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Hi all,

I just opened the doors to my own studio, I used to work elsewhere as a sub-contractor at a different studio.

I'd love to hear what has worked for you/what hasn't worked for you in terms of advertising for your piano studio.

I think the best rule for marketing and advertising is trial and error. What may work for some may not work for others.
Also what may work for you at one time unfortunately may not work at a later time.
Some pretty standard ways of advertising are:
1. flyers
2. magazine ads
3. online website SEO
4. Social Media
However, if you plan to be successful with your own business and you define success as having 100 students or more you really should consider researching more about branding, marketing & advertising.

Yes.

And, specialize in four hand piano. It's a niche market, ripe for exploitation, and lets you get more students into a 40 hour week.

1. flyers
2. magazine ads
3. online website SEO
4. Social Media
add on
5. CL
6. luxurious referral fee (after new student study for 6 months, then you ca give one month free lesson to the old student who referred the new student)

Yes! YES! YES!

You do that!

I've been doing the same thing, Rebecca, trying to get new business generated. I had gotten suggestions on this thread after I asked about a particular referral site that takes 25% of your lesson fee for all referrals (I was recommended against doing this).

One of the suggestions was to list on craigslist and smartguy.com. Then I thought, why not angieslist.com, and there have to be other free sites out there. I did a search for piano teacher in my town and looked at the sites that came up. Some of them were free directories, so I submitted my name and website on those. This hopefully will also direct traffic to my new site. Perhaps this would help? It certainly can't hurt, just take a little time.

Also, you can sign up for a free Google analytics account where you can see just who is coming to your website, how long they stay, how many pages they look at, things like that. Go to www.google.com/analytics and click on "Access Google Analytics" at the top right. It's free, but lots of good info there to see what works.

I also recommend posting a lot on here. Pianoworld gets tons of traffic, a lot of lurkers, so the more info you give you, the more clicks you may get through to your site, and possibly get a student that way.

I looked at your website and it looks very clean. I like the articles in your blog, and encourage you to write more. If I may make a recommendation, you amy want to add more pictures to your website. Even if they're just of a piano, but some people pictures too. Perhaps you can find some free stock photos (make sure it's free to use, or you might end up paying a lot of money if they find out you're using it) or buy some inexpensive ones if you don't have the ability to take photos yourself. If you take your own photos, be sure to get permission from the parent or guardian to have the picture of their child up on the site. But I do think pictures help formulate an idea of what lessons with you would be like while also making it seem warm and welcoming. Feel free to look at my site for ideas (some of my photos are place-holders and I am planning on getting more color ones in there!).

I'm also doing flyers with tear-off tabs that I'm going to put up in businesses that are elsewhere in our mall. If there's a music store in your town, you may be able to post one there. We don't have one, but we did where we used to live and this generated a lot of business. Of course, do get to know your local sheet music store owners too, and be sure to send your students there for business rather than ordering online if possible.

If your local elementary and middle schools have music programs, get to know those teachers as well. Perhaps introduce yourself after a school music concert, especially if one of your students goes there. Then the teacher can get to know you and may be more likely to refer you if a parent approaches them about lessons. I usually ask my students to see if they can play one of their recital songs for their class, or at the very least for their teacher as a means of practicing for a performance. Many times kids don't even know their friends take piano, so this is a way of getting them to talk about you!

Lastly, institute a referral service. Offer a free lesson to each student who refers a new student to you. I would make some stipulation that they'd have to sign up for lessons, not just contact you. I'm going to re-implement this now that I've moved and I'm basically starting over.

I have never found advertising profitable.
rk

Not even the free stuff? If you get one student from it, you're immediately in the black.

Wow! What sorts of thinks have you done to advertise? How are you depending on receiving new students? Word of Mouth/Referrals

Hi Rebecca, and welcome

As you are in Australia, I can recommend:
http://www.musicteacher.com.au

It is a free music teacher directory, and I have gained a few students from there, here in Perth.

Apart from having your own website, taking out an ad in your local free community newspapers for a few weeks, might help. (It's how I got started here)

Pretty soon, I am sure that 'word of mouth' will be your best friend.

I wish you the best of luck.

No. Especially not from free stuff. I notice that most of you are in the U.S. where things must be different.
Bws.
rk

For me, advertisement is not the best way to gain students, but it certainly worked and has been profitable. Not all forms of advertisement works, though. The local parent magazine charges an arm and a leg. The local newspaper is pretty much dead. And I've only gotten a few calls through a school publication.

My favorite story re: acquiring students:

When I first moved to this area, I went on a mass-putting-up-poster spree all around town. I taped them up in offices at the local elementary, middle, and high schools, churches, parks, random lamp posts, and music stores. At the end of that long day, I was feeling weary and was having dinner at Subway right next to the music that store I had just posted some signs up, and had also incidentally bought some sheet music, and was still holding it in my arms while I was in line at Subway. "Oh, you play piano, huh", another customer asked? (I was holding the music books in my arm) "Yeah, actually I teach piano", "That's great! My daughter needs lessons..." "Wait, you teach piano?" said the guy behind the counter.."I want lessons...I think our store owner also wants lessons for his kids!"... Turns out that I got 3 new students from 5 minutes in Subway, and never got a single call from the hours of posters I spent putting up.

The point is you really have to know and talk to people in your community, I think it's paramount. I have never received one student via paper or web advertising (and I worked hard at it). All of my students came as recommendations from other people that I had met in flesh and blood. My recommendation is to go and physically talk and personally introduce yourself to owners of local piano stores, sheet music stores, high school band directors, parent organizations.. etc..

That's because of the internet, and Google.
Any one tried Google AdWords?

Where I am in Australia, the local paper is far from dead - many people use it as a first call to find tradesmen, businesses and yes, music teachers. The other things which have worked for me or seem to work for others include flyers (with tear-off tabs) in shopping centres or on community notice boards, contact with local schools (including advertising in their newsletters), and joining any local teachers' group. I also second Rob's recommendation of the musicteachers site. Where I am we also have a community arts directory where you can be listed - I've had a number of inquiries from that.

Subway worked so well...Maybe try a sandwich board!

Not yet, but I am going to. We have a coupon to get $150 more if we spend $50.

For those that don't know, Google Ads are the ads at the top and sides that come up when you search on Google. The way they work is that you a monthly threshold - let's say $20. That $20 will go toward certain key words that you dictate, and whenever someone clicks your link, the per-click rate that you determine will be used from that $20. So it's very specific.

I think we are going to give this a try and see what we can generate from it.

I think that what some people have said previously, sometimes you just don't know until you try it and see if it works. Opus_Maximus never would have met up with those people had he not been out and about setting up posters, so while the act in itself didn't work, he/she learned from it and figured out that interaction was the best way for them.

The moral of Opus_Maximu's story is, don't bother to tape your posters, just wear it

I've had several students who teach full-time. One of them, a young woman very new to the area wanted to set up shop after finishing her 1st degree. So she decided to do direct mail in her town to get started. It was very successful. She got as many as 10 new students for every mailing did, which were a minimum of 1,500 pieces. She developed a mailing list from a school fund-raising group who let her advertise in their annual directory to students. She did that for the first 4 years.

I don't know if that will work in every region, but it might be worth a try if nothing else is working.

The local newspaper is dead because the income came from advertising, and that advertising market shifted away from papers, leaving them unable to break even.

I'm curious, how did you find your piano teacher? Maybe that will suggest something. (I've found every teacher through word-of-mouth, asking people in the local music scene for names.)