Your profile text aims to answer most questions the student may have before contacting you. Research shows us a high percentage of students are nervous when looking for a new teacher, and are looking for your profile text to reassure them.
Students are more interested in understanding what a lesson with you will be like than where you have studied and performed. Your profile text aims to build rapport with the potential student to encourage them to send you an inquiry.
Building Rapport
Building a rapport through your profile text and profile images/videos is the most effective way to gain new students. Your profile text can do this by:
Consider all the questions a new student may wish to know, and answer them within your profile text
Ensure the text focuses on the student rather than you, allowing students to visualise themselves taking a lesson with you
Your profile text appears in two places:
Search results page - The first 150 characters of your text are shown, alongside your profile and cover image when students are choosing potential teachers
Your profile page - When a student clicks through to your profile, your text is displayed in full
First 150 Characters
Only the first 150 characters of your profile text are visible on the search results page. Aim for the text to stand out from the teachers around you by:
Keep it friendly and engaging
Don’t repeat information already shown on screen - for example, your name or instruments taught
Use this space to start to build rapport and make the student want to read more by clicking through to your full profile
Highlight your USPs (unique selling points) - these could be your years of experience, your highest qualification, key facts about your approach and pedagogical philosophy, rhetorical questioning - this is your opportunity to persuade a prospective student to click through to your full profile.
Full profile text structure
Add headings to keep your text easy to read. Students can scan down the page to find sections most relevant to them. You can make these sections pop out by adding headings.
Make your headings stand out in bold. Add <b> immediately before a word or phrase and </b> immediately after it - no spaces. E.g. This text is normal, <b>but this text is bold</b> and this text is normal.
Headings can include Teaching Approaches, Instruments & Levels Taught, First Lesson for Beginners could include..., First Lesson for Experienced Musicians could include..., Possible Outcomes (e.g. graded exams, audition prep, performances, industry goals etc), Teaching Locations (first part of postcode or locality only - never publish your full address in your profile text), Availability etc.
Answer all the questions you think a student may wish to ask - there is no limit to the amount of text you input. Students like to read detailed information to make as informed a choice as possible.
Consider using bullet-point lists to enhance readability and to break up the prose - we don't yet have a formatting tool for this, however you can use characters such a the dash (-) or asterisk (*) to achieve this.
If you wish to have a section with more detail about your background, professional work/performances, this is better nearer the bottom of the text.
A detailed profile text not only improves the quantity but also the quality of the enquiries you receive. Aim to have enough information on your profile to enable the student to have decided on you as their teacher before they send you an enquiry.
If you would like help with your profile images and video we have an article with suggestions and advice to help.
If you would like one of the team to review your profile, please email us at [email protected] so we can help you.