How To Grow Your Group Music Classes
If you offer group music classes and private lessons at your studio you might face this common marketing problem. Everyone knows what private lessons look like. But the group class can be a bit murky in the mind of the customer. What do they do in those group classes anyway? That’s not how I learned. Aren’t you supposed to do private lessons? Isn’t the ideal way to learn.
– SHOW HIGHLIGHTS AND TRANSCRIPT-
Your Music Studio in 2021
2021 is an opportunity to reboot, at least in our mindset, make new plans for our studio. And I think if there’s any takeaway from this time is that it’s an opportunity to kind of step back and think maybe there are some things I’ve always wanted to do in my studio that I haven’t done that I’ve put off.
Changes For Your Music Studio
And now’s a really good time to start thinking about implementing some of these changes. Everyone’s studios kind of in this part in person, partially online. Some studios are completely online. It’s just a really great time to ask yourself, what do you want your studio to look like after things normalize a bit after the vaccine has had its impact and sure we’re maybe still going around wearing mask and we’re social distancing, but the mindset of the culture has changed a little bit.
Ways to Grow Your Group Music Classes
There’s not as much to worry about. I’ve got a feeling we’re going to be wearing these awesome stylish masks for the next year, I would think. But I would also think that people will begin to feel more comfortable to feel safer, to return to your studio. The future is still uncertain. And with that uncertainty, consumer habits are also going to be uncertain, but it’s important, to plan. And think ahead, my guest on the show today is her name is Sophia Hardesty. She owns Naptown Sings and Plays out of Annapolis, Maryland. Sophia would like to see more of her students going into her group vocal program. It’s a, it’s a Glee type of class. And a lot of music studios have a challenge with filling up their group classes, people call, they want private lessons you want to direct them into those group classes.
Rebuild Your Music Studio with Group Classes
Today I want to talk a little bit about how to accomplish that, How to direct more incoming traffic to your group classes. And it’s also potentially a great strategy for rebuilding your music studio. If you’ve had substantial losses during COVID group classes could be a really great way to rebuild and rebuild quickly. Some studios have lost maybe only 10%. I’ve talked to studios that have lost somewhere between 40 to 60% of their students. So that hurt and we all want to rebuild quickly.
Group Classes and Profit Margins
Let’s do some quick math here. Let’s say you’ve got three students coming into your studio. They’re taking our lessons and let’s say, they’re all paying $220 each for that hour lesson. And you’re paying your teacher, let’s say $30 an hour. You got to pay that teacher for three hours to teach those three students. The group class is so much more profitable because you’ve now got those three students, maybe four or five or six condensed into a single hour. And your payroll expense is substantially less. Or another way to look at it is you’ve got four to six students contributing to the payroll of that teacher for one hour
Is it even possible to make the group class of greater value than the private lesson? If your group class is of greater value than your private lesson, you’re going to have a much easier time selling it.
Group Classes and Perceived Value
So group classes can be a really great way to rebuild your studio, but your group classes have to be perceived as a desirable option. A lot of music studios position it as the cheaper option, cheaper also meaning the lower value option. Hey, you’re not going to get the one-on-one attention in the group class, but it’s going to cost less. And at the end of the day, parents really want what’s best for their kids. Positioning your group class as the cheaper option isn’t always the way to go. Let’s say, for example, you charged $240 a month or $220 a month for an hour private lesson. You might be inclined to charge $180 a month for group classes.
Grow Your Group Classes by Adding Value
Sure you’re lowering the price a little bit but you’re not positioning it necessarily as being of lower value. And there’s an argument to be made for pricing it the same as the private lesson. How do you make that group class be of at least equal value to the private lesson? Is it even possible to make the group class of greater value than the private lesson? If your group class is of greater value than your private lesson, you’re going to have a much easier time selling it. You’re going to feel more confident selling it and perspective students are going to they’re going to get it. It’s going to be so clear to them that no, the group program really is the way to go. This episode is episode two of a four-part series on how to persuade prospective students to pass on your private lesson and go into your group class. A big question you have to ask yourself is where do you want your students to go?
Knowing How to Sell Group Classes
Let’s say you got a student calling up or mom calling and her child’s 10 and the ten-year-old could easily go into, uh, a private piano lesson. A ten-year-old can certainly handle that. But you also have a group piano class. You got to, you know, say, decide for yourself, which program are you going to want to direct people into? And maybe you establish certain criteria as to well, people that meet these certain criteria, they’re going to go. You go into the private lesson and people that meet these other criteria.
They’re going to go into the group class. I’m a big fan personally of getting everyone started in the group class. In my case, my emphasis was always ensemble playing the ensemble, gives the child the experience of the ultimate musical experience of playing as a group and creating this big sound. The ensemble creates a musical experience that cannot be replicated in the private lesson.
What The Group Class Offers That the Private Lesson Doesn’t
You can try to a little bit, you can maybe have a backing track or the teacher can play along, but there is nothing the experience of four or five kids playing together, filling the room with sound and harmony in, in vibrations. And the kids sitting in the middle of that kids can think, wow, this is amazing. This is so beyond my expectation. So it’s always been my strategy with group classes, as opposed to, you know, five, six kids in a room and I’m walking around and helping them individually, the ensemble experience makes for a much more social and in a team effort. So let’s hop on over to the other side of the music. As I sit down with Sophia Hardesty, as we talk about her music studio and some strategies that she can implement and that you can implement into directing more students into group classes.
