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How to start a Language School Online in 5 easy steps.

July 22, 2021
8 min read

Starting a language school has always been one of the most difficult tasks. From legal aspects to organizational and staffing costs, there are numerous factors to consider for those who want to set up their own language teaching business.

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The advent of digital has been disruptive to the industry, multiplying the number of players given a shot. This makes it even more difficult to retain students after all the effort you put into starting your own business.

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But digital technology can also be an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage from the start. In fact, today's tools make it very easy for you to start a language school, saving you a lot of time. This way you can focus on developing training plans and marketing campaigns.

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Learning Management Systems can be of great support to your business, whether you want to start a traditional language school or launch a fully online language school.

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Today, online learning has turned from being a “nice-to-have” option to a “must-have”. Online courses represent an easy and accessible way for students to learn new skills at their own pace, as well as a chance for language schools to widen their market. The limitless opportunities of online learning are clear to everyone – so it’s now time to make the best out of it.

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Here's how to start a language school online

First of all, you need to leave behind the “remote learning” approach you probably are embracing right now and evolve into a full-online modality. Follow these 5 steps to successfully set your language school online.

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Step 1: Choose the right platform đź’»

From Learning Management Systems to parent-teacher communication apps, from lesson planning software to learning-games websites, the current EdTech offer is so wide that you could spend the next couple of days (or weeks, probably) to just pass through all the e-learning platforms available.

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To know exactly which one is the best, consider your needs. Which are the challenges my school is facing right now? Which tool could help me overcome them? Then, the choice easily follows.

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If you are a language school, which is trying to (1) acquire more students online, (2) enhance student engagement and/or (3) digitalize and manage the school online, Edugo.AI seems to suit your needs. Edugo.AI'solution is a one-stop platform completely designed for language schools, which leverages state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence to maximize the online teaching and learning experience, while helping the school’s management and growth online.

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Step 2: Website and Branding 🎨

Would you step into a cloth shop whose window is ugly and messy? Likewise, students won’t enroll online if the landing page of your website doesn’t well-represent your school’s brand and offer.

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First, make sure people recognize you – from your school’s logo to the website domain, everything should remind about you. I’m sure you don’t want potential users to close your website and forget the name of your school. Second, make the landing page clear and easy, with a direct call-to-action for the potential students. Your audience needs to be a little encouraged.

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At Edugo.AI, we provide our platform as a white-labelled solution, i.e., we fully customize it with everything you need to boost the visibility of your language school online: name, color palette, logo, domain and language(s). Users recognize those elements both in the landing page of your online school, as well as while using the platform every day.

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The Landing Page structure we offer has been optimized to facilitate student enrolments. As the window of a shop, show off the amazing teachers who students can have lessons with, the available language courses, the packages of lessons as well as description of your programs or a FAQ section. The objective is to make students aware of your offer and its value in the shortest time possible.

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Complete the picture with a strategic CTA– book a free trial lesson, find a teacher, take a placement test, etc. - it turns your visitors one step closer to the enrolment in your online language school.

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Check an example of a landing page here: https://italian.edugo.tech – this is an Italian school powered by Edugo.AI - created just for demo purposes.

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Step 3: Go live and Perform video lessons đź“ą

Now that you have taken care of the aspect of the platform, it’s time to set it up for live video lessons, possibly merging synchronous and asynchronous training (click on the previous link to view our webinar).

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Language schools affectionate to remote learning usually use Zoom or similar video-conferencing tools to perform live lessons with students; homework is then sent via email or an eLearning platform (like Google Classroom). In the meanwhile, school managers often struggle in keeping track of teachers’s agenda, while checking payments on another tool. Does this sound familiar to you?

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With Edugo.AI one-stop platform we’ve integrated all of this in the same online environment and simplified the set-up process in just few steps:

  1. Once logged in, the school manager invites teachers to sign-up into the platform simply pressing a button;
  2. Teachers open the invitation link and sign-up;
  3. Teachers optimise their profile (with picture and catchy Bio) and set up the time availability for the live lessons.

Voilà, it’s all done! When teachers open the time slot, students can book live lessons with them. Automatically, every users’ calendar (internal the platform) updates and an integrated notification system helps with reminders before the class. The school manager has access to the teachers’ agenda (displaying all the lessons booked and performed), and easily keeps track of payments thanks to a dedicated section within the platform that shows every transaction’s details.

