If you read the Educator Story about Rebecca Delgado, the founder and lead teacher of the Waldorful Days organization, you already know how using social media sites like YouTube can help grow your business. But reading about one person’s success and creating your own are two different things. So what can you do to promote your Outschool business for more exposure and potentially more enrollments when you don’t have time to create a ten-minute video, edit it, create voiceovers, and all the other steps involved with a YouTube channel? 

You make YouTube Shorts, of course!

What are YouTube Shorts?

YouTube Shorts are YouTube’s response to the popularity of TikTok. If you are familiar with the TikTok platform, you know that people enjoy the quick, easy-to-digest bites of entertainment or information that users post. According to YouTube, you can get started making videos right away, “using just a smartphone and the Shorts camera in the YouTube app.” To learn more about creating Shorts, check out this helpful step-by-step guide from YouTube.

Pro Tip: You don’t need to be a graphic designer or a videographer to create amazing YouTube shorts. With Canva, you can create a variety of Shorts to share with your audience. 

Because YouTube Shorts have less competition and don’t cost more than your time to create, they can be a wonderful marketing tool to drive families to your Outschool business. Read below to find out how they can help your teaching business grow.

Making a YouTube Short for your teaching business

If you create slides and presentations for your Outschool classroom, then you are already well on your way to creating engaging content for your YouTube audience. Using a Canva template, you can jump right in and get started with these ideas:

Use your current classes and topics as a guide to get started

Pick your favorite slide, fact, tip, or trick from a popular or new class and give viewers a taste of what you offer as an educator. Show off your teaching skills so that families know what to expect when enrolling in one of your classes.

Remember that you are targeting a specific audience and keep them in mind

 If you teach preschool classes, you will want to speak to parents of preschool children. On the other hand, if you offer academic classes to older learners, you will want to help parents solve a problem they’re struggling with, such as complicated math word problems, conjugating verbs, or balancing chemical equations.

Show off your teaching style by demonstrating skills learners may see in your classes

If you are teaching hands-on experiments, show an example of an easy at-home experiment anyone can do. If you teach chess, share a move to protect the queen. Whatever you do, make it entertaining, as you only have a short amount of time to share your knowledge.

Pro Tip: Share your YouTube short across multiple platforms. Create the template once and then repost it on your Facebook, Instagram, and other social media pages.

How to use YouTube Shorts as a marketing tool

Since YouTube has twice the amount of TikTok users, roughly 2 billion users monthly, it seems like a no-brainer as a way to promote your Outschool classes. It is also the second most-used search engine behind Google. Of those 2 billion, over 1.5 million YouTube users watch YouTube Shorts. That is a lot of eyeballs! 

So, what does this mean for your business? Using a powerful search engine means that when you use YouTube to market your classes, you’re giving a global audience a taste of who you are and what you’re offering. While, as an educator, you may think that your mission is solely to teach, to do so, you need learners in your classroom. 

As a veteran Outschooler educator, you may leverage feedback from families, positive reviews, or some of your favorite in-class activities in your videos. Educators new to Outschool may offer coupon codes and discounts, generate excitement with upcoming classes, or even create an “about me” short so that families know a little more about it before signing up.

Let’s look at how you can use YouTube shorts to increase your following.

Tap into YouTube’s search engine capabilities

If you’ve ever used Google, Bing, or Yahoo!, then you’ve used a search engine. A search engine is a software system that uses keywords to search and then brings them back. As you may know, searching for classes on Outschool works this way as well. When you create a YouTube short, you want to encourage people to check out your classes or profile page so they can know more about you and what you offer as an educator. 

To do this, we suggest these three tips to increase your enrollments with YouTube:

Keywords

Keywords are where it’s at when it comes to getting your YouTube Shorts in front of the right audience. Even though YouTube’s audience covers multiple age groups, the goal is to reach parents with children in the age range of the classes you teach. Using strong keywords helps you connect with people searching for those words. Also, utilizing a YouTube keyword tool can help you identify which words people search for within your topic or area of interest.

Be sure to use a keyword tool or even research what words people are using. Begin by typing one word related to your topic into the search bar and see what pops up. The more keywords you have, the better. Finally, make sure that you include high-performing keywords in your video title, description, and thumbnail image.

Optimizing videos

As an Outschool educator, you already know the importance of creating an inclusive environment for learners. Why not take that philosophy and apply it to your YouTube Shorts as well? Adding closed captions and a transcript to your video allows viewers who are unable to listen to the videos or are in a place where they have to silence their device the chance to read what you have to say.

Maximize SEO

When creating a YouTube Short, make sure it has a specific topic or theme. While general ideas are fine, you are more likely to attract more viewers and have them click through to your Outschool page if you focus on one topic for each short. Before you post, choose the most relevant category for your video to increase potential views. Check out this article for more information on marketing strategies to grow your business.
Pro Tip: Learn more about SEO, keyword research, and how to help families find you on the web in the Educator Handbook.

3 steps to social media success using YouTube Shorts

Now that you have a couple of tools to get you started, let’s look at ways to help you grow your business.

Step 1: Create engaging videos

According to SocialPilot, YouTube Shorts should be around 60 seconds long but it is still important to focus on creating quality videos. An engaging 30-second video related to your subject expertise or classes will get more likes and attention than a 60-second video that does not relate to your business or your audience. Focus on what you do best!

Step 2: Know your audience

Know who you want to reach before you create any videos. While a super-bubbly educator with a puppet assistant is wonderful for younger learners, families of teens may swipe right past your Shorts. Make sure that the content you create is relatable to your audience. Not sure who that is or what they want to see? No worries! You can always research what is trending with your target age group.

Step 3: Create a call to action (CTA)

Don’t forget to push viewers to your Outschool class or profile. The goal is to sell yourself and your classes when using YouTube shorts. People always love feeling like they’re getting a deal, so take the extra step and create a coupon code for existing Outschool learners or use a referral coupon for new learners to Outschool to offer a $20 discount for their first class.

Pro Tip: Not sure what kind of content to offer or unsure what families are looking for? Start by looking at Outschool’s Insights page. At the end of the day, your goal is to attract families who are looking for virtual learning and this page gives an inside peek at what families are looking for. 

For more information on growing your Outschool teaching business, using social media to promote Outschool classes, or other marketing channels used by online educators, be sure to check out additional information on marketing on TikTok, marketing on Pinterest, along with many more tips from the Outschool team.

Oh, and don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe to Outschool’s YouTube channel!