How to Mix Your Music School’s Marketing Problems
When your marketing isn’t working and your music school just won’t grow, or it’s not performing, it’s typically because of either one of two problems.
- Your targeting isn’t right.
- Your message isn’t resonating.
If your targeting isn’t right, that’s an easy fix, and that’s what’s so nice about Facebook ads, is you can really get very specific and very granular with how you target your ads. You can go onto YouTube and look up how to create a Facebook ad or look up “how to target my Facebook ads”. You could take an online course on creating Facebook ads; specifically, Facebook Ads Manager where you create your audience.
Your Marketing Has To Capture Attention
Assuming that your targeting is dialed in and your marketing still isn’t working, the problem is quite often the message. The message you’re communicating is failing to resonate with the recipient of your marketing, it’s failing to compel them to take action, and perhaps it’s simply failing to capture their attention. Before you can compel anyone to take action, you have to capture their attention. It’s a noisy world out there. People’s inboxes are inundated with email. Their Instagram and Facebook feed is changing up by the second.
3 Ways to Structure Your Marketing Message
We’re bombarded with messages and images all day long, so your first challenge is to capture their attention. You can certainly do that with an image or with video, but messaging is also a really great way to capture people’s attention. There are three different ways to structure the language of your marketing.
- The details of your music lessons.
- The quality of your music lessons.
- The benefits that your music lessons provide.
All three of these are important, but you need to be strategic as to how you layout each one.
1. Details
I wrote down just a few phrases that exemplify each one of these different approaches to marketing, so statements about the details of your music lessons might read like this…
- “We offer music lessons for all skill levels and ages.”
- “We offer both 30-minute and 60-minute lessons.”
- “We’re conveniently located in Midtown Sacramento.”
These are important details, but I would not open up on these. Your website should have a short 2-3 paragraph sales message. A lot of music schools will open on the details. This approach isn’t going to pull people in. It’s not going to capture their attention. The details are important, but I would save those for later. I’d actually put those in the last section of your sales message.
2. Quality
Another approach would be talking about the quality of your music lessons. You’ve got to be careful with this because this can feel like bragging. I know a lot of people don’t like to brag about themselves. Savvy consumers don’t like it either. You should never talk about the quality of your music lessons. Let your customers do it for you. This is where testimonials can come into play. One of your most persuasive selling techniques is testimonials.
Last week on the show, I had Jonny Wilson on, and what really attracted me to his Build a Music School program was a video he made of nothing but pure testimonials, videos of his clients talking about the impact that his program has had on them and their music school, much more persuasive than if Jonny were to come out and talk about how great his program is. Of course, you’re going to talk about how amazing your music lessons are. Your competition’s doing it too. It’s an expectation, and since people expect you to talk about how amazing your music lessons are, they’re likely to ignore that lesson. They’re likely to ignore that message.
Statements such as, “We’ve been offering quality music lessons for over 20 years,” “Our highly skilled instructors are passionate about teaching,” “Children learn on state-of-the-art equipment,” are certainly attractive statements, but they’re very sales-y. You’re bragging about how great you are, words like quality, highly-skilled, language that focuses on you, and what you have to bring to the table. Let your customers do that for you. As you said, a video’s great, having testimonials on your website is powerful. I just mentioned the comment, and I’ve seen this a lot, children learn on state-of-the-art equipment, but it’s not necessarily bragging, but that’s not really something that a parent cares that much about, or at least they don’t care about that during the initial phase of the sales process.
They’re trying to figure out whether they can relate to you. They’re trying to figure out whether your music school’s the type of music school that they can trust, that they can send their child to, and state-of-the-art equipment isn’t necessarily a top-of-mind thought for a parent.
3. Benefits
Focusing on the benefits is key to hooking the reader into your writing. This is how you can pull the reader into your narrative. Here are some statements about the benefits.
- “We’ll focus on establishing some quick wins for your child in his or her first few lessons.”
- This will help your child feel successful and confident, that they can learn to play and enjoy music.”
