How To Attract Guitar Students You Want To Teach
If youve already built a decent teaching business, you may be looking to narrow down your list of students to teach only students that you enjoy teaching and care about improving their abilities.
Attracting good students is important to your business, because it keeps you engaged and excited about teaching. You can easily lose your interest and focus if you constantly work with students who are halfhearted about learning guitar. It will also drain your energy.
Here are a few ways to attract students that care.
Make Friends With Your Competition
This may seem counter-intuitive, but its a good idea.
Getting to know other music teachers in your city will not hinder you. In bigger cities, the market for guitar lessons is so big that the competition isnt much of an issue.
Moreover, getting to know your competition could result in referrals and calls to substitute teach.
Most teachers are also musicians, which means theyll occasionally have to cancel a night of lessons to gig.
When this happens, you want to be the call to substitute teach. This allows you to make new connections with students, and develop a relationship with an established teacher.
Established teachers are often turning away students that they dont have time to teach properly.
If youve developed a relationship with another teacher, you are much more likely to get their rejected students!
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How To Get More Piano Students
Everything Id done to try to get more piano students was a waste of time with little or no results.
Wed moved to a new town and I was determined to fill my studio quickly. I worked hard to get the word outin fact I even strapped my 4 month old into a baby carrier and handed out over 150 fliers at a grocery store on Coupon Tuesday.
Guess how many phone calls I got from those fliers? Zero.
Ive since learned that there are much more effective ways to advertise a piano studio.
Effective advertising means a full studio so that you reach your full income potential. It will also help you build a waiting list, so that when one student leaves, a new one can fill the vacancy without missing a beat.
Read on to learn the most effective strategies used by expert teachers to get more piano students. Empowered with this info, you can focus on what works and stop wasting money and energy on ineffective marketing strategies.
How To Use Email And The Phone To Market Your Music Lessons
If you use this strategy that I am going to map out, you will not only build better relationships with prospective customers, but this strategy will help you build relationships and get more music students for private lessons.
Whenever I needed more students in my music studio, I always implemented this simple email and telephone strategy. Its easy but does require some planning in advance.
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Create Deals And Offers That Work And Promote Them With Postcards
Our music school and studio clients have seen great success when they come up with particular deals and offers to advertise on their postcards.
Here are the 4 most effective offers according to our exclusive data:
Which of the above make sense for your business? And yes, your answer can be all of them!
Follow Up Always Follow Up
Even if you didnt love the interview, ALWAYS send a thank you email to follow up to say thanks for taking the time to interview me for the music internship in .
If you really enjoyed the interview, say so and include why. And dont be afraid to say after meeting you I am even more convinced that I would like to work with you! Flattery WILL get you everywhere.
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Try Teaching Guitar Workshops In Schools
Teaching workshops in schools is quite fun. I did a school workshop today, in fact.
Whether youre doing instrument specific workshops, or a workshop that will help the entire band, just come up with a good format for your workshop and start pitching it to local band classes.
Often, the beginnings/ends of semesters are the best times for workshops. They are the least busy, and teachers are looking for extra work to give their students.
The best part about teaching workshops is that you will also get paid for teaching the workshop.
Then, if the kids loved learning from you, theyll want to keep taking lessons from you and will sign up for lessons! You can also teach guitar lessons online like this. You don’t need as many lessons as this initially, you’ll add to your library over time.
Social Media Marketing For Piano Teachers
First of all, I cannot stress enough that you should not worry about running Facebook or Instagram ads until youve figured out all of the above. Your organic traffic, Google My Business traffic, and Google Ads traffic should be the core of your lead generation.
Also, you do not need a Facebook page or Instagram account to make a significant living as a piano teacher. Your website and GMB listing, if done correctly, will give you more than enough credibility.
That said, it can be worth maintaining a social presence, especially if you are trying to build a larger operation — classes, a retail location, etc. Its a good way to project your culture and convince someone to sign up after theyve already found your business via organic search or Google Ads. Its just that you wont get a high number of actual new leads from social media .
