Building an Online Language School the Smart Way with Virginia from Speaking Brazilian

Virginia’s story

Growing up in Brazil, Virginia began learning English when she was just eight years old and quickly developed a passion for languages. So it seems only natural that when she moved to the USA, she found a job teaching Brazilian Portuguese in schools. 

It didn’t take Virginia long to fall in love with teaching and get excited about seeing her students progress. At the same time, she studied languages online and was inspired by how helpful the tutors and courses were. She took note of all their useful and exciting methods and began to plan a programme to take her own small school online.

Prepare for your business 

• Learn everything you can before you launch.

Virginia quit her teaching jobs and prepared for six months before launching her YouTube channel. She took courses, studied online business and researched teaching methods and best practices. There’s a wealth of excellent free and paid information online, and Virginia made the most of it. 

• Offer what your audience needs, even if it isn’t your end goal.

Although her dream was to offer an Intermediate Brazilian Portuguese Language Course, Virginia knew that most of her prospective students would need to study the basics. So she prepared a comprehensive free pronunciation guide designed to introduce students to her teaching style and prepare them to purchase courses in the future. 

• Observe what others are doing and adapt the best of it to suit your situation. 

“Most of the things I learned from observing. I signed up for courses and paid attention to all the details. How they organised the course, the copy they used in emails… I studied everything these teachers offered.”  

Concentrate on one channel to offer high-quality free content

It’s essential to offer quality content for free so that people get to know, like and trust you. The more you share, the more people will want, so that when you offer a paid course, many will be primed and ready to buy.

YouTube was the obvious platform for Speaking Brazilian because Virginia’s cinematographer husband, Rob, could film her videos. So, she began making teaching videos, speaking Brazilian Portuguese but with English subtitles so that her target audience could follow along.

Nowadays, Virginia teaches a valuable short lesson on video every week and recently began adding extra Q&A videos to the mix. YouTube remains the business’s central platform, but she repurposes that content in a blog and podcast and keeps contact with her followers on social media.

“One of the most basic things of online business is to choose one platform where you share good content regularly.”

Growth comes through consistently posting content

It takes time to grow a blog, a podcast or a YouTube channel, so don’t be disappointed if traffic is slow in the beginning. Virginia says the most important growth strategy is to post content regularly and notice your follower’s comments. If they are positive and people are taking action, then you are on the right path.

Speaking Brazilian’s first YouTube videos showed useful beginner content and pointed interested viewers towards Virginia’s free beginner course, which also got them onto her email list. 

It took more than a year to get the first 1000 YouTube and 250 email subscribers. Then one video about Brazilian Portuguese vs European Portuguese went viral, and the channel swelled to 10,000 followers in one month. Now, Speaking Brazilan has 77,000 subscribers and many happy students taking its free and paid courses.

“You have to think what kind of content can make people really excited and can reach not only your audience, but also other people. That will make your channel grow.”

Use quality platforms and services

Many useful online services can make it easier to organise your business. Because Virginia offers live lessons as part of her courses, she needed an easy way to schedule them, so she chose Calendly.

Students choose the best time out of several available options and tune in weekly. Of course, not everyone makes it to every lesson, so they are recorded and sent out by email as well. 

There are many excellent online course platforms available too, and Virginia uses Teachable for all her courses. That includes the free course, which offers videos, PDFs, practice exercises and a weekly email lesson.  

Zoom is a good platform for conducting live lessons, provided you keep the class sizes small, no more than 10 or 12 students per class.

Why students will still buy your courses

“You can learn a lot from my free content however to learn by yourself you need to be so disciplined… you have to be the perfect student, with a study routine or you will get lost.”

One of the main reasons people will pay for a course is the structure they offer. Courses keep you on track and provide content in manageable pieces. Of course, Virginia’s paid courses also have more elaborate content, original textbooks and a closed community where students can ask questions and interact with others. Then there’s that option of live lessons on Zoom. Virginia still teaches the original students herself, but newer students work with another teacher from her team.

All in all, paid courses offer so much more value than free content does, plus they keep everything organised, which is why people are willing to buy them.

“Speaking Brazilian” courses and membership 

In 2021 Virginia’s school offers three paid courses: beginner, intermediate and membership. 

Virginia always planned to offer the intermediate membership programme, which gives students a place to practice and grow. Every week members have access to one new video & PDF to study by themselves, plus a live Zoom class to focus on controlled conversation practice, which allows every student to speak.  

Enrolment opens every three months, making it easier to organise the classes. Course launches include emails and a live promotion event, usually a free mini-course. That is great for building goodwill, so even if they don’t buy now, they often purchase in the future.  

”I don’t mind that people use just my free content because they are making good comments, making my YT channel grow, and I know that many of them one day will buy my courses. If they don’t buy, they are still saying good things about my courses, so they are encouraging other people to buy.” 

Virginia’s tips for Langpreneurs

Don’t give up just because you start slow

If you are offering something valuable, people will find it and connect with you.

Be consistent

It is vital to publish content at least once a week. Whether you choose YouTube, blogging or podcasts, you have to be consistent and regularly offer great material.

Produce content in batches

It takes a good deal of organisation and planning, but batching content saves time and stress. Virginia sets aside one day a month to record five or six videos, so she rarely has to scramble to get content out on time. 

Keep a work-life balance

Two of the hardest things about owning an online business are staying organised and shutting the door on your work at the end of the day. “You have to be okay working by yourself at home,” says Virginia, “and try not to work non-stop.”

At the same time, it’s fantastic to work for yourself. That freedom to travel, to set your own schedule, delegate tasks, and take a break when you need it is priceless. 

Contact

Website: Speaking Brazilian

YouTube: Speaking Brazilian Language School