- “It’s important that your child feels like playing music is fun and easy.”
- “Your child will learn about goal setting, follow-through, and perseverance.”
Inspire Your Customers to Think “That’s exactly what I want for my child!”
These are all statements that speak directly to what a parent is most likely thinking about. These are statements full of emotion.
“This helps your child feel successful. It helps them feel confident.” That’s exactly what parents want. A parent is likely to read that and say, “That’s what I’m looking for.” It will help them feel confident that they can learn to play and enjoy music.
Parents are worried that their child will perceive that playing an instrument is hard to do, so this is reassuring language. “Your child will learn about goal setting, follow-through, perseverance.” These are all different qualities that a parent’s looking for. Notice how the benefits for the child are what’s front and center here. It’s not music lessons.
Position Music Lessons as a Vehicle for Change
Music lessons are being positioned as a vehicle to help a child. I recommend when you’re writing sales copy on your website, email, social media, Facebook ads is open up on the benefits. Use language that a parent can relate to. Use language that’s going to make a parent think to themselves, “These guys really get me. This is exactly what I’m looking for. This is why I’m seeking out music lessons in the first place.” Opening on benefits builds trust, builds connection, and then lays out the details.
Hook Your Reader with Emotion
There are two different types of consumers. Some consumers are very emotional. They get excited when they hear an emotional message or a message that resonates with them. Other consumers enjoy the process of research and shopping around and looking at the different details of one product versus another. This is why it’s good to have details in your sales copy as a secondary thought. Hook them with emotion, appeal to their heart, but help them justify their purchase with the details, and let your customers, through testimonials, amplify their excitement. Use those testimonials as public proof that your music lessons really are amazing, your music lessons really do transform children’s lives. Don’t tell people that you transform children’s lives. Let your customers do it for you.
How Changing A Few Words Can Change Your Marketing Results
I want to play for you just a little audio clip from a recent podcast I had heard from Dean Graziosi on how he changed some of his language, just really a few sentences that had a big impact on his sales and on a marketing campaign that he was running,
I was listening to the podcast the other day by Dean Graziosi. His show was called The Dean Graziosi Show, and actually, I really highly recommend it. His episodes are pretty short, 10 or 15 minutes, and he was talking about how he was invited to be a guest on the Larry King show. Big deal, right? He did his interview with Larry King and he converted his appearance on the show as an infomercial.
When Marketing Doesn’t Work
Apparently, Dean has created infomercials in the past and has had a lot of success with them, so he launches his infomercial with this Larry King appearance, and the infomercial was not performing as well as they had anticipated. I mean, how is this possible? He was on the Larry King show. I mean, talk about credibility. Larry King only interviews the best of the best, the most important thought leaders and entertainers and leaders, so Dean realized that the reason why the infomercial wasn’t working was because of Larry King’s opening, the first few sentences that Larry King said before the camera turned to Dean and the interview began.
Why Your Hook Isn’t Catching Any Fish
Larry King’s opening focused on the details of Dean Graziosi, who he was, and what accomplishments he’s had, so Dean got this idea of rewriting the opening. He called up Larry King and asked him if he could fly him in and rerecord just a few sentences, rerecord that opening, and fortunately for Dean, Larry King agreed to fly out to his office. Dean Graziosi recreated the Larry King set so that they could reshoot the opening so it would seamlessly go right into the interview, so let’s listen now to what the original opening was and what Dean Graziosi changed it to.
The Original Hook
Tonight, I’m here with my guest Dean Graziosi. He’s a multiple New York Times bestselling author, started 13 companies, a multimillionaire, good family man. Tonight, we’re going to talk about his new book, da, da, da. How do you feel? Maybe you’d watch. Maybe you’re like, “Who the hell is Dean Graziosi?”