So when it comes to organic social, use it to enhance and project your brand. Ask existing students to leave reviews, upload photos , announce events, and post tutorials if youd like. This is all fluff, and it wont directly increase your revenue, but its no skin off your back.
You can also find local neighborhood Facebook groups and ask the admins if you can post a link to your website – you never know unless you try.
Along those lines, see if your new neighborhood has a NextDoor.com group — if so, post about your piano lessons.
Should Piano Teachers Have a Youtube Channel?
Facebook Advertising for Piano Teachers
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Summary: How To Market Your Guitar Lessons & Gain More Clients
If youre good at something, chances are someone else wants to be good at it too.
There is a huge market out there for unconventional music lessons.
DJing. Making beats. Rapping. Writing lyrics. Producing songs. Songwriting. Mixing, recording, being in a band.
If youre teaching the things you are most excited about, your enthusiasm for your craft will never die out.
The only students I didnt like teaching were ones who hated being there or ones who wanted to learn songs or genres that I just didnt care about.
Even if the kid wasnt overly passionate about music, I am always excited to show someone a musical technique that blew my mind when I learned it.
If youre excited, the students will be excited.
P.S. Remember though, none of what you’ve learned will matter if you don’t know how to get your music out there and earn from it. Want to learn how to do that? Then get our free 5 Steps To Profitable Youtube Music Career’ ebook emailed directly to you!
Want To Grow Your Teaching Studio 10 Ways To Attract Your Dream Music Students Into Your Life
Recently an email arrived in my inbox from a British flute teacher:
Hi Jessica, after many years in the profession I have decided to focus on setting up my own studio. I have recently shared some pop covers which have been well received on social media. I would be very grateful to hear any tips about building a flute studio, especially trying to attract adult learners who can come during the day. I am pretty full during the evenings & after school & dont really want to do much more in evenings as I have 2 young boys so any advice from you would be gratefully received! Mary
Hi Mary,
Logistically, it would seem that setting up a flute studio is not that much different than setting up a small business of any kind. The sharp minds of her, her, him and them will have a lot of information for you about that in a general sense. This info might include useful ideas about how to write successful web copy, get clear about your business plan, networking in the music business and creative marketing inspiration. Though in my 20 years of teaching 1:1 flute lessons, below are 10 specific things that have helped me set up a successful teaching studio . I have used this formula wherever I have lived by attracting clients that are absolutely right for me to teach.
Some places that might be useful to post your ad:
Ideas for listing yourself online:
Jessica
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Staying Connected With Old Music Students
All of these things are going to be playing into a persons emotions. Its totally worth your effort, especially right now where getting sales, in general, are hard to come by.
For the people who pick up the phone who say, No, theres still hope in those people because youre building a relationship with them. Maybe theyve never spoken to you before. Maybe theyre genuinely not ready to sign up for lessons, but they got a kick out of some of your emails. They like how once a month on Friday, they get an email from you mapping out the top five family fun activities in your city. Maybe they enjoy those emails of kids telling jokes. Perhaps they really appreciated that email that you sent out about why children act out. Youre building a relationship.
The Surprising Math Of The 3 Ways To Grow Your Music Studio Model
What Im about to share is exciting and I dont even like math that much! To begin, let me ask you a simple question.
What would happen if you increased by 10% in each business growth category?
Do you get a 10% overall increase in your profit? No, you do not!
It is much better than that. Stick with me here. Lets take a small private studio and look at the math.
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Applying Routine To Practice
Perhaps we can apply this to the task of practicing music. By making practice part of a habitual process, it takes away the effort. It becomes just like brushing your teeth in the morning. You just do it.
I try to have all my students set a time of day that is practice time every single day even if its just 5 minutes. If you devote 5 minutes on practicing what is new and challenging every single day, you will make progress at exponential rates that will astound you!