What about the exercises after class? - you may now wonder.

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The Edugo.AI state-of-the-art technology, automatically processes interactions during live student-teacher video-lessons; generating a set of gamified exercises to master any skill while learning a new language. The content is not only personalized to each student, but is also based on each live lesson with teachers. As students make mistakes during exercises, the software generates focus around these errors – these "weak areas" unique to each learner are then improved.

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With this technique, Edugo.AI has currently proven to increase learning-retention rates in learners from as little as 25% to even 60%. Concurrently, teaching becomes simplified, which now means instructors can fully focus on lesson content and material, engaging with students over new online dynamics, effortlessly.

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Step 4: Develop Language Courses ✏️

Let’s fill up your platform with some language material! Weather you create content as supplement of live video-lessons or use it to provide asynchronous training, a Learning Management System is necessary.

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To create a language course online, start by choosing the topic and the target of your course. Then, collect all the material you have or create something new and very personalized, which reflects the pedagogy of your language school. It sounds very easy, but those who found themselves at least once in the position of creating a new language course perfectly knows that it is the exact opposite – academic directors we’ve interviewed says that they usually take from 4 to 6 working hours to develop one complete lesson. The result? A very long and expensive process for the school.

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To ease the language course creation, Edugo.AI reimagines the LMS power through the use of artificial intelligence. Being integrated in the platform, now teachers only need to:

  1. Upload the language material they have (audio, video, articles…) – and if you don’t have any, you can record your voice or shoot a video instantly;
  2. Wait a few minutes – Edugo.AI system is processing the content of the lesson and generating interactive and gamified exercises. Listening, speaking, reading, vocabulary, etc. – now students won’t have any excuse for missing work;
  3. Combine the lessons into a course;
  4. Pick a name of the course, choose a nice thumbnail, set a price for the course or leave it for free ... and publish it!

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In just 4 quick passages you have developed your language course online and can immediately get revenues from it; students explore your offer and buy the perfect course for them straight from the platform with one click. Say goodbye to long afternoons spent collecting materials and looking for the perfect language exercises; welcome to the new era of easy, effective and profitable language courses development!

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By clicking on the next link, you can watch our webinar to find out how easily you can create a new language lesson with Edugo.AI.

Step 5: Sales and Marketing Strategy đź’ˇ

Now that you’ve filled up your platform and created a valuable learning experience for your students with personalized solutions, it would be a pity not to have users enjoying it. For this reason, you need to think and follow a marketing plan with a specific sales funnel for your language school which helps you increase your presence online.

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In fact, without regularly acquiring new language students online (follow the link for our dedicated webinar) it will be difficult for you to create a stable position on the market.

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Having a good landing page as the one above described is a great starting point, but it’s not enough. You can think, for example, to run paid online ads – Google ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads etc. to boost the visibility of your language school; or, use YouTube (or any other channel you have a community) not only to upload a funny video of “How to say…”, but also to promote a class with the teacher who made the video or a specific language course linked to that topic.

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Regarding sales, you can instead create bundles – sell more courses or lesson packages in one quick swoop offering a discount, or give promotions and coupon codes as gifts to loyal customers. This are all ways to monetize your language school.

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Many are the strategies you can try. What is true is that you need to constantly keep track the results of a strategy you have adopted, then adjust it accordingly. How could you determine its effectiveness otherwise?

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Edugo.AI platform comes with an integrated section that enables school managers to keep track of everything that happens inside the platform - from new enrolments to number of courses purchased. With data in front of you every day, you can easily check your school's online activity and progress, thus iterating the marketing strategy. Moreover, an automated email notification system will help you activate students with no efforts.

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To find the best marketing strategy and sales tricks for your school, the Edugo.AI team offers support with dedicated and strategic consultations. Online growth won’t have secrets anymore!

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Now that it’s all set, it’s time to go live and get revenues!

You might think all this information is overwhelming, but if you take it piece by piece, you’ll find out that building an online language school from scratch is a lot easier and faster than you think - when you have the right support.

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Create your language course easily now.

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