Marketing Tag

E_mailA few months ago I wrote a blog post about ways to communicate with your customers.  I will now focus on specific ways the Internet alone makes contact with our clients simple and effective.  I firmly believe that keeping the lines of communication with our business contacts open not only results in a long-term relationship with our customers but also a more pleasant and effective relationship for all involved.

The Internet makes it simple to keep customers up-to-date on everything happening in your studio–events, continuing education, performance opportunities.  Using the Internet to frequently communicate information lets customers know that you are an active and involved teacher.

digitalMost readers of this blog–like me–have probably gone to a lot of trouble to advertise your studio.  When I first moved to Wisconsin, I paid for a huge ad in the paper, stuffed mailboxes with coupons, and hung flyers at every business in town that allowed them.  No one called.  After a few months of this, I put an ad on craigslist.  In a few short weeks, my studio was full and I had to begin a wait list.  

We are definitely living in the digital age.

Studio owners today must learn to use the tools we have available to us online if we’re to be successful in marketing our business and communicating with our clients.

Business plan 2 Feeling overwhelmed with your business planning?

“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

Don’t hesitate to enlist help! Being an independent teacher, I am fiercely independent, self-sufficient, and sometimes stubborn! However, when I become willing to ask for help, it seems the teachers magically appear.

Everyone needs a little help every now and then. Many of us have not had the business training that running a successful busines requires – I am the first to admit that I am lacking in these essential skills. This month I will feature the newly formed Piano Teacher School founded by Kathleen Theisen and Kristin Yost. Kathleen Theisen is an assistant professor at Western State Connecticut University and Kristin Yost is the founder and director of The Centre for Musical Minds in Frisco, Texas. Both of these enthusiastic teachers are not only very successful in their music careers but are also thriving entrepeneurs. And now they are here to help! They have developed practical courses to help independent teachers with the myriad of different activities involved in the daily tasks of teaching.

Piano Teacher School offers affordable online courses in four areas: Business Planning, Organization Strategies, Image and Branding, and Technology. Their goal is to “maximize the efficiency and productivity of your music studio.” Each class offers videos on private links and includes personalized one-on-one coaching. There are detailed descriptions of the classes on their website at pianoteacherschool.com – each sound fabulous and I would like to take them all, if only I could find the time! Courses are also accepted by the Music Teachers National Association for recertification.

Having been a piano teacher for nine years now, I have learned how very important it is to maintain contact with my clients.  I believe that keeping the lines of communication open with my customers results in a better lesson experience for all involved, and I’ve also learned that it helps my students and their families to feel as though they are important and not becoming “lost in the shuffle”.  Regular contact with stucommunicatedents makes them feel that I am accessible and they, in turn, are very open to coming to me with questions, concerns, and positive feedback.  Below are a few simple ideas to encourage interaction between you and your studio’s customers:

E-mail

The Internet has made communicating simple and effective.  When I think of how my own piano teacher growing up had to make phone calls whenever there was a schedule change or send letters home with students about upcoming events (and rely on us actually giving them to our parents…), I realize how lucky I am to be running a studio in the age of the Internet.  I use e-mail to communicate nearly everything that happens in my studio–upcoming recitals, workshops, lesson reminders, etc.  Not only does this simple and efficent way of communicating make life easier for me, but busy parents appreciate the quick, non-intrusive updates.  I also use e-mail to tell students about events in the community.  For example, if there is an upcoming symphony performance or a great sale at our local piano store, I will send a brief e-mail to my piano families to let them know.

Newsletters

I have found newsletters to be a great way to not only get studio information into my clients hands, but also to provide motivational and educational tips and articles to my families.  This has also been a wonderful tool to promote the benefits of music education. 

NetworkingAbout a year ago, my family relocated from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Bozeman, Montana, and I was faced with “relaunching” my piano studio in a new town.  When I opened my studio in Wisconsin the only marketing I did was to place an ad on craigslist — a dozen students soon followed.  After a few unsuccessful attempts at pulling in students in Bozeman via craigslist, I was forced to come up with better marketing strategies that would successfully reach out to my new community.

Bozeman — being an educated, college town and far from a big city — is big on networking.  It didn’t take me long to figure out that I was going to need to find new ways to “plug into” the community of Bozeman in order to create interest in my studio.

Networking with other professionals

One of the first things I did after my craigslist flop was contact the president of my local music teachers association.  Not only was she able to help me understand better how to attract students and brainstorm ideas for my studio, but she also provided me with my first three students.  Since she was no longer accepting new piano students, she gave the families who contacted her for lessons my information, and I was able to begin teaching again just a few short weeks after my initial meeting with her.  When I met other members of the group at monthly meetings, similar referrals soon followed.