It could be the 5 minutes before breakfast, or right after school, or before dinner or before bed. By baking it into a set schedule, it becomes habitual. It only takes about 3 weeks to really set a habit in place for life.
Advertising Your Music Lessons: 12 Steps To A Flood Of New Students In 60 Days
If you have your own music studio or school, youre probably one of the lucky few who get to make a living doing something theyre passionate about sharing your love of music with others.
And as a business owner:
You know how difficult it can be to bring new students in semester after semester and continue to grow your music lessons program.
But there is good news
An effective marketing plan makes all of this infinitely easier.
Case in point:
One New York music school enrolls 100 students every time they promote themselves with a targeted postcard campaign.
Are you on board for 100 new students??
Who wouldnt be!
Postcards are just part of the overall marketing and promotional pie. A pretty good part that will get the phone ringing and your website lighting up, but still just one part.
There are all sorts of things you can do to promote your music studio, and you might be surprised at how affordable they are.
If you implement the following 10 tips and strategies into your music school marketing mix, youll be enrolling new students at a record pace in a very short amount of time.
Lets dive in:
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Music Education Tools And Technology Trends
While the specifics of using music as a learning tool will vary by teacher and by the resources a given school has, the overall evolution of music education tools and technology is indicative of a few major trends:
Digital technology has become so interwoven with todays culture and society that it is difficult to imagine a world without it. But integrating these types of tools into music education classrooms is not without its challenges.
What Ifthey Had To Mix Up Where They Practice
Promise a reward if they can log practice sessions in the 14 different locationsone for each day in the fortnightand then sit back and watch this strangely compelling trick work its magic. Their focus will be on earning the reward, and coming up with fresh practice locations, but in the meantime, almost without noticing, they will have practiced every day for two weeks.
The point of the experiments is to discover if such a solution is actually staring you in the face, untried.
So what are their options? Starting gently, it could be as simple as having the student rearrange their practice room so that their music-stand faces in the opposite direction to normal. Maybe they practice sitting down instead of standing up.
When was the last time your students practiced in the bathroom?
What about learning some new notes in the garage? Or sightreading in the backyard? Or inside their cubby house? Or while sitting in a tree? Or a practice session at grandmas house
Whatever the setting, the change of scenery for each of these sessions can help turn otherwise here-we-go-again practice experiences into something new and fresh. Just remember how much more fun homework seemed for a while when your bedroom had been freshly rearranged
It might work for your student. It might not. You wont know until you test it.
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What Ifyou Created A Student Exchange Program
A couple of times each year, consider doing a student exchange with another music teacher in town. Their students come to you for a couple of weeks, your students go to them.
What difference does that make? The novelty of knowing that you have to play for someone different usually produces a burst of practice.
If you are worried about your students enjoying these lessons a little too much, set up the exchange with a teacher who teaches a different instrument.
It might work for your student. It might not. You wont know until you test it.
Where To Find New Music Students
Up until the last six months or so I never had trouble getting music students. I usually carried a teaching load of 30-40 students and had a waiting list at least 10 long. And then, all the sudden, things started to dry up and last July I found myself with less than 20 students. Scary since about 60% of my income comes from teaching music. I really needed some ways to find new music students.
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Alternate Music Lesson Plans
Indeed, keeping students engaged during online lessons each week can be difficult. A common error: sticking to a routine. Diversifying your classes will make the educational process more fun for your students and for you.
Alternating your plans is vital, especially these times. Two easy ways to do this: first, games are always engaging, second, a change of scenery can do a lot . Sometimes just that can refresh a students perspective, and you will catch their attention.
Other ways you to alternate a plan:
- Having a guest come in to teach the lesson. It can be another teacher or someone who wants to be a music teacher that is practicing.
- Have more than one student in the lesson and encourage interaction. They can bounce ideas off each other and help one another out with whatever musical piece they are tackling.
- Find a local musician to come in for a Q& A workshop in a lesson. You could do this for all of your music students for a specific day/time. It will spark more interest in music to see someone who is doing it for a living.