How to Use AI to Market Your Music School
The success of any music school’s marketing boils down to its messaging; to the words that it uses to convey its essence. Crafting an attractive and persuasive message is a never-ending challenge. This is where AI, and specifically ChatGPT, can help. In this blog, I discuss how to fix your marketing with ChatGPT to fix your marketing sales copy, as well as how to create new copy that will speak directly to your ideal clients’ core desires when it comes to music lessons
Beware of Poor Grammar
One of the most common things that I see on music schools’ websites is the use of poor grammar. Poor grammar and amateur website layout could negatively impact people’s perception of your music school.
Say you design your own website, or you have a friend design it for you. It clearly isn’t done by a professional
When someone reads your sales copy and there are grammar issues, this too might negatively impact the impression of your music school.
Identify and Elevate Every Touch Point
It’s so important that you identify points or areas where people interact and form an impression of your music school. These are called touch points.
When people are reading your sales copy, that’s a touch point. It’s an opportunity to either get them excited or to increase their level of confidence in you and your ability to provide an amazing music lesson experience.
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1. Fix Your Grammar With Just One Click
Poor grammar can negatively impact your copy. One of the most common grammar issues I see on music schools’ websites is the use of run-on sentences. This happens when a sentence just keeps going on and on when it should be split up into two or even three sentences.
How to Clean Up Your Grammar
One thing you can do today is log in to ChatGPT. Take a section of a paragraph or a few sentences from your main sales copy. First, ask ChatGPT, “Are there any grammatical errors in the following paragraph?”, and then paste the paragraph. ChatGPT will respond like an empathetic English teacher with suggestions and alternatives. That there in itself can have a positive impact on your marketing.
Polish Up Your Facebook Ads
Do it with your Facebook ads. Take your sales copy, then run it in ChatGPT and ask, “are there any grammar issues here?”
It’s not going to just necessarily rewrite it for you. It’s going to respond the way that a human would in identifying issues and making suggestions for you.
Copywriters of the future aren’t necessarily going to be all about their ability to write. It’s going to be about their ability to interact with AI and know how to manipulate to get what they want.
2. It Doesn’t Matter if You’re Not a Good Writer
One of the most common things I hear from music school owners is this: “I’m not a good writer. That’s just not my strength.” Okay, no problem. It’s ChatGPT’s strength. You have to learn how to partner with it, even with doing headlines in email subjects.
3. Speed Up Your Email Subject Line Creation with ChatGPT
I recently did a ChatGPT query where I said, “Write an email subject that’s going to spark the reader’s curiosity.” Then, I talked a little bit about what the email’s about. I asked it to give me 10 different email subject lines, and it came right back.
Keep working, keep working, and keep working with it until [ChatGPT] gives you a good template to work with. Then, get in there and humanize it. Make it you. Turn it into a collaboration at that point.
4. Work The Prompt Until You Get What You Want
I said, “Yeah, okay, but do it again. Focus less on this and focus more on that.” I communicate with the platform in the same way I would if I was interacting with a human. I let ChatGPT do all the work for me, but I kept giving it more directions as I was getting more specific.
I love this idea from Neil Patel that copywriters of the future aren’t necessarily going to be all about their ability to write. It’s going to be about their ability to interact with AI. It’ll be about how to work that prompt to constantly keep feeding ChatGPT feedback. It’s trying to figure out what you want.
5. ChatGPT Wants to Give You What You Want
It’s pretty likely that your initial request or query is going to be a little vague. If it’s vague, there’s a good chance that ChatGpT’s response isn’t going to be what you’re looking for. So then, start to gradually get more specific and say, “Hey, don’t talk about this. Talk more about that. Make it shorter. Add a little humor to it. Speak directly to the reader.”
Keep working, keep working, and keep working with it until it gives you a good template to work with. Then, get in there and humanize it. Make it you. Turn it into a collaboration at that point.
Let’s Try a Little Experiment
I picked some random US city and said music lessons in that city. The first website came up. I copied its main sales message.
What I’m going to read you now is a slightly edited version of some random music school. I don’t even remember who they are or what city they came from. This is pretty much how their main sales copy read.
*The sales copy below is slightly edited to hide the identity of the music school.