I don’t … Maybe you like me now, but then, if you didn’t know me, you’d be like, “Who’s this guy and who gives a crap?,” right, and I changed it to this. Larry King starts, he’s sitting in the studio like this, the camera goes on, and just Larry King direct the camera, and Larry says this,
“Have you ever in your adult life looked in the mirror and thought to yourself, ‘Wow, I thought I’d be further ahead by now’?” If you have, you’re not alone. Hi, I’m Larry King, and tonight, I’m here with my guest Dean Graziosi, and he’s going to share the strategies that he’s learned to cover that one thing, to make sure you lean into your full potential, and we’re also going to talk about his book. Which one would you stop for?
Engage Your Audience With a Question That’s Triggers Emotions
Which hook did you find to be more appealing? The hook is the first sentence of your sales copy. Your hook is an invitation to engage the recipient of your marketing, and here in Dean Graziosi’s case, the hook is the first few openings or the first few sentences of Larry King’s opening. The first opening was talking about the accomplishments of Larry King’s guest, and the second opening invited the viewer to engage by asking the viewer a direct question, “Have you ever in your adult life looked in the mirror and thought, ‘I’d be further ahead by now?” When you ask a question like that in your marketing, you want to know what the answer to the question is going to be.
Using Pain In Your Marketing
In this case, I think a lot of people can relate to this. Maybe they haven’t felt it so much on a, maybe professional level. Perhaps they felt it on a personal level, and the question he’s using is triggering the feeling of pain. He’s using pain. It’s a classic way to hook people in.
Using Relief in Your Marketing
He then reassures the viewers by saying, “You’re not alone. If you feel this way about where you are in life, you’re not alone. My guest today,” and then Larry King now goes into the details of who his guest is, but he’s also making a promise that if you stay and watch the interview, that Larry King’s guest is going to help the viewer out, is going to help the viewer get to a better place in their life. This one little change. Really, it’s just two sentences.
One Little Change Can Make a Big Impact
This two-sentence edit turned this infomercial, according to Dean Graziosi, into a hit. Everything else was the same, but these two opening sentences, the hook was more effective in building up curiosity and getting people to stay on for the rest of the interview, so when your marketing doesn’t work, don’t blame marketing, don’t blame Facebook, don’t blame Instagram, don’t bale your email, it’s the message. Look at your message. Try this little exercise. Go to your website right now.
Test Your Website
Look at the first paragraph on your website, your main sales message. Look at the first two, first three sentences. How is that going to stop a reader in their tracks? How is it inviting them into a narrative?
Applying Dean’s Lesson to Music Schools
Perhaps your sales message on your website reads like this, “Welcome to Dave’s Music School. We offer music lessons for all skill levels and ages. We’re conveniently located in the suburbs of Cleveland,” all details. What emotions did you feel as I was saying that? When I was done reading it, did you say, “Tell me more, tell me more,” but what if my opening sentences read something like this?
“Are you interested in signing your child up for music lessons, but you’re worried that they’ll feel that playing an instrument is hard to do, and that practice is boring? Perhaps you took music lessons as a child and felt this way.” There, I’m talking directly to the reader of the sales copy. I’m not talking about my music school and my music lessons, I’m talking about you, the reader. Everything you write, all your marketing materials, whenever your pen goes to paper, that first sentence, first two sentences should serve as a hook.
Build Your Marketing Around the Reader.-Not Your Music Lessons
It should be an invitation into what you’re writing and speak directly to the reader of your marketing. Don’t write your sales copy, don’t write your social media post focused on you and your product, your music lessons. Make it all about the reader. Make it all about mom. Make it all about her child. Engage the heart first, and then engage the head.
Weekly Marketing Tip
The more people relate to you, the more that they’ll like you. The more that they like you, the more that they’ll trust you. The more that they trust you, the more that they’ll buy from you. The more that they buy from you, the more they refer. The more people refer, the more you will grow. Rinse and repeat.
A Few Questions For You
Open up your website or one of your favorite landing pages on your site.
- Does your sales copy talk about the quality or details of your music lessons?
- What emotion are people likely to feel when they read your first 2 sentences?
- Does your sales copy talk about you and your music lessons or does it talk directly to your reader and address their hopes, dreams or fears?
