How to Get More Music Students
Rev up your engines. Time to market your music studio for fall.
Depending on where you are in the country or where you are in the world, your students are going back to school either some point this month or after Labor Day in September.
Here’s my four point fall marketing checklist.
- Outbound marketing
- Inbound marketing
- Point of sale
- Internal marketing
Outbound Marketing
It’s called outbound marketing because you’re pushing your message out into the market. This will require time and money. You can blast your message out with traditional marketing like print ads or direct mail.
You’re hoping that it resonates with that needle in the haystack. Facebook advertising is more effective because you’re dealing with a much bigger needle in a much smaller haystack. Facebook targeting allows you to dial in your audience and make sure that your ads are getting out in front of the right people. Any advertising, email marketing and/or telemarketing (the good kind/not the bad) would be considered outbound marketing. It’s effective. It gets results, but it does cost time and money. Outbound marketing can feel like spam; it can feel disruptive.
Market Your Music Studio For Fall
Outbound marketing can be annoying. It’s marketing that somebody really hasn’t specifically asked for. If executed with taste, it can be perceived as helpful and even entertaining. Look at Superbowl ads-they disrupt the game. Many of them are funny or have a touching story line. The ads become a source of entertainment! Rumor has it; some people only watch the Superbowl for the ads. Amazing.
So many music studios put most of their marketing effort in outbound marketing. It’s an obvious place to start. It’s an obvious place to look for a quick fix. All events need an invitation. Don’t forget to focus on the main event.
Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is all about attracting attention. It’s getting found by people who are interested in your service. They’re out there looking for it. The key to all marketing is having an effective website that broadcasts your message clearly. All traffic leads back to your website. First impressions are made here. First impressions count.
Inbound marketing attracts visitors naturally through search engines and social media. This is where the SEO hustle and content creation comes into play. Brian Halligan, the CEO of Hubspot once said
I believe most marketers today spend 90% of their efforts on outbound marketing. So that would be advertising and 10% on inbound marketing. And I advocate that those ratios flip.
~ Brian Halligan, CEO of Hubspot
Outbound marketing is the obvious approach. Create an ad and push it out into the market place. Inbound marketing takes a bit more strategy, a bit more thought, a bit more patience. It’s all about the long game. It’s not just market your music studio for fall, but for the entire year.
Point of Sale
You can either keep your communication with a hot lead in the digital domain, but a digital communication lacks personal connection. It lacks an emotional connection. In episode 28 of Music Lessons in marketing, I spoke with Tom Leylo about how he uses the telephone as a marketing tool. Alex Hobcraft of Footprints Music has Calendly embeded on his website so that leads can schedule a phone call.
Perhaps you could designate specific times for phone calls. That will allow you to not constantly be be disrupted by the phone. If the telephone is not a part of your sales process, you are missing out on a huge opportunity to make that personal and emotional connection.
Internal Marketing
Internal Marketing is marketing to your current customers. The focus isn’t selling to them, but rather educating them on what it is that makes your studio unique. The motivation is to make a positive impact on your customer beyond the music lesson.
The objective of internal marketing is not only to make good on your brand promise (say fun music lessons) but to deliver an all around amazing experience. Unexpected and over the top acts of kindness is a winning strategy. Author Jay Baer calls these talk triggers. A talk trigger is a feature of your music studio that people can’t help but talk about and tell other people about.
A talk trigger is a feature of your music studio that people can’t help but talk about and tell other people about.
For example, Doubletree Hotel has an amazing talk trigger. They serve warm, freshly baked cookies to guests as they check in. this simple act sums up who they aspire to be and it gets people talking. The Music Factory offers freshly popped popcorn to students as they arrive. Rock Out Loud has a sound machine that plays the sound effect of a cheering crowd whenever a student walks in the door. QC Rock Academy sets up rock ‘n’ roll field trips to sound checks to meet up with touring rock stars.
Does your music studio have a talk trigger? Does your music studio do the unexpected? If not, I encourage you to come up with some simple act of kindness and amazement you can do. Some simple unexpected act that is going to get your customers talking and bragging and telling their friends all about what you do in your studio. This is key to market your music studio for fall.
Internal Marketing is Key
Show your customers you care about them. Broadcast to them that you go the extra mile, that you truly are committed to creating an amazing experience for them. Internal marketing is often the most neglected marketing and I think it’s the most important type of marketing. This is where referrals come in. Loyal customers who are educated in your brand promise refer their friends come into into your whole sales funnel already expecting you to provide an amazing experience because they came to you through a friend who they trust.
SHOW CREDITS
Intro music: Dusted by Fojimoto
Transition music: Levi Simon
Outro music: Rain and Revolution by City Breathing