“Our mission is to offer quality music lessons dedicated to fostering a child’s interest, curiosity, and love of music while remaining committed to core traditional music, pedagogy, and values. Our teachers are not only chosen for their qualifications, education, and experience, but for their ability to motivate, encourage, and inspire students to develop a lifelong love and appreciation for playing an instrument.
We provide lessons to all skill levels and ages, whether young or old, beginner or pro. All are welcome here.”
a. Uncovering Grammar Issues and an Overload of Attributes
The copy is just riddled with run-on sentences. Not only that it’s riddled with run-on sentences, also when they introduce an idea or an aspect of their business, they hit the reader with multiple attributes. Ideally, as a writer, you only want to share maybe one attribute.
For example, it talks about fostering a child’s interest, curiosity, and love of music. When you throw out three ideas like that, the brain isn’t likely to grab onto anything. There are multiple things coming out or coming at them. It’d be more effective to simply say, “Fostering a child’s love of music.” That single idea is much easier for the reader to kind of latch on to.
It’s also easier to remember that when you start listing multiple things, you run the risk of overwhelming the reader.
b. Highlight the Hero
I don’t want to get too nitpicky with their sales copy here, but this is what they wrote.
I went to ChatGPT and requested it to rewrite the following text:
“Make it more casual, fun, and customer-centric.”
The key thing is that they’re talking a lot about themselves. They talk about their quality music lessons and how qualified their teachers are.
Our sales copy is always more effective when the customer is the hero in the story. All the writing is about them and how your service is going to impact them. You kind of have two heroes here: the parent and the child.
Ideally, you should be saying, “Hey, parent. We’re gonna help your child grow and develop in these different ways. We’re here to help you position yourself as the helpful guide.” The parent and the child should be the center of the sales copy.
That’s why I asked ChatGpt to make the copy more customer-centric as opposed to product-centric, which is what a lot of music schools do. They come out and they write about their product.
No one cares about your music lessons. What they care about is what your music lessons are going to do for their child. So write about that. Focus on that instead.
7. Like Perfecting a Recipe, Keep Experimenting Until You Achieve Your Desired Dish
I’m not going to read everything from what ChatGPT wrote. I didn’t like a lot of it, but there are aspects of it that I like.
My mistake was I said, “Hey, make it more casual and fun.” So, I get this:
“Hey there, music enthusiast. Welcome to our awesome mission. We’re all about dishing out top-notch music lessons that rock your socks off.”
Oh, geez. This is so off the mark. So I’m like…alright, let’s go back to ChatGPT. I said, “Rewrite the previous and make it less cute and folksy and eliminate to one paragraph.” Then, ChatGPT writes something considerably shorter, but then it says:
“Welcome to our mission where quality music lessons meet a passion for tunes.”
Again, this is not even close to what I want. Again, I asked it to rewrite the previous but don’t mention our mission and don’t refer to music as tunes. Instead of “you”, use “your child”.
You can see I’m just trying to guide ChatGPT. Sure enough, ChatGPT didn’t talk about tunes, but then it replied using a statement about this:
“Undying passion for melodies.”
Not even close. It’s not what I’m looking for.
8. Each Prompt Is One Step Closer to Your Desired Outcome
I do this back and forth with ChatGPT a few times. Keep in mind, it takes about 10 to 20 seconds to write something. So it finally gave me something that I felt like “Okay, this is getting closer to what I want.” Then I went in to humanize it. Here’s the final edit:
“We help children develop a love for music with top-notch music lessons. Our goal is to fuel a child’s musical passion while staying true to the roots of musical tradition.
Our instructors are motivated to help children discover the thrill of playing an instrument, regardless of age or skill level. Whether your child is taking their first musical steps, or they’re a seasoned superstar, they’ll thrive in our warm and welcoming music school.
Join us for a musical journey to help boost your child’s confidence and teach them the value of self-determination as they develop skills that will last them a lifetime.”
I think that’s pretty good. A lot better than the human-written sales copy. I’d say that in this edited version, 30% of this is my own touch or my own edits, but the rest are ChatGPT’s.
No one understands the essence and the soul of your music school the way you do. You can’t expect AI to understand it, but AI can help you articulate your vision and it’s a huge time saver.
