lacking or not wanted by the audience you are targeting... or is not presented well.
I would be glad to give you my 2 cents' worth if you wish; I have experience in the tutoring and higher education space.
