How Tutoring Companies Can Use FourSquare Specials to Attract Students
We’ve talked before about the opportunities that exist for tutors who use local GPS check-in service FourSquare, but a new development in the way that FourSquare supports location-based “specials” may help tutoring companies and centers attract more business, and encourage students to take advantage of tutoring services.
On March 9th, 2011, FourSquare unveiled a whole new line of specials for businesses looking entice repeat customers and attract new business.
Of course, FourSquare already offers a free Merchant platform that allows businesses to claim their listings on FourSquare. Using the merchant platform, businesses could add a simple deal which offered a discount for the mayor or a general discount to patrons checking in on FourSquare, but now the deals go beyond just the simple. Businesses can get really granular on the time, place and conditions under which specials might be applied.
Using new specials tool, businesses can add a special campaign easily and totally for free. The types of specials currently offered are Flash specials, Friend specials, Swarm specials, Newbie Specials, Checkin, Frequency and Loyalty Specials, and Mayor Specials.
If you’re a tutoring company or tutoring center, or maybe even a tutor who works frequently in an educational center or one library, or is affiliated with a certain school, you can take advantage of the specials that FourSquare is now offering using the guide below.
Claim Your Business Location on FourSquare
The first step in taking advantage of the new FourSquare specials is to claim your business on FourSquare using the FourSquare Merchant Platform. If you are the owner of a tutoring company with a physical location, this should be easy enough, but if you’re a tutor who works at a tutoring center or at school, you may need to speak with a director about the opportunity and work with them to claim the business.
Start a Campaign for Your Compelling Offer
The next step is, after going through the process of claiming your venue, is to determine what kind of specials you’d like to offer and how you can make them compelling enough to attract new business.
If you are a tutor who is affiliated with a school library, you may want to talk to the school about offering a discount on tutoring services or, if the school pays you to work with students, then talk to the school about ways you can entice more students to take advantage of your services.
Here are some ideas on how to use the various specials FourSquare offers:
- Offer a Flash back-to-school special applicable to any student who checks in to your tutoring center during orientation week at their school or the first week of their senior year.
- If you work as a tutor at a writing center, create a custom special which stipulates that whenever a student checks in 3 times during the 3 week period before final papers are due, they’ll get a gift certificate for a stress reducing massage.
- Offer a Count special which rewards students who attend a special seminar on SAT preparation with at least 2 friends a $5 giftcard to the itunes store.
- Create a Frequency special which rewards your students for on attending their 5th SAT class with a $25 giftcard to Amazon.
What compelling offers do you think you could create using FourSquare for your tutoring business?
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its sort of 4d?
Shannon, great ideas here. You sparked me to blog about how nonprofits might use Foursquare Specials to recruit and retain volunteers: http://ow.ly/4dqrX
One key, especially for organizations who don’t sell products, is to partner with neighborhood businesses. These partnerships create reciprocity and strengthen the fabric of the community. But there’s no reason this shouldn’t apply to any local business or hyperlocal marketer.