9. Delving Deeper: Shape Up Your Copy with These 3 Unconventional Tactics
Pick an Author You Like: Craft Your Copy’s Style by Following Their Lead
Something that I like to do is to have three or five copywriters or authors in the marketing space that I love. Quite often, I’ll say to ChatGPT, “Rewrite the following paragraph in the style of marketing author, Jim Collins.” Sometimes I would like it in the style of the copywriters I love like Donald Miller, Ann Handley, or Eugene Schwartz.
I’m throwing out different authors that I know have a strong presence on the Internet. ChatGPT then will have a pretty good sense of how that person writes.
The key to getting ChatGPT to give you the content you want is to learn how to interact with it. How to provide it with better and more specific directions and guidance.
The first example that I shared here is where I took a sales copy and said “Hey. Rewrite it.” I kept interacting with ChatGPT until it gave me what I wanted.
Craft Your Sales Copy Formula through Detailed Directions
Another approach, and that I’ve used quite a bit, is to have an outline of what you want your sales copy to look like or how you want it to read. Then, write a pretty detailed list of directions to ChatGPT on how to write it. For example, I put something together here for the podcast. I just did this with ChatGPT. It took me a few minutes before I hit record.
I said, “Write a sales copy that’s a paragraph long about a music school that offers music lessons that aren’t boring, but fun. Ask a question in the first sentence that speaks to a parent’s concerns about music lessons.”
In the next sentence, I mentioned that “Dave’s Music School makes music lessons fun and that kids love them.” In the last sentence, write about the transformation children experience from our music lesson.
Use a Sales and Marketing Formula in Your ChatGPT Prompt to Create an Impact
I’m using a classic sales and marketing formula in my prompt, which is pain point, solution, and transformation.
I’m asking ChatGPT to articulate a pain point in a question.
a. Pain Point
The pain point is parents being concerned about music lessons being boring.
b. Solution
The solution is music lessons at my music school.
c. Transformation
Then, I’d say, “Write about the transformation that kids are going to experience from our music lessons.”
I figured ChatGPT might give me some type of framework to work with. So I’m going to read to you now ChatGPT’s response to my initial query. This is not edited at all. Some of these I liked. Some of it I think is great, and some of it I would definitely be inclined to rewrite.
Here’s how it goes:
“Are traditional music lessons putting your kids to sleep faster than a lullaby? (That’s great! I never would have thought of that.)
Ready for a change. Say hello to Dave’s Music School where learning isn’t a chore. It’s an adventure.
Our innovative approach turns every strum of the guitar and every piano key into a thrilling musical journey. At Dave’s Music School, we’ve mastered the art of making music lessons an absolute blast. Just ask our little maestro’s who can’t wait to pick up their instruments. But here’s the real magic. Our lessons don’t just teach notes. They cultivate confidence, creativity, and a lifelong love of music.
Watch as your child evolves from a beginner into a bonafide music enthusiast, all while having the time of their lives.”
I think that’s pretty good. It’s a little long and a little over-enthusiastic in terms of how I typically like to write, but I got a lot here now to work with. I could go in there and I might be inclined to say to ChatGPT, “Hey. Rewrite it but make it shorter or less cute.”
10. Whatever the Situation, Keep ChatGPT Ready for Email Support
One thing I noticed that ChatGPT does is it likes to incorporate a lot of cute little puns. Here it talks about music lessons putting your kid to sleep faster than a lullaby. Okay, I liked it. That’s pretty clever. I might be inclined to keep it, but I encourage you to always have ChatGPT open as even if you’re writing an email. Have it check your grammar for you.
Maybe you have to write an email to a parent who is upset about something. Go into ChatGPT and say, “Write an email apologizing to a parent whose teacher showed up late (whatever the situation is),” and see what it comes up with. You might get a few good little zingers or a couple or three ideas that you can work with.
11. Avoid This Pitfall: Don’t Rely Solely on ChatGPT
What you want to avoid is having ChatGPT do all the work. Having it do all the writing for you can do that, but it’s not going to be an authentic expression of you. It won’t be an authentic expression of your music school.
12. Humanize Your Message
No one understands the essence and the soul of your music school the way you do. You can’t expect AI to understand it, but AI can help you articulate your vision and it’s a huge time saver.
