Help your language school enter the B2B market
Modern language schools have been customized and diversified to meet the differing needs of a range of clients. A one-size-fits-all approach does not work anymore. Customers expect service providers to be flexible, adaptable and ready to provide what the market requests. So, how can your language school enter the B2B market?
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Diversifying your business can become complicated when a school aims to target businesses in addition to their individual customers. The school needs to stand out on a Google search, in both appearance, range of services, delivery using the latest but also user friendly technology, whilst also pricing themselves competitively.
There are several ideas that may help your language school enter the B2B market and immediately start attracting customers.
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Start with Email Marketing
The first thing to help your language school enter the B2B market and establish your brand as a business-to-business service provider is to inform your current customer base about your intention.
Some of your individual clients will own businesses and may want to expand their cooperation with your school. Perhaps they can make introductions with Human Resources, or Learning and Development departments within the corporations. Make sure their first recommendation is your school when it comes to corporate learning.
You should also promote your school’s website and try to get as many email addresses of visitors as possible. Cold mass emails are the best thing you can do to initially enter the B2B market.
Encourage the Culture of Referenceability
Current students may also help your brand develop in the B2B market with their feedback and referrals. Do your best to encourage students (past and present) to leave their reviews of the school on Google, LinkedIn, Facebook etc. These reviews should mention the variety of services that your school offers and if possible that you also work with corporate clients.
This effect can be expedited if your HR Manager/ Academic Coordinator contacts every individual client to discuss the school’s pros and cons and encourage them to refer/review your business. If the current clients enjoy this communication, the results may be surprising.
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Promote Online Learning
There are very few subjects that cannot be studied properly online. Even those that usually require laboratory work or human interaction have been encouraged to find a way to move online during the recent global pandemic. Of course, languages can easily be studied from the comfort of home using a variety of online learning platforms, from the simplest video calls to interactive whiteboards, webinars, and more.
To succeed in providing educational services to B2B clients, your school should access a reliable platform for online learning. Make sure it’s easy to navigate, is user (and teacher) friendly, and can host group lessons as well as individual ones. The way in which classes are scheduled is also important, as you may need different lessons taking place simultaneously. Many employees would want to be able to access lessons elsewhere rather than feel tied to office hours or in-company training so easy access via a web page is an advantage, though most students are willing to download an application if necessary.
Online learning options are a must-have for language schools to enter the B2B market, especially if they target businesses with expats working for them. Employees may be looking for pre-departure training, flexible options that allow for classes from work or home, or perhaps they have even relocated to a rural area far from a physical school. What’s more, some expats also want to enlist their spouses and children for similar courses. Being able to provide a service for every employee at all stages of their relocation is key to being successfully chosen as the business’s language provider.
Approach Clients Cross-Culturally
Teaching to corporate clients is a specialist undertaking, as the teachers need to adapt to audiences with diverse language and cultural backgrounds. However, sometimes such cross-cultural training is exactly what clients themselves are looking for.
If your school doesn’t offer cross-cultural training, then it is high time to consider it, or set up a partnership with an existing provider.
Modern workplaces are usually a melting pot of different languages and cultures. If your school manages to hit these two points, it will definitely grow a loyal B2B customer base.
If you are looking for a great example of a school operating in both the B2C and B2B market segments, BiCortex Languages is the one to go with. This school operates in 89 countries and teaches 47 languages to people of different ages with different purposes for learning. It’s so flexible that it can provide a teacher for face-to-face lessons anywhere in the world in just seven days. The school has developed its teaching capacities so much that it now helps other schools reach out to clients in remote locations or countries. BiCortex’s wide access to teachers and trainers allows them to deliver a number of services including language training, translations, career coaching, and more.
About the author
Kateryna Husieva is a Ukraine-based content writer who’s been providing professional writing services for 6 years. She also leads a group of IT people who study English and, therefore, is dedicated to promoting cross-linguistic and cross-cultural education across the globe.
