Notes for owners · Industry playbooks
How free content wins GRE and GMAT students
GRE and GMAT candidates buy the teacher, not the institute. Free lessons by the person who will take the batch are the demo before the demo, and they decide the enquiry.
The GullySales team · Updated 3 Oct 2026 · 8 min read
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A GRE or GMAT candidate is a graduate, often working, who researches for weeks before booking a single demo. They are not choosing an institute. They are choosing a teacher, and they want to watch that teacher work before they pay. Free lessons published by the person who will actually take the batch are the demo before the demo. By the time such a candidate enquires, half the selling is done, which is why a two-teacher institute with good explanations online beats a larger one with a billboard.
Why free content works here and not everywhere
Most coaching markets run on urgency. An IELTS candidate needs a band by October; a school admission closes in February. This one does not. The test date is chosen by the candidate, the decision takes weeks or months, and the whole of that time is spent reading.
They read forums where institutes are discussed by name. They watch explanations at eleven at night after work. They compare material lists, class sizes and whether anyone marks the essays. A candidate like that cannot be rushed, but they can be convinced, and they convince themselves by watching somebody teach.
What to publish, and in what order
| What you publish | What it costs you | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Explanations of the hardest question types | An hour of a teacher's time each | Found by candidates searching that exact topic |
| A worked problem set with the reasoning spoken aloud | Half a day | Shows how your teacher thinks, which is the product |
| GRE or GMAT, and which suits which profile | A careful afternoon | Catches the candidate before they have decided anything |
| What to do when the score has stopped moving | One honest session | The most searched problem, and the one coaching actually fixes |
| A week in the life of a working candidate's schedule | An interview with a past student | Answers the fear that they have no time |
| Free workshops, live, by the batch teacher | A Saturday morning | Puts the candidate in a room with the person they have been watching |
Start at the top of that list, because a specific explanation of a hard topic is what a candidate searches for at the exact moment they are frustrated. General posts about the importance of preparation are read by nobody.
The teacher's name on the work, and what that costs
Candidates follow teachers between institutes. That is the market you are in, and pretending otherwise by publishing everything under a brand name wastes the only advantage a small institute has.
So put the teacher's name and face on the lessons. Say which batches that person teaches. Then protect yourself sensibly: more than one teacher in front of the audience, the institute's name on every piece, and a written understanding with your teachers about what happens if they leave. For example, a two-teacher institute in Ameerpet, Hyderabad, where one teacher explains quantitative reasoning and the other verbal, and both appear on the website by name. The particulars are made up. Candidates arrive asking for a teacher rather than a course, which is exactly what you want, as long as the institute is not one person.
Stay in touch through a decision that takes months
An enquiry here is rarely ready. The candidate is comparing, saving, waiting for an appraisal, or deciding whether to apply this year at all.
So keep a record of where each one is, with the test they are leaning towards, when they are thinking of taking it, and what they asked. Then send them things worth opening: a new explanation, a workshop date, a note on a change to the test format. Ask permission before you start sending, and stop the moment they say so. Pressure fails with this audience faster than with any other, because they are the sort of people who notice it being applied.
The demo they eventually attend must be taught by the teacher from the videos. Being handed to somebody else at that point undoes months of work in an hour. More on the trade is on our page for GRE and GMAT coaching institutes.
Specify the batch in writing
This audience compares precisely, so publish precisely. Class size. Teaching hours and how they are split between the sections. How many full-length practice tests, and whether the essays are marked by a person. Who teaches which part. What happens if a candidate misses a week. What application support exists after the score, and what it costs.
Vague answers lose a candidate who is holding a comparison sheet. A page that answers all of it also saves your counsellor forty minutes on the phone.
What to do next
- Ask your best teacher for a list of the ten topics candidates struggle with most.
- Publish one explanation of the first topic, written or filmed, with the teacher's name on it.
- Publish the batch specification: size, hours, tests, teacher.
- Record every enquiry with their intended test date and what they asked about.
- Run one free workshop and call everyone who attended.
- Make sure the demo is taught by the teacher the candidate has been watching.
Buying enquiry lists and running broad advertisements is poor value in this market, because the candidate who converts has already spent weeks forming an opinion of your teaching, and an advertisement gives them nothing to form it from. Begin with one topic and one teacher. If you want the enquiries you already have counted and followed through, book the free audit.